Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP) seeks applicants to host for projects through the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, Skadden Fellowship, and Justice Catalyst Fellowship.
POTENTIAL PROJECTS
NLSP will consider any well researched and impactful projects touching on any areas of our practice, including family law, housing law, and economic security. However, we are especially interested in the following types of projects:
• Family law projects that increase representation for underserved populations, including individuals with disabilities, people who do not speak English or who have limited proficiency, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
• Projects that work to preserve the custody and visitation rights of parents with mental health issues.
• Projects that focus on preserving public housing and/or the rights of public housing tenants in DC.
• Community development projects that focus on preserving affordable housing at the building level, which could include preserving and enforcing rent control, TOPA work, building-wide conditions, helping buildings form cooperatives, and/or connecting with NLSP’s Housing Cooperative Preservation Initiative practice area in some way.
• Projects that address the barriers underserved communities experience when seeking and retaining public benefits such as: unemployment insurance, SNAP, TANF, SSI/SSDI, and Veterans Benefits.
• Projects that address predatory consumer lending practices, predatory consumer credit repair products, and/or inaccurate credit reporting targeting underserved communities.
• Projects that propose novel approaches to enforcement of state and federal consumer protection laws through private litigation.
ABOUT NLSP
NLSP is a private, non-profit law firm that provides vigorous, high quality civil legal services to low-income residents of the District of Columbia. NLSP has a long tradition of fighting for justice for the poor, combining direct representation to protect essential rights of clients with efforts to achieve broad-based change. NLSP’s three offices are located in the poorest sections of the District, to maximize its visibility, accessibility, and connections to the communities it serves. NLSP’s approach to advocacy is client-centered, striving to empower underserved residents and assist them to attain their individual, family, and community goals.
For additional information about NLSP, please visit our website at http://www.nlsp.org/.
Ideal candidates will be law students entering their third year, recent graduates who expect to complete a judicial clerkship in the summer of 2021, or lawyers who are otherwise eligible for these fellowships.
The successful candidate will have a demonstrated commitment to providing high quality legal services to low-income families and a connection to the population or the issue in their proposed project. Fluency in Spanish or another critical-needs language is preferred, but not required. The fellowship, if awarded, will begin in the fall of 2021 and is anticipated to last two years. The fellow will work closely with experienced legal services attorneys. All staff members, including fellows, are working remotely during the public health emergency.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested persons should apply by filling out by uploading a one-page fellowship proposal, cover letter, resume, and law school transcript here: https://forms.gle/yjpc85FU3d5mrbxu6.
Please submit materials by 5:00 p.m. on July 6, 2020. NLSP may consider proposals received after the deadline on a rolling basis. If NLSP agrees to host a candidate, NLSP and the candidate will work together to apply for funding and develop a proposal to present to fellowship programs in Fall 2020.