Private Public Interest Law and Plaintiffs’ Firm Guide

Overview

When lawyers and law students think of public interest practice, they typically think of legal services or public defender offices, not-for-profit organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, or government agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a district attorney’s office. Frequently overlooked is another important segment of the public interest market: private public interest law firms. Private public interest law firms are involved in many of the same issues addressed by not-for-profit public interest legal organizations and government agencies—but in a law firm setting. A second, and overlapping, category of private firms―known as plaintiffs’ firms—represents individuals and groups seeking to redress injuries with monetary damages, commonly in the fields of employee rights, consumer rights, personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability, antitrust violations and securities fraud.

There is no official test for what establishes a firm as a private public interest law firm. It is a somewhat elastic term, used to describe private, for-profit firms that dedicate at least a significant portion of their caseload to matters that have some broad social, political, or economic impact. While most are small, firms that fall under this broad definition come in a great variety of sizes (everything from a solo practitioner to a multi-city, 100+ lawyer operation) and work in an even greater range of subject areas (everything from criminal defense to international human rights to plaintiffs’ firms). There is also no clear-cut dividing line between a private public interest firm and a plaintiffs’ firm. As a result, we make no attempt to categorize the firms in our directory, though there are many that should be considered plaintiffs’ firms.

In a 2009 paper titled “Between Profit and Principle: The Private Public Interest Firm,” Scott L. Cummings (UCLA School of Law) and Ann Southworth (UC Irvine School of Law) describe private public interest law as such: “This category marks a range on a continuum, including firms pursuing different mixes of work and articulating various visions of the public interest.” In the article, they seek to explore the field of private public interest work. The authors examine private-public interest firms by looking at the history of the field, the various theories of public service and its role in the legal profession, and the recent developments. Read the full article.

Cummings and Southworth define private public interest firms as “a range of ‘hybrid’ entities that fuse ‘private’ and ‘public’ goals…for profit legal practices structured around service to some vision of the public interest. They are organized as for-profit entities, but advancing the public interest is one of their primary purposes—a core mission rather than a secondary concern” (p3, 6). The authors point out that private-public interest firms are often in “pursuit of a political mission beyond client service” (p3). They explain that interest “has increased as the field has become larger and more complex, and as law students seek alternative public interest careers” (p2).

Where, then, to begin thinking about career opportunities in a private public interest firm? This guide will address some basic questions:

• What are private public interest law firms and how do they differ from other private law firms?
• What is the difference between a public interest law firm and a plaintiffs’ firm?
• How does a public interest firm operate?
• What is it like to work in a public interest firm?
• What do public interest firms look for in the lawyers they hire?
• Where can one search for more information about specific public interest firms?

What they are

Like traditional not-for-profit public interest organizations, public interest law firms usually have a particular social, political, or economic vision that includes helping underrepresented groups and/or promoting change. Public interest firms, like traditional not-for-profits, pursue cases that will advance their vision. A public interest law firm may, for example, represent employees suing their employers for unlawful discrimination or consumers charging a financial institution with deceptive practices.

However, unlike traditional not-for-profits, public interest firms operate as for-profit businesses. Public interest firms rely on the fees generated by their cases, rather than foundation grants or tax dollars, to pay the rent and their lawyers’ salaries. Thus, a public interest firm looks not only at the merits but also at the potential profitability of a case in deciding whether or not to take it on. As Jahan Sagafi ’01, who has worked at two plaintiffs’ firms, explains, “The important unifying feature of both is that we are fighting for justice on behalf of individual human beings whose rights are being violated by more powerful interests (usually corporate or governmental). One way to distinguish between nonprofits and private public interest firms is that the former tend to represent the poorest of the poor, while the latter tend to represent populations that are less specifically limited and less extremely disadvantaged.” While both settings generally allow their attorneys to represent disadvantaged people against more powerful interests, private public interest firms do so with the understanding that they still need to make some sort of profit at the end of the day to survive. Firms have different means for ensuring their financial solvency. Some firms split their practice so that profit-driven client work can subsidize the public interest docket. At most such firms, associates will usually be required to work on both kinds of matters. Other firms choose to only represent clients that will further their public interest agenda but simply more strictly scrutinize the financial implications of each case.

What distinguishes a public interest firm from other private law firms? One public interest firm lawyer describes the difference this way: “Subject matter of the cases is the key to defining a firm as a private public interest law firm. The lawyers at my firm have ‘religion’; they really care about what they do. They are committed to their beliefs.” A second important distinction, offers another attorney, is the kind of clients that public interest firms represent: “I represent people who are disenfranchised and powerless. We do a lot of similar things that government attorneys and public interest groups do, but we are able to make some money while accomplishing something good at the same time.”

Common areas of practice for public interest firms include:

• Criminal defense litigation
• Civil litigation
  • Employment rights
    • Labor law (i.e., representing unions)
    • Employment rights
      • Wage and hour (e.g. overtime pay and misclassification)
      • Employment discrimination (see below)
    • Occupational health and safety (increasingly being scrutinized for low-wage workers, in connection with sexual harassment and lack of physical safety)
  • Civil rights litigation
    • Employment discrimination (e.g. race, gender, religion; also includes sexual harassment)
    • Disability rights
    • Housing discrimination
    • Healthcare discrimination
    • Big data/ECOA-related discrimination
    • Employee benefits/ERISA
    • Reproductive rights
  • Immigration
  • Consumer protection
    • Financial products (suing banks)
    • Insurance liability (e.g., bad faith claims)
    • Antitrust
    • Product liability (e.g. defective consumer products, exploding Pintos)
    • Data breaches/disclosures)
  • Personal injury
  • Environmental protection (toxic torts and more)
• Policy work
• Lobbying
• Transactional
• Representing state AGs (on a range of matters including consumer protection, environment, immigration, wage & hour, and civil rights)

Clients range from individuals with specific disputes, to small groups of plaintiffs with similar complaints, to large “classes” of similarly situated plaintiffs. In a class-action lawsuit, a number of similarly-situated people who have been injured but do not have the resources individually to sue the responsible party, band together in a single case. Some firms represent primarily individual clients while others may do almost exclusively class actions. This can be an important distinction for the student looking for the right fit.

Public interest firms are often, although not exclusively, “plaintiff-side”; that is, they represent the party bringing suit, usually against a corporate or other institutional defendant. One exception to the general rule that public interest law firms represent the plaintiff side is criminal practice, in which public interest law firms represent the accused defendant. One can argue that civil-side plaintiffs and criminal-side defendants are naturally grouped together in social justice litigation, as both tend to be disempowered entities. Civil plaintiffs allege that something was wrongfully taken from them, while criminal defendants allege that they are being wrongfully denied of their freedom. Other exceptions include the representation of clients such as not-for-profit organizations in defensive actions, including evictions, the protection of First Amendment rights, employment matters, and contract disputes.

Examples of recent cases handled by public interest law firms reveal the tremendous range of issues such firms work on:

• An action on behalf of an employee injured by exposure to toxic chemicals
• Defense of a Mexican immigrant faced with deportation
• A suit on behalf of public employees to insure the right to discuss union issues at work
• A sex discrimination suit on behalf of women brokers against a major Wall Street firm
• A suit on behalf of agricultural workers against strawberry growers for using a potentially harmful pesticide without adequate warnings
• A case on behalf of African-American families denied housing at an apartment complex which used a system of racially-coded applications
• A suit challenging a police department’s routine use of dogs trained to bite their targets
• Negotiation of a new lease for an artist in danger of losing his studio
• An action on behalf of hundreds of tenants against a landlord for maintaining an apartment building in slum conditions over many years

Keep in mind that public interest firm work is not confined to litigation. Private public interest firms work, for example, on affordable housing projects, as well as on corporate governance, tax and real estate issues on behalf of non-profits, or provide advice to clients.

What’s in a name? Public interest, plaintiffs’ firm or “corporate” firm?

Whether a particular firm should really be considered a public interest firm can in some instances be open to debate. At either end of the spectrum of what is purely public interest and what is purely commercial, it is relatively easy to characterize a given firm. A firm that handles court-appointed criminal defense work for indigent clients or represents immigrant workers against sweatshop employers is doing what almost everyone would agree is public interest work. If such cases make up the bulk of their practice, they can clearly be said to be a private public interest law firm. At the other end of the spectrum, a law firm that almost exclusively represents large corporate clients in disputes with other large corporations would not likely consider itself, or expect others to consider it, a public interest firm.

There are many types of work between these two extremes where the public interest nature of the case may lie in the eye of the beholder. As one veteran public interest lawyer put it: the determination as to what is really public interest work is “very subjective . . . almost everyone thinks they work for a public interest firm.” One category of firms that illustrates this definitional problem is plaintiffs’ firms, which specialize in representing plaintiffs, individually or in large class-action suits for significant damages. These firms may, for example, represent investors suing the officers and directors of a large corporation for fraud or mismanagement. Because they may be representing pension funds and/or individual investors who could not afford to sue on their own, and because they are often working to recoup losses caused by greed or even criminal malfeasance, such firms can reasonably argue that they are working in the public interest. But others would contest that designation, pointing out that the institutional investor clients are often as powerful as corporations and that such cases, in which millions of dollars in damages may ultimately be awarded, yield very handsome fees for the attorneys.

Another area in which the public interest label can be controversial is in personal injury litigation. Firms that represent plaintiffs in relatively routine personal injury case—car accidents, workplace injuries, and medical malpractice—are not generally considered public interest law firms. Less clear is how to characterize a firm that handles personal injury cases that address a broader social issue, such as an allegedly defective automobile or other consumer product. Such firms may consider themselves to be a breed of public interest firm. Similarly, a firm that handles the occasional personal injury case as a means of generating income to subsidize its public interest docket may self-identify as a public interest firm. Adding to the complexity of characterizing plaintiffs’-side personal injury firms is the criticism some firms have drawn for seeking prodigious damage awards in which they secure large contingency fees. But Jahan Sagafi says “helping injured people get maximum compensation by asserting their interests against powerful insurance companies is socially valuable.” And he points out that “the reality is that the vast majority of plaintiffs’ lawyers make less than they would as defense lawyers, but they do it because they enjoy the social justice impact they have.”

Jahan Sagafi argues that there should not be a distinction between private public interest and plaintiffs’ firms because “all plaintiffs’ firms are public interest firms in a way that is easily distinguishable from corporate firms.” He maintains that all plaintiffs’ firms are “generally mission driven.” They have a social justice goal that looks beyond merely advancing the interests of particular clients, and generally seek to represent disadvantaged people (e.g., the poor, working class, people of color, people with disabilities, non-citizens, small businesses, etc.), against more powerful interests, but they’re private (so they exclude government and nonprofits).  However, some attorneys go a step further, arguing that representing corporate clients can also advance social justice. Brent Landau ’01, an attorney at Hausfeld LLP, argues that, “Public interest does not mean anti-corporation. There are corporate wrongdoers and corporate victims, just like individuals can be wrongdoers and victims. Enforcing the law and protecting victims is in the public interest.”

However, Stephen Rosenthal ’96, a partner with Podhurst Orseck, P.A., believes that there are distinctions to be made. He says that one should not ignore the reality of the marketplace and that most private plaintiffs’ firms are businesses which necessarily focus on revenue, albeit differently than hourly-billing defense-side firms.  Although these plaintiffs’ firms genuinely pride themselves on representing the powerless and victimized, their case-intake decisions are often driven by the potential profitability of the case, which requires evaluation of considerations like the merits of the claim, the likelihood of success, and the extent of the damages. “The notion that firms are acting directly in public interest in those cases,” he says, is a bit different. “While the firms may take the case in furtherance of a genuine public interest in, say, deterring future negligent conduct or improving public safety, those decisions are frequently infused with an assessment of the economic viability of the case.” He says that the distinction should be more “functional” than looking at the “substance” of the practice area. One way to approach this, which he suggests as “practical, not value-laden,” is to look at how the firm plans to make its fees. Contingency fee cases seeking purely injunctive relief typically offer greater social value than fee potential, so the work might be more fairly characterized as social justice. Those that seek damages for the individual client, on a contingency basis, are more likely to be motivated by economic imperatives. Class actions present something of a hybrid, given their scope.

The mission of this guide is not to resolve the debate but to make law students and attorneys engaged in a job search aware of the subjectivity of the public interest label when it comes to private firms. Whether or not a firm should be considered a “pure” public interest firm, a straight-out plaintiffs’ firm with no public interest dimension, or something in between, is a determination that can be made only after examining the details of a given firm’s practice. And even then, it may be open to reasonable disagreement. What is most important in considering a particular firm is to get behind the label to examine what kind(s) of cases the firm handles and whom they represent, and whether these cases and clients fit your own wants and needs.

How they operate

Public interest firms frequently get their cases by referral from other law firms, public interest agencies, nonprofits, bar associations, or clients. Public interest firms may also garner media attention for high-profile cases, leading clients with similar issues to seek them out.

These firms generally do not charge clients for their services but may make decisions on whom to represent with at least some concern for the finances of a case. Frequently, public interest firms are paid on a contingency basis. In contingency cases, the firm does not charge the client a fee unless he or she wins the case. If the case is won, the firm takes a percentage of the settlement or court award. If the case is lost, the client pays nothing. Plaintiffs’ firms work on contingency in the great majority of their cases.

Public interest firms must necessarily choose the contingency cases they take on carefully—by first investigating the facts, judging the likelihood of success, and estimating the expense of litigating the case—before agreeing to represent a client. One lawyer describes the process by saying that her firm “has to be pretty selective about what cases we will take on. We think about what resources we will need for a case and what time and resources we will be giving up on other cases by taking a particular case on.” Having made a careful decision about a case at the outset, however, the firm sticks with a case no matter what: “If it’s worth pursuing, it’s worth pursuing to the end.” Another attorney explained that his firm pursues only 10% to 20% of the cases that potential clients bring in. The firm goes forward only with those cases that both have a good chance of being successful and where the firm believes there is some social benefit to be achieved through the case. Jahan Sagafi puts it this way: “One other implication of the case selection realities is that being selective allows us to focus on socially-beneficial cases; by definition, a case that will lose is usually (not always) a case that should not be brought. That control over our docket is a key aspect to being a social-justice-oriented plaintiffs’ lawyer.”

In non-contingency cases—e.g., immigration, family law, and landlord/tenant disputes—firms may charge an hourly fee or a flat rate. Because public interest firms must earn their way through their public interest practice, they may do little or no pro bono work. They may, however, be able to charge rates that are lower than the rates charged by traditional private law firms because their smaller size or less luxurious setting keeps their overhead costs down. Some firms charge on a sliding scale based on the client’s income.

The for-profit nature of public interest firms creates distinct advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional public interest settings such as the government and non-profits. A major advantage is the potential for considerably higher salaries for the attorneys. However, with that potential comes the responsibility for looking at the economics of every case. Many firms will not represent a client who cannot pay if there is no potential to at least recoup the cost of the litigation. One lawyer admits that some of his more “heartbreaking moments” have been turning away people who have been wronged because the case had little financial merit. Lawyers also admit that there can be pressure to settle a case, even if the client wants to litigate, when the cost of litigation will be higher than the expected award. Another drawback for some lawyers is the discomfort of having to bill low-income clients at all. One practitioner who thoroughly enjoys her criminal defense and immigration practice reports that she makes considerably more than she would as, for example, a state public defender. Nevertheless, she laments that she “hates collecting the money,” as even her reduced fees represent “a huge amount” from her client’s perspective. This practitioner “wishes she didn’t have to think about the monetary aspect of her cases.” Another lawyer explains, “You have to have an entrepreneurial spirit to work in private practice…You have to make it happen.”

“I appreciate the ability to decide what cases I want to bring. I have a dream job because I can focus on the cases that I am interested in.”

—Public Interest Firm Lawyer

What it’s like to work in one

Lawyers are drawn to public interest firms by a passion for the issues their firms address and the clients they serve. Universally, public interest firm lawyers cite the shared commitment of their colleagues as a major advantage of their practices. One attorney summed up his experience: “You get to work with a group of people who are colorful, people you would really enjoy hanging out with. You get to work on amazing cases, and then you go home knowing you have helped someone.”

In general, public interest firms are smaller than conventional, big-city corporate firms. The smaller public interest firms are comprised of fewer than ten attorneys, with the larger firms having as many as thirty-five or more lawyers. Some firms are bigger. Firms that pursue more plaintiff-side work—i.e., major tort or financial cases—tend to be bigger than those that do more traditional public interest work. The relatively intimate work environment offered by most public interest firms creates the potential for close working relationships and real collegiality. However, the potential for a mismatch or even clash of styles is also heightened. In an office with only a few attorneys, the personality mix can be critical. In researching and interviewing with a public interest firm, pay close attention to the feel of the office—how the attorneys interact, whether one or two strong personalities set the tone for the office, etc.—to determine whether or not it is a good fit for you.

