This summer, 71 Vanderbilt Law students are working for legal employers in 15 states, Washington, D.C., and for legal nonprofits in London, U.K., The Hague, Netherlands, and Kyiv, Ukraine. The students receive stipend support to help defray their living expenses or earn course credit for their unpaid legal work with a variety of government and nonprofit legal employers.
Students who do not earn course credit for their unpaid legal work receive financial support through summer stipends provided by Vanderbilt Law School; the Law and Economics Program; the Law School Environmental Fellowship Fund; the Law and Government Program; the Starrett Family Fund; the Sally Shallenberger Brown Fund; the Legal Aid Society Public Interest Stipend Fund; the Victor S. (Torry) Johnson Stipend Fund; the Riley Public Interest Fund; the George Barrett Social Justice Program; the Hyatt Public Service Grant Fund; the Henriksen Charitable Trust Fellowship; the Damali Booker Stipend Fund; the Edward Rubin Public Interest Fund; the Arterberry Family Fund; the Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program; the Law and Government Program; the Garrison Social Justice Law Fund; the Nichols Humanitarian Fund; the Koch Criminal Justice Fellowship; and the Dean’s Leadership Program. These stipends help defray the living expenses of students working in unpaid legal positions with government or nonprofit organizations.
Fifty-five students are receiving stipend support this summer, and 16 students are earning course credit for their unpaid legal work.
“Every summer, our stipend funds enable students to gain substantive work experience while serving in unpaid positions in judicial chambers and law offices throughout the nation and abroad. Many students discover the career path they want to pursue after graduation while working as legal interns,” said Associate Dean for Experiential Education Susan Kay, who administers Vanderbilt’s summer stipend programs. “Some students opt to earn course credit for their unpaid legal work instead of receiving a stipend.”
Vanderbilt Law students are working for the following legal employers this summer, either with stipend support or for course credit:
Federal District Courts
- Judge William M. Ray, Northern District of Georgia
- Judge John Kness, Northern District of Illinois
- Chief Judge Sara L. Darrow, Central District of Illinois
- Judge Edmond E. Chang, Northern District of Illinois
- Judge Sheila Finnegan, Northern District of Illinois
- Northern District of Illinois
- Southern District of New York
- Judge Curtis Collier, Eastern District of Tennessee
- Judge Alistair Newbern, Middle District of Tennessee
- Judge Eli Richardson ’92, Middle District of Tennessee
Federal Bankruptcy Courts
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California
U.S. Attorneys’ Offices
- District of South Carolina
- Eastern District of Tennessee
- Middle District of Tennessee
Federal Agencies
- Federal Communications Commission, Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, Policy & Licensing Division, Washington, D.C.
- Federal Communication Commission, Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, Office of the Bureau Chief, Washington, D.C.
- Federal Communication Commission, Washington, D.C.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel, Juneau, Alaska
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, San Francisco
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Nashville
- U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, Washington, D.C.
- U.S. Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Washington, D.C.
- U.S. Department of State, Office of Legal Advisor, Washington, D.C.
Federal Defenders
- Federal Public Defender, Capital Habeas Unit, Nashville
- Federal Public Defender, Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville
U.S. Senate
- Alex Padilla, Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington, D.C.
State Agencies
- Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, Nashville
- Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, Williamson County
- Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Nashville
State Attorneys General
- California Office of the Attorney General, San Francisco
State Attorneys
- Cook County Department of Corrections, Chicago
State Courts
- Tennessee Supreme Court, Memphis
- North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh
- Cobb County State Court, Marietta, Georgia
- Judge Leslie C. Shively, Vanderburgh Superior Court, Evanston, Indiana
- Judge Stanley Kweller, 20th Judicial District Court, Nashville
District Attorneys
- Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, California
- Office of the District Attorney, Nashville
Public Defenders
- Office of the Public Defender, Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas, Little Rock
- Georgia Public Defender Council, Atlanta
- Allegheny County Public Defender, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, Nashville
- Nashville Defenders, Tennessee
- Dallas County Public Defenders, Texas
Municipal Law Departments
- Metro Nashville Law Department, Tennessee
Corporate Law Offices
- Porsche Cars North America, Atlanta
- Vanderbilt University Office of the General Counsel
Nonprofit Legal Organizations
- American Bar Association Center for Human Rights
- CASA Immigration of Maryland, Baltimore
- Choosing Justice Initiative, Nashville
- Disability Rights Tennessee, Nashville
- Harpeth Conservancy, Nashville
- Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Legal Services Alabama, Montgomery
- Nashville Conflict Resolution Center, Tennessee
- Queens Legal Services, New York
- Tennessee Justice Center
International
- Global Rights Compliance, The Hague, Netherlands
- Guernica 37 Chambers, London, U.K.
- Hellen Duffey Law Firm, The Hague, Netherlands
- U.S. Agency for International Development, Kyiv, Ukraine
