Summer Law Clerk - Women & Survivors Project

The Illinois Prison Project (IPP) is a nonprofit organization in Chicago that seeks to reduce mass incarceration by providing legal services to individuals incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. We focus on novel and creative approaches to prison reduction including mass commutation campaigns, sentence restructuring, public education, and advocacy.

IPP’s Women & Survivors Project (WSP) provides direct representation to incarcerated gender-based violence survivors whose crimes were related to surviving abuse. At least three-quarters of women in Illinois prisons have survived domestic abuse and nearly all have experienced some form of gender-based violence. The WSP works to free incarcerated survivors who have acted in defense of themselves or their children or were forced or coerced to participate in crimes committed by abusive partners through clemency, resentencing, and other legal mechanisms.

The WSP is looking to hire a summer law clerk to focus on client representation. The law clerk will work alongside attorneys to provide legal services to incarcerated clients. The law clerk will communicate with clients and their families; gather, summarize, and analyze court documents, medical records, and other documents; conduct legal research; and prepare commutation, resentencing, and/or post-conviction petitions on behalf of client(s). The law clerk may have an opportunity to visit prisons and/or criminal court. Successful applicants will be asked to pursue school funding if available, and if not available or not sufficient, IPP commits to funding all law clerk positions at a rate comparable to $15.80 per hour and with the expectation of working 36 hours per week during the summer. The law clerk must be located in Chicago during their internship. The law clerk should plan to be in-person, particularly on Tuesdays, and can also work remotely on some days. IPP requires all team members to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Proof of vaccination will be required.

Responsibilities

• Assist in representation of currently incarcerated survivors, including editing and drafting individualized commutation and resentencing petitions;
• Review, summarize, and analyze documents including trial and appellate court records, civil cases related to clients’ experiences with abuse, medical records, and other documents related to clients’ cases;
• Conduct legal research in the area of criminal law and academic research on trauma and gender-based violence;
• Draft memorandum on research topics as assigned;
• Communicate directly with clients by mail, phone, and when possible in-person;
• Build release plans for currently incarcerated people, including placement, medical benefits, and employment;
• Provide support for other legal programming; and
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits of Internship

• Visibility into the operations of an impactful legal aid organization;
• Mentorship from organization staff;
• Development of hands-on legal skills;
• Development of research, writing, and communication skills; and
• Experience in an underdeveloped and underrepresented area of law.

Qualifications

• Current enrollment in an ABA accredited law school (i.e., have completed 1L, 2L, and/or 3L years by summer of 2025);
• Previous experience conducting legal research in an academic and/or non-academic environment;
• Interest in the intersection between social justice and the law;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; and
• Passion for transferring legal knowledge to clients, challenging the systemic inequities that survivors and incarcerated people face, and combatting the ways those inequities show up in practice within the attorney/client relationship.
• Additionally, we highly value prior professional and/or lived experience related to defense-side criminal legal work or incarceration, gender-based violence, community violence, and/or trauma-informed or anti-violence work.

How to Apply

Submit a resume (with pronouns listed, if you’re comfortable doing so), cover letter, and 5-10 page writing sample via email to hiring@illinoisprisonproject.org with “WSP Summer Law Clerk” in the subject line. No phone calls will be accepted.

Rolling applications accepted until January 15, 2025.