Because they are generally smaller than traditional commercial firms and put fewer attorneys on each case, public interest or plaintiffs’ firms tend to give young attorneys a greater share of responsibility. As one partner described her firm: “New associates get plenty of responsibility—as much as they can handle.” A lawyer at a different firm—a large one, by public interest standards—described the level of responsibility for associates there as follows: “In their first year, associates will be doing the same work they would in their fifth year at a big firm.” Another benefit to the lean staffing of cases is that attorneys at all levels of experience tend to see more court time in public interest and plaintiffs’ firms. Describing how she spends her workweek, one attorney stated that she “is in court all the time.” “Some years I have lots of trials,” she explained, “other years, not as many. It is rare for me to have two weeks without going to court.” Smaller size is not without its drawbacks, however. A small firm may have a more precarious income flow; a year or two without winning or settling a major case can create financial instability for the entire firm.

The number of hours worked by public interest firm lawyers varies considerably from firm to firm. Most public interest lawyers report, however, that their hours are more reasonable than those of their corporate-firm counterparts. On average, lawyers work 50 to 60 hours a week, with longer hours when on trial. As one lawyer put it, “It’s not a crazed existence.” Another described her work schedule as follows: “If I don’t have a trial coming up, I might just work one evening a week. If I do have a trial, I work 24/7.” One lawyer explained that a major benefit to her practice was her ability to keep her life in balance, saving enough time for her family and for outside interests. Another observed that while the pay was higher at her public interest firm than at the non-profit where she had worked previously, the hours were longer.

Public interest firms offer at least the possibility of salaries that are significantly higher than those earned by traditional non-profit or government lawyers. There is quite a bit of variation in salaries among public interest firms depending on their size and the nature of cases they handle. At some public interest firms, associates receive salaries comparable to attorneys in legal services or state government offices, in the $40,000 to $50,000 range; at others, even new associates are paid closer to $80,000 a year. In contrast to not-for-profit organizations and government agencies, most public interest law firm lawyers also have the potential to receive a bonus in a profitable year. Plaintiffs’ firms offer an even wider variation in salary because there is the potential in successful firms that handle big-money cases for salaries that are as high as or higher than in any Wall Street firm. In both public interest and plaintiffs’ firms, salaries for experienced attorneys may in part reflect how much business they bring in and/or how many cases they handle.

The facilities and resources of a public interest firm may also be more generous than those of a non-profit or government office. Private public interest practitioners commonly remark that they appreciate the strong resources—in terms of staff, equipment, and space—that their firms offer. All things are relative, however, and the same lawyers report that their firms’ resources, while ample compared to a non-profit, pale in comparison to those of a traditional large corporate firm. Though it is impossible to generalize given the wide range of firms, the chart below compares private public interest firms with nonprofits and corporate firms.

Relative to corporate firms

• lower compensation
• smaller size
• slightly fewer hours
• more responsibility
• culture that is much more social justice oriented
• fewer resources
• the work requires self-starters, people who can figure it out on their own, people who are assertive and want to drive a case forward

Relative to nonprofits

• higher compensation
• varies, but similar in size
• more hours
• often same responsibility
• culture that is more oriented to financial sustainability
• more resources
• the work requires people who are practical and thrive in a market-based competitive environment

Landing a position

Securing a position at public interest firms can be much more challenging than the process for traditional large firms, largely due to the smaller size of the firms. Public interest firms do hire entry-level attorneys and even summer associates, but more sporadically and in much smaller numbers than the large corporate firms. Although some private public interest firms hire students directly upon graduation or after a clerkship, others hire attorneys with a few years of practice experience. However, even these firms may have summer positions for law students or may be willing to consider a recent graduate with exceptional experience. In addition, several private public interest firms that have not traditionally hired attorneys right out of school or clerkships are now offering fellowship positions for new lawyers.

Many public interest firms are interested in hiring summer interns but some are unable to do so until they can gauge how much work they will have for their summer associates/law clerks. There is no uniform summer hiring timeline and the process can range from late summer until the spring. This variable hiring timeline can pose a challenge to many law students, especially when weighing summer position offers that may come before other firms have even begun interviewing or responding to applications.

Entry-level hiring poses its own challenges. Due to the limited size, most firms simply wait until they have an opening. Jahan Sagafi recommends reaching out repeatedly to a firm (e.g. 2-3 times during the year) to ensure that you give yourself the best chance at finding an open position at the right time. As he explains, “Because plaintiffs’ firms hire in bursts in response to moments of need (and not on a particular schedule), writing six months too early can be just as useless as writing one month too late. Multiple letters and emails can help grab the firm at the right moment.” For lateral hiring, public interest and plaintiffs’ firms draw from a variety of practice settings. Experienced attorneys may come to public interest firms from district attorney’s or attorney general offices, other government agencies, large corporate firms, legal services offices, or public-interest nonprofits.

Some firms offer fixed-term fellowships for recent law school graduates. This can be a great way to get your foot in the door and gain exposure to a private-public interest or plaintiffs’ firm environment. Some firms offering fellowships include Bernabei & Kabat; Cohen Milstein; Gibbons Law; Gupta Wessler; Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman, & Fitch; Kohn, Kohn, and Colapinto; Neufeld Scheck & Brustin; Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld; Sanford Heisler Sharp; Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger; and Tycko & Zavareei.

For both lateral hiring and summer positions, it is important that applicants sufficiently research prospective firms to determine their practice areas of the firm and confirm they align with the interests of the student/attorney. A public interest firm’s docket and expertise may shift over time or a firm may develop a niche practice area that predominates, while still advertising casework in a wider array of practice areas.

What they look for in the attorneys they hire

Public interest law firms look for the usual credentials when hiring, such as a strong academic background and good research and writing skills. However, unlike traditional law firms, public interest firms also look for experience in and commitment to the subject areas of the firm’s practice. Public interest experience, in the form of clinical work, summer jobs, and/or academic-year activities, is critical. Likewise, because of the significant responsibility young attorneys are given in public interest firms, these firms seek candidates who are self- starting and quick to learn. One lawyer describes her firm’s hiring strategy: “We want energetic, hungry people with good writing, critical thinking, and entrepreneurial skills; people with a passion for and experience in public interest work.” Another said, “We want to hire people who can take initiative and be proactive.” One partner explained that her firm is “very driven” and looks for that “level of commitment in people it hires . . . we look for people who have the ability to handle a lot of pressure and people who are committed to civil rights in a very aggressive way.” Likewise, due to the typically smaller nature of many firms, public interest lawyers stress the importance of judging how well an applicant will fit at the given firm; they are also particularly interested in team players and people who can work closely with clients. These qualities highlight the importance of interviews and previous experience to the hiring process. Because every firm is unique in its specific goals and vision, applicants should be sure to use their cover letter to demonstrate that they believe in the firm’s mission. If feasible, they should also try to note something particular about the firm they are applying to that draws their interest, which can be picked up from its webpage.

“Ask yourself, do you love the subject matter? Do you love the clients? Ideally, you should answer yes to both, but you’re in big trouble if you go into something in which you like neither.”

—Public Interest Firm Lawyer

Advice to law students from private public interest lawyers

We asked a number of private public interest firm lawyers for their advice to students interested in career opportunities in public interest firms. Here’s what they had to say:

• “When investigating a firm, look at what kind of cases they do, for whom you will be working, what kind of structure the firm has, and what kinds of things they let new people do. Your investigation should be content-driven; you should seek to find out what they actually do at the firm.”
• “To find a job in a public interest firm or any other area of the law, you have to NETWORK! Rely on alumni from your law school and keep in touch with people you work with during the summer. You really need to keep in touch with people you have worked with to stay well connected.”
• “When considering a firm, have very frank conversations with the firms’ associates and hear from them about the kind of work that you would be expected to do.”
• “It is important to understand the practice of the firm that you are looking to join and the kind of cases they are involved in, especially since in most public interest firms, there is some portion of the caseload that does not involve public interest work. Be clear about the kind of responsibilities you will be asked to take on and make sure that is the kind of work you enjoy and care about doing.”
• “Many public interest firms are very issue-specific. So a student who wants to work at a firm should be sure they want to devote his or her time to the area in which that firm focuses. Ask, too, whether there are other types of cases you will be asked to handle just to bring money into the firm (like real estate closings or divorce cases) and make sure you are OK with that.”
• “You should ask yourself before joining the firm if working there would be a learning experience. Will you be working with people who have good skills and a strong commitment? Will you be given opportunities to engage in all aspects of the cases that the firm handles?”
• “There is a difference in the kind of training a new lawyer would get in a public interest firm versus a large, traditional corporate firm. In a small public interest firm, you are likely to be given a lot more responsibility sooner—taking and defending depositions and drafting pleadings long before an attorney at the same level at a big firm. On the other hand, because larger firms have more resources, they have the time to make sure that everything is perfect. A new lawyer might write fifteen drafts of a document and have each reviewed by a more senior lawyer. That can give you great writing skills.”
• “Think of the lifestyle and the kind of environment you will be walking into. My firm is much smaller than a corporate firm and hence has a more personal atmosphere. We don’t have to wear suits, for example, and it’s a comfort level that I like. Also, try to make sure you will like working with the people in the firm. In a small firm, people’s individual personalities really come out.”
• “When students get into a summer program at a firm, they shouldn’t just work on the ‘cherry’ cases or on a reduced schedule. They should try to work as hard as the lawyers, and put in as many hours as they do to get a realistic picture of what it’s really like.”
• “Number one: don’t compromise, and number two: don’t rationalize because of pressures, financial or otherwise, getting into something you don’t want to do. Do volunteer work if you can’t find a paying position working with the issues that interest you; it’s a great way to get visibility as someone who is committed to the specific public interest issues.”
• “Ask yourself, do you love the subject matter? Do you love the clients? Ideally, you should answer yes to both, but you’re in big trouble if you go into something in which you like neither.”
• “Look for honesty and integrity in the firm’s lawyers, and a commitment to their clients’ objectives. That is what, for me, makes a public interest law firm good.”
• “Gather intelligence about the firm’s culture and make sure that it’s a good fit, both for you and for the firm.”

Conclusion

Many private public interest lawyers say that they love what they do because they care about the cases they work on and that they work with people who are interesting and committed. One attorney said about his firm, “If you spend a day here, you’ll know why it’s so great. People are having fun. They find themselves and the work that they do worthwhile. It’s a very positive atmosphere.” Public interest firm lawyers boast that they reap the personal fulfillment of working on issues they believe in, while enjoying the financial rewards of private practice. As another attorney described his practice, “It combines the best of both worlds. You get the opportunity to push your ideals in full action, but you don’t have to live with financial constraints.”

Of course, no practice setting is perfect. Because public interest firms do operate as for-profit businesses, their lawyers may feel frustrated by the financial realities that affect which cases they can accept. Attorneys in some firms complain of pressure to take on those cases that will generate the highest fees rather than cases that are most deserving or most in keeping with their interests. But for public interest firm lawyers, the emotional, intellectual, and financial rewards of their practices more than outweigh any disadvantages. Their positive descriptions of the work they do every day speak for themselves:

• “There are so many people from my law school class who are unhappy with what they do. I like what I do.”
• “I appreciate the ability to decide what cases I want to bring. I have a dream job because I can focus on the cases that I am interested in.”
• “Our cases are a million times more interesting [than commercial cases], attorneys get more responsibility, and we’re on the right side!”
• “The most rewarding aspect of my job is that I can go to my desk and pull out at least 30 cases where I feel that I have really had an impact on something. I like that I am able to take cases that attack inequities in society that won’t be challenged otherwise. I like affecting lives in a way that matters.”
• “I enjoy coming to work every day.”

Acknowledgements & Disclaimer

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Harvard Law School has been producing a Guide to Private Public Interest and Plaintiffs’ Firms for a number of years. At Harvard Law School, Carolyn Stafford Stein, Assistant Director for Alumni Advising with the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA), wrote the original Guide upon which subsequent editions have been based. In 2007, we expanded this Guide thanks to help from Columbia Law School’s Center for Public Interest Law. The 2008 expanded Guide was truly the result of a collaborative process between OPIA and Columbia Law School’s Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL). At Columbia Law School, Harlene Katzman, former Dean of CPIL, provided valuable advice and editorial perspective from her own experience as a plaintiffs’ attorney. She, along with Ellen Chapnick, Dean for Social Justice Initiatives, also provided many contacts for the attorneys who were interviewed and many resources for the Directory. In addition, Haeya Yim, CPIL’s Program Coordinator, and Amy Shadden, CPIL’s intern, provided major assistance to the Directory. There are many other people to thank for their contributions to this Guide.

Updates have been done by subsequent OPIA interns, in 2013 by Summer Fellow Kimberly Schroer, and most recently in 2019 by Summer Fellow Gabriella Elanbeck. Alexa Shabecoff, former Harvard Law School and OPIA Assistant Dean for Public Service, provided the original idea for this Guide and contacts, oversight and editorial assistance for all versions of this Guide.

First, we would like to thank the many attorneys who took the time to be interviewed for and quoted in this Guide. To preserve their anonymity, we will not name them here but hope that they know we appreciate their help.

Thanks are due to John Relman of Relman, Dane & Colfax; Andrew Celli, of Emery, Celli, Brinkerhoff and Abady; Brent Landau ’01 of Hausfeld LLP, Anand Swaminathan ’06 of Loevy & Loevy, Stephen Rosenthal ’96 of Podhurst Orseck, P.A, Kalpana Kotagal of Cohen Milstein, and Professor Scott Cummings ’96 of UCLA School of Law for allowing us to pick their brains for this edition of the Guide.

Thanks are also due to Mischa Bauermeister ’13, for his insights on the summer job search process. Thanks also to former Visiting Professor Morris Ratner, ’91, formerly a partner at Lieff, Cabraser, for providing lists of additional firms.

Finally, a special thanks to Jahan Sagafi ’01, Partner in charge of the Outten & Golden San Francisco office for his ongoing help with this Guide. Jahan has over the years provided us with a great deal of information about firms that should be included in the Guide and has provided a wealth of insight into this complex field, which informed most of the changes in the 2013 edition. He has also been generous with his time in assisting many students and recent graduates interested in breaking into this field. We are grateful for his passion and generosity.

DISCLAIMER

By including firms in this Guide, we are in no way vouching for their commitment to social justice.  We advise students contemplating working for a private public interest or plaintiffs’-side firm to investigate to make sure that they share the mission of the firm that they are considering.

Harvard Law School students should note that a firm’s inclusion in this Guide does not automatically mean that work for that firm qualifies for the law school’s Summer Public Interest Funding Program (SPIF). A private public interest firm must meet the standards set forth on the Student Financial Services website and must be approved by the SPIF staff before a student’s work there is considered eligible for SPIF.

Private Public Interest & Plaintiffs’ Firm Directory

ALABAMA

BEASLEY ALLEN LAW
Description: A firm of over 70 attorneys and more than 200 support staff representing plaintiffs and claimants in civil litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys and summer associates. However, interested candidates should contact Lisa Harris about possible opportunities.
Areas of Specialization: Business litigation, personal injury, product liability, medical devices and drugs, fraud, environmental, labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation

THE COCHRAN FIRM
Description: A large firm with offices in multiple states specializing in personal injury and medical malpractice cases.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, criminal defense, civil rights, racial discrimination medical malpractice, wrongful death, trucking accidents
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, criminal defense, individual representation, class action

DEEN LAW, PC
Description: Firm of two lawyers specializing in criminal defense and appeals.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, criminal appeals, probation revocations, DUI defense, small claims, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Criminal defense, appellate

KING, WILEY & WILLIAMS, LLC
Description: Plaintiffs’ litigation firm comprised of five attorneys.
Hiring: No regular hiring or summer intern program.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability, consumer fraud
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action, civil litigation, investigations, ADR/mediation

WHATLEY KALLAS, LLP
Description: Seven attorneys work out of this office.
Hiring: The firm is currently not on a regular hiring schedule. Summer internship process begins in December, when interested applicants should call. The firm usually only takes zero or one intern, if able to get a volunteer, as they do not pay.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, disability, predatory lending, labor/employment, family, health, securities, antitrust
Types of Advocacy: Class action, administrative hearings, appeals, ADR/mediation, complex litigation (See also NY, MA.)

WIGGINS CHILDS PANTAZIS FISHER & GOLDFARB
Description: Plaintiffs’ only firm involved in a variety of practice areas with experience at the appellate level. Approximately three dozen attorneys across the four offices.
Hiring: Does not regularly hire, but does have summer associate program. The firm usually accepts 4-6 students each summer to work in the main office, who are paid $10/hr for 40hr weeks. Students are encouraged to send resumes to the firm in the late fall. Interviews will occur in winter or early spring, and decisions will be made in March or April.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, employment, environment, health, labor, whistleblower/qui tam, personal injury, education
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation, appellate.
(See also DC, FL.)

ALASKA

FRIEDMAN RUBIN
(See WA for main listing.)

