Legal Services for Children is a non-profit law office which has provided direct legal and social services to San Francisco Bay Area children and youth since 1975. We serve youth who have suffered violence, abuse, or neglect and are at risk of entering the foster care or juvenile justice systems. The vast majority of our clients are low-income youth of color. We provide representation in a variety of civil legal matters, including
- dependency (child abuse/neglect proceedings);
- legal guardianships;
- education (disciplinary hearings, special education, & language rights);
- immigration; and
- juvenile delinquency prevention.
Legal Internships
Legal interns are responsible for conducting intake interviews with callers to our agency's "warm line." Interns also assist our staff attorneys with all aspects of client representation, including client interviews, legal research and writing, drafting of declarations and other pleadings, and attendance at court hearings. Interns also have the opportunity to assist staff with outreach to underserved youth populations, such as queer youth, immigrant youth, young women, and youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
- Supervision and Training: A supervising attorney will provide close supervision to all interns. In addition to weekly supervision meetings between the intern and supervising attorney, interns are provided with a series of training seminars on legal and social work issues affecting children and youth.
- Commitment: Term-time interns are required to commit to a weekly minimum of sixteen hours. Summer interns are required to work full-time for a minimum of ten weeks. Legal Services for Children is not able to offer compensation to our interns. We are, however, open to sponsoring fellowships that interns are able to receive from their law school or other sources.
- Deadlines: For summer legal internships, we must receive your application by February 1. For fall legal internships, we must receive your application by August 1. For spring legal internships, we must receive your application by December 1.
- Application Materials: Interested applicants should send a resume, cover letter and writing sample to "Internships at Legal Services for Children." Materials of no more than 10 pages can be faxed to (415) 863-7708.
- Questions: If you have questions about legal internships, you may contact the Intern Coordinator at (415) 863-3762.
Social Work Internships
LSC has a history of providing internships for graduate level social work students. Students will have the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams with LSC attorneys on cases involving foster care, legal guardianship, school discipline, special education, immigration, & emancipation. Employing interdisciplinary teams of attorneys and social workers, LSC strives to meet the legal and non-legal needs of our clients. Social work interns at LSC will provide direct clinical case management services to our clients. These services include psychosocial assessments, treatment planning, crisis intervention and general advocacy. Interns will staff our Warm Line (intake) about 2 to 3 times per month; fielding referral calls from prospective clients.
In addition to weekly individual supervision, LSC will provide interns with an intake orientation as well as the following trainings: Crisis Intervention, Boundaries & Termination, Cultural Competency, Legal Guardianship, Dependency (foster care), Education, and Immigration. LSC encourages interns to attend relevant offsite training as well. LSC provides transportation reimbursement, or SF City Car Share membership, for client or office related travel. We have provided MSW internships to students from: San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, University of California Berkeley, G.W. Brown School of Social Work Washington University, and University of Texas Austin.
For further information please contact:
Ron Gutierrez, Clinical Director (415) 863-3762 ext 311
Work Study Internships
For more information please contact:
Helen Jiang, Office Manager, at (415) 863-3762 ext 306
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