Located in a historic neighborhood in the nation's capital, Georgetown offers rigorous academic programs, a global perspective, exciting ways to take advantage of Washington, D.C., and a commitment to social justice. Our community is a tight knit group of remarkable individuals interested in intellectual inquiry and making a difference in the world.

Requirements

The Legal Fellow joins the Health Justice Alliance (HJA), a medical-legal partnership between Georgetown Law Center and Georgetown University Medical Center, which includes a range of inter-professional education, service, and research initiatives designed to address health and justice disparities faced by vulnerable communities. S/he expands the Law Clinic's capacity to meet the demand for its services by providing direct legal services to vulnerable patients and their families that are referred to the Law Clinic by HJA's healthcare partners. The Legal Fellow also provides consultations in his or her areas of expertise to Law Clinic students and faculty on their own cases. Reporting directly to the HJA Law Clinic Faculty Director and Co-Director, the Legal Fellow has additional duties that include but are not limited to:

Direct Legal Services

• Works with the Program Manager to assess incoming referrals and allocate cases.
• Conducts legal intakes with patients referred to the HJA Law Clinic at health clinics, patients' homes, or other community locations.
• Provides client-centered, trauma-informed full representation, brief services, and advice to patients in the areas of education, housing, family law, public benefits, and other areas of poverty law.
• Facilitates referrals for patients to other legal and social services providers when unable to take a patient's case.
• Collaborates with healthcare partners to advance client representation.

Data & Case Management

• Maintains up-to-date, detailed electronic and paper case files.
• Records health and legal outcomes of representation in case management system.
• Maintains communication with healthcare providers about outcomes of referrals and intakes.

Consultation

• Provides expert consultation to law students and faculty on their cases, as appropriate.
• Provides consultation to healthcare partners on general questions related to patients' legal rights.

Partnership & Knowledge Building

• Collaborates with other local legal aid providers on systemic issues impacting low-income community members.
• Attends local training's & meetings on emerging legal issues of interest to HJA.
• Deepens Law Clinic expertise across its practice areas and disseminate resources to faculty and students.
• Identifies and tracks bottlenecks in the local systems clients interact with (such as D.C. Medicaid and DC Health).

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school
• At least 3 years of post-J.D. legal experience providing civil legal services to low-income clients in one or more of the following areas: special education, public benefits, housing, family law, and estate/advanced health planning
• Current membership in the District of Columbia Bar (if not a member of the D.C. Bar must apply for admission by waiver upon accepting the fellowship offer)
• Willingness and ability to work collaboratively with medical students, physicians, and other healthcare providers to address patients' health-harming legal needs and to leverage medical expertise to advance legal advocacy at the individual and community level
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice and service to low-income clients
• Interest in contributing to the data and other research focused on measuring the impact of medical-legal partnership on health and legal outcomes
• Ability to travel between local clinical sites and to meet with clients at locations other than the Law Center
• Prior medical-legal partnership, health-related, or mental health-related experience a plus