Opportunities for Students
Student Fellowship
Applications for the 2024-2025 CLP student fellowship have now closed. Stay tuned for the 2025-2026 season.
The Center on the Legal Profession Student Fellowship Program is a one-year program designed for Harvard Law School students interested in learning more about the structures, norms, and dynamics of the global legal profession.
As a Student Fellow, you will conduct original, empirical research on the legal profession, produce scholarly pieces and “short form” thought leadership (essays, blogs, podcasts, videos, etc.), and receive in-depth mentorship from a dynamic community of researchers and practitioners exploring issues ranging from legal careers to diversity and inclusion to globalization to legal education to innovation.
Our Student Fellowship Program includes three main components:
- producing an independent, empirical research paper project on the legal profession with the goal of publication in a scholarly journal and/or the Center’s digital magazine, The Practice;
- creating short written, video, or audio for the Center’s various publications on a range of topics; and
- acting as an active member of our vibrant intellectual community, including mentorship and privileged access to Center workshops, conferences, and other events.
To apply:
We are now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 academic year; however, we are open to students who wish to begin their fellowship in spring 2024. Please submit all applications to Dana Walters ([email protected]). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We are happy to answer any questions in advance of a formal application. Please include:
- Your curriculum vitae
- A written statement of approximately 500-1,000 words that includes:
- A proposal describing the research project that you intend to pursue during the Student Fellowship. This is not intended to be final and is simply meant to be a first step in your thinking about your research project.
- A statement on what interests you most about the legal profession, and how the Center’s mission and a CLP Student Fellowship correspond with and further your own professional goals
Research Assistants
The Center on the Legal Profession regularly hires registered Harvard students (including incoming 1Ls) to provide help with our research projects. If you are interested in becoming a CLP research assistant, please email Bryon Fong at [email protected].
CLP Paper Prize
The purpose of this prize is to encourage deeper reflection and consideration by Harvard Law School students about their chosen profession, its role in society, and the many challenges that lawyers face in a rapidly-changing world.
Paper topics must relate to the legal profession itself or to a related aspect of the delivery of professional services. This could include (but is not limited to) topics such as legal careers, the role, structure and management of law firms, in-house legal departments, and other public and private sector legal service providers, diversity or gender-related issues, the impact of globalization or other social trends upon the profession, the role of lawyers and legal institutions in society, changes in the profession over time, comparisons between lawyers and other professional service providers, and the like.
For the first decade of this prize, it was generously supported by the law firm of Davis Polk.