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.
Interviews for the positions in the Clinic will take place in March. 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 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 $16.20/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.
2026 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 Thursday, March 12, 2026 to the Legal Practice Administrator, Melissa Montemayor.
Center on Negotiation and Mediation
- Daniel Gandert - The primary project that the student would help with would be rewriting a Negotiation simulation. The simulation, entitled "Valdez Garage" has been used for many years (including back when Professor Gandert was a student) to teach lessons about ethics in negotiation. However, there is concern that some parts of the negotiation simulation may bother some students. Because of this, the task will be working with Professor Gandert to rewrite the simulation. The new simulation should teach the same lessons relating to ethics and negotiation and have a similar amount of facts (including depositions) for students to analyze, but to have content that is different and will hopefully be less likely to bother students. The simulation will then be used for the first time for a negotiation class that will take place for the law school's LEAF program at the end of the summer.
The second 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 third 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 as working on an article relating to changes coming about at the start of 2027 with the introduction of the 2027 version of the World Anti-Doping Code.
Children and Family Justice Center, Seigle Clinic for Immigration Youth and Families
- 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
- Wallace Hilke - The Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic focuses on legal work related to over-policing and mass imprisonment through case-specific representation. Work-study students will have the opportunity to work on civil rights litigation, conduct case‑specific factual investigation related to individual client matters, and perform legal research relevant to assigned cases. Students will gain insight on the constraints of the law, the types of relief that litigation can offer, and how to support client needs.
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 focuses on client representation in environmental matters. Environmental attorneys employ litigation, counseling, dealmaking, and analysis of statutory and regulatory requirements in a variety of forums, including courts and agencies. The EAC designs its docket to train students to be dynamic and multifaceted environmental lawyers who can succeed in a range of settings. Currently, the EAC is confronting cutting edge issues in energy law, enforcing complex environmental regulations, and handling matters that arise at the intersection of environmental and administrative law, among other projects.
The EAC is a great fit not only for students focused on environmental law, but for students interested in 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 clients on active environmental and administrative cases.
- Eric Sirota - The Tenant Advocacy Clinic will use a variety of tools to support tenants in individual housing matters. Students in TAC will represent clients facing evictions, housing discrimination, and poor living conditions in court and administrative hearings, taking primary responsibility for their cases including interviewing clients and witnesses, engaging in fact investigation, developing case strategy, engaging in written and oral discovery, pursuing settlement negotiations, and preparing pre-trial motions. Students with 711 licenses may conduct trials and hearings. Further, students may assist with representation of eligible organizational clients in case‑specific proceedings. By the end of the semester, students will gain exposure to multiple facets of the rental landscapein America and develop litigation skills across a range of housing matters.
Revised 3/5/2026
