Fall 2025 Fellowship Sponsorship, Disability Rights Program

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU invites rising third-year law students and law graduates to apply for a sponsorship opportunity to work with us as a Legal Fellow for up to two years. The Disability Rights Program of the National office in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, California seeks applicants to consider for a sponsored fellowship such as Skadden, Equal Justice Works, or other public interest fellowships to begin in the fall of 2025. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month.

The Disability Rights Program’s mission is to achieve an America free of discrimination against people with disabilities; where people with disabilities are valued, integrated members of society who have full access to education, homes, health care, jobs, families, voting and civic engagement. We fight to ensure that people with disabilities are no longer segregated into, and over-represented in, civil and criminal institutions such as nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, jails, and prisons.

The ACLU has fought for decades for the rights of people with disabilities - achieving key wins to stop coerced mental health treatment and unnecessary institutionalization, as well as playing a role in the drafting of the ADA. In 2012, the ACLU established the Disability Rights Project. DRP litigates and advocates to use disability rights laws to end the overrepresentation of people with disabilities in the criminal legal system, including pursuing first of its kind litigation to ensure that municipalities provide trained, non-police responders to people experiencing mental health crises. We also litigate and advocate to promote alternatives to guardianship and to secure equal access to the ballot. We also provide support to affiliates and the National office on disability rights issues that intersect with core civil liberties. While the ACLU’s Legal Department is headquartered in New York, the Disability Rights Program is housed in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices, and fellowship candidates may be based in either location.

WHAT YOU'LL DO 

Reporting to the Project Director, the Fellow will develop and pursue a litigation and advocacy project at the intersection of disability and civil liberties. We are particularly interested in Fellowship projects that aim to: 1) reduce the overuse of guardianship and conservatorship; 2) challenge exclusionary discipline for students with disabilities; or 3) challenge the overinvolvement of parents with disabilities in family welfare systems. However, we are also open to other project proposals. The Fellow will work closely with DRP to craft their project proposal, and to implement their project. 

We will review applications on a rolling basis, but priority consideration will be given to those who submit applications by July 12, 2024.

The Fellow must secure external funding, please email hiring@aclu.org for funding requirements. Our staff will work with candidates to develop their proposals for submission, helping tailor the proposal to address an important civil liberties issue.

YOUR DAY TO DAY

• Conduct legal research and analysis and develop theories to support new litigation projects
• Draft legal memoranda, pleadings, affidavits, motions, and briefs
• Interview witnesses and potential clients
• Participate in discovery and trial practice
• Draft and edit public education and non-litigation advocacy materials
• Provide support and assistance to ACLU affiliates and cooperating attorneys
• Help manage summer legal internship program and supervise student interns

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 conflicts

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• J.D. or expected to receive a J.D by the spring of 2025
• Demonstrated commitment to public interest law, civil liberties, and disability rights.
• Willingness to work closely with the Disability Rights Program through the funding application process
• Excellent research, writing, and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to conduct complex legal analysis and fact-finding
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a proven ability to work independently as well as within a team

COMPENSATION

The ACLU has a litigator scale th