By Leeor Neta
Assistant Director of Public Interest Programs
Every aspiring public interest lawyer should consider applying for a postgraduate public interest fellowship. The summer before one’s last year of school is the time to apply!
While there are many kinds of public interest fellowships, project-based fellowships are some of the most attractive because they account for most of the fellowship opportunities—88 opportunities in the last year alone.
Project-based fellowship applications are time-consuming and complicated. Each applicant must pitch an original idea for a project, and recruit an existing organization to supervise, mentor, and train the applicant. Typically, the process requires months of preparation. At This article address two such fellowships: the Equal Justice Works Fellowship and the Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship.
The Equal Justice Works Fellowship is the largest postgraduate legal fellowship program in the United States, and a leading innovator in this area. Last year, Equal Justice Works hosted 43 fellows from 30 different schools. The Fellowship is two years in duration.
The Equal Justice Works Fellowship application is extensive and very detailed. Applicants are required to draft a detailed statement of unmet need, project goals, timelines, and a personal statement. Applicants are also required to submit a long-form resume, two letters of recommendation, and a letter from the sponsoring agency. The applicant’s school matters little and grades are not considered at all.
The application is posted online in July. The deadline to submit the application occurs in mid-September. The office for Equal Justice Works West—located in Oakland—reviews all applications from schools in California. Equal Justice Works selects the applications it wishes to approve and “pitches” them to the companies and firms that fund the Equal Justice Works Fellowship. The funders have substantial decision-making power. Interviews typically takes place from the end of the fall through the spring.
In recent years, Equal Justice Works has supported applications in the following areas: immigration, youth (particularly special education), community development, and domestic violence.
If you’re interested in applying for an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, here are some important recommendations:
- Applicants should choose a project to which they have a personal connection or one that is in clearly in line with the applicant’s background.
- Because each host receives only one fellow, applicants should ask the host if it is sponsoring other applicants.
- Because many successful projects have catchy titles, applicants should endeavor to draft such titles for their projects, e.g., the Briefcase Clinic.
- Applicants should thoroughly research their project ideas and provide verifiable statistics supporting their statements of need.
- Applicants should offer specific six-month milestones in the description of their projects’ goals.
- Applicants should demonstrate how their project will offer pro bono opportunities for partner agencies.
For more tips on developing an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, click here.
The Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship supports individuals—not just lawyers or law students—in the creation of projects that reform criminal justice policy. SJA Fellowships are 18 months in duration, and can begin in either April or September.
There are two Advocacy Fellowship tracks. Advocacy Track I is designed for new and emerging leaders. Advocacy Track II is aimed at more experienced individuals with a demonstrated record of achievement and expertise in their fields. Applicants in Track I do not compete with applicants in Track II. Each year, there are 15-20 Track I Fellowships.
Like the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, the Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship application is extensive. Applicants are required to draft a detailed proposal—including project explanation, project goals, project strategies, and a timeline. Applicants are also required to submit a long-form resume, two letters of recommendation, and a letter from the sponsoring agency. Projects must also have an advisory board. The advisory board must be comprised of a minimum of three individuals who can lend strategic guidance and substantive expertise to the project.
The application is posted online in August. The deadline to submit the application occurs in early November. A reading committee consisting of Open Society Institute staff and outside experts in the field review the proposals and nominate finalists. Finalists are invited to interview with a selection committee that also consists of Open Society Institute staff and outside experts in the field.
Soros Justice Advocacy Projects must align with the Open Society Institute’s Criminal Justice Fund priorities. While these are in flux for the coming year, the Institute has tended to fund projects that:
- Attack the excessive and economically destructive costs of incarceration
- Eliminate harsh and unjust sentencing practices
- Reform parole and probation policies and practices
- Foster new approaches to drug policy
- Combat the criminalization of marginalized populations, e.g. people with mental illness, homeless individuals, young people, immigrants
- End punitive school disciplinary policies
- Eliminate unreasonable barriers to the reintegration of people returning from prison, as well as challenge the stigmatization of people with criminal records
- End the treatment of children as adults in prosecution and sentencing
- Abolish the death penalty
- Reform police and prosecution practices
- Improve indigent defense services and systems
Applicants may propose any number of strategies to achieve the goals set forth in their projects, including: litigation, public education, strategic communications, policy advocacy, coalition-building, grassroots organizing and mobilization, and action research. As a general rule, projects must not either wholly or substantially involve direct service delivery or individual representation.
The Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship favors projects with multiple constituencies that could be served by sectors other than the criminal justice system, e.g., youth, the disabled community, the homeless population, the LGBT community, etc. Also encouraged are applications for projects that cut across various criminal justice fields and related sectors—such as education, health, mental health, housing, and employment. The fellowship favors projects outside of metropolitan areas—though in fact, few are—and particularly favors projects based in the South and Midwest.
The quality of the Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship applicant is extremely important, perhaps more important than the project itself. The fellowship prefers applicants who have direct experience with the criminal justice system, e.g., ex-offenders, family members of offenders, or at least applicants with connections to their project issues that predate their legal education. The ideal applicant is one with a significant professional or personal connection to the project issue, and one with connections to past fellows and host organizations.
Though not required, host organizations are highly preferred. Even so, projects should clearly originate from the applicant’s background and interests, rather than from the host’s needs. Applicants choosing not to partner with a host organization must convincingly articulate how they will achieve the project goals without the infrastructure and support of an established organization.
If you’re interested in applying for a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, here are some important recommendations:
- Applicants should demonstrate that they are familiar with existing similar work.
- Applicants should model their applications on past successful applications and clearly demonstrate that their projects are evolutions in the field.
- Applicants should assembly their advisory boards as early as possible.
- Applicant should talk to past fellows as part of their research.
- Projects should combine community organizing with legal strategies.
- Projects should meaningfully integrate constituency members, i.e., not just as clients.
- Host organizations should be fully committed to the goals of the Open Society Institute, but need not be Open Society Institute grantees.
Applicants who are uncertain whether some aspect of their proposed project fits within the parameters of the Fellowship program guidelines or whether the project is otherwise likely to be of interest to the program may submit an email inquiry before proceeding with the full online application process. The email should provide a brief—no more than 500 words—description of the project, as well as some background information on the applicant, and should be sent to sorosjusticefellowships@sorosny.org.
For more tips on developing any project-based fellowship, click here.
For a list of helpful resources about fellowships generally, click here.
Most importantly, you need to plan now if you want to pursue a postgraduate fellowship. Email me at lneta@ggu.edu for more information.
