Yale Law School
Yale University
Yale Law School
P.O. Box
208215
New Haven, CT 06520
www.law.yale.edu
Law School Pro Bono
Programs
Contact Information
Sheila N. HayrePublic Interest Advisor & Mentor in Residence
Yale Law School
Tel: 203-436-9297
Fax: 203-432-7362
Robyn Acampora
Pro Bono and Information Manager
Yale Law School
Career Development Office
Tel: 203-432-7224
Fax: 203-432-8423
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by Administrative
Support for In-house and Collaborative Group Projects
Description of Programs
The Pro Bono Network is administered through the Career Development Office, see http://www.law.yale.edu/stuorgs/4926.htm for more information. Additional information about the Liman Program can be found at www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/ArthurLimanPIFellowship&fund.htm
Location of Programs
The Pro Bono Network is administered through the Career Development Office, see http://www.law.yale.edu/stuorgs/4926.htm for more information. Additional information about the Liman Program can be found at www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/ArthurLimanPIFellowship&fund.htm
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The Public Interest Advisor provides counseling to YLS students interested in public interest opportunities. Including public interest fellowships. The Pro Bono Coordinator is a position in the Career Development Office. The Liman Director is a full-time employee of the law school and has responsibility for all Liman programs. The Schell Center Director and Fellow provide assistance as needed to the Lowenstein Project.
Funding
The Liman Program pro bono efforts, the Pro Bono Network, and the Lowenstein Project are funded through the general law school budget. The law school provides office space, computers, and student organization funding to the student groups that do pro bono work. Faculty members who are engaged in pro bono work that overlaps with their faculty activities may use the resources of the law school to support their efforts.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education
Projects
Groups Providing Direct Pro Bono Assistance
- Allard K. Lowenstein Human Rights Project -Students get direct experience in human rights legal work beginning in their first semester through the Lowenstein International Human Rights Project. A student-run organization, the Lowenstein Project matches volunteers with attorneys at non-profit organizations engaged in international human rights. The students are assigned a project-from a wide range of opportunities, including assisting with pending litigation, doing policy-related research, and drafting training material - and work in teams under the supervision of the attorney. Students hone their legal skills while making a direct contribution to human rights work internationally.
- Capital Assistance Project (CAP) matches law students interested in capital work with people on death row and lawyers in need of substantive legal support. Students research legal topics, write motions, petitions, and briefs, and conduct some investigative work to assist with capital defense cases. CAP also works to raise student awareness about the death penalty by sponsoring lectures, panels, and workshops.
- The Temporary Restraining Order Project is one of the largest student organizations at the Yale Law School. Students in the project volunteer to staff an office at the New Haven courthouse which provides assistance to individuals seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO). Thanks to the dedication of student volunteers, the office is open five days a week for the full hours of operation of the courthouse.
- Yale Environmental Law Association (YELA)sponsors activities to promote heightened awareness and action on important issues in environmental law and policy. Activities include organizing talks, debates, and informal student discussions on current issues; assisting in multi-school research initiatives (such as efforts to investigate the environmental records of judicial nominees); presenting an annual panel on careers in environmental law and policy; raising awareness of, and organizing campaigns to reduce, the law school's environmental impact; and educating the law school community about environmental issues.
- Street Law Members of YLS Street Law endeavor to empower New Haven's minority youth through legal education in a way that is accessible and engaging. The group is conscious of the ongoing battle for civil rights being waged in public schools and hopes that it positively contributes to the fight for social justice. Street Law's three goals are to encourage critical thinking and social awareness in New Haven public school students, to provide support to New Haven public school teachers and to interact with the community in which we live. To meet these goals, the group established partnerships with local schools, matching law students with classroom teachers. Street Law teachers worked in the same classroom over the course of the semester, teaching weekly, hour-long lessons. The lessons were designed to be interactive, informative and challenging. Street Law works to enable students to think critically about the legal systems in place. Whether they decide that the systems are just or unjust matters less than whether they can articulate support for their position.
- The Yale Law Workers' Rights Project (WRP) is dedicated to protecting and expanding the rights of all workers, with a particular focus on low wage workers in New Haven and around the world. The group works to provide legal assistance and other support for YLS workers on the Yale campus. Other projects include legal research for nonprofit groups on a variety of projects such as creation of living wage laws, and becoming involved with issues of labor and the global economy.
