Applications Available for Wasserstein Fellowship Program
The Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) at Harvard Law School is accepting applications for the 2023-2024 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows Program through Monday, April 3, 2023.
Wasserstein Fellows are practicing public interest lawyers who spend three days in Cambridge meeting with individual Harvard Law students to advise them about public interest career paths. They also speak to students in group settings and assist OPIA staff in developing additional advising insights and resources. Learn more about the Wasserstein Fellows Program.
Applicants are sought who have shown a long-standing commitment to public interest law and possess interpersonal qualities that will enable them to be effective career advisors. In particular, OPIA aim to select a cohort of Fellows who reflect the diversity of HLS students and who work in practice settings and areas of law that are of particular interest to our current students.
OPIA especially encourages applicants with the following backgrounds and identities:
- Latinx, BIPOC, first-generation college and law students
- Those working in labor law, anti-trust, health policy, racial justice, public defense and criminal justice reform (particularly prison abolition work), gun violence prevention, preserving democratic norms and institutions, and those working in private public interest or plaintiff’s side law firms.
Each Three-Day Fellow receives an honorarium of $1,000 in addition to reimbursement for travel, hotel, and other expenses related to their visit.
In addition to its cohort of 10 –12 domestic, three-day Fellows, OPIA will select three international law practitioners to spend a full week in residence at Harvard Law School advising students on pathways to international public service at nonprofit organizations and intergovernmental institutions.
The international Fellows can expect to meet with a high volume of LLMs, as well as JD students. While applicants who have either a JD or LLM degree from a US law school tend to resonate more with the students, applicants with exclusively foreign law degrees will also be considered. OPIA especially encourages applicants engaged in transitional justice, human rights litigation, digital rights, democratic erosion, and global climate work to apply.