Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) fights poverty and seeks racial, social and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. For over 50 years, we have challenged systemic injustices that trap people in poverty and provided legal services that help our clients meet basic needs for housing, income and economic security, family and immigration stability, education, and health care.
LSNYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country; our staff of more than 600 people in neighborhood-based offices and outreach sites across all five boroughs helps hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers annually. We partner with scores of community-based and client-run organizations, elected officials, public agencies, pro bono lawyers, and the courts to maximize our effectiveness. Our work fights discrimination and helps to achieve equity for all low-income New Yorkers.
LSNYC employees have numerous opportunities for growth and professional development, including access to our internal Justice Learning Center, which provides opportunities to earn free CLEs and gain experience as a trainer. Further, LSNYC prides itself on its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) efforts and aims to create a work environment where everyone can bring their full selves to the work.
All non-managerial staff at LSNYC are part of one union and enjoy a generous benefits and compensation package, including exceptional healthcare, dental insurance, a vision plan, 21 vacation days per year (increasing to 28 days after the first year), 18 sick days per year, and a Loan Repayment Assistance Program. LSNYC staff can work remotely up to 50% of the time, job duties permitting.
Bronx Legal Services seeks applicants to sponsor for a Skadden, Equal Justice Works, or Kirkland & Ellis Fellowship beginning Fall 2025.
Our Organization:
Bronx Legal Services, the Bronx office of Legal Services NYC, is the largest provider of free civil legal services in the borough, and one of the largest single legal services offices in New York City. Our mission is to advance society's promise to its most vulnerable members that all are entitled to equal access to justice through our legal system.
The Fellowship:
Applicants must be a law school graduate at the time the fellowship commences. Your application must include a detailed project proposal, which fits within one of the priority areas discussed below. Additional application requirements are discussed below. Specifically, we are seeking fellowship applicants for our Community Neighborhood Stabilization, Education, LGBTQ Advocacy, Public Benefits and Universal Access to Counsel (“UAC”) Projects.
Our Education Unit advocates on behalf of students with disabilities, and addresses the schools to prison pipeline through individual case advocacy, policy work, community education, and addressing individual and community trauma by fostering the development of Healing-Centered Schools. We have a focus in our practice on students with emotional and behavioral needs who have been suspended, removed by EMS or pushed out of their school setting. We have spearheaded and continue to play a leading role in the Healing Centered Schools Working Group (https://www.legalservicesnyc.org/what-we-do/practiceareas-and-projects/access-to-education/community-roadmap-to-healing-centered-schools). We are also involved in advocating for reforms integrating a trauma-informed lens into IEP development, and making sure parents and students are aware of their rights. Our day-to-day work includes special education and school discipline advocacy, including representation of students with disabilities in impartial hearings and school suspension matters. The Unit is interested in working with a potential Fellow to create a Project around the work of our Unit.
Our Public Benefits Unit represents clients challenging denials, reductions, and terminations of public assistance, Medicaid, home care, and SNAP benefits. Our unit also prioritizes cases involving access to Medicaid health insurance and home care services so older persons and people with disabilities of all ages can age in place at home and avoid institutionalization. We represent clients in administrative Fair Hearings and appeals in Supreme Court Article 78 proceedings. We also pursue affirmative litigation to challenge systemic barriers that prevent or limit access to benefits by working people, the disabled, and individuals requiring language access. We have a medical-legal partnership with a community health center in the Bronx and provide technical assistance to a group of 12 different community-based organizations on benefits issues through a program called NYCBenefits.
Our LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project handles individual cases and identifies systemic issues affecting these communities. We handle a wide variety of matters in a general practice model including immigration, public benefits, family, divorce, domestic/intimate partner violence, health, and education matters. We also represent clients on discrimination claims before the Commission on Human Rights. Our Project coordinates with LSNYC's Citywide LGBTQ+ Project and works closely with CBOs throughout the City who work with LGBTQ‐identified people. Our Neighborhood Stabilization Project—is a combined practice unit that provides direct legal representation to individual homeowners on a wide range of foreclosure related issues and provides transactional legal counsel to underserved groups in the borough such as not-for-profit organizations, low-income housing cooperatives, and small businesses. Our work with distressed homeowners focuses on home retention solutions that include assistance with mortgage defaults, common charge arrears, property tax and water liens. We also represent homeowners victimized by predatory lending and deed theft scams. We seek to ameliorate the damage wrought in the borough from predatory lending and housing discrimination, preserve homeownership and retain wealth within the community in the form of home equity. We also work to fortify historically marginalized communities by assisting with corporate formation, tax-exempt status, commercial leases, and representation in special financing transactions with governmental authorities with the goal in mind of preserving affordable housing, expanding economic opportunities to communities of color, and protecting the diversity of the neighborhoods we serve.
Our Universal Access to Counsel (UAC) Project represents individuals facing eviction, primarily in Bronx Housing Court. UAC attorneys litigate cases in housing court, administrative forums, appellate courts, and other state and federal courts on behalf of people facing eviction. Attorneys also litigate affirmative cases challenging agencies and actors who threaten Bronx residents’ ability to obtain and retain affordable housing.
Interested individuals should send a complete application package that contains:
- a cover letter detailing your project proposal,
- a resume,
- two recent writing samples, and
- three references with full names, titles, phone numbers, and email addresses.
We will only review complete applications. Please submit it to: Sylvia Figueroa, Email: sfigueroa@lsnyc.org The e-mail should include “Bronx 2025 Fellowship” in the subject line.
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. We encourage potential candidates to apply as soon as possible. We will stop reviewing applications once we have selected a candidate for our organization to sponsor. We will only contact those candidates whom we are offering an interview. Please no telephone calls.
Bronx Legal Services is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and people over age 40 are all welcomed and encouraged to apply
Legal Services NYC is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, people over 40, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are strongly encouraged to apply.
