Summer 2027 Legal Intern, Women's Rights Project

About the Role

The ACLU seeks a Summer Legal Intern in the Women's Rights Project of the ACLU’s National office in New York City. This internship can be remote or hybrid and is for course credit only.

Qualifying applicants must currently be matriculated legal students and must be based in the U.S. for the entire duration of the internship.

The Team:

Since its founding by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1972, the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project has been a trailblazer in fighting for gender equity under law. We engage in systemic legal reform to ensure that everyone has the freedom to live, work, and learn free from stereotypes, harassment, and violence based on sex. Our recent work includes fighting the military’s ban on women in combat, challenging employment rules that penalize workers for their pregnancies or push them out of the paid workforce altogether and winning a historic settlement against Facebook for targeting ads for jobs, housing, and credit only at men.

What You’ll Do:

Interns will have the opportunity to gain valuable experience by working alongside the team assisting in all aspects of litigation, policy advocacy, and communications campaigns.

Your Day to Day:

Day to Day responsibilities may include, but are not limited to the following:

What You’ll Bring:

The internship is open to law students who will have completed at least one year of law school before the internship commences or are in an LLM or SJD program. Interns should possess the following:

Future ACLU-ers Will:

Internship Logistics:

Priority Application Deadline: December 1st, 2026While there is a priority deadline, our project is committed to reviewing all applications on a rolling basis until the closing of posting.

If you are a re-applicant to the Women's Rights Project, please note that in your cover letter.

Why the ACLU

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

Our Commitment to Accessibility, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

  Accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please complete the Accommodation Request Form

If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

In order to be considered for this position, all candidates must formally submit an application. The ACLU does not accept unsolicited calls or emails from candidates regarding their application status.

ACLU’s internship program is supported in part by the Arnie Miller Fund for the Next Generation: The Arnie Miller Fund For The Next Generation | American Civil Liberties Union.