2013 Summer Judicial Internship: JRC-JTBF

The Judicial Resources Committee of the United States Judicial Conference and Just The Beginning Foundation ® are pleased to announce the third annual Summer Judicial Internship Diversity Project.  The Project’s goal is to provide summer judicial internships for highly qualified minority, underrepresented, and economically disadvantaged law students.  The Project is national in scope and will place 75 students as judicial interns in federal appellate, district, bankruptcy, and magistrate judges’ chambers across the country.  Interns will have the opportunity to draft bench memoranda, judicial orders, and opinions on a variety of substantive matters, including motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, magistrate judge reports, and habeas corpus petitions.  Applicants should possess strong research and writing skills and be prepared to handle the rigors of working in a federal court.

There will be an initial screening which will identify qualified candidates eligible for a first-round interview conducted in-person or by telephone.  Applicants who clear this round will be referred to one of the Project’s Participating Judges for a second-round interview, after which each Participating Judge will make a final hiring decision.  Applicants who are hired must commit to attending two mandatory training workshops prior to the beginning of the internship, either in-person or via videoconference, and must be available to work full-time as unpaid intern for a minimum of six weeks. 

All of the program requirements are attached in the accompanying Memorandum of Understanding.  Interested applicants should submit the following materials: (1) a cover letter explaining the applicant's interest in diversity and participating in the Summer Judicial Internship Diversity Project; (2) a resume; (3) a law school transcript, official or unofficial (if first semester law school grades are unavailable or incomplete, please send an undergraduate transcript and supplement with law school grades as they become available); (4) a writing sample (no more than 10 pages in length); (5) a list of three references; and (6) a completed geographical preference form with locational ranking.  At present this is an unpaid internship, and applicants are encouraged to seek law school or non-profit funding.  In particular, applicants are also strongly encouraged to apply to the ABA’s Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, which has in the past been a source of funding for Project interns.

Applicants must e-mail all of the application materials listed above no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, January 11, 2013, or 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, January 25, 2013, for those students applying as interns in South Carolina to SJIDProject@gmail.com.  Please address your cover letter to: