Intern, Housing Law Unit (Summer 2027)

Legal Aid DC; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 54,000 - 89,000; Full time

Job summary

Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit organization serving the District, seeks a Summer Intern for the Housing Law Unit. The internship runs 10 weeks in Summer 2027, typically 40 hours/week, primarily at the NW DC office with possible remote work if approved.

Interns contribute to Eviction Defense and Affordable Housing Preservation projects under attorney supervision. Open to current law students or graduates interested in public interest and housing law, with opportunities to draft pleadings, engage in

Qualifications

• Current law student or graduate interested in public interest or housing law.
• Demonstrated interest in housing or public-interest legal work.
• Strong research and writing abilities.

Responsibilities

• Perform legal and factual research
• Draft pleadings, motions, reasonable accommodation requests, client correspondence, and other forms of legal writing
• Observe/shadow/take notes for court or administrative hearings
• Conduct or assist intakes and follow up interviews with applicants
• Assist with preparing for and conducting client meetings
• Assist with hearing preparation, including drafting hearing outlines and preparing witnesses and exhibits
• Assist with discovery process, including drafting requests and responses, gathering information from clients, and drafting correspondence or motions to compel discovery
• Assist with L&T courthouse project
• Attend housing unit meetings, skills workshops, Legal Aid staff meetings

Skills

Legal research

Legal writing

Court observation

Client intake

Education

Law student

Tools

Westlaw

LexisNexis

Job description

Description

Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit organization with an approximately $18 million annual budget and a staff of approximately 125 employees, is seeking a Summer Intern to join our Housing Law Unit.

Since 1932, Legal Aid has provided civil legal assistance to clients in individual cases and engaged in systemic reform. Currently, we provide individual representation in consumer law, domestic violence/family law, housing, public benefits, and immigration matters. We also help people with the collateral consequences of their involvement with the criminal justice system. From the experiences of our clients, we identify opportunities for law reform, public policy advocacy, and systemic impact and appellate litigation. Legal Aid also administers the DC Resource Bridge, a single access point for legal services in the District.

Legal Aid believes that meaningful pursuit of our anti-poverty mission requires an unwavering commitment to racial justice and equity. We aspire both to reflect the rich racial diversity of the communities we serve and to value, respect, and empower our staff and clients to be effective agents of change. For more information about Legal Aid please visit our website, www.LegalAidDC.org.

Our work is supported through public and private grants and private fundraising from individuals, law firms, and other contributors.

Interns at Legal Aid DC have the unique opportunity to receive substantive assignments that will have an immediate impact on our clients.This internship is forSummer 2027and will be 10 weeks in duration. Summer interns should expect to work full-time (40 hours per week). Interns mainly work out of Legal Aid’s NW DC office, with the option to perform some work remotely if approved by their supervisor. Summer interns may be required to perform duties off site, and will be required to travel locally for summer programming events.

The summerterm is from May 27th through August 6th.

The staff in our Housing Unit work at Legal Aid’s central office, our community office in Southeast DC, and our court-based office in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the DC Superior Court. Staff work primarily on two projects: an Eviction Defense Project, which provides advice, brief services, and limited and extended representation to low-income tenants facing eviction or at risk of eviction; and an Affordable Housing Preservation Project, which seeks to preserve and expand safe and affordable housing for low-income District residents through building-wide legal representation. The intern will report to a staff attorney in the Housing unit.

Responsibilities:

• Perform legal and factual research
• Draft pleadings, motions, reasonable accommodation requests, client correspondence, and other forms of legal writing
• Observe/shadow/take notes for court or administrative hearings
• Conduct or assist intakes and follow up interviews with applicants
• Assist with preparing for and conducting client meetings
• Assist with hearing preparation, including drafting hearing outlines and preparing witnesses and exhibits
• Assist with discovery process, including drafting requests and responses, gathering information from clients, and drafting correspondence or motions to compel discovery
• Assist with L&T courthouse project
• Attend housing unit meetings, skills workshops, Legal Aid staff meetings

Scholarship Funding:

Legal Aid DC can provide scholarship funding to ensure that summer law students receive no less than $6,440 per summer, including scholarships from the Lee Horton Memorial Scholarship for Aspiring Public Interest Lawyers.

Summer law students are required to apply for outside funding to fund their internships in order to receive supplemental scholarship funding. We will provide a scholarship of up to $6,440 to summer law school interns when:

• They attend a school that does not provide funding OR they are not approved for at least $6,440 of funding from their schools

AND

• They do not get funding from any other outside sources that gets them to total funding of $6,440 for the summer

Example: if a student receives $5,000 of outside funding, Legal Aid will pay them $1,440 in scholarship funding.

Students may waive funding if they are prohibited from receiving renumeration by their law school.

Requirements

Current law school student or graduate interested in public interest and or housing law.