- Green Haven Prison Project functions on two basic premises: 1) that those who aspire to work in the field of law, and those whose lives are most intimately impacted by those laws, have much to learn from each other and 2) that all law students should visit a prison at least once. Every two weeks, Yale law students and Green Haven prisoners met and shared their knowledge, thoughts and experiences through discussions on wide-ranging and sometimes controversial subjects. The exchange continues a tradition between the law school and the prison which is over 30 years long; one of helping break down the barriers of communication between the prisoners and the outside world. There are many regular participants who attend every session and then there are some who are only able to drop-in on one or two sessions a year. The continuing dialogue is both frank and challenging, for everyone involved.
- OutLaws is an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members of the law school community. The goal of OutLaws is to educate the Yale Law School community and beyond about legal issues affecting LGBT persons. Outlaws members have also become involved in litigation affecting the rights of LGBT individuals, such as drafting an amicus brief to the Supreme Court for Lawrence v. Texas challenging Texas' sodomy law and bringing suit against the Solomon Amendment.
- Student/Faculty Alliance for Military Equality (SAME) was formed in 2002 to combat threats to Yale Law School's nondiscrimination policy, promoting equal treatment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. SAME's broader goal is education and activism on nondiscrimination policies at other schools, and on the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Yale Law School's nondiscrimination policy, which includes protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, has been in place at Yale since 1978. Because of this policy, military recruiters, subject to the government's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, were not allowed to participate in the school-sponsored student interview programs. In 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) threatened to withhold over $300 million in federal funds from Yale University's other schools unless the law school's nondiscrimination policy was suspended. When the law school temporarily suspended the policy for the U.S. military, SAME staged protests at each official interview program, sponsored panel discussions, distributed information to employers and law students at other schools, and worked with lawyers and lobbyists in public interest organizations on the issue
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
There is no formal faculty pro bono policy.
Awards/Recognition
The work of the student groups is reported in the annual publication, YLS in the Public Service, and celebrated at the Annual Public Service Reception. Both the book and reception serve to document and celebrate the service the law school community accomplished this year. An important part of both is to honor one student organization and one clinic that have performed especially noteworthy public service. This selection is based on student nominations and votes, which the Student Representatives administered on behalf of the Career Development Office.
Community Service
Black Law Students Association (BLSA) is committed to fostering an active social, political and academic community of Black students at the Law School. We are also dedicated to making substantial contributions to our Community by planning BLSA-specific service activities and by encouraging individual BLSA members to volunteer their time and talents to wide-ranging community service initiatives. Individual BLSA members have worked with students at Elm City Prep as tutors and mentors, traveled to New Orleans to support Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts, and raised money for countless other service initiatives.
The Latino/a Law Students Association (LLSA) unites YLS's Latino/a students in a social, civic, political, and educational community. LLSA is committed not only to strengthening the presence of Latinos on campus but also to interacting with and contributing to the New Haven/Fair Haven Latino community. LLSA's members dedicate their time to the New Haven and Fair Haven Latino community. LLSA members volunteer at a local soup kitchen and partner with JUNTA Progressive Action, a non-profit organization that serves the legal and educational needs of the Latino community. Several members regularly mentor and teach Latino juvenile offenders at Project APOYO.
New Haven Cares has grown into a community-centered organization that administers an innovative voucher program targeting issues of hunger, homelessness, and panhandling. Almost $20,000 in New Haven Cares vouchers is distributed every year. Members of the New Haven community purchase vouchers and give them to panhandling individuals instead of cash. Additionally, over three dozen nonprofit organizations in the New Haven area distribute vouchers to the individuals they serve. New Haven Cares vouchers are accepted as payment by many merchants in downtown New Haven. Recipients of vouchers can redeem them for food, clothing, and other goods.
Women and Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE) is a mentoring program in which law school mentors are paired with female high school students from New Haven public schools. The Yale Law School WYSE chapter was founded in 1998 as an expansion of the WYSE national program, which pairs junior high mentees with undergraduate mentors.
