2025 Summer Legal Clerkship

Build community power to advance racial and economic justice this summer at one of California’s leading civil rights law firms!

Public Advocates Inc.— a more than 50 year old civil rights law firm —is currently hiring law clerks for the summer of 2025 to collaborate with esteemed attorneys leading historic reforms for equity, through advocacy, enforcement and power building in education, housing, transit and climate justice in our San Francisco and Sacramento offices. Our law clerks play a critical role in community partnership and using legal tools to empower impacted communities of color across the state to advance racial and economic justice. We are committed to providing high quality training and supervision to help advance the career goals of our clerks and to foster a true community of public interest lawyers.

Our Mission

Public Advocates, a non-profit law firm and advocacy organization, challenges the systemic causes of poverty and discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity, and climate justice. Since 1971, Public Advocates has focused on “making rights real” across California by collaborating with grassroots groups representing people of color, immigrants and low-income individuals to achieve strategic policy reform, enforce civil rights, and support movement-building.

Legal Clerkship Program

Our Legal Clerkship Program exposes students to the diverse strategies of our impact work in an environment designed to help them develop as public interest attorneys. Each law clerk is assigned to a supervising attorney on one of our two teams (Education Equity or Metropolitan Equity) who has primary responsibility for giving constructive feedback in a positive learning environment.

Law clerks on the Education Equity Team support attorneys in K-12 and Higher Education advocacy in partnership with community-based organizations. Examples of cases and campaigns include legal advocacy to defund school police, enforcement actions to hold districts accountable for transparent and equitable budgeting, and enforcement actions to hold community colleges accountable for remedial education reform.
Law clerks on the Metropolitan Equity Team (Housing Justice and Transit Justice) support attorneys and community groups to win investment and development that meets the needs of the region’s low-income residents and workers. Public Advocates, along with our community, regional, and statewide partners, works to secure more affordable housing, robust and affordable local transit service, investment without displacement, healthy and safe communities, and greater power for low-income communities of color in local and regional decision-making. Examples of our work include campaigns and coalition work that aim to create more homes that families can afford and more protections for tenants facing rising rents.

Law clerk duties may include legal and policy research and writing, drafting legal and policy memos and reports, client communication and leadership development, community training and resource development, coalition-building, and data analysis. In addition to providing substantive legal advocacy experience, the Legal Clerkship Program includes brown bag sessions, visits with legislative and state leadership in Sacramento, team-building events, meetings with community partners, and more activities intended to complement the day-to-day work of our law clerks.

We value applicants with a demonstrated commitment to public interest work.

The summer program begins the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Summer clerks commit to working full-time for 10 weeks (Monday through Friday, 7.5 hours/day).

Public Advocates currently has a hybrid schedule and we expect all of our clerks to be able to commit to working at least part time for 10 weeks in Public Advocates’ San Francisco or Sacramento offices, with the acknowledgement that this could change if COVID-19 levels increase.

Living Allowance

Public Advocates provides a $3,000 living allowance (subject to taxes) to each summer clerk who commits to and completes a 10-week internship. The allowance can be used to supplement any additional outside funding law clerks may receive.

How to Apply

Applicants should provide a cover letter explaining:

Your specific interests and qualifications (please do not simply recap your résumé);
Your experiences and commitment to working with low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrant communities;
Your reasons for applying to Public Advocates;
Your preference (if any) for placement with our Education Equity or Metropolitan Equity Teams; and
Your preference (if any) for placement in our San Francisco or Sacramento offices.

In addition, include a résumé, writing sample and list of references.

Send your materials in one PDF or Word attachment to our Legal Clerkship Program at lawclerks@publicadvocates.org.

We are currently accepting applications and plan to finalize our class by the end of February, 2025.

Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship

Public Advocates and the Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA) are proud to announce the seventh annual Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship opportunity for law students committed to advancing the legal and policy priorities of low-income African American communities in the Bay Area. The Arc of Justice Fellowship is a collaboration between Public Advocates and CHBA to help increase the number of law students of color who pursue careers in public interest law. The Arc of Justice Fellow will receive an additional summer stipend of $3,000.

Diversity Commitment

Public Advocates is committed to fostering a diverse staff and diversity in the legal profession. We encourage all interested individuals to apply — especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color; women; people from low-income backgrounds; people with disabilities; people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; and anyone belonging to any other federal or state protected category. Read our Diversity Vision Statement.