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How to Launch Your Public Interest Career with Equal Justice Works

/ Blog Post

By Sarah Jasper, program specialist at Equal Justice Works 

Interested in working in public service after law school? Want to transform your passion for equal justice into a career? Becoming an Equal Justice Works postgraduate Fellow is a great way to get started!

Equal Justice Works postgraduate Fellowships offer two different avenues for new public interest lawyers to jumpstart their careers while serving their community. Through the Design-Your-Own Fellowship, applicants identify a particular area of unmet legal need and propose strategies to address it. Through our issue-specific Fellowship Programs, participants join a corps of Fellows addressing a particular area of need, such as housing or disaster recovery.

No matter how you choose to serve, being an Equal Justice Works Fellow helps jumpstart participants’ careers in public service law and fosters long-term success. On average, 85% of Equal Justice Works Fellows remain in public service following their Fellowship, and many continue to use the connections and the skills they attained during their Fellowship to help them throughout their careers. Additionally, once you have completed your Fellowship, you are invited to join the Equal Justice Works Alumni Network, with over 2,000 passionate public interest lawyers who support one another throughout their legal careers!

To learn more about the different ways you can become an Equal Justice Works postgraduate Fellow, check out the recording of the “Mobilizing the Next Generation of Public Interest Lawyers: EJW Postgraduate Fellowships”conference session from the 2021 Conference and Career Fair. In this session, you will hear from Sherene Thomas and Laura Roach about the two different Fellowship models Equal Justice Works provides. You will also get to learn about the project that 2020 Design-Your-Own Fellow, Clarence Okoh, is working on in collaboration with his host organization, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

This fall, the annual Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair will be held virtually, with the conference taking place on a separate weekend from the career fair portion of the event. The Equal Justice Works Conference will take place on Thursday, September 22 and Friday, September 23, and the Equal Justice Works Career Fair will be held on October Thursday, October 20 through Saturday, October 22. It is the largest national public service legal career fair in the country, bringing together hundreds of public interest employers, law school professionals, law students, and recent graduates from across the United States and its territories to network, participate in interviews, and attend substantive conference sessions and workshops.

Attending the Conference and Career Fair is a great way to build your network and secure either summer or full-time opportunities. Even if you are not ready to apply for interviews just yet, we encourage anyone who wants to get involved in public interest law to attend the fair and see the myriad ways you can work in public service within the legal community!

Visit here for more information about the 2022 Conference and Career Fair.

Learn more about becoming an Equal Justice Works Fellow