The program seeks to admit students who are committed to pursuing long-term careers in public interest advocacy.

In reviewing applications, we are interested in students who represent a broad range of backgrounds, are pursuing a diversity of public interest practice areas, and are motivated to explore the many different forms of lawyering and advocacy that are part of public interest practice. The Program values demonstrated commitment to public interest work, including through activities before law school as indicated in the applicant’s job history, extracurricular activities, and academic pursuits. The majority of the students admitted to the program as 1Ls have meaningful post-college public interest work experience, though we recognize that financial circumstances may limit some applicants’ abilities to participate in unpaid or lower paid activities. We look for evidence of personal qualities conducive to public interest advocacy, such as leadership, persistence, initiative, and resilience. In addition, we value special abilities or experience that enable the students to serve underrepresented groups and communities, including insights into community needs, cultural familiarity, or language skills.

We seek students who are intellectually curious and eager to learn the broad range of skills needed to address the world’s most pressing problems. We welcome applicants who already feel committed to a certain area of public interest practice or working on behalf of specific communities, as well as those who open to exploring and do not definitively know what kind of law they plan to practice or what kind of lawyer they plan to be.

The program is quite competitive – for the JD Class of 2028, we received over 1300 applications. For each incoming 1L JD class, we create a cohort of 25 students. JD students at UCLA Law can also apply to join the Epstein Program at the end of their first year, as can students applying to transfer to UCLA Law. In recent years, the Epstein Program has admitted 20-25 JD students to join the program in their second year. We also have several LLM students apply to join the specialization each year as well. All of these students become valued members of our student and alumni community.

If you are interested in applying to the Program as a first-year student, you must follow the J.D. application procedures and complete and submit the specific Program application. The Epstein Program application is included in the general J.D. application.

If you are interested in applying to the program as a transfer student from another law school, you must follow the J.D. transfer application procedures and complete and submit the specific program application. The Epstein Program application is included in the general J.D. application.

If you are a first-year student at UCLA School of Law, you also may seek to transfer into the program. The program holds a Transfer Information Session for current first-year students during the spring semester, and the application deadline typically falls before finals during the spring semester.

The School of Law’s LL.M. Program itself allows students to pursue a specialized LLM degree, including one in public interest. If you are interested in applying to the Program as an LL.M., you must follow the LL.M. application procedures and complete and submit the specific Program application.

In order to apply to the Epstein Program, you must submit short answers to the following questions (no more than 500 words for each question, though more succinct answers are also welcome).

1) The Epstein Program specifically seeks to educate and support students who have a lifetime commitment to addressing historic and systemic inequities. In your opinion, what is one of the biggest problems facing our world today? How would participation in the Epstein Program support your development and enable you to address this problem? (We are not asking applicants to commit to a particular area of law to address the problem that they identify. Rather, we are curious to know how you view the world's problems and how you hope to address them.)

2) The Epstein Program also seeks to support students who already have had significant volunteer, work, or life experiences that inform their commitment to addressing historic and systemic inequities. How does your experience and background (professional, personal, or both) support your public interest career goals?

In reviewing your application, the Epstein Program's Admissions Committee will review your entire application file. Please be sure to include in your résumé all of your significant past public interest activities, including paid public interest work and volunteer opportunities. In addition, it will strengthen your application if at least one of your law school letters of recommendation discusses your personal qualities, skills, and accomplishments relevant to your public interest commitment and future career goals.

The School of Law’s Office of Financial Aid and the Office of Admissions administer financial assistance programs for incoming law students, including need-based aid and merit-based scholarships, as well as provides information on external sources of scholarships, grants, and other financial assistance.  

Summer Public Service Fellowship Program

UCLA School of Law maintains one of the most generous law school programs to support students who engage in otherwise unpaid public interest work during the summer. The School of Law’s Summer Public Service Fellowship Program provides stipends to eligible students engaged in substantive, law-related public interest summer employment under the supervision of a legal professional in a nonprofit or government setting domestically or abroad. In summer 2019, more than 200 students received stipends to work with more than 100 diverse organizations and agencies.  The Program is administered by the School of Law’s Office of Public Interest Programs.

Additional School of Law Affiliated Funding Programs

The Office of Public Interest Programs also administers a number of additional funding sources supported by donors. An example is the Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship, which honors United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and supports two students engaged in otherwise unpaid summer work that promotes the public interest and social justice values that have characterized the work and career of Justice Stevens.

Independently or in coordination with the Office of Public Interest Programs, various School of Law Centers, Institutes and Programs also provide financial support to students engaged in summer public interest work in a substantive area of practice aligned with the mission of the specific Center, Institute or Program.

External Fellowships and Grants

There also exists an array of external fellowships and grants to support students working in a public interest capacity during the summer. The Office of Public Interest Programs provides guidance on how to research and apply for these external opportunities.  