LEE HOLEN LAW OFFICE
Description: Firm specializing in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace investigations, sexual harassment, employment law, discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Mediation, arbitration, case analysis, deposition or trial assistance, witness preparation

SONOSKY, CHAMBERS,SACHSE, ENDRESON & PERRY, LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

ARIZONA

CROWELL LAW OFFICES – TRIBAL ADVOCACY GROUP
Description: A firm of three attorneys specializing in Tribal Advocacy, representing Tribes across the United States.
Areas of Specialization: Tribal advocacy, tribal sovereignty
Types of Advocacy: Group representation, civil litigation

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

SCHNEIDER WALLACE COTTRELL KONECKY LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

ARKANSAS

THE LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. DAVIES, PLLC
Description: Small firm specialized in elder law and estate planning.
Areas of Specialization: Veterans planning, elder law, estate planning, special needs trust
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual representation, legal services

CALIFORNIA

ABRAMSON SMITH WALDSMITH LLP
Description: The firm of five attorneys handles complex cases involving serious injury and wrongful death litigation against large corporations and insurance companies.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal Injury, consumer, elderly
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, complex litigation

ADAMS, BROADWELL, JOSEPH & CARDOZO, PC  
Description: The firm has 10 in house attorneys who all specialize in environment and land use law 
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire or accept summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, environmental, energy/utilities, employment/labor, land use
Types of Advocacy: Regulations, administrative hearings, litigation, legislation, alternative dispute resolution

ADLER & COLVIN
Description: Firm specializing in law of nonprofit organizations.
Areas of Specialization: Tax, grant-making, governance & ethics, nonprofit mergers and dissolutions, public charities, revenue generating activities
Types of advocacy: Client-based, legal advising

ALEXANDER LAW GROUP LLP
Description: Very small, specialty law firm focused on personal injury and consumer protection.
Hiring: The firm has no regular hiring and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, environment/toxics, product liability, anti-trust
Types of Advocacy: Class action, impact litigation

LAW OFFICES OF PETER ALFERT
Description: The firm represents individuals in tort claims
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, legal malpractice
Types of Advocacy: Individual clients, general litigation

ALIOTO LAW OFFICES
Description: Four attorneys who specialize in employment litigation and discrimination cases.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys. The firm usually hires one or two unpaid summer associates, although sometimes more depending on the expected caseload. The firm has a less formal recruitment process, with decisions about the summer usually reached in December or January, although interested applicants are encouraged to contact the office in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, discrimination/harassment, personal injury, housing, whistleblower
Types of Representation: Civil litigation, mediation, individual representation

ALTSHULER BERZON, LLP
Description: Firm of about two dozen attorneys that specializes in representing unions in complex litigation.
Hiring: The firm does recruit permanent attorneys and accepts applications from law school graduates, judicial law clerks, and attorneys seeking lateral positions. The firm typically hires four or five summer associates each year, accepting only 2Ls. The firm participates in early hiring program, so its application process begins first thing in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, consumer, constitutional, civil rights/civil liberties, environmental, human rights, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class actions, appellate, individual cases

ANGEL LAW
Description: Three attorneys who specialize in environmental law.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, impact litigation  

ARGUEDAS, CASSMAN & HEADLEY, LLP
Description: Firm of seven trial attorneys, with a focus on appellate practice.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, antitrust violations, environmental violations, fraud and tax law
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, investigation, appellate

ARNS LAW FIRM
Description: Small private firm of eight attorneys that represents individuals and families in class actions, serious personal injury, wrongful death, and employment-related cases.
Hiring: The firm typically hires a couple of unpaid summer interns, fielding applications in the winter.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, personal injury, consumer, medical malpractice, unfair business practices
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, complex litigation
(See also NV.)

AUDET & PARTNERS, LLP
Description: Ten attorneys who focus on complex individual litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule; students interested in a summer associate position should contact Ginnie Smithern directly.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, employment, antitrust, whistleblower, securities, shareholder rights, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, complex litigation, transactions

AZADIAN LAW GROUP, PC
Description: The firm’s employment attorneys and wrongful termination lawyers are dedicated to exclusively representing employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, wage-and-hour, and related employment and labor law matters.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Wrongful termination, employment law, workplace discrimination, labor law, and wage-and-hour
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class actions, and arbitrations

BAKER, KEENER & NAHRA, LLP 
Description: 14 in-house attorneys, specializing in complex litigation at the state and federal level.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire nor typically take summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Professional malpractice, employment law, environmental toxic torts, injury, real estate, employment, consumer
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, complex litigation, transactions

BALAMUTH LAW
Description: Plaintiffs’ only firm of one full-time and one part-time attorney.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire. Students interested in a summer opportunity should inquire via telephone.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, products liability law, social security disability, workers’ compensation law, wrongful death, and premises liability
Types of Advocacy: Client-based litigation, arbitration, impact litigation

BARON & BUDD, PC
(See TX for main listing.)

BASSI EDLIN HUIE & BLUM LLP
Description: The firm has 20 attorneys, all with prior trial experience and a focus on litigation.
Hiring: The firm only makes lateral hires for attorneys.
Areas of Specialization: Injury, employment, workplace safety, consumer, environment
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action, appellate

BAUM HEDLUND ARISTEI & GOLDMAN
Description: Nationwide plaintiff law firm
Areas of Specialization: Commercial transportation litigation, pharmaceutical drug and medical device product liability, toxic torts, class actions, and whistleblower lawsuits
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class action

BEESON, TAYER & BODINE
Description: Firm of 20+ attorneys focused mainly on all aspects of labor relations.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys, but it does generally hire one summer associate each year – with decisions in the winter. Interested applicants should contact the firm directly sometime in the fall.
Area of Specialization: Labor law, union-side, facilitation & training, mediation, bankruptcy, education law
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, client-based litigation

BERMAN TABACCO
(See MA for main listing.)

BERNSTEIN, LITOWITZ, BERGER & GROSSMANN, LLP
Description: National firm of 50+ attorneys with a wide practice, including corporate governance, shareholder rights, and securities.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire, nor does it hire summer associates. However, the firm does employ staff attorneys as needed for specific projects. Interested attorneys should send their resume and qualifications by mail or via fax.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, employment, antitrust, securities, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class action, impact litigation
(See also NY and LA.)

BLEICHMAR FONTI & AULD LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

BLOCK & LEVITON
(See MA for main listing.)

BOXER & GERSON LLP
Description: With 17 attorneys, the firm is the largest firm in Northern California representing injured employees.
Areas of Specialization: Injury, employment, social security disability, consumer
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action

BRAMSON, PLUTZIK, MAHLER & BIRKHAEUSER LLP
Description: Smaller firm of six attorneys focused on large plaintiffs’ claims.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, antitrust, commercial litigation, securities, environmental
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class actions, appellate

BRANCART & BRANCART
Description: Firm specializing in civil rights and housing.
Areas of Specialization: Housing discrimination
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, impact litigation, individual representation

BRANDI LAW FIRM
Description: Firm of six attorneys focused on representation of plaintiffs in claims and trials.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, personal injury, medical malpractice, improper business practices
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action, impact litigation

BUSH GOTTLIEB
Description: A twelve-attorney firm dedicated to providing legal services to the union movement.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, intellectual property, bankruptcy
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, transactions, contracts, alternative dispute resolution, administrative hearings, lobbying, tort claims

LAW OFFICE OF RODRICK P. BUSHNELL
Description: The firm specializes in representing individual clients as well as public-interest non-profit organizations in personal and class action litigation.
Hiring: The firm neither regularly hires nor accepts summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, personal injury, protection
Types of Advocacy: Client-based litigation, class action, mediation, investigations, appellate

LEONARD CARDER, LLP
Description: 20+ attorney firm dedicated to workers‘ rights and the labor movement.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys but does post any opportunities on the firm’s website when they become available. The website also contains information on the firm’s summer law positions. The application process is rolling, and the firm accepts law clerks both in the summer and during the school year. Interested students should contact Eleanor Morton directly. Summer associate positions are usually determined in the winter.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, union representation
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, class action

LAW OFFICES OF CARPENTER & MAYFIELD
Description: Two partners and one associate who engage in civil litigation and criminal defense. Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Child (abuse/neglect/welfare), domestic relations, LGBTQ+ rights, military, immigration, criminal, First Amendment, Cuba travel
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, trial advocacy, felony and misdemeanor defense

THE CARTWRIGHT FIRM
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, workplace safety, employment
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action

CASPER, MEADOWS, SCHWARTZ & COOK
Description: The firm of six attorneys specializes in personal injury claims.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, employment, workplace safety, consumer protection, civil rights, medical malpractice
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual litigation, investigations

CHATTEN-BROWN & CARSTENS, LLP
Description: The firm specializes in environmental and land use laws.
Areas of Specialization: Land use, CEQA, historic preservation, endangered species act, coastal act, timber harvesting, NEPA, clean air and water laws, mining and oil drilling laws
Types of Advocacy: Group representation, government representation, litigation, counseling and planning services, appellate

CONSTANTINE CANNON
 (See NY for main listing.)

COTCHETT, PITRE & MCCARTHY, LLP  
Description: The 25+ attorney firm focuses exclusively on prosecuting or defending socially just actions through civil litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new associates. However, the firm does hire law students as summer associates. Interested students should contact Mr. McCarthy at the email address given, beginning in August.
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, civil rights/liberties, constitution, whistleblower/qui tam, consumer, environment, employment, securities, intellectual property
Types of Advocacy: Community service, complex litigation, pro bono, client-based litigation
(See also NY and DC.)

CUSTIS LAW, PC
Description: The firm represents workers and applicants in cases against employers.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace discrimination, harassment in the workplace, equal pay, wrongful termination, workplace retaliation
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class actions, business litigation

DOLAN LAW FIRM
Description: The firm employs 14 attorneys and focuses on personal injury and employment matters.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but interested individuals should contact the firm in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, employment, product liability, discrimination, medical malpractice
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

EDELSON
(See IL for main listing.)

ENGSTROM, LIPSCOMB & LACK
Description: Firm of 25+ attorneys with a focus on civil litigation and expertise in environmental damage litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, personal injury, consumer, environmental, real estate, securities, aviation
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action, investigations, appellate

FINKELSTEIN THOMPSON LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

FOLGER LEVIN
Description: 17 attorneys
Hiring: The firm does not have a hiring schedule for associates.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, non-profits, estate planning, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, arbitrations, administrative proceedings, preventive counseling

GIBBS LAW GROUP LLP
Description: The firm is a national litigation firm representing plaintiffs in class and collective actions in state and federal courts, and in arbitration matters worldwide. The 20+ attorneys work out of two offices.
Hiring: Although it does not have a regular hiring schedule, qualified attorneys should follow the directions on the website to inquire. The firm also hires summer associates, with the process beginning in late fall.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, anti-trust, employment, securities, whistleblower, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action, arbitration
(See also NY.)

GILBERT & SACKMAN
Description: The firm of 13 attorneys specializes in representing private and public sector labor unions and employee benefit plans.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys or summer associates. However, very interested students should check with the firm in the fall for possible opportunities.
Area of Specialization: Union representation, employment/labor, pension benefits/claims
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, class action

GIRARD SHARP
Description: The firm of 15+ attorneys represents plaintiffs nationwide in class actions and other complex litigation.
Hiring: The firm accepts applications on a rolling basis. Depending on need, the firm often hires one summer associate each year. Interested applicants should contact the firm directly.
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, financial fraud, consumer protection, securities
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, complex litigation, impact litigation

GLANCY PRONGAY & MURRAY LLP
Description: Firm of 25+ attorneys focused on civil litigation and plaintiffs’ representation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but does accept summer associates. Interested students should check the firm’s website for updates or contact the firm directly in the late fall or winter.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer/investor, antitrust, securities, corporate mergers
Types of Advocacy: Class action, impact litigation, corporate reform, investigations
(See also NY.)

GOLDFARB & LIPMAN, LLP
Description: Focuses primarily on housing and real estate issues throughout California.
Areas of Specialization: Affordable housing, real estate and redevelopment, environment and land use, municipal law, tax law
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual representation, civil litigation

GOLDSTEIN, BORGEN, DARDARIAN & HO
Description: A long-running plaintiffs’ firm of 12 attorneys with expertise in class action suits.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire associates for the firm. However, the firm offers a Civil Rights Fellowship for a recent law school graduate to work at the firm alongside the attorneys for two years. More information is available on the website.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, employment/labor, environmental
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class action

GREEN & NOBLIN, P.C.
Description: Small firm of several attorneys that specializes in class actions and complex litigation on behalf of consumers and investors.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new or summer associates, but interested candidates should contact the firm via email or mail.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer/investor, antitrust
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation

GREENE BROILLET & WHEELER, LLP
Description: The firm is a plaintiffs’ trial firm of 16 attorneys focusing on personal injury claims.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, disability, employment
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, impact litigation

GROSS BELSKY ALONSO LLP
Description: Smaller firm of several attorneys with a wide practice area.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule and does not typically hire summer associates. However, interested students should check back with the firm in late fall.
Areas of Specialization: Constitutional, intellectual property, Internet, international, employment, ethics
Types of Advocacy: Alternative dispute resolution, class action, individual representation, litigation, appellate

GUBB & BARSHAY LLP
Description: Firm of three attorneys with a special focus on affordable housing issues.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire or take summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Fair housing, nonprofit law, economic development, homeless assistance
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation

GWILLIAM  IVARY CHIOSSO CAVALLI & BREWER
Description: The eight attorneys in the firm focus on civil litigation and individual tort claims.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, business fraud, intellectual property, labor/employment, discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation

HADSELL STORMER & RENICK LLP
Description: The firm of nine attorneys focuses on employment and civil rights law in the Los Angeles area.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, international human rights, employment discrimination, consumer, wage and hour, housing
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual cases, impact litigation

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

HAUSFELD LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

HELMER FRIEDMAN, LLP
Description: This firm of five attorneys provides representation across a variety of practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, civil rights, privacy, personal injury, elder abuse, medical malpractice, entertainment and sports representation, product liability, false advertising
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, litigation

HERSH AND HERSH
Description: Several attorneys represent clients across the nation in civil litigation matters.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, personal injury, fraud, discrimination, employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation

JACOBS & SCHLESINGER LLP
Description: Boutique immigration defense and appellate law firm in downtown San Diego. The four attorneys are dedicated to cases that emphasize social justice.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Immigration/refugee, criminal
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, appellate

JUSTICE FIRST, LLP
Description: Firm specialized in human rights and civil rights.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, prisoners litigation, constitutional rights, criminal defense, reentry legal services for those with criminal records
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, public and media awareness, coalition building

KAZAN, MCCLAIN, SATTERLEY & GREENWOOD
Description: A 10-attorney firm with an expertise in asbestos litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire but does accept resumes and cover letters from interested candidates. More information is available on the firm’s website.
Areas of Specialization: Plaintiff, OSH safety & health, Vietnam veterans, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, legislation, trainings

KEMNITZER, BARRON & KRIEG
Description: The eight-attorney firm focuses on consumer litigation and works out of five offices in California.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer protection, lemon law
Types of Advocacy: complex litigation, class action, individual cases

KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER CHECK LLP
(See PA for main listing.)

KING & SIEGEL LLP
Description: class actions and civil rights litigation
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, wage and hour, sexual harassment, equal pay, wrongful termination, whistleblower, disability leaves, pregnancy discrimination, consumer rights
Types of Advocacy: Class action and individual cases

KREINDLER & KREINDLER, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

LANDERHOLM IMMIGRATION APC
Description: Small office dedicated to assisting people in navigating the challenges of the U.S. immigration system
Areas of Specialization: Immigration, bankruptcy, and criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, administrative advocacy, client-based

LEVY KONIGSBERG, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

LEVY, VINICK, BURRELL & HYAMS LLP
Description: Four attorneys focus on employment issues.
Hiring: The firm does not have a hiring schedule but does consider summer associates, making hiring decisions in the late fall. Interested students should contact the firm directly.
Areas of specialization: Employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, disability, wage & hour, civil rights, sexual abuse
Type of Advocacy: Civil litigation, arbitration, mediation, class action

LIEFF, CABRASER, HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP
Description: The sixty-plus attorney firm represents plaintiffs nationwide in class actions and in individual lawsuits.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but individuals interested in applying for an associate position should send a resume and cover letter to Kelly Dermody via mail. Summer associates work out of the San Francisco office only, with applications due online on September 7.
Areas of Specialization: Corporate misconduct, consumer protection, businesses, antitrust, civil rights, employment law, product liability, environmental, personal injury, securities
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, class actions
(See also NY and TN.)

LAW OFFICE OF KEVIN G. LITTLE
Description: The firm is comprised of a single attorney specializing in civil rights, employment, personal injury, general civil litigation, family law, bankruptcy, and criminal cases.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire for new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Capital defense, civil rights, police misconduct, employment/labor, non-capital criminal defense, medical malpractice
Types of Advocacy: trial, appellate, post-conviction, individual cases

LOZEAU DRURY LLP
Description: Six attorneys who are exclusively dedicated to the practice of environmental law.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental law
Types of Advocacy: State and federal court litigation, Negotiation, Legislation and regulation drafting and advocacy

MAKAREM & ASSOCIATES
Description: Firm with about 7 attorneys dedicated to representing employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, wage-and-hour, and related employment and labor law matters in addition to legal malpractice cases.
Hiring: The firm does recruit permanent attorneys. The firm typically hires two or three summer law clerks each year, accepting only 2Ls.
Areas of Specialization: Wrongful termination, employment law, workplace discrimination, labor law, harassment, legal mal practice, and wage-and-hour
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class actions, and arbitrations

MALLISON & MARTINEZ
Description: The three attorneys that work out of the firm focus on workers’ rights issues.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation and class actions

MARTINEZ AGUILASOCHO & LYNCH
Description: Firm specializing in labor and employment law, with a focus on the rights of Spanish-speaking farm workers and their families, or farm workers that speak indigenous languages from Mexico.
Areas of Specialization: Wage and hour, workers’ rights legislation, nonprofit formation and counseling
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, class actions, counseling

MASSEY & GAIL
(See IL for main listing.)

