Legal Fellow (Externally Funded) Fall 2026

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CALL FOR APPLICANTS FOR FELLOW SPONSORSHIP – ACLU OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

The American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU-DC) seeks a law student or recent law school graduate to sponsor as an Equal Justice Works, Justice Catalyst, Soros, or other externally-funded (including law school funded) public service fellowship candidate for the fall 2025 application process. The fellowship itself would begin in fall 2026, so the applicant must graduate no later than summer 2026. The ACLU-DC has been successful in the past in hosting legal fellows with externally-funded public service fellowships.  

The ACLU-DC is an affiliate office of the American Civil Liberties Union, a national nonprofit organization devoted to the protection of civil liberties and civil rights through litigation, legislation, organizing, and public education. The ACLU-DC works primarily on issues that directly impact people who live in, work in, and visit the District of Columbia, and also on challenges to certain federal government policies and practices where they fall within the jurisdiction of the D.C. federal courts.  

Among the matters currently on our docket are: representing Black Lives Matter-DC and individual activists in challenging the attack by federal and local law enforcement on civil rights demonstrators in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020; a challenge to the D.C. government’s practice of warehousing children who have been adjudicated delinquent in a jail-like detention facility instead of promptly transferring them to the rehabilitative placements to which they are entitled by law; a lawsuit seeking to reform the District’s practice of sending police and not trained mental health professionals to respond to individuals experiencing mental health crises; the representation of two D.C. agency workers who faced discrimination based on their family responsibilities (child care) in the application of remote work policies; a challenge to the D.C. police department’s practice of retaining arrestees’ cell phones for months or years after the owners are released or charges are dropped; a hostile work environment case on behalf of a D.C. Jail officer subjected to harassment and abuse based on his sexual orientation; and ten cases against policies and practices of the second Trump administration—five regarding immigration, two on trans rights, one voting rights, one about family planning funding, and a series of administrative complaints about the purge of federal workers associated with DEI. (Please note that our fellows tend to focus more on our cases challenging D.C. policies and practices than federal.)  

To learn more about our work, visit acludc.org.

NATURE OF FELLOWSHIP 

The ACLU-DC seeks rising third-year law students, judicial clerks, and law school graduates to sponsor for externally-funded one- or two-year legal fellowships. We will work with a successful applicant to develop a project proposal to submit to funding organizations. Please note that the ACLU-DC does not have independent internal funding for this fellowship position; we seek to host an externally-funded fellow only. 

Applicants will be asked to submit ideas for a project proposal relating to civil liberties and civil rights in Washington, D.C. Proposed projects often combine impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.  

Proposals should include a short description of the problem your project seeks to address, concrete strategies and tools to address the problem, goals for what you want to accomplish during the fellowship, and why you are the best candidate for this fellowship project. We understand that project proposals may be broad at this stage. 

Likelihood of obtaining funding will be a consideration (so, for instance, having access to additional school-based funding opportunities would be advantageous). 

Past legal fellows have had the opportunity to develop their own cases and serve as lead counsel, testify before the D.C. Council, conduct Know Your Rights trainings, take depositions, argue in court, and speak on behalf of the ACLU-DC to national and local media outlets. 

We will supplement the amount of the fellowship stipend so that the fellow will receive a salary of no less than $70,000 per year. Benefits currently provided to all ACLU-DC employees (including externally-funded fellows) include employer-paid health insurance, vacation and sick leave, and 401(k) availability with employer match. 

QUALIFICATIONS

• By fall 2026, you will have obtained a J.D. and either be a D.C. Bar member or will seek admission during the fellowship. 
• You have excellent work ethic, including dependability, diligence, the ability to take ownership over projects, and the commitment to see projects through to completion in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.   
• You are receptive to feedback, enthusiastic about learning and self-improvement, and eager to incorporate feedback into future work. 
• You have excellent legal research skills, including the judgment to discern what cases are relevant to a particular research question, and thoroughness in covering the question asked.  
• You have the capacity to engage in thoughtful and perceptive legal analysis, including the ability to build a logical and persuasive argument, to read and understand legal decisions and statutes, and to grasp whether and how legal authorities apply to a new set of facts.  
• You have excellent legal writing skills, including the ability to present ideas in a clear and organized manner and to write a memo that teaches the reader what you have learned through research (whether the meaning of a specific case or the state of a body of law in general). 
• You have the empathy and interpersonal skills necessary to connect with, listen to, learn from, advise, and work collaboratively with clients and other community members. 
• Your experience includes at least one clinical semester, one externship semester,
• or one summer internship working in a U.S. litigation setting involving legal research and writing. 
• You meet the eligibility criteria for one or more externally-funded fellowships that would fund a fellowship at the ACLU-DC. 

To Apply

The deadline for applying is 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, July 6, 2025, but our evaluation of candidates is rolling, so earlier submission is advantageous. Applications must be submitted via the Bamboo HR application page. If you require accommodation(s) to complete the application, please email [email protected]. 

Please submit: 

1. A copy of your resume that lists relevant experience. 
2. A detailed cover letter explaining your interest in this fellowship, the nature of your proposed project and the population you seek to serve, and why you are well-suited to carry out this particular project. 
3. A list of three references, including a sentence about each one identifying what information the person can provide. At least one of your references should be a practicing attorney. 
4. In place of a transcript, a list of all law school courses that you have taken, are currently taking, or (where applicable) are scheduled to take next semester. 
5. A writing sample that is your own work and not edited by others, and which is ideally a memo or brief analyzing a specific legal problem in the context of real or hypothetical litigation (as opposed to a legal complaint or a law review article). 
6. A separate statement indicating whether, if your application for an Equal Justice Works, Justice Catalyst or other externally-funded public service fellowship at ACLU-DC is unsuccessful, your law school has a program that could fund a fellowship at ACLU-DC, and if so, what rules govern the allocation of such school-based fellowships, how many such fellowships are awarded each year, and any conditions attached to such funding (such as a requirement to continue to apply for jobs during the fellowship year). 

The ACLU-DC is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The ACLU-DC encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by the D.C. Human Rights Act or federal employment law.

If you have a disability and need a reasonable accommodation regarding any part of the application process, please include your accommodation request(s) in your application email. We are responsive to reasonable accommodation requests at any point during the application process.