YIPPIE! (Yale Incentive Program for Public Interest Employment) supports summer public interest work by helping students working in those fields with their financial needs. YIPPIE! also draws together the entire Law School community through participation in fun events that serve to advance Yale Law's public interest mission. YIPPIE! coordinated a number of fundraising events.
The mission of Yale Law Women (YLW) is to promote the interests of women within and outside of the law school. YLW devotes its resources to fostering discussion and debate of women's and gender issues, broadly defined; to the support, professional development, and recognition of women within the law school community; and to advocacy for and in service of women's interests in our broader community. To further these purposes, YLW organizes a number of events to serve our public, acknowledging the multiplicity of ways in which law, gender, and social issues interact.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Sheila N. Hayre Public Interest Advisor & Mentor in Residence
Yale Law School
Tel: 203-436-9297
Fax: 203-432-7362
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Public Interest Centers
There are three centers at Yale Law School that focus on public interest work.
Arthur Liman Public Interest Program
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program provides fellowships for graduates to work full-time in the public interest for one year, as well as modest grants to legal service organizations under the auspices of the Liman Fund. It also co-sponsors the Public Interest Reading Group during the fall semester. Finally, student associates of the Liman Program work with current and former Liman Fellows on various research projects arising from the fellows' work. The Liman Program also holds an annual public interest law colloquium during the spring semester. Information about the Liman Program is available on its web site at http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/ArthurLimanPIFellowship&Fund.htm
Schell Center for International Human Rights
Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights coordinates a diverse program of human rights activities-from lectures and conferences to the Human Rights Workshop, a weekly gathering of students, scholars, and practitioners in the field of human rights. In addition, the center administers several human rights fellowships for students and recent graduates. The Schell Center is directed by Jim Silk, who can be reached at james.silk@yale.edu. Information on the Schell Center is available on its website at www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/schellcenter.htm.
The China Law Center
The China Law Center seeks to increase understanding of China's legal system outside of China and to support the legal reform process within China. To these ends the Center carries out research and teaching, promotes academic exchanges with China, and undertakes cooperative projects with legal experts in China on important legal reform issues. The Center's current activities focus on the areas of judicial reform, criminal law, administrative law, regulatory reform, and legal education. Project activities include research visits to Yale and to China, workshops and seminars in the United States and China, and publications. Yale Law School students are encouraged to participate in the work of the Center. For information, contact 436-0517 or email china.law@yale.edu, or look at the Center's website at www.yale.edu/chinalaw.
Public Interest Clinics
Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization
The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization (LSO) provides legal representation to individuals and organizations who cannot afford private attorneys. Students, supervised by law school faculty members and participating attorneys, interview clients, write briefs, prepare witnesses, try cases, negotiate settlements, draft legislation, draft documents, represent organizations and argue appeals in state and federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Connecticut Supreme Court.
All LSO projects involve close collaboration among new students, experienced students and supervising clinical faculty. Investigating, developing and using facts are essential elements of lawyering and, therefore, of LSO’s work. LSO also devotes special attention to ethical issues of professional responsibility and client-centered lawyering. Cases brought by LSO and its legislative efforts have helped make new law protecting the rights of clients in the various projects.
Advocacy for Children and Youth Clinic Community and Economic DevelopmentComplex Federal Litigation Clinic
Domestic Violence Clinic
Criminal Defense Project
Education Adequacy Project
Immigration Legal Services Clinic
Landlord/Tenant Clinic
Lawyering Ethics
Legislative Advocacy
Legal Services for Immigrant Communities Clinic
Prison Legal Services Clinic
Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic
Other Law School Clinics
Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic
Balancing Civil Liberties and National Securities after September 11
Environmental Protection Clinic
Nonprofit Organizations Clinic
Externships/Internships
Prosecution Externship. Students in this clinical externship will assist state or federal prosecutors with their responsibilities, both before and at trial. Placements are available in New Haven and surrounding cities and in a variety of fields, including misdemeanors, felonies, or specialized areas such as career criminal, traffic, or appellate work. Weekly sessions will range from discussions of assigned readings to field trips to prisons, police laboratories, etc. Students will be required to keep journals and time records. Placements at the U.S. Attorney's Office must be arranged at least four months in advance, to allow time for security clearance procedures. Applications and interviews for the State's Attorney placements will take place during the first week of the term. Although enrollment is limited and permission of the instructor is required, timing and the involvement of outside agencies remove this clinic from the usual sign-up process for limited enrollment courses.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Yale provides many opportunities for students to initiate their own independent research and study. Through the student-organized research and legislative drafting seminar, students can submit a proposal for such seminars and, if approved, receive credit. In addition, students may receive credit for independent study with the approval of a faculty sponsor.The International Law and Development Workshop provides some students with an opportunity to follow up their semester coursework with a variety of real-world legal projects in Northeast Africa.