MASTAGNI HOLSTEDT
Description: Firm specialized in a range of civil law matters.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, wage & hour, contract negotiation, labor law, workers’ compensation, employment law, negligence, professional and products liability
Types of Advocacy: Arbitration, negotiation, general litigation, individual and group representation, appellate

McCRACKEN, STEMERMAN & HOLSBERRY, LLP
Description: The firm of 17 attorneys combines a union-side labor law practice with a focus on civil liberties and consumer issues.
Hiring: Although it does not have a regular hiring schedule, the firm is open to hiring outstanding candidates as new associates.
Areas of Specialization: Union-side employment/labor, election, discrimination, First Amendment, securities, consumer, antitrust, environmental, whistleblower, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, administrative hearings, lobbying, class action, appellate
(See also NV.)

McLANE, BEDNARSKI & LITT, LLP
Description: A firm of eight attorneys specializing in criminal defense and civil rights cases.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, discrimination, housing, mass protest, police/prison excessive force, unconstitutional prison/jail conditions
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, criminal defense, civil litigation, class actions

LAW OFFICES OF McTERNAN, STENDER & WEINGUS P.C.
Description: The firm has specialized in personal injury litigation and employment law in California for over 50 years.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, labor/employment, medical malpractice, elderly care
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual cases

McVEY, MULLERY & DULBERG
Description: Specializes exclusively in immigration law.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Immigration, asylum, citizenship
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation

MEDINA ORTHWEIN LLP
Description: Firm specializing in civil rights and employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, wage and hour, sexual harassment, whistleblower, Title IX, civil rights for prisoners
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action litigation

MEYERS NAVE
Description: California-based firm with attorneys advising on more than 20 fields of law.
Areas of Specialization: Climate change and green initiatives, commercial litigation, energy and public power, environmental law, First Amendment, labor & employment, land use
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, appellate, individual and group representation

MIGLIACCIO & RATHOD LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

MILBERG LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

MINAMI TAMAKI, LLP
Description: This 17-attorney firm represents clients in a variety of practice areas, with a specialization in working with immigrants.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys. However, the firm hires law clerks for ten weeks during the summer. The application deadline typically falls in October, with more information available on the firm’s website.
Areas of Specialization: Family law, commercial litigation, civil rights, employment, personal injury, immigration/nationality, personal injury, criminal defense, employment, consumer law
Types of Advocacy: Individual clients, impact litigation, complex litigation

MIZRAHI LAW
Description: The firm specializes in employment law, representing workers in a variety of practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Worker discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, disability accommodations, leave laws
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, civil litigation

MOON & YANG, APC
Description: The firm specializes in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Wrongful termination, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wage and hour violations, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases

NICHOLS KASTER
(See MN for main listing.)

NIELSEN, MERKSAMER, PARRINELLO, GROSS & LEONI, LLP
Description: The firm specializes in complex legal and policy issues in both the public and private sectors and litigates constitutional, regulatory and business issues in the courts and before administrative law judges.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal justice policy, government, commercial litigation, transactions
Types of Advocacy: Lobbying, policy-oriented, individual cases, appellate litigation

OLSON REMCHO
Areas of Specialization: Constitutional law, public policy, elections, political litigation, education, First Amendment

THE OTTINGER FIRM, PC
(See NY for main listing.)

PEARSON, SIMON & WARSHAW, LLP
Description: The firm of 14 attorneys specializes in class actions, business litigation, insurance law and professional liability claims.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury law, labor, consumer, securities
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, class action

THE PHELPS LAW GROUP
Description: Boutique law firm specializing in a wide array of employment law and consumer law cases.
Areas of Specialization: Wrongful termination, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, wage & hour, equal pay, consumer services
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, client-based

PHILLIPS & COHEN, LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

POLLOCK COHEN LLP 
(See NY for main listing.)

REICH, ADELL & CVITAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Comparable-worth issues, rights of privacy in the workplace, employment discrimination, right-to-strike issues
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases

RENNE PUBLIC LAW GROUP
Description: Firm specialized in advising and advocating for public agencies and nonprofit entities.
Areas of Specialization: Government affairs, elections, labor & employment, public interest & nonprofits, investigations, writs & appeals
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, appellate, public sector clients

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
Areas of Specialization: Securities, Insurance, health care, human rights, employment discrimination, consumer, antitrust, shareholder, Pro bono: health care, human rights, consumer, employment
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, class action recovery, individual cases
(See also NY, FL, DC, PA, and GA.)

THE ROCK LAW FIRM
Description: The firm represents clients in civil litigation, with a focus on class action lawsuits.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but does hire summer associates. The interview process usually takes place in the winter, and interested students should check with the firm in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer fraud, defective products, real estate litigation, First Amendment/media law, unfair employment practices
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases

ROSEN BIEN GALVAN & GRUNFELD, LLP
Description: The firm of 15+ attorneys has a wide range of practice areas centered on complex litigation issues, with a specialization in prisoners’ rights and disability rights.
Hiring: The firm usually does take on summer associates, and offers a post-graduate fellowship. The summer application process typically occurs in the winter and interested applicants should inquire about a timeline in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Trial appellate litigation in the areas of civil rights, First Amendment, Civil rights, employment, civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, disability, employment/labor, prisoner, legal representation, employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, complex litigation, appellate, class actions, dispute resolution

ROTHNER, SEGALL & GREENSTONE
Description: The firm of ten attorneys represents labor unions, labor-management trust funds, and employees with wage & hour and civil rights claim.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for attorneys or associates.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/liberties, labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Union representation, complex litigation, individual representation

STEVEN J. ROTTMAN, ESQ
Description: This one-man firm focuses exclusively on forms of mediation and avoiding trial.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Types of Advocacy: Alternate dispute resolution, investigation, litigation, mediation

ROUDA, FEDER, TIETJEN & MCGUINN
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, consumer, employment harassment and discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases

RUDY, EXELROD, ZIEFF & LOWE, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, discrimination, sexual harassment
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, arbitration, mediation, severance negotiations

RUKIN HYLAND& RIGGIN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, disability, privacy rights, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action, civil litigation, mediation, employment agreements

SANFORD HEISLER SHARP, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

THE SCHLEHR LAW FIRM
Description: The firm is a boutique law practice of one attorney with an expertise in pregnancy discrimination and other women‘s employment- related litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new associates and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Women‘s issues, cultural rights, labor/employment, LGBTQ+ issues, disability, civil rights/liberties
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation

SCHNEIDER WALLACE COTTRELL KONECKY LLP
Description: This national law firm of 20 attorneys focuses on complex, high-stakes litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys. However, the firm does hire summer associates. Interested students should inquire with the firm in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment, sexual harassment, disability, deaf rights, access to education, consumer, securities, whistleblower claims
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation, investigations
(See also TX, AZ.)

SCHONBRUN, SEPLOW, HARRIS & HOFFMAN, LLP
Description: A team of more than ten attorneys focused on employment, consumer, civil and human rights cases.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/human rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation, trials, federal/state arbitration

SCHUBERT JONCKHEER & KOLBE LLP
Areas of Specialization: Securities fraud, antitrust, consumer, employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action

BRYAN SCHWARTZ LAW
Description: A small firm specializing in employment law and civil rights cases.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace discrimination, retaliation, harassment, reasonable accommodation, whistleblower, federal employment, wage & hour, severance
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, class actions

SCHWARTZ, STEINSAPIR, DOHRMANN & SOMMERSLLP
Description: The 15+ attorney firm specializes in the representation of employees, private and public sector unions, and employee benefit plans.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, union representation
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, contracts

SENA FAMILY LAW
Areas of Specialization: Family law, civil rights/liberties, disability, family, LGBTQ+ issues, same-sex marriage/domestic partnerships.
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, research and publications, legal writing

SHUTE, MIHALY & WEINBERGER LLP
Description: The 25+ attorney law firm specializes in government, land use, natural resource, and environmental law.
Hiring: The firm annually hires recent law school graduates and judicial clerks for its two-year fellowship program. The firm hires new associates exclusively from its fellowship pool. Applications for the fellowship are online and are due October 15. The firm also employs 2L or 3L law students as full-time law clerks during the summer and part-time during the school year. Applications for the summer clerkship are online and are due October 1.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental, land use, energy, government, municipal, zoning, administrative, Native American, housing, aviation, regulation
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, policy oriented, lobbying, administrative hearings

SIEGEL, YEE, BRUNNER & MEHTA
Description: A 10 attorney firm focused on civil litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, employment, criminal, personal injury, wrongful death, real estate, education law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, research, publications

SIMMONS & UNGAR LLP
Areas of Specialization: Immigration, asylum, LGBTQ+ issues
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual cases

SONOSKY, CHAMBERS, SACHSE, ENDRESON& PERRY, LLP 
(See DC for main listing.)

OFFICES OF MICHAEL S. SORGEN
Areas of Specialization: Education, disability, civil rights/civil liberties, employment/labor, human rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, appellate, civil litigation, administrative hearings

SPIVAK LIPTON LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

SR HOLGUIN, PC
Description: The firm is dedicated to workers’ rights and the labor movement, and represents private and public sector labor unions and multi-employer trust funds.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys or summer associates. However, very interested students should check with the firm for possible opportunities.
Area of Specialization: Labor/employment, union representation, pension benefits/claims
Types of Advocacy: Civil Litigation, appellate, administrative hearings, lobbying

STEYER LOWENTHAL BOODROOKAS ALVAREZ & SMITH, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Real estate, labor/employment, antitrust, nonprofit, consumer, securities
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, strategy, publications

STRUMWASSER & WOOCHER, LLP
Description: Represents a variety of clients on issues relating to the public interest, including electoral law and consumer law
Areas of Specialization: Government and electoral law, consumer law, civil rights, environmental law, administrative law, antitrust litigation, municipal law
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, civil litigation

THE STURDEVANT LAW FIRM, PC
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, business/economic issues, predatory lending, labor/employment, disability
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action

SUSMAN GODFREY LLP
(See TX for main listing.)

LAW OFFICES OF KYLE TODD
Description: Firm specializing in workplace and civil rights cases.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace discrimination and harassment, retaliation, family leave, whistleblower rights, wrongful termination, police misconduct, consumer civil rights, wage & hour
Types of Advocacy: Individual and group representation

VAN DER HOUT LLP
Description: This firm of nine attorneys focuses on all areas of immigration and naturalization issues, representing individuals and families.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys. The firm does hire summer law clerks (1Ls okay) to assist with research and legal writing. Experience in immigration law is preferred. Interested candidates should visit the website for more information.
Areas of Specialization: Immigration, naturalization
Types of Advocacy: Administrative hearings, appellate, class actions, impact litigation, individual cases

THE VEEN FIRM, PC
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, consumer, malpractice, employment/labor, corporate fraud, wrongful death
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action

VENSKUS & ASSOCIATES
Description: This boutique law firm specializes in environmental law, housing rights, and representation of non-profit and community-based organizations.
Areas of Specialization: Natural resource protection, responsible land use, open government, clean energy, historic/coastal preservation, wrongful evictions, tenant discrimination and harassment
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, general litigation, negotiation

VILLEGAS, CARRERA, INC.
Description: The firm has three attorneys and one of-counsel attorney that all focus on representing workers in employment cases and discrimination litigation
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates. However, the firm publicizes potential opportunities as they arise.
Areas of specialization: Labor/employment, discrimination
Type of advocacy: Individual representation, class actions

WAGSTAFFE, VON LOEWENFELDT, BUSCH & RADWICK, LLP
Description: The firm of 14 attorneys represents clients in civil litigation claims in a wide range of practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Contract and commercial disputes, First Amendment and media law, Constitutional law, consumer, employment, environmental, intellectual property
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation, individual cases, appellate

WALKER, HAMILTON & KOENIG
Description: Personal injury plaintiffs’ firm of four attorneys with a special focus on litigating complex injury and wrongful death claims.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, elderly, maritime, medical malpractice, government liability, labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

WALKUP, MELODIA, KELLY & SCHOENBERGER
Description: Firm of 18 attorneys with a focus on personal injury cases across California.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, class action

WEINBERG, ROGER & ROSENFELD
Description: The 40+ attorney firm is dedicated to the labor movement and aiding workers in civil litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys but does hire 3-4 summer law clerks. The summer associates work out of the Alameda Office. Interested students should check with the firm in the fall to inquire about the application details, but offers are typically made during the winter.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, civil rights, union-side, bankruptcy, public sector, legislation/regulations, nonprofit/PACs, environmental
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, enforcement, civil litigation, class action, administrative advocacy
(See also HI.)

THE WESTON FIRM, PC
Description: Firm specializing in lawsuits against corporations, especially antitrust and consumer class action litigation. Their antitrust work is heavy on economic analysis and often involve the application of antitrust law to the new economy, for example, the Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Property/real estate, intellectual property/technology, consumer, communications, business/ economic issues, arts/entertainment
Types of Advocacy: Policy, individual cases, factual investigation, class action, civil litigation

WOHLNER KAPLON CUTLER HALFORD & ROSENFELD
Description: Mid-sized firm looking to serve the cause of working people
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, class action, client-based, impact litigation, innovative advocacy

ZEITGEIST LAW, PC
Description: This small firm focuses on technology-related issues including digital privacy, information security, free expression, and creativity.
Areas of Specialization: Government access to data, enforcement of rights, anti-hacking law, free expression, open government, copyright
Types of Advocacy: Criminal and civil litigation, individual representation, negotiation, product counseling, amicus support, user-friendly policy design

COLORADO

FOX & ROBERTSON, PC
Description: The two-attorney firm specializes in civil rights cases but litigates in a variety of practice areas.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, disability, employment, housing, public sector, transportation
Types of Advocacy: Appeals, class action, individual representation, litigation, mediation, trial

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO, LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

MAES LAW P.C.
Areas of Specialization: Medical malpractice; motor vehicle accidents — plaintiff; personal injury — plaintiff; products liability law; social security — disability; workers’ compensation law; wrongful death; and premises liability
Types of Advocacy: Legal writing, individual cases, research and publications

RATHOD MOHAMEDBHAI, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Employees rights, civil rights, criminal law

CONNECTICUT

CASPER & DE TOLEDO, LLC
Description: The firm’s three attorneys represent exclusively plaintiffs in the NYC area.
Hiring: No regular summer internship program, but interested candidates should contact Deborah Briganti in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, employment, disability, medical malpractice, whistleblowers, consumer
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, class action, appellate

KOSKOFF KOSKOFF & BIEDER, PC
Description: This plaintiffs’ firm has 20 attorneys and specializes in trial advocacy with a particular focus on medical malpractice.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire but does accept law students for summer positions in the Bridgeport Office. Interested students should contact the firm in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, civil rights, consumer, unfair trade practices fraud, medical fraud, malpractice, product liability, premises liability, women/children, constitutional law, prisoner rights, whistleblower/qui tam
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, commercial litigation, class action, individual cases

LIVINGSTON, ADLER, PULDA, MEIKLEJOHN & KELLY, PC
Description: With six attorneys, the firm serves as the largest plaintiff-side labor and employment law firm in CT.
Hiring: The firm does not usually hire summer associates, but it fluctuates based on the needs of the firm (typically determined in the spring). Interested students should contact the firm directly.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, unions, EEOC, progressive and civil rights, nonprofit organizations, EEOC
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, union representation, negotiation, mediation/arbitration

DELAWARE

ELLIOT GREENLEAF
(See PA for main listing.)

GRANT & EISENHOFER P.A.
Description: National litigation boutique that focuses on representing institutional investors. Named one of the nation’s ―Top Ten Plaintiffs’ Firms‖ by the National Law Journal.
Areas of Specialization: Fraud, Investor recoveries, securities, antitrust, corporate governance, bankruptcy, whistleblower, employment
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual cases, complex litigation, negotiation/settlement
(See also NY, DC.)

LABATON, SUCHAROW LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

ALDEN LAW GROUP, PLLC
Description: Small DC law firm with six attorneys
Areas of Specialization: Employment and labor law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, administrative advocacy, individual cases, client-based

ALI & LOCKWOOD LLP
Description: Small women-owned firm specializing in civil rights law.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, appeals, strategic advising, commercial litigation
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, appellate, advising

BAUM HEDLUND ARISTEI & GOLDMAN
(See CA for main listing.)

