Summer 2025 Graduate Intern, Criminal Law Reform Project

The ACLU seeks Legal Interns for Summer term 2025 in the Criminal Law Reform Project (CLRP) in the Legal Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. 

The Team:

CLRP seeks to end policies that fuel mass incarceration and over-criminalization. To these ends, CLRP focuses primarily on advocating for reform in policing, pretrial practices, public defense, sentencing, and supervision systems. We fulfill our mission through strategic litigation and advocacy that promotes meaningful change. Key priorities are ending unjust pretrial detention, along with exploitative and oppressive conditions of release; eliminating unconstitutional and racially biased police practices; and catalyzing robust public defense systems. CLRP works closely with the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department and partners across the country to build a movement for social change, promote racial justice, and win reforms needed to significantly cut the size of our nation’s incarcerated population.

The Project’s current priorities are combatting police violence while bolstering individual rights against police authority; protecting the fundamental right to pretrial liberty; eliminating excessive conditions of post release supervision; and creating robust public defense systems to guarantee the constitutional right counsel. CLRP works closely with the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department, our communications Department, and our affiliates to advance an affirmative vision for criminal legal system reform. 

What You’ll Do:

The intern will have the opportunity to gain valuable experience by working alongside the team and assisting in factual investigation, and legal research and writing to advance our litigation and integrated advocacy. Interns will support CLRP litigation work and integrated advocacy across our priority areas.

Your Day to Day:

• Legal research  
• Legal writing, such as memos and portions of court submissions  
• Fact investigation  
• Support in preparation for and during court cases, such as depositions, oral argument, hearings, or trial
• Center principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in all work, embedding the values in program development, policy application, and organizational practices and processes  

What You’ll Bring:

The internship is open to students enrolled at U.S. law schools who will have completed at least one year of law school before the internship commences. Interns should possess the following: 

• Excellent research skills, including conducting internet and legal database research 
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and writing 
• Attention to detail, excellent organizing and time-management skills 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite 
• The initiative to see projects through to completion 
• A commitment to civil liberties, civil rights, and racial justice 
• Commitment to the mission of the ACLU and CLRP 
• Valid work authorization for those seeking a stipend from the ACLU

Future ACLU-ers Will:

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving

• Demonstrate a commitment to the mission of the ACLU

• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity within the office using a personal approach that values all individuals and respects differences in regard to race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability and socio-economic circumstance 

• Demonstrate a commitment to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and/or conflicts   

Internship Logistics:

• Location: Our internship program offers a limited number of in-person, remote, or hybrid intern positions. This internship is remote or hybrid from our New York National Office.
• Time Commitment: This internship requires a full-time commitment of 35 hours per week.
• Internship Duration: Part-time internships span 12 consecutive weeks beginning either May 27 or June 9, 2025.
• Stipend: A stipend may be available for those students are lawfully authorized to work and do not receive compensation from other sources. Students who receive outside funding are eligible for a partial stipend to bring their total funding up to the level of ACLU’s stipend amount for that term, if applicable. Arrangements can be made with educational institutions for work/study or course credit. Below is the stipend breakdown:
• $20/hour for undergraduate students or equivalent experience
• $24/hour for graduate and law students or equivalent experience

Priority Application Deadline: October 25, 2024 for current 2Ls; December 15, 2023 for current 1Ls. 

While there is a priority deadline, our project is committed to review all applications on a rolling basis until the closing of posting.

ABOUT THE ACLU

The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union – beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees. For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach. 

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency, and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

Why the ACLU:

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy

protections for our digital age or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

Our Commitment to Accessibility, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion:

Accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. 

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.