2025 Paid Summer Legal Internship

www.lshv.org

Job Type: 2025 Paid Summer Legal Internship - Legal Services of the Hudson Valley – All Offices

Schedule Type: Full-time Summer

 About Us 

For more than 50 years, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) has been providing free, high-quality legal counsel in civil matters when basic human needs are at stake, including eviction and foreclosure prevention, domestic violence, disability, elder law, healthcare, consumer fraud and more. Our services support almost 600,000 poor and low-income families and individuals who cannot afford an attorney in our seven-county service area. With the gap separating those who can and cannot afford legal representation widening each day, we work to ensure that everyone has equal access to justice, regardless of their ability to pay. As the only provider of comprehensive civil legal services in the lower and mid-Hudson Valley (Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan), LSHV is proud to have handled nearly 13,000 cases impacting over 30,000 household members including over 10,000 children last year. LSHV is made up of ten offices, and a dedicated and highly skilled staff of attorneys, paralegals, and administrative professionals. 

Legal Services of Hudson Valley is dedicated to building a highly skilled workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their authentic selves to work. We are committed to racial justice and promoting equity for all, and we continuously review and strengthen our processes and practices to empower our staff, clients and the communities we serve. Respect is a cornerstone of relationships among our staff. Our affinity groups are self-directed and provide a space for members to support one another and their shared vision. We encourage applications from people of all identities.

Internship Description

LSHV will host 10 law student interns in our housing units, and 4 law student interns in our general practice units. Through these internships, LSHV will train the next generation of social justice lawyers, giving them both practical litigation experience and an understanding of the factors that create disadvantages for low-income individuals and families. While helping LSHV attorneys and staff serve clients, law interns will receive training, mentorship, support, and skill development and engage in advocacy. Work may include client interviewing, issue spotting, legal research and writing, preparing court documents, accompanying attorneys and clients to court, and appearing in court under a student practice order. 

• Housing Unit Interns will help our clients to maintain the basic human and legal right to live in habitable housing and lend support to LSHV’s efforts to challenge landlord intimidation and harassment.
• General Practice Interns will assist our staff attorneys in a variety of practice areas, including family law and domestic violence, housing, veterans’ benefits, public benefits, consumer debt, disability, and/or immigration law. 

Details 

• 10-week internship duration; 35 hours per work week required (5-day week, Mon – Fri)
• $8,000 stipend with 5 days paid time off (PTO)
• Interns will be placed in LSHV offices throughout our service area, including White Plains, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Peekskill, Poughkeepsie, New Windsor, Goshen, Nanuet, Monticello, and Kingston.
• Interns will be loaned laptops during the summer for conducting LSHV business.
• Housing, transportation, work-related, and other internship expenses will be the law student's responsibility. LSHV will provide office parking where applicable. 
• At the conclusion of the summer, interns may be required to provide feedback concerning their experience, the substance of which may be reproduced in full or in part in LSHV materials. 

Eligibility 

• Open to law students enrolled in a U.S. law school who will have completed two years of law school by May 2025 or are graduating in 2025.
• Must not have previously accepted an LSHV Paid Summer Legal Internship (previously titled Summer Fellowship).
• Must be able to work several days per week in person in the office where placed (our offices are hybrid), subject to disability-related reasonable accommodations.
• Ability to travel to the office where placed and other locations, such as courts, as needed.

Application Timeline

•  All materials must be submitted by Sunday, December 15, 2024 at 11:59 pm (ET)
• Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
• Applicants selected for interviews will be notified in early January 2025.
• Finalists will be notified in early February 2025.

Required Submissions 

Applications will be evaluated based upon review of the following: 

• Complete Online Application with preferred office locations and practice areas
• Unofficial Law School Transcript 
• Current Resume  
• One legal writing sample on any topic (5-page limit)   
• Statement of Interest (typed, double-spaced)

Describe your commitment to public interest law and/or direct legal services, and what you hope to gain from LSHV’s Summer Internship Program. Please explain why you are interested in the practice area(s) you have preferenced in your application.

You may include information such as personal experience, prior jobs, volunteer experience or internships and what you learned from them, as well as future career plans and professional goals. (750-word max)  

 Legal Services of Hudson Valley is a proud equal opportunity employer. People of all races, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, and veteran status, are strongly encouraged to apply.