Fall 2026 + Spring 2027 Legal Intern, Tenants' Rights Unit (Bronx)

Job Description

Job Description

About NYLAG:
Founded in 1990, NYLAG is a leading civil legal services organization combatting economic, racial, and social injustice by advocating for people experiencing poverty or in crisis. Our services include comprehensive, free civil legal services, financial empowerment, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community partnerships. NYLAG exists because wealth should not determine who has access to justice. We aim to disrupt systemic racism by serving individuals and families whose legal and financial crises are often rooted in racial inequality. NYLAG goes to where the need is, providing services in more than 150 community sites (e.g. courts, hospitals, libraries) and on our Mobile Legal Help Center. During COVID-19, most of our services were virtual to keep our community safe. NYLAG’s staff of 380 impacted the lives of nearly 129,000 people last year.

Job description
The legal intern will work closely with the Bronx team in NYLAG’s Tenants’ Rights Unit in a unique non-Right-to-Counsel, housing-litigation practice, which addresses housing instability creatively, proactively, and outside of the crisis of an eviction proceeding, primarily by organizing tenants and aggregating their claims. The legal intern will work closely with an experienced NYLAG attorney on research and outreach related to complex affirmative litigation in New York state and federal courts. The intern will also work on eviction-defense cases and cases related to repairs and tenant harassment (HPs) in Bronx Housing Court.   

The internship will ground students in substantive housing law and practice and procedure unique to landlord-tenant litigation. Interns will be paired with an experienced NYLAG attorney to assist with client interviews and out-of-court advocacy directed at potential partners to help resolve a client’s housing instability and address other issues contributing to the client’s eviction risk. There will be objective legal research and writing assignments. The intern will also gain experience in drafting pleadings and/or the first draft of a substantive motions and get to observe and/or participate in client calls and meetings, advocacy calls with opposing counsel and other outside parties, and court appearances, which can include settlement negotiations and oral argument.  This is an unpaid internship.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Client advocacy and interviewing
• Legal research and writing
• Drafting motions and pleadings
• Other duties that arise related to ongoing litigation

Qualifications

• Must be a current law student - all other applications will not be considered
• Strong preference for applicants with Spanish fluency.

Application Instructions: Please save resume, cover letter, and a writing sample in one pdf.

NYLAG’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
NYLAG is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, veterans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, and those with lived experiences in the communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply.

NYLAG is committed to a hybrid work policy for staff whose work does not require their full-time presence in the office. NYLAG’s current policy is that most staff are required to work in NYLAG’s offices or do other in-person work at least two days each week. This policy is subject to change.

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