BENACH COLLOPY, LLP
Description: Boutique law firm specializing in immigration law.
Areas of Specialization: Citizenship and naturalization, asylum, consular processing, deferred action, DACA, employer-based immigration, employer I-9 compliance
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, litigation

BERNABEI & KABAT, PLLC
Description: Firm specializing in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Employee representation, employment contracts, sexual harassment, whistleblowers, civil rights, discrimination & retaliation
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, negotiation

BLOCK & LEVITON
(See MA for main listing.)

BREDHOFF & KAISER, PLLC
Description: This 30+ attorney firm based in Washington focuses on the representation of labor organizations and related institutions in the public and private sectors.
Hiring: The firm is always open to hiring law students, law clerks, or other attorneys as new associates if their applications are compelling. Likewise, the firm typically hires 6-8 summer associates (2Ls or 3Ls only). The hiring and interview process usually begins in late August or early September of each year. More information about opportunities is available on the firm website.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment law, unions, regulatory matters, education
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, administrative hearings, appellate, investigations

CARLINER & REMES, PC
Description: Three attorneys dedicated exclusively to immigration and nationality law.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire or have a summer associate program.
Areas of Specialization: Immigration, nationality, asylum
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation

COHEN, MILSTEIN, SELLERS, & TOLL, PLLC
Description: The firm has 65 attorneys and specializes in complex class action lawsuits.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but will reevaluate every year. The firm hires 5 summer associates every summer, 4 for the DC office and 1 for the NY office. Salary varies and is determined during the application/interview process. The deadline for the online application is October 1.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment discrimination, consumer protection, product liability, environmental health threats, international human rights
Types of Advocacy: Class action
(See also NY, PA, IL, FL.)

COLSON, HICKS, EIDSON
(See FL for main listing.)

CONSTANTINE CANNON
(See NY for main listing.)

CORREIA & PUTH
Description: Firm specialized in representing employees in employment law cases.
Areas of Specialization: Sexual harassment, retaliation, workplace discrimination, unfair treatment, severance
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, client-based, individual representation

COTCHETT, PITRE & McCARTHY
(See CA for main listing.)

CUNEO GILBERT & LADUCA
Description: Twenty attorneys working at a plaintiffs’ firm in DC
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, consumer protection, securities fraud, civil rights violations
Types of Advocacy: Administrative advocacy, appellate, civil litigation, class action

DONAHUE, GOLDBERG, WEAVER, AND LITTLETON
Description: Firm focusing on constitutional, environmental and civil rights litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental law, civil rights, public interest organizations, state and local governments
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, complex appeals, agency record review

DUNCAN & ALLEN
Description: Ten attorneys who primarily represent public power and cooperative entities in connection with their electric power business and service throughout the nation.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire associates but does hire summer associates; interested candidates should contact Mr. Breakman.
Areas of Specialization: Energy, consumer, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, dispute resolution, regulatory proceedings

EUBANKS & ASSOCIATES, LLC
Description: Firm of five attorneys focused on legal services and advocacy on behalf of non-profit organizations in the DC area.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but posts all opportunities on its website. The firm hires one-three law clerks per term, including the summer. The clerks receive course credit, outside funding, or compensation based on the public interest pay scale – depending on the circumstances. Interested students should check the website beginning in the fall for application instructions.
Areas of Specialization: Energy, environmental law, consumer protection
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, policy/legislative, not-for-profit strategy and legal representation

FAIRMARK PARTNERS, LLP
Description: Nine-attorney firm pursuing corporate accountability and antitrust cases.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly recruit new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, class-action, individual litigation, investigation

THE FIERBERG NATIONAL LAW GROUP, PLLC
(See MI for main listing.)

FINKELSTEIN THOMPSON LLP
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, consumer, securities, nonprofit, whistleblower, employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, small businesses, complex litigation.
(See also CA.)

GEBHARDT & ASSOCIATES, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, civil rights and civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases

GOLDSTEIN & RUSSELL, PC
Description: The firm’s practice is devoted primarily to pro bono litigation in the Supreme Court or federal courts of appeals. The firm is affiliated with the law clinics at Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys. However, the firm hires a couple of summer associates each year. The competitive process is rolling, and interested applicants should send their materials to Tom Goldstein.
Areas of Specialization: First Amendment, death penalty, criminal, bankruptcy/debt
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, legal writing, individual cases, civil litigation

GRANT & EISENHOFER, PA
(See DE for main listing.)

GUPTA WESSLER PLLC
Description: Progressive firm specialized in plaintiffs-side appellate practice.
Areas of Specialization: Supreme Court, appellate practice, First Amendment
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, constitutional, complex litigation, policy consulting

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOlSHAPIRO, LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

HANDLEY FARAH & ANDERSON
Description: Firm specializing in employment law, consumer law, and housing.
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, consumer protection, disability rights, employment discrimination, fair housing, farmers, wage theft, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual representation, general litigation

HARMON, CURRANSPIELBERG & EISENBERG, LLP
Description: The firm has seven attorneys and specializes in representing non-profits and citizen groups in litigation issues.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates. However, very interested candidates should contact the firm directly.
Areas of Specialization: Nonprofit org tax law, election, employment environmental, nuclear safety
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, administrative hearings

HAUSFELD LLP
Description: The 20+ attorney firm is a global claimants firm dedicated to handling large and complex litigation matters on behalf of individuals, corporations and organizations.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys but does post opportunities as they become available. The firm hires summer law clerks every summer, depending on the expected workload. Interested students are encouraged to check the firm’s website in the fall for more details.
Areas of Specialization: Antitrust, civil rights, consumer, environmental, intellectual property, securities
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class action, complex litigation, dispute resolution
(See also CA, PA, and London.)

HELLER, HURON, CHERTKOF & SALZMAN, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, labor and employment law, LGBTQ+ rights, disability, women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual litigation, appeals

JAMES & HOFFMAN, PC
Description: The firm has seven attorneys, along with two of-counsel attorneys, and has a nationwide litigation practice with a special focus on the effective resolution of labor and employment disputes.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys but does post opportunities on the firm’s website. Interested candidates should email or mail their application materials. The firm offers a few summer positions to 2L and 3L (pre-clerkship) students. Qualified students should send their materials to Darin Dalmat at their earliest convenience.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, unions, industrial law, nonprofit
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, union representation, administrative, contracts

KATOR, PARKS, WEISER & HARRIS, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Employment, civil rights, whistleblowers
Types of Advocacy: Litigation
(See also TX.)

KATZ BANKS KUMIN
Description: Firm with an emphasis on retaliation and sexual harassment claims.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, whistleblowers
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual cases

KLEIN HORNIG LLP
(See MA for main listing.)

KLIMASKI & ASSOCIATES, PC
Description: The firm of three attorneys specializes in employment issues and cases against the federal government.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates.
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, discrimination, consumer protection, government accountability, police misconduct, criminal justice, LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, litigation in federal court

KOHN, KOHN & COLAPINTO, LLP 
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, civil rights, whistleblower protection, civil rights, environmental rights, human rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation, administrative hearings

LIPPMAN, SEMSKER & SALB, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, family law, LGBTQ+ rights, disability, HIV/AIDS discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, appeals, administrative hearings

LOBEL, NOVINS & LAMONT, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Crisis management, economic regulation, energy, environment, legal ethics, public interest
Types of Advocacy: Lobbying, impact litigation, individual cases

MASSEY & GAIL
(See IL for main listing.)

McGILLIVARY STEELE ELKIN, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation

MEHRI & SKALET, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, government accountability, civil rights, whistleblowers, environmental law
Types of Advocacy: Class action, impact litigation, lobbying, policy/legislative, appeals, administrative hearings

MEYER, SUOZZI, ENGLISH & KLEIN PC
(See NY for main listing.)

MIGLIACCIO & RATHOD LLP
Description: Specializes in class action litigation for consumer protection, wage theft, civil rights, and environmental protection. While the firm operates primarily from Washington, DC, their attorneys are located in Washington, DC, Oklahoma, and California.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys but interested applicants can forward resumes to Nick Migliaccio and Jason Rathod. The firm hires one to two Consumer Protection Fellows annually. More information about the fellowship is available on the firm website.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer protection, defective products, wage theft, data privacy, civil rights, environmental contamination
Types of Advocacy: Class action

MOONEY, GREEN, SAINDON, MURPHY & WELCH, PC
Description: Firm specialized in representing unions, and pension and benefit plans.
Areas of Specialization: Union and employee rights, responding to governmental investigations and audits, collective bargaining, regulatory compliance, tax qualification, ERISA compliance
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, legal advising

MURPHY ANDERSON, PLLC
Description: Firm specializing in whistleblower representation, as well as workers and unions.
Areas of Specialization: False Claims Act, labor & employment, whistleblower, First Amendment
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, group representation, appellate

NORRIS LAW GROUP
Areas of Specialization: Government, criminal justice, general litigation, estate planning, business law, real estate

O’DONNELL, SCHWARTZ & ANDERSON, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, labor and employment law, disability rights, women’s rights, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, policy/legislative, union representation

O’DONOGHUE & )’DONOGHUE, LLP
Description: The firm has twenty- eight attorneys across two offices in the areas of labor, employee benefits, employment and governmental affairs law.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule. However, interested applicants for associate positions may submit resumes and writing samples to Mark Kunst at the firm’s Washington, DC, office. Interested applicants for summer law clerk positions may submit resumes and writing samples to Gerard Waites also at the firm’s DC office on a rolling basis.
Areas of Specialization: Union issues, labor/employment, governmental affairs
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, union representation
(See also PA.)

OSBORNE LAW OFFICES, PC
Areas of Specialization: Unions, labor and employment law
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, union representation

PERSEUS STRATEGIES
Description: Firm focused on government affairs and nonprofits.
Areas of Specialization: International human rights law, government affairs and public policy, corporate social responsibility, nonprofit law
Types of Advocacy: Strategy consulting, legal advisory services

PHILLIPS & COHEN, LLP
Description: A 20+ attorney firm with a specialization in securities litigation and whistleblower representation.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys but does hire a summer associate for each office to work from June until August. Interested students should send a resume to Erika Kelton in the fall and will hear back for interviews in the winter.
Areas of Specialization: Qui tam, whistleblower, tax fraud, securities fraud, corporate transparency
Types of Advocacy: Whistleblower claims, client-oriented litigation, individual cases
(See also CA.)

RELMAN COLFAX, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, housing law, fair lending, police accountability, public accountability
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, client-oriented litigation, administrative hearings

RENO & CAVANAUGH, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Real estate law, affordable housing
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, policy/legislative, client-oriented litigation
(See also TN, MD.)

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

SANFORD HEISLER SHARP, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

SHERMAN, DUNN, COHEN, LEIFER & YELLIG, PC
Description: The firm of nine attorneys specializes in labor and employment law, as well as representing labor organizations.
Hiring: The firm occasionally hires full-time associate attorneys. Interested candidates should send applications to Robert Kurnick. The firm hires one law clerk every summer. Interested students should send a resume to Terry Yellig at any time.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, unions, veterans, occupational safety
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, union representation, appellate, civil litigation

SLEVIN & HART, PC
Description: Firm focused exclusively on employee benefits cases.
Areas of Specialization: Retirement plans, welfare plans, compliance, contracting, ERISA
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation

SONOSKY, CHAMBERS, SACHSE, ENDRESON & PERRY, LLP
Description: The 20+ attorney firm is devoted to representing Native American interests in a wide range of endeavors including trial and appellate litigation
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys but often draws from its summer associate program. The Washington, DC office typically hires two or three summer associates, and the Alaska, Albuquerque, and San Diego offices one or two each. Interested students are encouraged to read further on the firm’s website and then contact the appropriate office for more hiring details.
Areas of Specialization: Native American civil legal issues
Types of Advocacy: Complex civil litigation, lobbying
(See also AK, NM, CA.)

SPIEGEL & McDIARMID LLP
Areas of Specialization: Consumer rights, energy, antitrust, transportation, environment, communications, qui tam
Types of Advocacy: Lobbying, appeals, administrative hearings, policy/legislative, client-oriented litigation

TERRIS, PRAVLIK & MILLIAN, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Environmental, employment, civil rights, housing, voting rights, medical care, religious accommodation, disability
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

TRISTER, ROSS, SCHADLER & GOLD, PLLC 1666
Areas of Specialization: Immigration law, nonprofit, political, intellectual property, family law
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, client-oriented litigation, alternative dispute resolution

TYCKO & ZAVAREEI LLP
Description: Tycko & Zavareei LLP is an 8-attorney law firm focusing primarily on plaintiff-side representation. Clients range from individuals fighting for their civil rights, consumers seeking redress for unfair business practices, whistleblowers exposing fraud and corruption, tenants’ associations battling to preserve decent and affordable housing, and non-profit entities and businesses facing difficult litigation.
Hiring: The firm hires one Public Interest Fellow annually. The Fellowship is intended for individuals with a demonstrated commitment to a career in public interest law. The Fellow will be an employee of the firm for the duration of the Fellowship. During that year, a minimum of two months will be spent working directly for a public interest organization based in the District of Columbia.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer class actions, whistleblower & False Claims Act, employment litigation, business disputes, defamation & First Amendment litigation, overtime/wage-and-hour.
Types of Advocacy: Class action and other complex litigation.

VOGEL SLADE & GOLDSTEIN
Description: The firm of three lawyers specializes in whistleblower and False Claims Act cases in a variety of practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Whisleblower cases within pharmaceutical fraud, general healthcare fraud, government contractor fraud, SEC & CFTC cases
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, client-based, litigation

WIGGINS, CHILDS PANTAZIS, FISHER & GOLDFARB LLC.
(See AL for main listing.)

FLORIDA

BERMAN TABACCO
(See MA for main listing.)

COHEN, MILSTEIN, SELLERS, & TOLL, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

COLSON, HICKS, EIDSON
Description: The firm has 19 attorneys across three offices.
Areas of Specialization: Appellate practice, arbitration, ADR, aviation law, class action litigation, commercial litigation, construction litigation, defective auto components, personal injury, pharmaceutical litigation, products liability, professional malpractice, white-collar criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation, class action

GARY, WILLIAMS, PARENTI, WATSON & GARY, PLLC
Description: The firm has 12 attorneys and a staff of over 100 across three offices that specialize in personal injury claims.
Areas of Specialization: Medical malpractice, employment, consumer, personal injury, commercial litigation
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class actions

GROSSMAN ROTH YAFFA COHEN
Description: The firm has 13 attorneys, as well as a team of medical and legal investigators.
Area of Specialization: Medical malpractice, class action, consumer, personal injury, commercial litigation, Qui Tam
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation, class action

THE HAGGARD LAW FIRM, P.A.
Description: The firm has eight attorneys dedicated to personal injury claims and litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer products
Types of Advocacy: Class action, education, litigation, trial advocacy

KURZBAN, KURZBAN, TETZELI AND PRATT, PA
Areas of Specialization: International, immigration, health, employment/labor, civil rights/civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: International, individual cases, impact litigation, administrative hearings

MILBERG LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

PHILLIPS & COHEN, LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

PHILLIPS, RICHARD & RIND, P.A.
Description: The firm has eight self-described “organizing attorneys” that focus on representing organized labor and individual workers.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new associates or summer clerks. However, very interested candidates should contact the firm directly in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, labor, union representation
Types of Advocacy: Organizing, collective bargaining, training, union representation

PODHURST ORSECK, P.A.
Description: Plaintiffs’ firm that focuses on many different types of complex litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Appellate practice, aviation litigation, commercial litigation, general tort, products liability litigation
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, appellate, class action

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

SEARCY, DENNEY, SCAROLA BARNHART, & SHIPLEY, PA
Description: The firm has a team of 29 attorneys and 12 support staff members.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer products, intellectual property

WIGGINS, CHILDS, PANTAZIS FISHER & GOLDFARB, LLC
(See AL for main listing.)

GEORGIA

BARRETT & FARAHANY, LLP
Description: The plaintiffs’ employment law firm of 13 lawyers represents individuals in all employment cases or civil rights cases related to the employment relationship.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, civil rights/civil liberties, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

BUTLER, WOOTEN & PEAK, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties, environment, health
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

LEVY PHILLIPS & KONIGSBERG, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

PARKS, CHESIN & WALBERT, PC
Description: The firm of 10 employees specializes in all employment cases, as well as commercial litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, lobbying

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

GUAM

BLUE OCEAN LAW
Description: A boutique law firm providing various legal services to clients in the Asia-Pacific region, especially Guam, Micronesia, and greater Oceania.
Areas of Specialization: Climate change, protection of indigenous resources, deep sea mining, international laws of self-determination, international agreements and negotiations
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, legal counsel and consulting

HAWAII

DAVIS LEVIN LIVINGSTON
Description: Firm of nine trial lawyers handling litigation matters on all of the Hawaiian Islands and on the mainland United States.
Hiring: Does not regularly hire and has not traditionally taken summer associates. However, the firm is open to the possibility of accepting one or two summer associates; interested applicants should contact the firm regarding their interest at their earliest convenience.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, disability, whistleblower, health care, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, class action, innovative advocacy

WEINBERG ROGER & ROSENFELD, PC
(See CA for main listing.)

IDAHO

BERNSTEIN, CUSHNER & KIMMELL, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment, environment, civil, corporate, energy, construction
Types of Advocacy: Arbitration, dispute resolution, individual representation, mediation
(See MA for main listing.)

