Funding
Northwestern Law has a variety of programs to provide financial assistance to students and alumni working in public service positions. The law school provides both funding for summer public interest employment and a generous loan forgiveness programs for graduates who enter public service.
Summer Public Interest Funding
For summer 2007, Northwestern Law students received over $270,000 in funding for summer public interest work through the following programs available to our law students:
- Justice Stevens Fellowships (pdf)
Each year Northwestern Law awards four Stevens Fellowships in the amount of $5,000 each for students to work during the summer at the public interest employer of their choice. The fellowships are funded by former Justice Stevens law clerks.
- Mansfield Foundation Fellowships (pdf)
Two students each year receive the Mansfield Fellowship to work during the summer at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.
- Lefkow Independent Judiciary Fellowship (pdf)
The Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association will award the Lefkow Independent Judiciary Fellowship in the amount of $5,000 to one student for work at the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC.
- Lefkow Fellowship at the Legal Assistance Foundation (pdf)
The Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association will award the Lefkow Fellowship at the Legal Assistance Foundation in the amount of $5,000 to one student for work at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.
- Len Rubinowitz Public Interest Fellowships
The Student Funded Public Interest Fellowship (SFPIF) helps fund summer public interest employment for law students through a combination of money raised during the year, a Law School contribution, and Federal Work Study grants.
- Sonnenschein Scholars Program (pdf)
The law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, through its Sonnenschein Scholars Foundation, will provide summer funding of $4,000 to two 1L Northwestern Law students to work in a public interest office selected by the student and approved by the law firm.
- Howrey HELPS (pdf)
The law firm of Howrey LLP will award a grant of $5,000 to one first year Northwestern Law student to work for ten weeks in a public interest agency of the student’s choosing in Chicago.
- Zenner Public Interest Grants (pdf)
The Zenner grants are made available to the law school through the generosity of Teri Zenner ’83, founder and president of the Zenner Consulting Group. The grants are available to members of the graduating class who have either secured or are seeking a position in public interest law (excluding judicial clerkships). The funds are intended to provide support for bar review course and exam fees for these graduates.
- Bluhm Legal Clinic Summer Positions
The Bluhm Legal Clinic hires student workers each summer.
Public Service Fellowship Program
Each year the Law School offers forgivable loans of up to $13,000 per year to graduates entering legal or management positions in non-profit and government agencies. The loans assist these graduates in paying off their law school loans and are forgiven in their entirety at the end of each year of work in a qualifying public service position.
PSLawNet Summer Funding Resources
Equal Justice America
Public Interest Law Initiative
Peggy Browning Fund
Post-Grad Fellowships (pdf)
Equal Justice Works Summer Corps
Firms Sponsoring Split Summers
(pdf)
