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The Bazelon Center is seeking 1Ls and 2Ls at qualifying Pennsylvania and New Jersey law schools for participation in the Donald K. Joseph Social Justice Internship Program.
Since its founding in 1972, the Bazelon Center has been a leading voice in the protection and advancement of people with mental health disabilities. The Bazelon Center advances these goals through litigation and advocacy work on a variety of issues, including education, community integration, health law, criminal legal system reform, and technology.
The Donald K. Joseph Social Justice Internship Program is a new summer program that will offer interns the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience with both litigation and policy work in the fields of mental health and disability rights. Interns will conduct background research for fact sheets and policy papers; prepare legal and policy analysis related to regulatory actions, legislation, and current events; and participate in the Bazelon Center’s active litigation docket by conducting legal research, drafting briefs, and assisting with legal proceedings. Interns will also have the opportunity to attend Congressional briefings and hearings, as well as meetings of national disability rights and civil rights coalitions.
Some of the Bazelon Center’s current litigation and policy priorities, to which interns may have the opportunity to contribute, include: Suing the District of Columbia to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act’s integration mandate and Medicaid Act entitlements, representing a class of Oregon students denied the opportunity to attend school for a full day, addressing violations of settlement agreements by the County of Bernalillo and City of Albuquerque in relation to jail conditions and discriminatory policing, and advocating for non-police responses to mental health crises.
Applicants to the Donald K. Joseph Social Justice Internship Program should:
Donald K. Joseph Social Justice Interns will receive a stipend of $4,200 for 8 weeks of full-time work between the end of their spring and the beginning of their fall semesters. The Bazelon Center is a hybrid workplace. In person or remote with some travel to DC are options. Travel will be covered.
To apply, please send the following materials via PDF attachment to communications@bazelon.org by December 1, 2026 using the subject line: “Donald K. Joseph Internship Application of [your name] for summer [year]”:
* 1Ls may apply before receiving fall semester grades but will be expected to reach out to update their applications once those grades are received.
Decisions will be made on a rolling basis.
Donald K. Joseph earned his Bachelor of Science in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1963 and his Bachelor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He became a law clerk to Chief Judge Roszel Thomsen Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He then practiced law in the litigation department of the Philadelphia law firm Wolf Block for the next 25 years. In 1996, Donald began his teaching career at Dickinson School of Law (now Penn State Dickinson Law). In 2000, he joined Rutgers University as a visiting associate professor. As a panel moderator at ABA’s 32nd Annual National Conference on Professional Responsibility, he wrote “Stop the Shredding: Document Retention after U.S. v. Anderson,” 2006 Symposium Issue, Professional Lawyer (ABA). In 2009, he was the chair of the Third Symposium on Equality: “Inequality and Work: Facing Barriers, Creating Solutions” sponsored by the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP). Joseph served on the Board of PILCOP for more than two decades, three years as a chair of the board and another four as vice chair.
The Donald K. Joseph Social Justice Internship Program is made possible by support from The Lipstein Family Foundation and other generous donors.
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