ILLINOIS

ABRAHAMSON, VORACHEK & LEVINSON
Description: Very small firm focused on employment cases in the Chicago area.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire and is not expecting to hire any summer law clerks in the near future.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, discrimination, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

AHLGREN & ASSOCIATES
Description: Attorneys who all focus on immigration and nationality law cases
Hiring: No regular hiring schedule and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Immigration and refugee
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

ALLISON, SLUTSKY & KENNEDY, PC
Description: Five principals and two associates focused on representing unions and other business organizations.
Hiring: No regular hiring schedule. Sometimes hires summer interns, depending on the expected workload. Applicants should contact the firm in the winter to inquire.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, unions, benefits law, associations, non-profits, and small businesses
Types of Advocacy: Class action, union side, individual litigation, dispute resolution, appellate

APPLEGATE & THORNE-THOMSEN, PC
Description: The firm has 19 attorneys and nine legal assistants and specializes in affordable housing and community development issues.
Hiring: The firm has no regular hiring schedule for associates but does post on the firm website when opportunities become available.
Areas of Specialization: Real estate and affordable housing, community and economic development
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, research and publications, transactions, contracts

ARNOLD & KADJAN, ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS
Areas of Specialization: Employment, labor, benefits, worker’s comp, personal injury, union representation
Types of Advocacy:  Litigation, arbitration, negotiation

BENASSI & BENASSI, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment, family, labor, workers comp, personal injury, medical malpractice
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

CAFFARELLI & ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Description: Firm specializing in employment law and consumer protection.
Areas of Specialization: Unpaid commissions, wage & hour, FMLA, whistleblower, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, severance, robocalls, consumer fraud
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class actions, general litigation

COHEN, MILSTEIN, SELLERS & TOLL, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

CORNFIELD & FELDMAN, LLP
Description: This union-side labor law firm has 14 attorneys and a national and Illinois practice that focus on representing unions and their workers in litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Union representation, workers comp, occupational hazards, employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation, administrative hearings
(See also NY.)

DESPRES, SCHWARTZ AND GEOGHEGAN, LTD.
Description: Chicago-based firm specializing in labor and employment, civil rights, consumer fraud, and constitutional rights.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, wage theft, retaliation, voting rights, free speech, consumer advocacy, appellate advocacy
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, class actions, complex litigation, labor arbitration, appellate advocacy

EDELSON PC
Description: The firm specializes in class actions related to privacy and technology, mass torts, and consumer fraud.
Areas of Specialization: Digital civil liberties, electronic privacy, data security, mass torts
Types of Advocacy: Plaintiffs class and mass action litigation, policymaking, investigations, appeals

THE FRANKLIN LAW FIRM, LLC
Description: Plaintiffs’ side law firm specializing in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, wage & hour, qui tam, consumer law, oil and gas royalties, historic preservation law
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, class actions, individual representation

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO, LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

HUGHES, SOCOL, PIERS, RESNICK & DYM, LTD.
Description: The firm has 36 attorneys and offers a broad range of services for its commercial and individual clients.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, health, public sector, immigration, non-profit, civil liberties, personal injury, intellectual property, domestic, commercial litigation, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation, negotiation, arbitration, transactions, administrative hearings

JACOBS, BURNS, ORLOVE, & HERNANDEZ
Description: Firm specialized in representation of labor unions, employee benefit plans, and employees.
Areas of Specialization: Wage & hour, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, retaliation, contracts, organizing, unfair labor practices, ERISA
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, arbitration

JAMES D. MONTGOMERY AND ASSOCIATES, LTD.
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties/civil rights, consumer, health, plaintiff, personal injury, medical malpractice
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, impact litigation

JOHNSON, JONES, SNELLING, GILBERT & DAVIS, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights, low-income housing, Title VII, police misconduct, election law, child welfare, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual cases

KAPLAN & GRADY LLC
Description: Litigation boutique focused on complex commercial litigation and catastrophic jail and prison cases.
Areas of Specialization: Prisoners’ rights, business litigation
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual representation

KATZ, FRIEDMAN, EAGLE, EISENSTEIN, JOHNSON & BARECK, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, disability, human rights, women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, policy reform

KINOY, TAREN, & GERAGHTY, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, housing
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation

KOREIN TILLERY, ATTORNEYS AT LAW
(See MO for main listing.)

LAW OFFICE OF ROBERT E. LEHRER
Description: The firm is comprised of a single attorney who specializes in civil rights violations, as well as a mediation services practice.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, constitutional rights, employment, family law, administrative law, prisoner issues
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, mediation

LOEVY & LOEVY
Description: The 35-plus attorneys in the firm focus on civil rights cases, including wrongful convictions and other forms of police misconduct, and whistleblower litigation, and specialize in bringing cases to trial, and appellate work.
Hiring: The firm usually hires two new attorneys each year through the firm’s 1-2-year Justice Fellowship. Clerkships, fellowships or other legal experience preferred, but not required. Applications are accepted beginning in the Fall, with decisions on a rolling basis. Email applications to justicefellowship@loevy.com.  The firm also selects 2 or 3 candidates (2Ls and 3Ls only) for Summer Associate positions each year. Summer Associates are paid $5,000 for their participation in the 12-week program, and start and end dates are flexible. In addition, the firm selects 2 or 3 Summer Law Interns each year (1Ls and 2Ls) who are unpaid. The firm accepts applications for summer positions, via its website, from November through January, and makes decisions on a rolling basis.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/liberties, wrongful convictions, police misconduct, prisoner rights, whistleblower litigation
Types of Advocacy: Class action, client-based, individual cases, factual investigation, civil litigation, appellate, trials

THE LAW OFFICES OF MICHAEL M. MULDER
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights criminal, intellectual property, consumer protection
Types of Advocacy: Class action, ADR, complex litigation, appellate

MASSEY & GAIL
Areas of Specialization: Administrative law, antitrust & competition, bankruptcy & creditors’ rights, complex commercial, constitutional law, consumer & False Claims Act, financial services, Freedom of Information Act, intellectual property, privacy, tax, telecommunications
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, criminal defense, general litigation

MINER, BARNHILL & GALLAND, PC
Description: The firm consists of fourteen lawyers in two offices – ten in the Chicago office and four in the Madison office. The firm has a reputation in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development work.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates, but interested candidates should contact the firm directly.
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties, constitutional, economic development, housing, health care, personal injury, antitrust, consumer, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, appellate, impact litigation, innovative advocacy, transactional
(See also WI.)

PEOPLE’S LAW OFFICE
Description: Firm specialized in a variety of civil rights issues.
Areas of Specialization: Victims of police brutality, wrongful convictions, false arrest, unlawful searches
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, appellate, criminal defense, capital defense

POTTER BOLANOS LLC
Description: Firm specialized in employment and whistleblower cases.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace discrimination and harassment, wage & hour, whistleblower, family and medical leave, retaliation, workers’ compensation, social security disability
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, union representation, individual representation, class action

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

THE LAW OFFICES OF ROBERT D. AHLGREN AND ASSOCIATES, PC
Description: Ten attorneys working in immigration law
Areas of Specialization: Immigration law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, client-based, individual cases

ROBINSON CURLEY PC
Description: The firm of 15 attorneys specializes in commercial litigation and related legal issues.
Areas of Focus: Employment, civil rights, environmental, criminal, intellectual property
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, complex litigation, appellate, ADR, contracts, transactions

SALVATORE PRESCOTT PORTER & PORTER, PLLC
(See MI for main listing.)

LAW OFFICES OF DAVID M. STERNFIELD
Description: Solo attorney who specializes in a variety of public interest practice areas.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, housing, consumer, domestic, minor criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

STOWELL & FRIEDMAN, LTD.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment, labor
Types of Advocacy: Plaintiff-side, individual cases, legislation

WILLENSON LAW, LLC
Description: Civil rights law firm that represents individuals, and groups of individuals, in a wide variety of civil rights cases
Areas of Specialization: Class action, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and wage theft
Types of Advocacy: Class action, collective action, and individual litigation

IOWA

CARNEY & APPLEBY
Description: The five-attorney firm represents individuals in criminal and civil litigation, as well as providing lobbying and legislative/regulatory services in Des Moines.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys or summer associates. However, interested candidates should contact the firm directly to inquire.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, domestic, medical, personal injury, regulations, commercial litigation
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation, criminal defense, administrative hearings, lobbying

KENTUCKY

PRIDDY, CUTLER, NAAKE & MEADE PLLC
Description: This labor law firm has 11 attorneys and focuses on litigation protecting the rights of employees at all levels.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, union issues, medical, disability
Types of Advocacy: Class-action, client-based litigation, research and publications

LOUISIANA

BARON & BUDD, PC
(See TX for main listing.)

BERNSTEIN, LITOWITZ, BERGER & GROSSMAN, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

COLSON, HICKS, EIDSON
(See FL for main listing.)

MAINE

JOHNSON WEBBERT & GARVAN
Description: We focus on complex cases, including class actions, professional licensing, malpractice, and serious personal injury claims.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, labor, civil rights, aviation, and ethics law

MARYLAND

BROWN GOLDSTEIN LEVY, LLP
Description: The firm’s 16 attorneys specialize in a wide variety of civil and criminal defense matters.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for associates. However, the firm posts opportunities on its website as they arise.
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties, employment/labor, disability, housing, election, child abuse, commercial litigation, domestic, medical, LGBTQ+ rights, personal injury, consumer
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation, appellate, class actions, mediation

GILBERT EMPLOYMENT LAW
Description: Firm specialized in representing government and private-sector employees in cases relating to civil rights in the workplace.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wage & hour, reasonable accommodation, family medical leave, whistleblower retaliation
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, mediation, arbitration, legal counseling

KAHN, SMITH & COLLINS, PA
Areas of Specialization: Medical, labor, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Individual, complex litigation

MELEHY & ASSOCIATES LLC
Areas of Specialization: Employment law, family law, real estate, bankruptcy
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation

PESSIN KATZ LAW, PA
Areas of Specialization: LGBTQ+ rights, criminal defense, family
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

RENO & CAVANAUGH, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

SANFORD HEISLER SHARP, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

MASSACHUSETTS

ADKINS, KELSTON & ZAVEZ, PC
Areas of Specialization: Housing, criminal justice, government accountability, democratic processes, consumer, constitutional, civil rights/civil liberties, environment
Types of Advocacy: Policy-making/regulatory reform, policy oriented, individual cases, impact litigation, class actions, appellate, administrative hearings

ANTONINO & DIMARE
Areas of Practice: Civil rights/civil liberties, constitutional, consumer, education, family labor/employment, environmental
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation

BCK LAW, PC
Description: The firm of seven attorneys concentrates in transactional, regulatory and corporate law with a special emphasis on energy, environmental/land use, commercial law, and arbitration/mediation services.
Areas of Specialization: Commercial litigation, employment/labor, environment, regulations, real estate
Types of Advocacy: Arbitration, ADR, individual cases, mediation, transactions
(See also ID and VT.)

BERMAN TABACCO
Description: The firm has 40 attorneys across three states and specializes in complex class action lawsuits on behalf of consumers and investors.
Hiring: While the firm does not have a regular hiring schedule, it does accept resumes online for attorneys interested in joining as the firm grows.
Areas of Specialization: Securities, antitrust, consumer
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class action.
(See also CA, FL.)

BLOCK & LEVITON
Description: Firm specializing in the rights of investors, consumers, and employees.
Areas of Specialization: Securities, antitrust, corporate governance, consumer protection, employment law, whistleblower, veterans’ rights
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, group representation, class actions

BOSTON LAW COLLABORATIVE, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, family
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, legal writing, individual cases, client-based, civil litigation, alternative dispute resolution, collaborative law

BRODIE & BRODIE
Description: Over 25% of the practice is dedicated toward providing pro bono legal services to those clients who most need representation. The firm’s pro bono cases are sent directly from legal aid offices all over Massachusetts.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Trusts and estates, prisoner issues, personal injury/medical malpractice/products liability, homelessness/housing, family, elderly, disability, criminal, consumer, civil rights/liberties, business/economic issues, bankruptcy/debt
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, legal writing, intake and referral, individual cases, factual investigation, community outreach, civil litigation

J.W. CARNEY, JR. & ASSOCIATES
Description: Thirteen attorneys working in a multiple issue areas
Areas of Specialization: Criminal law, family law, appellate practice
Types of Advocacy: Client based, individual cases, civil litigation, appellate

CONN KAVANAUGH ROSENTHAL PEISCH & FORD, LLP
Description: Firm representing organizations and individuals chiefly in employment and business litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Complex tort defense, construction, business, employment, estate planning, family law, product liability, professional liability
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, mediation, arbitration

CUNHA & HOLCOMB, PC
Areas of Specialization: Criminal, family, police misconduct, personal injury, family law
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, contract negotiations, individual representation, civil litigation

CURHAN LAW OFFICE
Areas of Specialization: Criminal justice, civil rights/civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, appellate, post-conviction remedies

DAVIS AND DAVIS, PC
Description: Five attorneys focusing on employment and family law
Areas of Specialization: Employment and family law
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases

FAIR WORK P.C.
Description: Firm representing employees whose rights have been violated in the workplace.
Areas of Specialization: Employee rights, wage & hour, workplace discrimination, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, class actions

FEINBERG, CAMPBELL & ZACK, PC
Description: Small labor law firm of five attorneys that represents many unions including several in the building trades, in complex ERISA litigation in the Federal Courts, and in the representation of individual union members in local arbitration cases. Also handles contract negotiations for many collective bargaining units.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule. It sometimes hires summer associates, depending on the expected work load. Interested students should check with the firm in the fall.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, elderly, disability, consumer, civil liberties, business law
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, individual cases, impact litigation, factual investigation, enforcement, client-based, civil litigation, appellate, administrative advocacy

LAW OFFICES OF HOWARD FRIEDMAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, constitution, Employment-law enforcement officers
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual cases

LAW OFFICE OF LENORE GLASER
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

GOLDSTEIN & FEUER
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, employment, family
Types of Advocacy: Client-centered, administrative hearings, contracts, individual representation, sliding-scale.

GOOD SCHNEIDER CORMIER & FRIED, ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Description: This very small firm focuses on the defense of individuals and organizations in criminal investigations and cases, and to the protection of civil liberties through civil litigation
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, civil liberties, civil rights, industry regulation
Types of Advocacy: Administrative enforcement, individual cases, criminal defense, civil litigation

GORDON LAW GROUP LLP
Description: Firm specializing in employee advocacy law.
Areas of Specialization: Commission disputes, employment discrimination, wage & hour, severance, Title IX, wrongful deductions and termination
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, class action

GUPTA WESSLER PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

HEISLER, FELDMAN, & MCCORMICK
Areas of Specialization: Homelessness/housing, consumer, civil rights/liberties, property/real estate, poverty, labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases, publications, civil litigation

LAW OFFICE OF KATZ & WHITEHEAD
Description: Community-based law firm operating in a variety of practice areas.
Areas of specialization: Family law, immigration, work injuries, criminal defense, civil rights, landlord/tenant, probate law, personal injury
Types of advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, client-based

KLAVENS LAW GROUP, P.C.
Description: Back-Bay firm representing corporate entities with a positive environmental or social impact.
Hiring: The firm hires summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Corporate finance, fund formation, project finance, real estate, and general corporate
Types of Advocacy: Renewable energy, social impact investing, non-profit representation

KLEIN HORNIG, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Community economic development, environment, homelessness/housing, energy/utilities
Types of Advocacy: Administrative enforcement, legislative advocacy, contracts
(See also DC.)

KOPELMAN AND PAIGE, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, affordable housing
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, enforcement, teaching, training, civil litigation

KRAKOW, SOURIS & LANDRY, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

KREINDLER & KREINDLER
(See NY for main listing.)

KROKIDAS & BLUESTEIN
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, employment/labor, health care, housing
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, state and local agencies representation

LENOW & McCARTHY
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment
Types of Advocacy: Representation of public and private sector unions in the Boston area.

