Fellow in Washington, District of Columbia at Childrens Law Center

Call for Fellowship Applications for Fall 2027

Children’s Law Center (CLC) seeks applicants to sponsor as candidates for Equal Justice Works, Skadden or other privately funded public service fellowships beginning in September 2027. The Fellow will work with CLC’s Families Together and Special Legal Projects teams to support parents with disabilities to provide a stable family, quality education, and healthy home for their child. The project will include both supporting disabled parents in individual cases to prevent (further) child welfare system involvement with Families Together and upstream advocacy through targeted cases with Special Legal Projects. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and must be submitted no later than August 5, 2026.

Children’s Law Center is a mission-driven organization focused on providing high-quality legal services to children and families in DC. As an organization, we envision a world in which all children have a strong foundation of family, health and education and are free from poverty, trauma, racism and other forms of oppression. Our mission is to do this work together with DC children and families, Children’s Law Center uses the law to solve children’s urgent problems today, improve the systems that will affect their lives tomorrow and strengthen our community so that change endures. A key part of our mission is to challenge and reduce ways in which racism and other biases – structural and interpersonal – prevent each of us, our organization and the systems in which we work from providing children a strong foundation from which to thrive.

Our greatest assets are our people. We recognize that people with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives fuel our ability to provide the best outcomes for our clients and our community. Staff members at Children’s Law Center advance the organization’s mission through their leadership, result-oriented mindset and commitment to cultural humility. We are looking for individuals who like to be challenged to grow both personally and professionally and value the opportunity to make a difference in their community. Children's Law Center's continued success depends on recruiting and retaining individuals who possess and exemplify these attributes.

Families Together supports pregnant persons, parents and caregivers in achieving their goals for their families, with the long-term outcome of mitigating the risk of child welfare involvement and ensuring children can remain safely at home. To reach families, Children’s Law Center partners with community-based organizations, the Court, and governmental agencies that share our commitment to strengthening DC families impacted by poverty.

Special Legal Projects expands CLC’s legal tools to include other forms of innovative healthy housing advocacy and collaborations, impact litigation and new approaches to working toward a future where every child can grow up with a strong foundation of family, health and education and live in a world free from poverty, trauma, racism and other forms of oppression.

CLC seeks applicants to sponsor as candidates for Equal Justice Works, Skadden or other privately funded public service fellowships beginning in September 2027. This is an exciting opportunity for individuals interested in providing legal advocacy and support to low-income parents with disabilities at risk of involvement with the child welfare system. In addition, the Fellow will work to address other legal needs in the areas of disability rights, education/special education, mental health needs and healthy housing matters so as to provide more holistic legal services to the families we serve.

CLC invites law students, recent law school graduates and those with judicial clerkships to apply for sponsorship and propose a creative and impactful fellowship project for the two-year period beginning in September 2027.

CLC is looking for project proposals that focus on strategies to support parents with disabilities who are in danger of involvement with the child welfare system through both individual support and upstream litigation. Upstream litigation could include focusing on lack of supports to parents anywhere in the system. Once selected, the candidate will work closely with CLC staff to fully develop the project proposal. Candidates who are awarded fellowships will be expected to develop expertise in Families Together’s direct services practice areas, provide or support provision of direct legal services to clients including advice, brief service and extended representation, participate in and develop community outreach and education opportunities, and when applicable, contribute to upstream systemic work, including supporting CLC’s efforts to utilize impact litigation strategies to improve outcomes for DC children and families.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and must be submitted no later than August 5, 2026. To apply, please submit a resume and brief description (no more than one page) of a project proposal via CLC's careers page (https://childrenslawcenter.org/get-involved/careers/). The resume and project proposal should be uploaded as one PDF file. The project proposal must be related supporting parents with disabilities. If you don’t have a particular proposal in mind, please describe your interest, knowledge and experience in working on these legal issues.

As a part of the application, you will also be asked to provide contact information for three professional references and describe your interest and experience in public interest and legal services, particularly any experience or knowledge of disability law and/or work in child welfare.

Children’s Law Center is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. If you believe that you need accommodation to search for, or apply for, one of our positions please send an email to Jobs@ChildrensLawCenter.org. In your email, please include the accommodation you are requesting and the job title you are applying for. It may take up to three business days to receive a response to your request.

This position may require work on-site in community health clinics. Clinics require that Children's Law Center's employees working on-site receive the COVID-19 vaccine and all eligible booster shots or be granted medical or religious exemption from the mandate. Individuals in this role must be fully vaccinated, including all eligible booster shots, prior to their first day or have applied for and received medical or religious exemption.

Children’s Law Center is currently operating on a hybrid work schedule. Employees are required to work in-person from Children’s Law Center’s office a minimum of two days per week. At least one of these days must be either Tuesday or Wednesday. The hybrid work schedule is subject to change based on organizational needs and/or best practices for health and safety. Hybrid work expectations may vary depending upon role responsibilities.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. Children’s Law Center is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Candidates who receive a conditional offer of employment will be subject to a background check.

Children’s Law Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and existing employees. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to ancestry, age, color, disability, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law, ordinance, or regulation. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. We invite you to visit our website to learn more about our company and our career opportunities (https://childrenslawcenter.org/get-involved/careers/).

Children’s Law Center is dedicated to building a world that is inclusive in approach and has equal opportunities and equitable outcomes for all. Our organization is committed to developing and supporting a robustly diverse, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist community, where all members can create and feel a sense of belonging. Through our collective deliberate efforts, we work toward racial and social justice for children and families in DC.