Jobs + Internships
Internship Opportunities
CLA internships offer college and law students the opportunity to help support communities and organizations that are working to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed. CLA empowers environmental organizations, citizen groups, and individuals by providing them with the legal representation, knowledge, and resources necessary to make their voices heard and actions count. Specifically, CLA coordinates a network of attorneys who volunteer their time and professional skills, free of charge. CLA interns have the opportunity to work directly with CLA Staff Attorneys, volunteer attorneys, and clients.
CLA interns are given significant responsibility in various tasks including: conducting research, analysis, and writing memoranda; thinking creatively and strategically about how to use advocacy efforts to enhance water quality in Chesapeake Bay; assisting CLA staff in evaluating requests for legal assistance; participating in community events and stakeholder meetings, including the Choose Clean Water Coalition conference; and developing content for our website and newsletter. There are also opportunities to craft research projects on a variety of issues, depending on the intern’s interests.
Legal internships are designed to provide you with an educational experience in public interest law, with a focus on environmental and administrative law issues impacting the health of the Chesapeake Bay. During your time in the internship program, Chesapeake Legal Alliance Staff Attorneys will meet with you on a regular basis to ensure you are obtaining valuable learning experiences. Early on, you will be given an opportunity to communicate your goals for the internship to supervising staff so that the experience may best meet your needs. During that time, we will also discuss any specific attorney shadowing opportunities in which you would like to participate. Throughout the course of your internship, Staff Attorneys will be involved in reviewing your work product and providing project feedback.
Summer Legal Intern Program
CLA has an established summer legal internship program. Each summer we hire several law students for 10 to 12 weeks. Summer intern positions are unpaid, and we are happy to work with you and your school to offer academic credit if appropriate. Summer internship positions will be posted on this website and with select law schools’ Symplicity platform on or around December 1st. CLA also attends regional Public Interest Interview Programs in January and February to meet potential interns. Offers are typically extended in late winter. If you are a current law student interested in our summer legal intern program, please feel free to contact us to learn more about our program and application deadlines.
Semester Interns + Pro Bono Projects
CLA takes semester interns on a project-by-project basis. These projects can be for credit or unpaid. We often work with students to develop semester projects that meet both CLA client needs and student interests. If you are interested in a semester internship, please contact us to discuss if we have any appropriate projects available.
We also work with students to design projects that meet law school pro bono project requirements. If you are interested in volunteering your time to a pro bono project, please contact us to see if we have a project that will meet your school requirements.
For all internship questions, please contact info@chesapeakelegal.org