LICHTEN & LISS-RIORDAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment
Types of Advocacy: Class action, union-side, individual cases

MASFERRER AND ASSOCIATES, PC
Description: Four attorneys working in a variety of issues areas.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal, immigration, appellate, and civil matters
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, appellate, innovative advocacy

McDONALD, LAMOND & CANZONERI
 Description: Firm specialized in union representation.
Areas of Specialization: Collective bargaining, workers’ compensation, employee rights
Types of Advocacy: Arbitration, negotiation,  general litigation, union representation

MESSING, RUDAVSKY & WELIKY, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, lobbying, administrative hearings, research and publications

MIYARES AND HARRINGTON LLP
Areas of Specialization: Environment/energy, property/real estate, municipal law
Types of Advocacy: Administrative advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, policy, legislative, research and publications, regulatory reform, civil litigation

NOBLE, WICKERSHAM & HEART, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Environment/ land use law, design and construction law
Types of Advocacy: Contract negotiation, regulation compliance, firm restructuring, litigation, dispute resolution

PETRUCELLY, NORRIS & MINSCH PC
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, employment, discrimination, family law, estate planning, civil rights, consumer, non-profit representation, tenant rights/affordable housing
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, alternative dispute resolution, impact litigation, administrative hearings

POWERS, JODOIN, MARGOLIS & MANTELL LLP
Description: Firm specialized in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Employment agreements, non-competition agreements, wage & hour, workplace harassment, severance, wrongful termination, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, appellate

PYLE ROME EHRENBERG, PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor unions/employees
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

RANKIN & SULTAN
Areas of Specialization: Criminal justice, civil & administrative litigation
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, appellate, post-conviction

ROSS SILVERMAN SNYDER TIETJEN LLP (RSST LAW GROUP)
Description: The firm of eight attorneys focuses on immigration and nationality law.
Areas of Specialization: Asylum, immigration, naturalization
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

SANDULLI GRACE, PC
Description: The firm has ten attorneys who all concentrate in representing unions in labor and employment litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, public sector union law
Types of Advocacy: Administrative hearings, appellate, litigation, arbitration, research and publications

SEEGER WEISS
(See NJ for main listing.)

SEGAL ROITMAN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, ADR, individual cases

SHAPIRO HABER & URMY LLP
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, securities, employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual cases, trial, research and publications

SHAPIRO & TEITELBAUM, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Women’s rights, prisoner, employment/labor, criminal justice, civil rights/civil liberties, environment
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions and appellate, research and publications

LAW PRACTICE OF BETH E. SIMON
 Description: Solo practitioner specializing in special education law.
Areas of Specialization: Special education services for students,
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, general litigation, legal counseling

LAW OFFICE OF MARK D. STERN
Hiring: For students, volunteers are accepted and work-study is available.
Areas of Specialization: Housing, employment/labor, civil rights/civil liberties, multicultural rights, women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases and impact litigation

SUGARMAN AND SUGARMAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, client-based, civil litigation

WADE HOROWITZ LAPOINTE,  LLC
Areas of Specialization: Elder law, LGBTQ+ rights, tax
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, research and publications, document drafting

WHATLEY KALLAS, LLP
(See AL for main listing.)

WHISTLEBLOWER LAW COLLABORATIVE
Areas of Specialization: Criminal, labor, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Dispute resolution, civil litigation, negotiation, trial advocacy

ZALKIND, DUNCAN & BERNSTEIN, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, criminal defense, employment, personal injury, family, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual cases

MICHIGAN

ANTONE, CASAGRANDE & ADWERS, PC
Description: Firm specializing in employment and family-based US immigration law.
Areas of Specialization: Business visas, green cards, work permits, naturalization and citizenship, employer assistance
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation

THE FIERBERG NATIONAL LAW GROUP, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Hazing injury and death, wrongful death and serious personal injury, sexual assault and misconduct, Title IX violations
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, group representation

McKNIGHT, CANZANO, SMITH, RADTKE & BRAULT, PC
Description: Firm specialized in labor and employment firms.
Areas of Specialization: Collective bargaining, contract negotiations, unfair labor practices, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, ERISA, family and medical leave, whistleblower protection
Types of Advocacy: Negotiation, arbitration, complex litigation, class action, group representation, individual representation

MILBERG LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

SALVATORE PRESCOTT PORTER & PORTER, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Employment law, civil rights, white collar criminal defense, investigations, and complex litigation
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation

MINNESOTA

ENGSTROM LEE MCDONOUGH THOMPSON & THOMSON LLC
Description: This firm of 6+ attorneys focuses on corporate and employer wrongdoing.
Areas of Specialization: Retirement, civil rights, employment
Types of Advocacy: Class actions

GREGG M. CORWIN & ASSOCIATES LAW OFFICE, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, constitutional, employment/labor, whistleblowers and women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Administrative hearings, alternative dispute resolution, appellate, impact litigation and individual cases

HAGENS, BERMAN, SOBOL, SHAPIRO, LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

HALUNEN
Description: This firm of 10+ attorneys advocates for employee, whistleblower, and consumer rights.
Areas of Specialization: Employment litigation, employment retaliation, employment discrimination, harassment, consumer class actions, whistleblower representation, consumer fraud, products liability
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, litigation, individual representation, appellate

NICHOLS KASTER
Description: The firm of 14 attorneys focuses on employee and consumer litigation.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule and instead posts opportunities to its website as they arise. However, the firm accepts resumes to keep on file. The firm also accepts several law clerks each summer. Interested candidates for both positions should send their materials to Amy Jorgensen.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, consumer rights, whistleblower/qui tam
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action, investigations
(See also CA.)

MESSINGER & OJILE, PLLP
Areas of Specialization: Family law, real estate, small business, nonprofits, trust and estates
Type of Advocacy: Individual representation

THE PREVIANT LAW FIRM, SC
(See WI for main listing.)

MISSOURI

BENSON & ASSOCIATES
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, constitutional, employment, voting rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation, class actions, appellate

CUNNINGHAM, VOGEL & ROST, P.C.
Description: Firm providing representation exclusively to local governments and related public-oriented interests.
Areas of Specialization: General municipal legal services, municipal bonds, taxation, economic development financing, land use, code drafting, utilities, public employment
Types of Advocacy: Local government litigation, arbitration, legal advising

KEENAN & BHATIA
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, employee discrimination, employee rights, wrongful termination, unemployment compensation appeals
Types of Advocacy: Client-based litigation, negotiation
(See also NY.)

KOREIN TILLERY, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, environment, antitrust, tax
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation, commercial litigation, individual representation, federal and state courts
(See also IL.)

SCHAEFER HALLEEN, LLC
Description: The firm of five attorneys and three of-counsel attorneys represents clients in a wide variety of practice areas.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule for its new attorneys and summer associates. However, interested candidates should contact the firm directly to inquire.
Areas of specialization: Employment, consumer, criminal defense, personal injury, elderly, discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, criminal defense, civil litigation, class actions, contracts

SCHUCHAT, COOK & WERNER
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights/civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Research, publications, civil litigation, individual representation

SEDEY HARPER WESTHOFF PC
Description: Firm specialized in employment law and personal injury.
Areas of Specialization: Workplace discrimination, whistleblower, severance, workplace harassment, wage & hour, auto, truck, and bus accidents, dangerous products, wrongful death
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, general litigation

MONTANA

UPPER SEVEN LAW
Description: The small nonprofit firm of two attorneys focused on government accountability.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular recruitment schedule for full-time or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Election litigation, criminal justice, defamation, government transparency
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual litigation

WADDELL & MAGAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer, government accountability, legal reform, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

NEVADA

THE ARNS LAW FIRM
(See CA for main listing.)

LAW OFFICE OF JON ERIC GARDE & ASSOCIATES
Areas of Specialization: Immigration
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual cases, impact litigation, research

GILBERT EMPLOYMENT LAW
(See MD for main listing.)

MCCRACKEN, STEMERMAN & HOLSBERRY, LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

NEW JERSEY

LAW OFFICES OF HOWARD A. ALTSCHULER
Areas of Specialization: Legal malpractice
Types of Advocacy:  Civil litigation, complex litigation, appellate

DAVID TYKULSKER & ASSOCIATES
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation

THE DWYER LAW FIRM
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights, whistleblowers, sexual harassment, family and medical leave
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation, appellate

JON L. GELMAN, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Workers’ compensation, social security/medicare
Types of Advocacy: Administrative hearings, class actions, individual cases, research/publications

GORLICK, KRAVITZ & LISTHAUS PC
(See NY for main listing.)

LEVY PHILLIPS & KONIGSBERG, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

SCHWARTZ & POSNOCK
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/liberties, criminal
Types of Advocacy: Client-based, individual cases

SEEGER WEISS
Description: Multi-state firm primarily known for multidistrict mass torts and class actions in both state and federal courts.
Areas of Specialization: Drug injury, medical device injury, personal injury, defective products, toxic exposure, environmental pollution, whistleblower claims, securities fraud
Types of Advocacy: Individual and class action litigation

SMITH MULLIN, PC
Description: Small plaintiffs’ firm of four attorneys focused on employment issues.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys or summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, civil rights, discrimination, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, appellate, individual representation

SPEAR WILDERMAN, PC
(See PA for main listing.)

NEW MEXICO 

SONOSKY, CHAMBERS, SACHSE, ENDRESON & PERRY, LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

SUTIN, THAYER & BROWNE, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment, family law, Native American law, injury, education, water law
Types of Advocacy: Corporate and individual litigation, alternative dispute resolution

NEW YORK

DIANA ADAMS LAW AND MEDIATION, PLLC
Description: A boutique firm specialized in family law, working with clients in the LGBTQ+ communities, clients in the polyamory and kink communities, and clients in nontraditional families such as grandparent child guardians or single parents.
Areas of Specialization: Adoption, gamete donation, family agreements, estate and advance planning, conflict resolution and alternative justice
Types of Advocacy: Mediation, collaborative law

ALTERMAN & BOOP, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment, estate planning, housing, police misconduct, whistleblower suits, women’s rights, tenants’ rights
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

BANTLE & LEVY LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, sexual harassment, employee contracts and severance agreements, police brutality, prisoners’ rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual and class action litigation

BELDOCK LEVINE & HOFFMAN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment discrimination, criminal defense, entertainment and intellectual property, securities and commodities
Types of Advocacy: Individual and class action litigation

BERANBAUM MENKEN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, homelessness/housing, civil rights/liberties
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, individual cases

BERNSTEIN LITOWITZ BERGER & GROSSMANN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Securities fraud, employment discrimination, civil rights, shareholder rights, consumer fraud
Types of Advocacy: Individual and class action litigation
(See also CA and LA.)

BLEICHMAR FONTI & AULD LLP
Description: The firm focuses on complex litigation, including the prosecution of securities, corporate governance, antitrust, and consumer actions on behalf of individuals and institutional investors.
Hiring: Interested attorneys should send a resume, transcript, and writing sample to BFAHR@bfalaw.com. Lateral candidates should have at least two years of litigation experience.
Areas of Specialization: Securities, investment-related, corporate governance, antitrust, and consumer
Types of Advocacy: Class actions and individual representations
(See also CA.)

CARY KANE LLP
Description: Union-side labor law and employee benefits firm of ten attorneys located at Herald Square, NYC.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire but does post opportunities as need on the firm’s website. The firm typically hires one summer associate per year (2L or 3L preferred) for a 10-week program. Applications are considered on a rolling basis, usually beginning in September.
Areas of Specialization: Trusts and estates, labor/employment, union representation
Types of Advocacy: Research and publications, legal writing, civil litigation, appellate, alternative dispute resolution, administrative advocacy

CHAITMAN LLP
Description: Firm specializing in commercial litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Commercial law, lender liability, bankruptcy, bank fraud, RICO, professional malpractice
Types of Advocacy: General litigation

COHEN, GOLDSTEIN AND SILPE LLC
Areas of Specialization: Child welfare, domestic issues, family law
Types of Advocacy: Mediation, client-oriented litigation

COHEN, MILSTEIN, SELLERS & TOLL, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

COHEN, WEISS & SIMON LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor law, bankruptcy, employment benefits, international labor law
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, arbitration, mediation, alternative dispute resolution

CONSTANTINE CANNON
Description: International firm specializing in whistleblower and antitrust representations.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire, but always welcomes resumes.
Areas of Specialization: Whistleblower laws, False Claims Act, securities regulations, payment systems, telecommunications, health care, high technology, advertising, airline industry
Types of Advocacy: Whistleblower practice and antitrust law and litigation

CORNFIELD & FELDMAN, LLP
(See IL for main listing.)

COTCHETT, PITRE & McCARTHY
(See CA for main listing.)

CUTI HECKER WANG LLP
Description: Litigation boutique that handles a wide variety of commercial litigation, civil rights and criminal matters.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, labor, housing discrimination, prisoner’s rights, children’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action defense, arbitration, appeals

CYRUS D. MEHTA & PARTNERS, PLLC
Description: Three attorneys representing individuals and corporations in immigration proceedings
Areas of Specialization: Immigration
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, client-based

DONAHUE, GOLDBERG, WEAVER, AND LITTLETON
(See DC for main listing.)

EISNER & DICTOR, PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, civil rights, welfare, women‘s rights
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, arbitration, collective bargaining

EMERY CELLI BRINCKERHOFF & ABADY PC
Description: Currently eighteen lawyers, ECBA is a litigation boutique with a core civil rights practice. The firm also has a general commercial litigation practice that comprises about half of its work.
Hiring: The firm does not regularly hire new attorneys. ECBA accepts applications from 2Ls, typically in the early fall, for positions as summer associates to work primarily in the civil rights practice.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, election law, police brutality, intellectual property, employment discrimination, criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, arbitration, appeals

FRIEDMAN & ANSPACH
Areas of Specialization: Labor law, employment discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, publications

GETMAN SWEENEY & DUNN
Description: Firm specializing in employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Wage and hour, independent contractors
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class actions, general litigation

GETNICK & GETNICK
Areas of Specialization: Qui tam whistleblower cases, anti-fraud, corporate transparency
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

GIBBS LAW GROUP LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

GISKAN SOLOTAROFF & ANDERSON
Description: Small firm that represents employees in employment and civil rights matters, consumers and small businesses in class actions, individuals and small businesses in commercial litigation, and individuals in white-collar criminal defense matters.
Areas of Specialization: Employment law, civil rights, consumer, commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Class action, civil litigation, criminal defense

GLADSTEIN REIF& MEGINNISS LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor, employment, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Legislative work, impact litigation, class action, individual cases

GLANCY PRONGAY & MURRAY LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

GORLICK, KRAVITZ & LISTHAUS PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, ERISA, employee contracts and discrimination, family law, immigration, tenants’ rights, estate and tax law
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, collective bargaining, arbitration
(See also NJ.)

GRANT & EISENHOFER, PA
(See DE for main listing.)

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP
(See WA for main listing.)

AARON HALEGUA, PLLC
Description: Solo practice specializing in employment law and general litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Employment and labor disputes, specialized in Chinese and other immigrants.
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, general litigation, international litigation

THE HOFFINGER FIRM, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Family, property/real estate, tax, trade
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, civil litigation, client-based, individual cases, legal writing, research and publications

HOFMANN & SCHWEITZER
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury/medical malpractice/products liability, maritime law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, research and publications

JOSEPH & KIRSCHENBAUM LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment law, discrimination, whistleblowers
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

KAUFMAN LIEB LEBOWITZ & FRICK
Hiring: Contact the firm directly for potential summer opportunities.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, including police misconduct, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, wrongful convictions, voting rights, education discrimination; commercial litigation
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, civil litigation, individual representation, class action, advising, dispute resolution

KEENAN & BHATIA
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, employee discrimination, employee rights, wrongful termination, unemployment compensation appeals
Types of Advocacy: Client-based litigation, negotiation
(See also MO.)

LAW OFFICES OF NOAH A. KINIGSTEIN
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights law, employment discrimination, criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation

KOEHLER & ISAACS LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, criminal defense, employee discrimination, civil rights, real estate, tenants’ rights, consumer rights, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

KOOB & MAGOOLAGHAN
Description: Specializes in civil rights litigation and other civil matters, primarily prisoner’s rights, employment discrimination and disability rights.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but does post opportunities on its website when they become available. The firm also currently does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/liberties, disability, homelessness/housing, labor/employment, prisoner issues
Types of Advocacy: Class action, client-based, impact litigation, individual cases, research and publications

KREINDLER & KREINDLER
Description: Firm specialized in aviation accident litigation and other complex claims.
Areas of Specialization: Aviation accidents, train, bus and automobile accidents, maritime disasters, mass torts
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, individual representation, group representation, class action
(See also MA, CA.)

LABATON SUCHAROW LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, consumer, criminal, employment, health care
Types of Advocacy: Class action, civil litigation
(See also DE.)

LANSNER & KUBITSCHEK
Areas of Specialization: Children’s rights, civil rights, domestic violence, family law
Types of Advocacy: Appeals, client-oriented litigation, community organizing, class actions

LAW OFFICE OF GERALD LEFCOURT
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

LEVY KONIGSBERG, LLP
Description: This 25+ attorney firm focuses on personal injury and wrongful death litigation, with a specialty in asbestos exposure.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental and drug/pharmaceutical negligence, health fraud, products liability, employment discrimination, medical and legal malpractice, aviation, toxic torts
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual representation, class actions, corporate litigation
(See also CA, GA, NJ.)

LEVY RATNER PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, employee benefits and contracts
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

LICHTEN & BRIGHT, PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, union proceedings

LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

McALLISTER OLIVARIUS
Description: Small international civil litigation firm with offices in the U.S. and U.K.
Hiring: The firm recruits entry-level and mid-career associates and runs summer internship and trainee programs.
Areas of Specialization: Employment, education, online reputation, sexual abuse, family law, commercial
Types of Advocacy: Mediation, arbitration, individual litigation

MEYER, SUOZZI, ENGLISH & KLEIN PC
Description: The 60+ attorney firm works out of four offices and specializes in a variety of practice areas. The firm does accept summer clerks for its offices. Interested students should submit their materials on the website as early as possible.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but does post new opportunities on the website as they become available.
Areas of Specialization: Real estate, land use and environmental compliance, labor and employment law, estate law, personal injury
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, legal counseling, appellate work
(See also DC.)

