Michigan Advocacy Program (MAP) is seeking applicants for the position of Summer Law Clerk in all of our offices:
-
Legal Services of South Central Michigan: LSSCM provides civil legal representation to low income persons, with an emphasis on homelessness prevention, domestic violence prevention, and access to needs-based governmental benefits. LSSCM has offices in Ypsilanti, Battle Creek, Jackson, Lansing, and Monroe. For additional information, please visit lsscm.org.
-
Family Law Project: FLP, located in Ypsilanti, represents low-income survivors of domestic violence in family law and other matters. For additional information, please visit lsscm.org.
-
Farmworker Legal Services: FLS, located in Kalamazoo, provides direct representation to indigent migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their dependents with an emphasis on employment-related claims including wage disputes, unsafe working conditions, inadequate housing, illegal evictions, issues related to their immigration status, denial of access to education and other public services, and discrimination. To work at FLS, conversational Spanish is required. For additional information, please visit farmworkerlaw.org.
-
Michigan Poverty Law Program: MPLP, located in Ypsilanti, provides state support services to legal aid attorneys and other poverty law advocates throughout Michigan. These services include case consultation, research and drafting support, co-counseling and other case assistance; planning and managing statewide skills and substantive law trainings and task forces; legislative tracking, interpretation, education and lobbying to protect the rights of the legal aid client base; and representing the interests of legal aid advocates and clients in statewide task forces, state bar sections and committees, and other advocacy-oriented groups. For additional information, please visit mplp.org.
-
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center: MIRC provides direct services to immigrant clients focusing on domestic violence and victims of crimes, citizenship, unaccompanied minors in removal proceedings, migrant farmworker law, and impact representation. MIRC also provides technical and co-counsel assistance and training to Michigan legal aid and pro bono attorneys handling immigration and immigrant rights matters, systemic advocacy on behalf of Michigan's low-income immigrants and their families, legislative and legal development tracking and analysis, coalition-building among immigration assistance providers and immigrant advocacy organizations statewide, and support and training for domestic violence survivor attorneys and advocates regarding the rights of battered immigrants. Conversational Spanish ability is preferred. MIRC hosts summer interns in Ypsilanti, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo. For additional information, please visit michiganimmigrant.org.
-
Michigan Elder Justice Initiative: MEJI, located in Lansing, advocates for low-income older adults and people with disabilities on issues related to healthcare, benefits, long term care, elder abuse, and individual rights. MEJI has a number of grant funded projects including serving as the ombudsman for residents of long term care facilities and beneficiaries enrolled in the MI Health Link project, promoting the rights of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries, and engaging in elder abuse prevention efforts. In addition, MEJI provides advice and support to legal services lawyers and other advocates serving low income elders and people with disabilities across the state. MEJI also undertakes systemic advocacy efforts, often in collaboration with state and federal advocacy partners. For additional information, please visit meji.org.
-
Crime Victims Assistance Project: CVLAP is a statewide program of 20+ attorneys who provide free legal help to clients who have experienced domestic violence and to clients who are at least 55 years old and have experienced abuse, neglect, or exploitation. CVLAP hosts interns in Ypsilanti. For additional information, please visit cvlap.org.
-
Michigan Legal Help: MLH, located in Ypsilanti, helps people who have to handle simple civil legal problems without a lawyer. One primary product of MLH is an interactive, statewide website that provides legal information and referrals to self-represented litigants. Legal information includes Articles, Common Questions, procedural instructions, and Do-It-Yourself tools that enable litigants to complete legal forms. The website also contains jurisdiction- and topic-specific referrals to legal services offices, lawyer referral services, and community organizations. MLH supports a Spanish language version of the site at AyudaLegaldeMichigan.org, and provides live chat assistance for all web visitors between 11am-3pm weekdays. MLH also opens and supports affiliated Self-Help Centers around the state, where litigants can use the website on public computers and get additional help and legal information assistance from trained Navigators. Students will assist with content development and maintenance (reviewing & updating existing legal information content according to Quality Assurance Protocols; conducting research and drafting new legal information content for the website; learning plain language writing skills; etc.); participate in the testing of new Do-It-Yourself form tools; and assist with staffing LiveHelp (chat-based to website visitors); and engage in other projects that are active during the course of their clerkship including triage and online intake. For additional information, please visit michiganlegalhelp.org.
-
Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project: LSNTAP, while housed at MAP, is a national program that helps nonprofit legal aid programs across the country improve client services through effective and innovative use of technology through providing technology training, hosting community forums, and serving as a clearinghouse for technological tools, policies, and strategies. MAP has a dedicated LSNTAP manager as well as other staff who collaborate regularly on projects. We are seeking a summer law clerk to be part of the LSNTAP team. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an important national resource for legal aid programs. The LSNTAP Law Clerk will also work closely with several other departments within MAP, including the IT department and Michigan Legal Help. For additional information, please visit lsntap.org.
Job Description: Law clerks work under the supervision of our staff attorneys on all aspects of our work. Depending on the office, a law clerk’s work may include conducting client interviews, drafting pleadings, legal research, appearing in court hearings under the Michigan student practice rule, assessing legal problems, conveying legal advice through oral and written communication, conducting outreach to migrant labor camps, conducting educational seminars for clients and migrant agency staff, legal research and writing related to individual cases and broader policy issues, legislative tracking and analysis, other systemic advocacy projects in one or more poverty law areas (housing, public benefits, consumer, foreclosure, and family law), MLH content development and maintenance, and assisting with staffing LiveHelp.
Qualifications for all positions: Law students must have at least one year of law school completed by June 2023. It is helpful if applicants have experience working with low-income persons and a commitment to assisting underserved populations. Applicants must reside in the state of Michigan while working for MAP. MAP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Funding: Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply for outside funding (e.g. law school fellowships, Equal Justice America), but these positions are paid if outside funding is not available.
To Apply:
- Complete this application form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftu3be4kcb5zNauhtJsjAc6EC3LXMr...
- Send a resume and cover letter as an attachment(s) to jobs@lsscm.org with “Summer 2023: Your Name” as the subject. In the body of your email, please indicate which office(s) you are interested in for next summer. It is preferred that you list a maximum of 3 offices (e.g. MPLP, MIRC in Grand Rapids, and LSSCM-Monroe).
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