Public Interest Journals
- Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal
- Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics
- Yale Journal of International Law
- Yale Journal of Law and Feminism
- Yale Law & Policy Review
- Yale Journal on Regulation
- Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities
Public Interest Career Support Center
The Career Development Office at Yale Law School (CDO) maintains a focus on public service careers and pro bono work through programming, counseling, and resources, and employs a full-time counselor dedicated to this area. Each year, CDO conducts over 40 educational and mentoring programs regarding public interest work, sponsors several recruitment events involving service opportunities, and produces many service manuals and other resource materials.
Our public service manuals include:
Criminal ProsecutionEnvironmental Law
Public Interest Fellowships
U.S. Attorneys' Offices
International Public Interest Law
Public Interest Careers
Working on Capitol Hill
More information about CDO, its programs, and its resources is available at www.law.yale.edu/cdo. The Executive Director of the Career Development Office is Kelly Voight, kelly.voight@yale.edu.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
The Career Options Assistance Program (COAP) allows students to choose public service after graduation by paying all or a portion of their academic loans. COAP provides full loan repayment to any and all graduates who are earning less than $60,000 a year (more with deductions) and partial repayment for those with salaries quite a bit higher. COAP paid over $2.4 million to almost 300 graduates in 2008 and has given over $24 million since its inception in 1988.
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Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Heyman Federal Public Service Fellowship Program
Supports recent Yale Law graduates who wish to work closely with high- level leaders in the federal government for one year, either through an existing position or through a “special assistantship.” The fellowship allows alumni to explore careers in public service and to bring creative, entrepreneurial ideas to the federal government. Two to three fellowships will be awarded each year for fellows to work in the executive or possibly legislative branch of the United States federal government. Positions that will not be considered include judicial clerkships, entry-level positions, and work for political campaigns.
International Court of Justice Internship/Clerkship
The International Court of Justice at The Hague makes available a nine-month internship/clerkship position that is funded by the Law School. The position is open to J.D.s, L.L.M.s, J.S.D.s within five years of their graduation; since the inception of the program for the 2002-03 term, LL.M. graduates have served every term except 2008-09. Candidates must be fluent in at least one of the ICJ’s official languages, English or French, and a good working knowledge of the other is helpful.
Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship
Supports one year of full-time work in the U.S. in a law-related endeavor designed to further public interest, generally under the sponsorship of an existing organization or possibly through a start-up project. Open to all graduates of the law school, regardless of graduation year. Funding: $44,000.
Mary A. McCarthy Fellowships in Public Interest Law
Supports public interest law projects, especially in mediation and the rights of immigrants, prisoners, criminal defendants, and women. Work products have ranged from legal briefs and evidence gathered in support of litigation to articles in national journals, informational pamphlets, and videos. Applications must be submitted while you are a student.
Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights
The Robert L. Bernstein Fellowships in International Human Rights Bernstein Fellows may work anywhere in the world. Applicants are encouraged to create projects with appropriate organizations, but independent projects will also be considered. The fellowship is intended to foster innovative approaches to human rights advocacy or to promote work on important human rights issues that have received relatively little attention.
YLS Fellowship at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague)
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague was established to facilitate dispute resolution between states, state entities, intergovernmental organizations, and private parties. All Fellows will have significant drafting and research responsibilities. Fellows will also organize and observe hearings and deliberations, help negotiate and resolve issues among arbitrators, and work directly with the Secretary General to promote the PCA. The position is open to J.D.s and LL.M.s in their final year, as well as J.S.D.s and recent graduates.
