Work-Study Opportunities
The Bluhm Legal Clinic is hiring eligible 1L and 2L Northwestern Law students for the summer federal work-study program. The Federal Work-Study Program (FWS) was established by Congress to help students find employment to meet educational costs while providing work experience related to academic majors and interests. The work done by the Clinic often contributes to reform initiatives arising from representation of individuals and groups.
Interviews for the positions in the Clinic will take place during February. Below is additional information about this Clinic opportunity:
Application packet:
Northwestern Law 1L and 2L students must submit a cover letter (addressed to the professor), resume, unofficial transcript, a writing sample, and your NU student identification number (to verify your eligibility) during the application period. Students who are applying for FWS must complete both the current year's FAFSA and the upcoming year's FAFSA before submitting the application packet to the Clinic.
Pay:
Work Study positions are full-time at 37.5 hours a week and receive $16/hour. Overtime is prohibited under the FWS program.
Duration:
The Clinic Work Study program typically runs for 12 weeks, starting the third week of May and concluding the beginning of August.
Eligibility and Financial Aid:
Work-study opportunities are open to Northwestern Law students who have finished their first year and are currently receiving or eligible to receive a federal loan. If you are not eligible to apply for a federal loan, you are not eligible for this opportunity.
Eligibility to participate in FWS will be based on the Chicago Office of Financial Aid's review of the current year's FAFSA and the upcoming year's FAFSA. Federal regulations assume that a portion of awarded work-study funding will be used towards educational expenses in the following academic year. Receiving work-study funding may impact the amount of loan funding that the Chicago Office of Financial Aid can offer eligible students in the upcoming academic year. Please contact the Financial Aid office at (312) 503-8722 or financial-aid-chicago@northwestern.edu for additional information.
2024 Summer Federal Work-Study Opportunities in the Bluhm Legal Clinic
Below is a list of the summer work-study opportunities in the Clinic. Current Northwestern Law students may apply to a maximum of three. If you apply to more than one, you must rank the supervising attorneys in your order of preference.
Although we cannot guarantee an interview with each of your choices, we will do our best to accommodate all candidates with more than one interviewing opportunity. Your application packet should be e-mailed before 5pm on Monday, February 19, 2024 to the Legal Practice Administrator, Melissa Montemayor.
Center on Negotiation and Mediation
- Daniel Gandert - The first project that the student would look at is fairness issues relating to the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s new Anti-Doping Division. This division’s rules prevent athletes from being able to appeal cases heard by three arbitrators while allowing the World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) to appeal these cases for a de novo hearing when it is not happy with the outcome.
The second project that the student would work on is helping with an academic article entitled “What is Sports Dispute Resolution.” The article was initially drafted a few years back and help is needed going through and updating the article. This will include going through the article and helping to make sure that everything describing the rules for sports governing bodies are up to date, as well as looking at new dispute resolution regimes such as those in tennis and US collegiate sports.
The student will also help refine a sports-related negotiation simulation that will be used in classes at Northwestern.
The student would also help with an article entitled “The Spectrum of Questionable Behavior in Sports,” which creates a spectrum of questionable behaviors ranging from intentional fouls to match fixing.
Other projects relating to the general subject of sports dispute resolution may come up as well, including helping with an article about how the use of remote hearings impacts athletes at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and working on a book chapter describing the WADA anti-doping regime in sports.
Children and Family Justice Center
- Shobha Mahadev - Students enrolled in this work-study position will have the unique opportunity to represent youth and/or individuals who were convicted of offenses that occurred in their youth and gain valuable litigation and policy advocacy experience in the process. Students may assist in representing individuals in juvenile or criminal court proceedings, post-conviction matters, clemency proceedings, resentencing proceedings, and/or on appeal. As part of the Children and Family Justice Center’s groundbreaking efforts to end the practice of imposing extreme sentences on youth, students may also provide research support and expertise to attorneys and advocates around the state and around the country, including drafting model pleadings, analyzing legislation, and/or researching constitutional issues related to sentencing youth and emerging adults. Students can expect to develop many critical skills in this course that will prepare them for the practice of law, which may include interviewing, counseling, investigation, legal research, negotiation, written and oral advocacy, client relations, legislative and policy analysis, and professionalism.
- Uzoamaka Nzelibe - The summer student will assist in the representation of immigration clients before the Chicago immigration court or the Department of Homeland Security. Duties will include interviewing clients and witnesses, researching legal issues, conducting factual investigations, drafting pleadings and motions, preparing legal briefs, and representing clients at hearings in immigration court or before DHS. Please note that second-year law students may represent clients in immigration court.
Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic
- Sheila Bedi - The Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic works in collaboration with organizers and communities to create and implement legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing some of the most pressing, urgent issues of our time—namely over-policing and mass imprisonment. Work-study students will have the opportunity to work on civil rights litigation, engage in community based fact discovery about police and prison violence, and conduct legal and policy research driven by the needs of Chicago’s Black and brown community members. Students will gain insight on the constraints of the law, the types of relief that litigation can offer, and how to lawyer in a community driven way.
Investor Protector Clinic and Complex Civil Litigation
- Sam Tenenbaum - Students will be given the opportunity to learn the practical aspects of complex civil litigation. Complex civil litigation will cover the range of lawyering skills, including client relations, drafting of pleadings, the discovery process, depositions, arguing motions in court, bench and jury trials as well as appeals. In addition, students will be exposed to the economic considerations that are involved in the litigation process and will become involved in marketing, fee negotiation and budgeting, as well as related ethical concerns. Students will work on a range of cases, such as civil rights litigation, business disputes, real estate, insurance, product liability, personal injury, shareholder rights litigation and securities litigation. Students in this course will also work in the Investor Protection Center, which provides representation to investors with limited income and have disputes with stockbrokers, investment advisors, or securities firms. Students will be given the opportunity to learn the practical aspects of securities mediation and arbitration. Students will be responsible for interviewing and counseling clients, explaining the arbitration and mediation process, investigation and selecting potential arbitrators, conducting discovery, negotiating settlements, and participating in arbitration trials and mediations. Finally, students will be exposed to the economic considerations that are involved in securities arbitration.
- Rob Weinstock - The Environmental Advocacy Center takes a capacious view of what counts as “environmental law,” and employs a flexible approach to advocacy, always seeking to identify the right strategy for the situation. Environmental attorneys can be called on to deploy nearly every tool in the legal toolbox – from litigation, to counseling and dealmaking, from crafting common law claims to disentangling byzantine statutory and regulatory requirements – and must be comfortable in every type of forum – be it courts, agencies, legislatures or the public forum. The EAC designs its docket to train students to be just the sort of dynamic and multifaceted environmental lawyer who can succeed in any setting. Currently, the EAC is confronting cutting edge issues in energy law, enforcing complex environmental regulations, and advancing novel approaches at the intersection of civil rights and environmental law, among other projects.
The EAC is a great fit not only for students focused on environmental law, but for students interested in social justice lawyering, renewable energy, complex regulatory litigation or counseling practices, or working at the intersection of science and law. Summer students will be the junior attorneys on active complex litigation matters in both traditional environmental law and public utility proceedings and will work directly with our community organization clients to confront dynamic environmental justice problems and build the foundation for long-term policy solutions.
Revised 2/14/2024
