The Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Project (LSPP) is inviting applications for its class of 2023 fellows. LSPP is a 3-year fellowship that provides recent law school graduates committed to a career in public defense with continuing legal education training and guaranteed permanent employment in a partner public defender office upon program completion. For information on Gideon’s Promise and the LSPP, see: https://www.gideonspromise.org/ and https://www.gideonspromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/LSPP-Brochure-UDPATED-08-2020.pdf.
NYU Law will nominate one 3L to apply for the Gideon’s Promise Fellowship to work at one of the participating public defender offices. If the candidate is selected for the fellowship, NYU will pay a modest stipend (but no health benefits) for the first year, after which time, the fellow will be guaranteed a full-time, paid job with the public defender office. The fellow must commit to working in the office for three years, and Gideon’s Promise will provide support and training throughout this time.
The participating offices are:
- Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office (Birmingham, AL)
- Office of the Public Defender for Montgomery County (Montgomery, AL)
- Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (Frankfort, KY)
- Orleans Public Defenders (New Orleans, LA)
- Mecklenburg County Public Defender (Charlotte, NC)
- Robeson County Public Defender’s Office (Lumberton, NC)
- Hamilton County Public Defender (Cincinnati, OH)
- Cuyahoga County Public Defender (Cleveland, OH)
- Still She Rises (Tulsa, OK)
- Luzerne County Public Defender (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
- Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office (Sioux Falls, SD)
- Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office (Knoxville, TN)
- Shelby County Public Defender’s Office (Memphis, TN)
- El Paso County Public Defender’s Office (El Paso, TX)
- Fredericksburg Public Defender’s Office (Fredericksburg, VA)
If you would like to apply for the fellowship, please send a resume and statement of interest as a single PDF document to emily.kernan@nyu.edu by Wednesday, August 24, at 5:00pm. The subject line of your email should be “Gideon’s Promise Fellowship Application.” In the body of your email, please rank your top five offices from the list above.
All of the applications received by the deadline will be forwarded to a Faculty Selection Committee, which will conduct interviews and select one student to apply for the fellowship. The selected student will be notified on or by September 9 and must submit a separate application to Gideon’s Promise by September 23. Please note: The Gideon’s Promise application requires two letters of recommendation.
Your commitment to working in one of these underfunded offices will be an important factor in the decision-making process, so please be sure to address this in your statement of interest.