YLS Public Interest Fellowships
This additional fellowship program supports recent Yale Law School graduates for one year of full-time public interest work, with the possibility in limited circumstances of extended funding for up to an additional year. The proposed plan for the fellowship year must be one of the following: 1) legal project designed by applicant in partnership with a sponsoring organization; 2) existing project with a host organization; 3) staff attorney at a public interest organization; or 4) unpaid foreign or international court clerkship or international prosecution internship. Qualified applicants will be selected on a rolling basis.
Robert M. Cover Fellowship
Yale Law School’s Robert M. Cover Fellowship Program offers post-graduate fellowships to experienced attorneys interested in clinical law teaching. The Cover Fellowship Program seeks to attract lawyers with at least five years of practice (or equivalent experience). Each fellowship starts during the summer and lasts for two years.
San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project Fellowship
The Yale Law School’s San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project (SFALP) and Robert M. Cover Fellowship Program offer a post-graduate fellowship for lawyers who are interested in a long-term career in law school clinical teaching or public lawyering. The Fellowship starts during the summer and lasts for one year. Fellowship responsibilities include running the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project at Yale Law School, co-teaching a seminar on local government law with Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken, supervising student work, and working directly with the San Francisco City Attorney's Affirmative Litigation Task Force on related litigation.
Graduate Student Funded:
Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale, Inc.
This student organization funds and supports innovative public interest law projects to protect the legal rights of inadequately represented groups or interests. Proposed projects should be new; they can be designed in conjunction with an organization as long as they are not simply funding requests for the ongoing work of an existing organization.
Other Funding Sources:
TRI PI- Travel Reimbursement for Interviews in the Public Interest - The Law School will now cover reasonable travel expenses, up to $400, for travel to a post-graduate public interest fellowship interview. Students need to speak with the Career Development Office for guidelines.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded: The Summer Public Interest Fellowship Program provides up to $500 a week for up to 12 weeks to every student who needs this financial support to pursue a public interest job in the summer. In the summer of 2008, we provided fellowships for 122 students. The Schell Center for International Human Rights also provides Kirby Simon Summer Human Rights Fellowships, which combine SPIF living stipends with a travel grant to support summer work in international human rights. During the summer of 2008, the Schell Center funded thirty-nine Kirby Simon Summer Fellows. The Mary McCarthy Fellowships provide funding for students’ summer or brief post-graduate work in the public interest.
Graduate Student Funded:
YIPPIE! (Yale Incentive Program for Public Interest Employment) supports summer public interest work by helping students working in those fields with their financial needs. YIPPIE! also draws together the entire Law School community through participation in fun events that serve to advance Yale Law's public interest mission. YIPPIE! coordinated a number of fundraising events this year.
Other Funding Sources:
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Rebellious Lawyering Conference
The Rebellious Lawyering Conference, known as "Reblaw," brings together practitioners, law students, community activists/advocates and academics from around the country to discuss innovative practices for achieving progressive social change. The conference has become a revered tradition not only for Yale's active public interest community, but also for progressive lawyers and law students around North America. The Rebellious Lawyering Conference draws on the talents and ideas of the entire law school. Students serve as co-directors of the conference, a number of volunteers helped with logistics, and over 30 students serve as panel and workshop coordinators, responsible for inviting and communicating with speakers, as well as moderating the panels at the conference. Dozens of other Yale students volunteer to house the visiting attendees.
The goal of the conference is always to inspire law students to think critically about their legal careers and to inspire innovation in public interest advocacy. The hope is that the conference will translate into a lifelong commitment on the part of the attendees to work tirelessly to make a difference in the world.
Student Public Interest Groups
- Black Law Students Association
- The Capital Assistance Project
- Green Haven Prison Project
- The Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale, Inc.
- Latino Law Students Association
- New Haven Cares
- OutLaws
- Pro Bono Network
- Rebellious Lawyering Conference
- Street Law
- Student/Faculty Alliance for Military Equality
- Temporary Restraining Order Project
- Women and Youth Supporting Each Other
- Workers' Rights Project
- Yale AIDS Network
- Yale Incentive for Public Interest Employment
- Yale Law Women
- Yale Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Youth Rights Media
