Intern, Consumer Law Unit (Summer)

Since 1932, Legal Aid has provided civil legal assistance to clients in individual cases and engaged in systemic reform. Currently, we provide individual representation in consumer law, domestic violence/family law, housing, public benefits, and appellate matters. We also work on immigration matters and help individuals with the collateral consequences of their involvement with the criminal justice system. From the experiences of our clients, we identify opportunities for law reform, public policy advocacy, and systemic impact and appellate litigation.

Legal Aid believes that meaningful pursuit of our anti-poverty mission requires an unwavering commitment to racial justice and equity. We aspire both to reflect the rich racial diversity of the communities we serve and to value, respect, and empower our staff and clients to be effective agents of change. For more information about Legal Aid please visit our website, www.LegalAidDC.org.

This internship is for Summer 2026 and will be 10 weeks in duration. Interns at Legal Aid DC have the unique opportunity to receive substantive assignments that will have an immediate impact on our clients. Interns work out of Legal Aid’s offices in NW DC, with the option to perform some work remotely if approved by their supervisor. Summer interns should expect to work full time.

The Consumer Law Unit helps clients protect their limited income and assets. We specialize in two principal areas of practice: foreclosure prevention and consumer debt collection defense. We also engage in significant efforts to address consumer issues of public policy.

Responsibilities:

Perform legal and factual research
Draft pleadings, motions, client correspondence, and other forms of legal writing
Observe/shadow/take notes for court hearings
Conduct or assist intakes and follow up interviews with applicants
Assist with preparing for and conducting client meetings
Provide litigation assistance to the attorneys
Assist with the courthouse projects, including providing referral information to the court or to self-represented litigants as appropriate
Conduct outreach to self-represented litigants
Attend consumer unit meetings, skills workshops, Legal Aid staff meetings

Scholarship Funding:

Legal Aid DC can provide scholarship funding to ensure that summer law students receive no less than $6,283 per summer, including scholarships from the Lee Horton Memorial Scholarship for Aspiring Public Interest Lawyers.

Summer law students are required to apply for outside funding to fund their internships in order to receive supplemental scholarship funding. We will provide a scholarship up to $6,283 to summer law school interns when:

They attend a school that does not provide funding OR they are not approved for at least $6,238 of funding from their schools
AND

They do not get funding from any other outside sources that gets them to total funding of $6,283 for the summer

Example: if a student receives $5,000 of outside funding, Legal Aid will pay them $1,283 in scholarship funding.

Students may waive funding if they are prohibited from receiving renumeration by their law school.