Summer Internship Program
Program Information
Every year, the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School accepts applications from law student and undergraduate candidates to serve as interns during the summer.
Our 2026 summer program runs from Monday, June 1 to Friday, August 7. (Note: on a case-by-case basis, we will also consider proposals for split-summers and summer schedules that begin before and/or end after the formal summer program.)
Located at the crossroads of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, the Legal Services Center is Harvard Law School’s largest clinical placement, housing multiple clinics and providing direct legal services to hundreds of low-and-moderate income residents in the Greater Boston area each year. Our longstanding mission is to educate law students for practice and professional service while simultaneously meeting the critical legal needs of the community.
Law student summer interns will work in one of the following clinical areas:
- Safety Net Project
- Veterans Justice Project
LSC’s student interns are supervised and mentored by experienced clinical instructors. Law student interns conduct interviews with potential clients seeking advice or assistance; counsel and advise clients; engage in investigation and formal discovery; develop case strategies; prepare pleadings for courts or petitions to administrative agencies; and research case-specific legal issues. Some law student interns appear before courts on contested motions, preliminary matters or assist in a trial; others represent clients before administrative agencies. Undergraduate interns experience a range of opportunities supporting Clinical Instructors and law student interns with client cases, and engaging in independent work on behalf of clients. Our summer program is also structured to include multiple learning and training opportunities, including weekly speaker events, ethics training, community partner site visits and guest presenters. Overall, all interns are provided with a singular opportunity to engage in mentored hands-on learning, to develop and practice new legal skills, and to interact with diverse client communities through immersion in the work of a community-based civil legal services office.
In addition to gaining practical lawyering skills, an internship at LSC provides students with a superb opportunity to explore Boston.
Funding
Internships are unpaid, but are eligible for public interest fellowship sponsorship, including through SPIF (Harvard Law School students only) and EJA. We would be pleased to work with applicants to provide sponsorship for other summer public interest funding. LSC provides a modest one-time stipend to all summer interns; in recent years, the stipend amount has been ~$600.
To Apply
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. To apply, please submit (1) a resume, (2) a cover letter that identifies your top two practice-area preferences from our clinical offerings list, and (3) a writing sample.
Submit your application materials here.
Undergraduate Summer Internship Positions
LSC also welcomes college students and recent college graduates to apply for summer internship positions. Interns are unpaid, but are welcome to seek funding from their schools or other sources. These positions entail assisting clinical professors and instructors, legal fellows, and law student interns in representing and advising low-income clients in one or several substantive areas of public interest law practice. Tasks typically include assisting with or conducting: client intakes, legal research, court records searches and filings, client correspondence, case memoranda, and record keeping. Undergraduate interns are invited to attend all of the LSC summer internship programming and events. Again, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.
Clinics accepting applications for undergraduate/recent graduate internships are:
- Veterans Justice Project
Candidates can apply by submitting (1) a resume, (2) a writing sample of 500 words or fewer, and (3) a cover letter that states that you are a college student or recent college graduate applicant and that identifies your top two practice-area preferences from the above list. Submit your application materials here.
For general program inquiries please contact: [email protected]