Summer 2025 Graduate Legal Intern, Disability Rights Program

The ACLU seeks a Legal Intern in the Disability Rights Program of the ACLU’s National office in San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC.

The Team:

The Disability Rights Program is part of the Legal Department of the National ACLU. The Disability Rights Program strives for an America free of discrimination against people with disabilities, where they are valued, integrated members of society with full access to education, homes, health care, jobs, voting, and civic life. We work on issues at the intersection of disability rights and civil rights. Our work currently focuses on the criminal legal system (prison, criminal supervision, and policing), education (aversive discipline), voting, guardianship, artificial intelligence, and the criminalization of homelessness.

What You’ll Do:

DRP Interns are essential to the work of our small team. Our legal interns engage in legal research, participate in team meetings, review and cite-check briefs, and engage in client outreach, intake calls, and other daily work of our team. Interns will gain valuable experience by working with the team on a wide variety of issues. Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to the following:  

Your Day to Day:

• Conduct legal and policy research 
• Draft memoranda, affidavits, and briefs 
• Participate in case discussions 
• Cite checking 
• Communicate with clients and impacted community members 
• Research and draft public education materials

What You’ll Bring:

The internship is open to law students who will have completed at least one year of law school before the internship commences or are in an LLM or SJD program. Interns should possess the following:

• Demonstrated commitment to public interest law, civil liberties, and the issues on which the Disability Rights Program works 
• Excellent legal research and writing skills, including legal database and internet research 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills 
• Attention to detail, excellent organizing, and time-management skills 
• Self-motivated with the ability to take initiative, manage a variety of tasks, and see projects through to completion
• Personal or professional experience with disability, disability rights, or the disability community is preferred.

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 obstacles and conflict 

Internship Logistics: 

• Location: Our internship program offers a limited number of remote or hybrid intern positions. This internship can be remote or hybrid from our San Francisco, CA or Washington DC offices. 

• Time Commitment: Summer internships require a Full-time commitment (35 hours/week)

• Internship Duration: Full-time internships span 10 consecutive weeks. This internship will begin either May 27 or June 9, 2025.

• Stipend: A stipend is available for students who are lawfully authorized to work and do not receive compensation from other sources. Students with external funding may receive a partial stipend to bring their total funding up to the level of the ACLU’s stipend amount for that term. Arrangements can be made with educational institutions for work/study or course credit. Below are the stipend rates: 

• $20/hour for undergraduate students or equivalent experience  
• $24/hour for graduate and law students or equivalent experience 

Priority Application Deadline: October 25, 2024

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.