Policy Summer Intern

Civil Rights Corps, an innovative non-profit civil rights organization, invites applications from current law students to join our Washington, DC-based team for the summer of 2023. Civil Rights Corps (CRC) is an innovative non-profit civil rights organization based in Washington,

D.C. Founded in 2016, CRC challenges wealth-based and race-based systems of oppression. CRC has won groundbreaking litigation challenging the rise of debtors’ prisons, abusive private probation schemes, and wealth-based pre-trial detention. CRC works closely with community partners and is committed to fundamentally transforming the criminal system—including through ambitious, innovative policy work that seeks change at the local, state, and federal levels. CRC’s staff is comprised of passionate and dedicated advocates with a profound commitment to social justice and fighting inequality in all its forms. Learn more about our work at civilrightscorps.org.

Summer interns will have a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge civil rights cases in a

fast-paced environment; legal interns may also apply to work specifically on policy issues.  Interns will work closely with Civil Rights Corps staff to investigate and challenge systemic injustice in the criminal legal system. Interns will participate in a wide variety of tasks depending on the organization’s needs and the intern’s interests.  Policy interns will work on designing, drafting, and advocating legislation at all levels; conducting legal research for policy proposals; and research on law / policy issues relevant for our policy campaigns. Our ideal candidate will have an unflagging commitment to our mission, a sense of urgency about the need to disrupt a criminal system that devastates lives every day, and strong research, writing, and communication skills.

Our summer internship program offers an opportunity to work closely with attorneys, along with  organized sessions dedicated to cultivating interns’ legal writing and advocacy skills and deepening their understanding of legal career paths, among other discussion topics driven in part by intern interest. In the past, we have invited judges, reporters, attorneys, activists, and others whose work intersects with ours for our lunch speaker series.

The intern will be expected to apply for any funding offered by their law school, but Civil Rights  Corps will guarantee a salary of $18 an hour in the event that outside support is unavailable.

Applications for Summer 2023 placement will be reviewed as they are received on a rolling basis through December 5, 2022. Students should submit a resume, cover letter that outlines their interest in Civil Rights Corps, law school transcript, writing sample, and two references to jobs@civilrightscorps.org with subject “Summer Policy  Intern 2023.” 

Civil Rights Corps is an equal opportunity employer. We greatly value a diverse workforce and management team and an inclusive culture. Civil Rights Corps is committed to promoting an

environment free of barriers and discriminatory practices for its clients and staff.