Thinking of applying for a U.S. Department of Justice Volunteer Legal Internship? Our application guide is now updated for this year's application cycle.

Read the 2023 OPIA Insider’s Guide to the U.S. Department of Justice Volunteer Legal Internship Application Process.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Public Service Venture Fund, which serves to support HLS graduates’ public interest careers and amplify the impact of their work. Read more about the PSVF, its history, and how some alumni are using PSVF funds to build a better world.

All 2L and 3L students considering or planning to apply for clerkships for the 2024 cycle can now refer to HLS’s updated 2023 anecdotal list of judges with a public interest focus when researching potential clerkship options. Note that this version has been significantly expanded to include federal circuit and district judges confirmed in the last year, as well as additional federal magistrate and state court judges. The updated list can be accessed here.

Student Government's Public Interest Committee and the Law and Social Change Program are coordinating a peer-to-peer mentoring program for public interest students! 1Ls will be matched with more experienced students who have similar public interest career aspirations to share advice/resources/frustrations. The program will have a budget for mentors and mentees to get coffee or pastries, and will also be coordinating small group meetings with HLS professors in each interest area. Please sign up if you are interested in being a mentor or mentee! The program is open to all kinds of public interest students, including students who are going to firms upon graduation but hoping to transition later in their careers.

As you may have heard, beginning this September, HLS will institute a new orientation session for returning 2L students designed to help you reconnect with classmates, reflect on what you have learned in your first year and first summer as a law student, and look ahead to your future career. HLS will offer the three-hour orientation program on three different afternoons: Thursday, September 28; Friday, September 29; and Sunday, October 1, and you will be asked to choose the session that works best for you.

Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) (HLS JD 1980) will be making a virtual visit to Professor Howell Jackson’s Federal Budget Policy class on Tuesday, November 22nd, from 9 to 10 am in WCC 2009. Students not enrolled in the course are welcome to sit in on the session. 

A few plaintiffs’ firms and several litigation boutiques participate in EIP, but most plaintiffs’ firms and private public interest law firms (PPILFs) do not participate in campus recruiting programs like EIP or V-PIIP. Learn more about how the hiring processes differ with these types of firms.

All HLS students who are receiving SPIF funding and will traveling abroad this summer, including international students returning to their home countries, must fulfill several pre-travel requirements prior to departing the U.S. If you have any questions, email International Legal Studies.

"I have never worried about the 'perfect path'."

"I could never have anticipated that I would end up doing what I do now."

"I had no problem getting interviews."

"Make space for an unplanned journey."

"There is no wrong path--only a wealth of choices."

"Your first job is not necessarily your final job!"

"I felt a bit insecure because my path didn't align with what I expected or what I saw others doing."

"I was concerned that my experience was too narrow."

"I expect to have more shifts in my career down the line."

"Very few paths are linear, and often the most fun experiences are those you weren't counting on."

"Embrace uncertainty and appreciate the unconventional path."

"I couldn't have predicted most of this."

"I could not have predicted where I would be now."