The first and only fellowship of its kind, IJC’s Justice Fellowship identifies promising lawyers who are passionate about immigrants’ rights, places them with organizations where they can make the greatest difference and supports them with training and expert insights as they directly assist immigrants in need.

Two-year Justice Fellowships are awarded to recent law graduates from around the country – individuals with tremendous talent, promise, and a demonstrated commitment to providing immigration legal services.

IJC matches Fellow candidates with our partnering host organizations based on the applicant’s experience and preference, gaps in services within the community, and particularized host organization needs.

IJC Fellows serve for two years and are provided with a full salary and benefits.

Justice Fellows represent immigrants in an array of immigration matters including:

• Removal defense

• Complex affirmative asylum applications

• Relief available to juveniles and victims of crime, domestic violence, or human trafficking. 

• Applicants may currently be enrolled in a JD or LLM program, so long as they will be graduating law school by the Spring of the Fellowship start year. 
• Applicants may have graduated from a JD or LLM program up to two years prior to the start of the Fellowship.
• Applicants may have graduated from a JD or LLM program before the year prior to the start of the Fellowship, so long as they have been enrolled in a clerkship or fellowship since graduation.
• Almost all IJC Fellows speak a second language (in addition to English).
• Unaccompanied Children Program applicants may have graduated from a JD or LLM program up to two years prior to the start of the Fellowship.
• Unaccompanied Children Program applicants must speak Spanish

Find out more about the application process here: https://justicecorps.org/faqs-justice-fellowship/ 

Immigrant Justice Corps is the visionary idea of the Hon. Robert Katzmann, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to provide legal representation to poor immigrants, as a response to the crisis in legal representation for immigrants he saw every day as a federal judge. In 2007, he gave the Marden Lecture of the NYC Bar, calling on the legal community to help address the problem, leading to the creation of the Study Group on Immigrant Representation. In 2010, he spearheaded the Study Group’s New York Immigrant Representation Study to better understand the issue. This report revealed some startling facts about access to counsel for immigrants:

fellowship@justicecorps.org