Legal Intern

The Center for Constitutional Rights seeks experienced second- or third-year law students or LLM students with a strong commitment to social justice to provide legal research and analysis as part of a semester-long paid internship or externship opportunity . The Center for Constitutional Rights is a national not-for-profit organization that works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through creative litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, we have taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. The Center for Constitutional Rights' fall and spring legal internships are part of a year-round internship program that includes our summer Ella Baker Program.

Interns will have the opportunity to work with attorneys on a range of projects. Our work includes issues related to policing; prisoners’ rights; immigration; racial justice; Indigenous rights; environmental justice; gender justice and LGBTQIA+ rights; national security; corporate accountability; torture; detention; suppression of dissent; anti-militarism; international solidarity, including in support of Palestinian rights; violations under the Alien Tort Statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act, and universal jurisdiction; and related work local to the Southern United States. For background on our work, see our issue and project areas : Abusive Immigration Practices; Corporate Human Rights Abuses; Criminalizing Dissent; Discriminatory Policing; Drone Killings; Government Surveillance; Guantanamo; LGBTQI Persecution; Mass Incarceration; Muslim Profiling; Palestinian Solidarity; Racial Injustice; Sexual and Gender-Based Violence; Torture, War Crimes, & Militarism; Southern Justice Rising; and Open Records Project.

Responsibilities may include : assisting in legal research and writing; performing factual research; reviewing and indexing document productions; assisting in writing reports and engaging in advocacy; preparing correspondence with clients, community members, partners, and government and international agencies; and assisting with hearing, trial, and discovery preparation. The ideal candidate will have some experience with one or more of the following : litigation in federal courts; international law (with a focus on human rights, humanitarian law, and / or criminal law); FOIA litigation; engaging with U.N. special procedure mechanisms; First Amendment law; immigration law; prisoners’ rights; Section 1983 police misconduct litigation; class action litigation; national security law; and working with communities to advocate for social change. Candidates should also demonstrate experience in and / or commitment to social justice, organizing, and / or social movements.

The intern will spend 12-20 hours per week between January and May 2026 assisting attorneys on projects. This position will be completed remotely . It is possible to provide placements for part-time in-person positions or hybrid in-person and remote positions, but this will need to be discussed with the candidate.

NOTE : Per policy, interns are only permitted to complete an internship or externship with CCR for one term . Interns who have accepted positions with the term-time program will not be considered for the summer Ella Baker Program, and similarly, interns who accept positions with the summer program will not be considered for term-time positions. Internships may not be extended beyond one term.