MILBERG LLP
Areas of Specialization: Insurance, antitrust, healthcare, human rights, labor/employment law, mass torts, shareholder rights
Types of Advocacy: Plaintiff litigation, class actions
(See also CA, FL, MI.)

NEUFELD SCHECK & BRUSTIN, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Police misconduct, wrongful convictions, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, class action

THE OTTINGER FIRM, PC
Description: Represents executives, employees, and management in employment-related matters that may include severance negotiations and discrimination actions.
Areas of Specialization: Racial/ethnic justice/cultural rights, labor/employment, civil rights/liberties, business/economic issues
Types of Advocacy: Legal writing, individual cases, impact litigation, client-based, administrative/management

OUTTEN & GOLDEN LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, whistleblower protection, women’s rights, disability, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual and impact litigation, class actions, appeals, alternative dispute resolution

PHILLIPS & COHEN, LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

PITTA & BAIONE LLP
Areas of Specialization: 9/11 compensation
Types of Advocacy: Individual respresentation

POLLOCK COHEN LLP 
Description: Plaintiffs’ side firm specializing in high impact and public interest litigation
Hiring: The firm welcomes inquiries and applications from prospective associates with 3+ years of litigation experience
Areas of Specialization: Whistleblower (qui tam), impact litigation, appellate, class actions and complex commercial litigation

RABINOWITZ, BOUDIN, STANDARD, KRINSKY & LIEBERMAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: International law, copyright law, labor law, constitutional law, civil rights and civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

RITZ CLARK & BEN-ASHER LLP
Areas of Specialization: Litigation, employment or civil rights law, civil rights, personal injury, women’s rights
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, arbitration, mediation

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP  
(See CA for main listing.)

LAW OFFICES OF JOEL B. RUDIN, P.C.
Description: Firm specialized in criminal defense and civil rights representation.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal investigations, trials and appeals, civil rights violations, police and prosecutorial misconduct
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, general litigation

SANFORD HEISLER SHARP, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment discrimination, labor and wage violations, predatory lending, whistleblower, consumer fraud, Title IX, sexual assault
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, appellate
(See also CA, DC.)

LAW OFFICES OF JIMMY M. SANTOS, PLLC
Description: Firm specialized in civil rights, labor and employment law, and compliance.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, housing discrimination, wage & hour, whistleblower, employment contracts, unfair competition law
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, legal counseling

SCHLAM, STONE & DOLAN LLP
Description: This small firm specializes in tax law and white-collar crimes.
Areas of Specialization: Tax law, criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, legal writing, research and publications

SEEGER WEISS
(See NJ for main listing.)

SLEVIN & HART, PC
(See DC for main listing.)

CLAUDIA SLOVINSKY & ASSOCIATES, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Immigration law
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation

SPIVAK LIPTON LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, pension and employee benefits, unions
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation
(See also CA.)

STULBERG & WALSH LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, public and private sector unions, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

SUSMAN GODFREY LLP
(See TX for main listing.)

TUCKNER, SIPSER, WEINSTOCK & SIPSER, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Women’s labor and employment law, workplace discrimination
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, legal research

VLADECK, RASKIN & CLARK, PC
Areas of Specialization: Labor and employment law, ERISA, constitutional law, civil rights, whistleblower
Types of Advocacy: Arbitration, individual, class action litigation

WEEN & KOZEK
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, real estate litigation, tenants’ rights
Types of Advocacy: Client-oriented litigation, administrative hearings, individual representation

WHATLEY KALLAS, LLP
(See AL for main listing.)

WIGDOR LAW LLP
Description: Firm of twelve lawyers specializing in employment litigation and sexual harassment cases.
Hiring: The firm recruits entry-level associates as well as lateral mid-level and senior attorneys. The firm does not regularly recruit summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual litigation, counseling, internal investigations

WITTELS MCINTURFF PALIKOVIC
Areas of Specialization: Consumer protection, discrimination and wage violations, executive employment matters, personal injury, environmental litigation and mass torts, whistleblowers, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Class action, complex litigation

LAW OFFICES OF BRUCE A. YOUNG
Areas of Specialization: Matrimonial, civil rights of children and families
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases

ZMO LAW PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense and civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

NORTH CAROLINA

FERGUSON, CHAMBERS, & SUMTER, PA
Areas of Specialization: Education, criminal justice, civil rights/civil liberties, employment/labor, government accountability
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, community education, individual cases

KING LAW OFFICES, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Education, criminal, personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability, family
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

KURTZ & BLUM, PLLC
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, personal injury, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, capital defense, immigration, family law
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, appellate, administrative hearings, client-oriented

MARTIN & JONES PLLC
Description: The personal injury lawyers at Martin & Jones represent victims of personal injury.
Areas of Specialization: Workers’ compensation, mesothelioma, lung cancer & asbestos, dangerous and defective products, unfair business & insurance practices, class actions
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class action

PATTERSON & HARKAVY, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights/civil liberties, environment
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases, lobbying

OHIO

BERKMAN, GORDON, MURRAY & DEVAN
Areas of Specialization: Constitutional/civil rights, criminal, medical issues
Types of Advocacy: Criminal and civil litigation

DOLL, JANSEN AND FORD
Description: The firm of three attorneys and one of counsel attorney focuses on individual representation in litigation cases
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule and does not hire summer associates.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Client-based, community organizing, individual cases, civil litigation

FAULKNER, HOFFMAN & PHILLIPS, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Labor negotiation, representation

FRANKLIN & GREENFIELD, LLC
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases

GERHARDSTEIN & BRANCH CO. LPA
Areas of specialization: Civil rights, discrimination, police misconduct, reproductive freedom, prison rights
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

IMMIGRANT LAW GROUP PC
Description: Firm of human rights lawyers focused on defending immigrants and their families.
Areas of Specialization: Deportation defense, family reunification, access to benefits and rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, impact litigation, social organizing, community education

LEVI MERRITHEW HORST
Description: Boutique law firm specializing in criminal defense, civil rights, and juvenile law.
Areas of Specialization: Criminal defense, civil rights, juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, civil litigation

MAURER LAW LLC
Description: Firm specializing in student loan law and policy.
Areas of Specialization: Student loans, bankruptcy, housing, consumer law, community organizations
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, client-based, legal advising

McKANNA, BISHOP, JOFFE & ARMS LLP
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: impact litigation, individual cases, research and publications, training

MORGAN VERKAMP
Description: A group of ten lawyers specializing in fraud and whistleblower retaliation cases across various practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Pharmaceuticals, healthcare, medical devices, SEC and CFTC fraud, whistleblower retaliation
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, appellate, individual representation

MUSKOVITZ & LEMMERBROCK, LLC
Description: Small firm that mainly represents labor unions.
Areas of Specialization: Employment and labor law
Types of Advocacy: Alternative dispute resolution, class action, impact litigation, client-based 

SCHWARZWALD, MCNAIR & FUSCO, LLP
Description: Firm specialized in representing unions, employees, and benefit funds.
Areas of Specialization: Union side labor law, employee rights, ERISA, wage & hour, workplace discrimination, individual contracts
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, union representation, general litigation, negotiation

OKLAHOMA

MIGLIACCIO & RATHOD LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

OREGON

PAULSON COLETTI TRIAL ATTORNEYS PC
Areas of Specialization: Personal Injury
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation

PENNSYLVANIA

BERGER & MONTAGUE, PC
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, human rights, antitrust, environmental
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, complex litigation

LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. BERNEY
Description: Firm specialized in civil rights cases, particularly education and employment law.
Areas of Specialization: Special education, student discrimination, employment discrimination, Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, group representation, appellate

COHEN LAW GROUP
Areas of Specialization: Communications, municipal law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, research, publications, individual representation

COHEN, MILSTEIN, SELLERS, & TOLL, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

ELLIOTT GREENLEAF
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, health care, medical
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation
(See also DE.)

HAUSFELD LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

KAIRYS, RUDOVSKY, MESSING, FEINBERG & LIN, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/ civil liberties, constitution, criminal, disability, family
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, research and publications

KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP
Description: This 80+ attorney firm focuses on complex class action lawsuits with a specialization in shareholder, ERISA, consumer and antitrust litigation.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, anti-trust
Types of Advocacy: Class action
(See also CA.)

THE LAW OFFICE OF FABIAN LIMA
Description: Solo practitioner specialized in criminal defense and immigration matters.
Areas of Specialization: Green cards, removal/deportation defense, visas, naturalization and citizenship, asylum, DACA, DAPA, criminal defense
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, appellate, individual representation

O’DONOGHUE & O’DONOGHUE LLP
(See DC for main listing.)

ROBBINS GELLER RUDMAN & DOWD LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

SEEGER WEISS
(See NJ for main listing.)

SPEAR WILDERMAN, PC
Areas of Specialization: Criminal, consumer, employment/labor, family
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, arbitration, employee contracts, litigation
(See also NJ.)

STEVEN L. SUGARMAN & ASSOCIATES
Description: Five attorneys specializing in litigation and planning in the public interest field
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, employment discrimination, environmental law, housing, consumer issues
Types of Advocacy: Administrative advocacy, community organizing, impact litigation, individual cases, transactional

RHODE ISLAND

CHISHOLM CHISHOLM & KILPATRICK LTD
Description: Firm specializing in litigating cases on behalf of disabled veterans.
Areas of Specialization: Veterans’ benefits, personal injury, wrongful death, disability insurance, ERISA claims, life insurance, commercial and contract disputes
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation

GURSKY|WIENS ATTORNEYS AT LAW, LTD.
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor, civil rights/civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, individual cases 

LAW OFFICE OF ROBERT B. MANN
Areas of Specialization: Criminal justice, civil rights/civil liberties, indigent clients
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class actions, appellate

McINTYRE & TATE, LLP
Areas of Specialization: Family, commercial, trusts and estates, personal injury, medical, consumer

TENNESSEE

BARRETT JOHNSTON
Description: The firm has six attorneys across multiple practices and areas of specialization, with a particular focus on civil rights and labor/employment.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, labor & employment, wage & overtime, whistleblower & qui tam litigation
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual representation, litigation, client-based

THE LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. DAVIES, PLLC
(See AR for main listing.) 

LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

LOONEY, LOONEY AND CHADWELL, PLLC
Description: Firm providing general legal services in all state and federal courts in Tennessee.
Areas of Specialization: Business disputes and litigation, criminal defense, family law, personal injury, estate administration
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, individual and group representation

PROVOST & UMPHREY LLP
(See TX for main listing.)

RENO & CAVANAUGH, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

SANFORD HEISLER SHARP, LLP
(See NY for main listing.)

SEARCY, DENNEY, SCAROLA, BARNHART, & SHIPLEY, PA
(See FL for main listing.)

TEXAS

BARON & BUDD, PC
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, environment
Types of Advocacy: Appellate, individual representation, litigation, legal services division
(See also NY, LA.)

CADDELL & CHAPMAN
Description: Six attorneys who focus on a variety of issue areas both in Texas and across the country
Areas of Specialization: Consumer protection and class actions, complex business litigation, personal injury and wrongful death law suits, and environmental law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, class action, individual cases, client-based

DANIEL & BESHARA, PC
Description: Small civil rights law firm focused on housing discrimination.
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights, housing, poverty law
Types of Advocacy: Class action, enforcement, impact litigation, innovative advocacy

ELLWANGER LAW
Description: The firm focuses on representing employees in individual and class-wide civil rights, discrimination and harassment cases.
Areas of Specialization: Employment discrimination, equal pay, civil rights
Types of Advocacy: Individual representation, class actions, arbitration

GONZALEZ OLIVIERI LLC
Description: Firm of four attorneys specializing in immigration law cases.
Areas of Specialization: Removal defense, citizenship and naturalization, visa issues
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, appellate, individual representation

KATOR, PARKS, WEISER & HARRIS, PLLC
(See DC for main listing.)

PROVOST & UMPHREY LLP
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, consumer, employment, environmental, securities
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, class action
(See also TN, AR.)

SCHNEIDER WALLACE COTTRELL KONECKY LLP
(See CA for main listing.)

SUSMAN GODFREY LLP
Areas of Specialization: Anti- trust, commercial
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, arbitration, individual representation
(See also CA, NY, WA.)

THE YOUNGDAHL LAW FIRM, PC
Areas of Specialization: Employment/labor
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases and administrative hearings 

VERMONT

BCK LAW, PC 
(See MA for main listing.)

LANGROCK, SPERRY & WOOL, LLP 
Description: With 26 attorneys, the firm is one of the largest in the state of Vermont. The group focuses on a large variety of practice areas.
Hiring: The firm does not hire new attorneys on any set schedule but is interested in receiving resumes from well-qualified candidates. The firm does hire summer associates (1Ls and 2Ls) for both of its offices. More information for both processes is available on the firm’s website.
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties, criminal, education, employment/labor, environment, family, education, estate planning
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, hearings, transactions, criminal defense

RUBIN, KIDNEY, MYER & VINCENT 
Areas of Specialization: Criminal justice, family law
Types of Advocacy: Civil litigation, individual representation

VIRGINIA

VICTOR M. GLASBERG & ASSOCIATES 
Areas of Specialization: Civil liberties, labor/employment
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, impact litigation

WASHINGTON

BRICKLIN & NEWMAN, LLP  
Description: The firm’s four attorneys focus on environmental law as well as Native American issues.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental, land use, Native American law.
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, administrative advocacy, individual clients

CASCADIA LAW GROUP 
Description: The firm specializes in litigation and regulatory matters spanning environmental, land use, and natural resource issues.
Areas of Specialization: Air quality, endangered species, energy, Federal Indian Law, insurance, permitting & environmental review, waste management, water quality
Types of Advocacy: Complex litigation, negotiation, mediation, client-based, appellate 

FRANK, FREED, SUBIT & THOMAS LLP 
Description: The firm’s seven attorneys focus on employment and union-side litigation on behalf of plaintiffs.
Areas of Specialization: Labor/employment, government accountability, legal reform, whistleblowers, civil liberties
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, class action, civil litigation, appellate, administrative advocacy

FRIEDMAN RUBIN 
Description: The firm of 10+ in-house attorneys specializes in arguing cases in jury verdicts in a variety of practice areas.
Areas of Specialization: Insurance claims, personal injury, malpractice, labor/employment, aviation, commercial litigation
Types of Advocacy: Class action, individual cases, impact litigation.
(See also AK.) 

HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL & SHAPIRO LLP 
Description: This 50+ attorney national firm has many practice areas but specializes in multi-party, large-scale complex litigation on behalf of individuals and investors.
Hiring: The firm does not have a regular hiring schedule but does post opportunities on the firm website as they become available.
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, employment/labor, environmental, securities, antitrust, whistleblower, personal injury, intellectual property
Types of Advocacy: Impact litigation, class actions, complex litigation, publications
(See also AZ, CA, CO, DC, IL, MA and MN.)

LANDERHOLM LAW OFFICE
Description: Law firm specializing in business and employment issues.
Areas of specialization: Employment, personal injury, property rights, tax, workers’ compensation
Types of advocacy: General litigation, individual representation, client-based 

MACDONALD, HOAGUE & BAYLESS 
Areas of Specialization: Death penalty, civil rights/civil liberties, economic development, immigration
Types of Advocacy: Individual cases, civil litigation

PAULSON COLETTI TRIAL ATTORNEYS PC
(See OR for main listing.)

PLATT AND BUESCHER ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Areas of Specialization: Civil rights/civil liberties, constitutional, criminal justice, criminal justice policy, family law, public defense
Types of Advocacy: Innovative advocacy, individual cases

ROBBLEE DETWILER PLLP 
Description: Firm specialized in the representation of unions.
Areas of Specialization: Labor law (organizing, picketing, strikes, NLRB matters), internal union administration, collective bargaining, contract administration, wage & hour
Types of Advocacy: Defense litigation, arbitration, union representation

SCHROETER, GOLDMARK & BENDER 
Areas of Specialization: Consumer, criminal, employment/labor, environment, Social Security, sexual violence
Types of Advocacy: Class actions, individual cases, negotiation, trial advocacy

SMITH & LOWNEY, PLLC
Description: The firm specializes in environmental issues and related government and corporate accountability cases.
Areas of Specialization: Environmental law enforcement and land use, species and habitat preservation, consumer protection and class actions, corporate accountability, community activism, citizen initiatives, and much more
Types of Advocacy: Litigation, legal/political/grassroots strategy advisory, class actions 

SUSMAN GODFREY LLP 
(See TX for main listing.)

WISCONSIN

MINER, BARNHILL & GALLAND, PC 
(See IL for main listing.)

THE PREVIANT LAW FIRM, SC 
Description: Milwaukee-based firm specializing in personal injury, employment law, and workers’ compensation.
Areas of Specialization: Personal injury, negligence, worker compensation, wage & hour, family and medical leave
Types of Advocacy: General litigation, individual and group representation, appellate