UCLA 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’s Summer Public Service Fellowship Program, administered by the Office of Public Interest Programs, provides stipends to all 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.

The Office of Public Interest Programs also oversees a number of additional funding opportunities supported by donors. An example is the Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship, which honors U.S. 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 characterized the work and career of Justice Stevens.

Independently or in coordination with the Office of Public Interest Programs, various UCLA 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.

An array of external fellowships and grants also support students working in a public interest capacity during the summer. The Office of Public Interest Programs maintains information on these funding opportunities and helps students identify and apply for these opportunities.

The School of Law’s Public Service Fellowship Program seeks to support 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.

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 and the fellowship placement alternates annually between the community economic development units of Public Counsel Law Center and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

UCLA Law’s Gideon Fellowship, the first fellowship of its kind in the country, is a partnership between UCLA 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. One UCLA Law graduate is selected each year as the Gideon Fellow, serving as a public defender with one of the school’s six 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.

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

A range of funding opportunities is available through postgraduate fellowships and government honors programs to support graduating law students, judicial clerks and public interest entrepreneurs seeking entry- and mid-level public interest opportunities. Working closely with the Office of Public Interest Programs, our students have been very successful in securing these exceptionally competitive opportunities.

UCLA 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 UCLA Law subject to a forgivable loan from the school.