Post-Graduate Public Service Fellowships

The School of Law’s Post-Graduate Public Service Fellowships provide one-year stipends for graduating students who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to public service, enabling them to work with a variety of nonprofit organizations and government agencies, both domestically and abroad.

Community Economic Development Fellowship

The School of Law’s Community Economic Development Fellowship provides an opportunity for a graduate to pursue transactional legal work that advances the goals of community economic development in Los Angeles. The fellowship term is one year.

Gideon Fellowship

The School of Law’s Gideon Fellowship, the first fellowship of its kind in the country, is a partnership between the School of Law, Gideon’s Promise – a trailblazing organization that trains and places new law graduates and law students in southern public defender offices, and six public defender offices in the South. Beginning with the graduating class of 2014, one School of Law graduate has been selected as the Gideon Fellow, serving as a public defender with one of the School’s many public defender partner organizations and receiving training and mentorship from Gideon’s Promise. At the end of the one-year Fellowship term, the Fellow will move into a full-time permanent position as a staff public defender with the partner public defender office and continue to receive training and mentorship from Gideon’s Promise.

School of Law New Graduate Opportunity Fellowships

Administered by the Office of Career Services, the New Graduate Opportunity Fellowship funds part-time, temporary work with nonprofit organizations and government agencies after recent graduates have taken the bar exam. Participating graduates have a unique opportunity to further build their resume and to enhance their legal skills while awaiting Bar results.

External Fellowships

Working closely with the Office of Public Interest Programs, UCLA Law students have successfully developed innovative post-graduate projects addressing the legal needs of underrepresented and impoverished communities, and a number of UCLA Law graduates have secured competitive public interest fellowships including those awarded by the Skadden Foundation, Justice Catalyst, and Equal Justice Works.  Students also consult with OPIP to compete for public service opportunities, including government honors programs.

The School of Law maintains a competitive Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for graduates working in the public interest. Under the School’s LRAP, administered by the Office of Financial Aid, graduates can apply to have a portion – and in some cases all – of the debt service on loans they incurred while at the School of Law subject to a forgivable loan from the School.

The School’s LRAP is coordinated with the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and the Direct Loan Program’s income driven repayment options, enabling the School to enhance its LRAP benefits.

The Program strives to provide an innovative and intellectually ambitious curriculum that trains students to engage in sophisticated representation of traditionally underrepresented individuals, communities and interests while utilizing a range of problem-solving tools. Thus, Program students are required to satisfy the general requirements for a J.D. degree while also satisfying the Program’s specific curricular requirements.

The Program curriculum is intended both to address fundamental questions about public interest lawyering that affect all areas of practice and to allow students to pursue a curricular path tailored to their individual interests and career goals. The Program curricular requirements include a first-year seminar, a special section of the first-year Lawyering Skills course, a second-year “problem solving” seminar, an additional four advanced courses from a designated menu of courses, and a writing requirement.

Program students also have ample opportunity to select from the general School of Law curriculum courses that relate to their public interest orientation and goals, as well as to enroll in other academic specializations and pursue joint degrees.

LAW 150 - FIRST YEAR EPSTEIN PROGRAM WORKSHOP

The First Year Epstein Program Workshop is designed to provide students with an overview of public interest practice. Through readings, guest speakers, and class discussion, students gain familiarity with the different substantive areas of public interest law, organizational settings for public interest practice, and modes of public interest advocacy. In addition, students are introduced to the faculty of the Epstein Program as well as influential public interest practitioners, many of whom are Epstein Program alumni. Students participate in group activities to foster and build a strong sense of community and further strengthen our Epstein Program public interest network.

LAW 108 A/B, Section P: LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING

The Legal Research and Writing course teaches students enrolled in the Epstein Program foundational lawyering skills necessary for success as a lawyer in a public interest setting. During this year-long course, students are introduced to the client-centered approach to lawyering, which teaches that the client’s perspective is front and center in the lawyering project. Students learn legal reasoning, basic legal research methods, the structure of persuasive arguments, the fundamentals of written analysis, and oral advocacy, all in the context of public interest practice. The course also supports the development of public interest leadership by fostering a safe and collaborative environment within the first-year curriculum to learn practice-oriented skills that will anchor and strengthen the public service careers of Epstein Program students. The class is taught by a Legal Research and Writing professor with training and background in public interest and social justice lawyering.

LAW 541: PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

This seminar focuses on public interest lawyering through a close analysis of case studies and the discussion of recurring issues in public interest practice. In this course, students explore social problems from a number of different perspectives, highlighting the many different ways of solving problems of the sort public interest lawyers confront. The seminar covers questions of how public interest problems come to be framed; how clients, lawyers and their allies think about problem-solving strategies; and how public interest lawyers use different modes of advocacy to address problems. Students in this seminar complete an individual paper project that addresses a real world problem and incorporates the modes of advocacy studied in the course.