Funding Cuts to Public Interest Fellowship Opportunities

Public interest fellowship funding is essential to our classmates interested in pursuing legal career opportunities with public interest organizations. Last year, UCLA funded 15 postgraduate fellowships, with an average grant of $50,000. These fellowships:

• Support the state’s network of public interest law organizations;
• Provide much needed support to California’s state and local governments; 
• Bridge one of the most significant hurdles for law students in pursuing public interest careers;
• Build a pipeline for attorneys to meet the housing crisis, combat climate change, support immigrant communities, and address other critical issues facing the state; 
• Encourage those who do not pursue public interest law full-time to integrate pro bono work into their law practice throughout their careers; and 
• Ensure that government and public interest positions are accessible to the full diversity of students attending UC law schools, and that public interest lawyers reflect the communities they serve. 

UCLA Law and the other UC Law schools received support for public interest fellowships from the UC President's Office from 2016 to 2023, over $25 million in grant funding. Despite the advocacy of all of the UC Law School with the UC President’s Office, the funding was not extended. UCLA Law’s annual grant, which ranged from $1 million to $1.6 million a year, was crucial in supporting post-graduate fellowships. 

Now, because of this elimination of UCOP funding, the Law School is facing serious challenges in being able to continue to fund fellowships at the same levels as in past years.This means there is less support to help Californians who are recent immigrants, face housing instability and food insecurity, encounter discrimination and violence, and more.

We're calling on our UCLA Law Community to consider donating one day of their summer pay to help preserve fellowship opportunities for our classmates. Your donation will be applied directly to increase the amount of fellowship funding available to our fellow classmates.

Your donation is a first step towards helping us leverage support from law firms and alumni. This campaign will ultimately make up a small portion of the total fundraising for public interest fellowships. We recognize that student-giving is not a substitute for long-term funding.

Pictured: Rising 3L Kaelen Perrochett visiting the Federal Public Defender's Office as part of his summer internship with the King County Public Defense. [ Kaelen is the EIC of the Criminal Justice Law Review and a passionate advocate for criminal justice reform. After graduation, Kaelen plans to pursue a career with a public defender's office.]

Pictured: Rising 2L Shakiba Mashayekhi meeting Attorney General Bob Bonta during her internship with the Civil Rights Enforcement Section. [ Shakiba serves as the Communications Chair for the First Generation Law Student Association and is a passionate advocate for public interest law, both domestically and internationally. She focuses on exploring technology-related areas such as a privacy law.]

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Should this fund reach the campus minimum required for the establishment of an endowment or quasi-endowment, The UCLA Foundation reserves the right to convert this fund to an endowment or quasi-endowment. Please click here to learn more about how the UCLA Foundation invests and manages its endowments.