Internships Strengthen Paths to Law School
Abigail Rothleder ’26 is like many ILRies planning to attend law school – she is preparing through meaningful internships.
In the summer of 2024, she worked for the Civil Rights Bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General on housing, criminal justice, education, reproductive rights and employment discrimination issues.
“I learned a lot about the problems New Yorkers face in trying to achieve equity in their lives,” Rothleder said.
One problem Rothleder worked on addressing during her internship was source-of-income discrimination, which occurs when anyone denies housing to an individual whose lawful income comes from sources other than a paycheck, such as government assistance and vouchers.
“My internship has been extremely rewarding and confirmed that I want to go to law school to continue making change through the law. The Office of the New York State Attorney General is able to help New Yorkers through lawsuits that not only bring justice financially but also make wider changes through policy.
“I hope to attend law school to continue this important work, practicing the law in such a way to make changes that will last and help the greatest number of people possible,” said Rothleder.
Rothleder is interning this summer at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The ILR Office of Career Services provides guidance and resources to help students explore their career interests. The career advising staff speaks with many ILRies, from first-years to alumni, who are interested in a legal career about exploring what it means to be a lawyer and to affirm that this is a path for them. Unlike wanting to go to medical school, there is not one pathway to law school, said Senior Associate Director Marcia Harding Zeller, who has expertise in pre-law advising.
ILR career advisors encourage students to take classes and pursue jobs, volunteer roles, internships and other experiences because they are interested in them, not because they will “look good” to law admissions teams. By following their interests, they will create their own unique and authentic path that will provide them with a meaningful story to share if they decide to go on to law school, Zeller said.
The ILR Office of Career Services organizes events, such as a peer panel entitled “Perspectives on the Law School Admission Process from Those Who Just Applied,” and introduces funding opportunities, such as the Peggy Browning Fund, which provides summer fellowships for first- and second-year law students to encourage them to advocate for workplace rights.
The ILR High Road New York Fellowship Program is another opportunity that offers community engagement experiences that are relevant to any career path.
Many ILRies are alumni of the fellowship program.
The ILR Credit Internship Program offers qualified ILR juniors and seniors opportunities to gain professional experience while receiving up to a full semester’s credit. Approved students are eligible to apply for internships across a range of organizations, from trade unions and large corporations to government agencies, labor and employment law firms and nonprofits, all of which provide relevant and valuable experience, whether students are considering law school or many other career paths.
Alex Herazy ’25 spent a semester with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman ’64 of the Southern District Court of New York as part of the ILR Credit Internship Program. The experience, he said, “helped me discover an interest in criminal justice and better understand how judges can be a driver of criminal justice reform.”
Grace Choi ’22, whose credit internship at the EEOC was supported by the Scheinman Institute, said the experience inspired her passion for public interest law. Now a University of North Carolina School of Law student, she was a Fair and Just Prosecution fellow at the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office in Asheville this past summer.
Recent ILR credit internship opportunities related to law include:
James E Miller’88, whose credit internship as an ILR student with the Doctors Council inspired him to pursue a career in the law, created an internship program at Miller Shah LLP that employs multiple ILRies annually.
Since 2012, Miller Shah has sponsored three to four ILR students throughout the fall, spring and summer semesters to work closely with the firm’s team in the field of labor and employment litigation and regulation.
“In many cases, we ask them [previous interns] to come back as project analysts for a year or two after graduating,” Miller says. “And then, if we’re happy with them and they’re happy with us, we help to pay for their law school with the agreement that they’ll come back to work for us as attorneys.”
Miller, who is Miller Shah’s managing partner, has also created a Cornell scholarship that pays for one student each semester to participate in a credit internship with a union or labor organization because he thinks “anybody who goes to ILR should work for a union in some capacity at some time to gain a full ILR education.”
