The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, is pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded (with benefits) two-year project fellowship for law school graduates beginning in Fall 2014. EJI is a non-profit law office and human rights organization that provides legal assistance to condemned prisoners, children in the criminal justice system, people wrongly convicted or sentenced, and the poor and vulnerable facing imprisonment. We advocate for more hopeful solutions to the violence, powerlessness, and despair that plague many marginalized communities.
EJI has launched a new initiative on race and poverty that seeks meaningful solutions to long-standing problems. Specifically, we aim to document and contextualize issues surrounding race and poverty in America by examining the legal history of racial subordination, exclusion, and segregation. We will be considering particular remedies designed to address contemporary and historic injuries that many people of color have experienced in the rural south. We are excited about the possibility of giving voice to widespread structural barriers and systems that are limiting opportunities and progress to many rural poor.
In addition, we are challenging excessive and abusive punishments imposed on children across the United States, working on large reform projects relating to racial injustice and economic inequality, and we maintain a large docket of death penalty cases, wrongful conviction cases, and civil rights cases. We have filed civil rights actions in the last year aimed at ending violence against incarcerated women, racial discrimination in jury selection, abuse of power by correctional officers, mistreatment of mentally ill inmates, and illegal detention of the poor. We work with and provide training to lawyers, law students, community leaders, and low-income communities to improve access to justice. We issue research reports and materials aimed at educating the public and increasing awareness of problems related to criminal justice, race, and poverty.
EJI is seeking lawyers or law graduates with strong advocacy skills who are highly motivated, hard-working, and who embrace our mission and program goals enthusiastically. EJI provides full benefits. To learn more about our work, visit our website at www.eji.org [1]. To apply please send a letter of interest and a resume to Executive Director Bryan Stevenson at bstevenson@eji.org [2] and Senior Attorney Angie Setzer at asetzer@eji.org [3]. Positions for the Fall 2013 fellowship have been filled. We are accepting applications for the Fall 2014 fellowship until November 25, 2013.
EJI has a strong commitment to diversity and especially encourages people historically underrepresented in the practice of law to apply.