For Attorneys and Supervisors

How to Get Involved

We welcome your interest in having Harvard Law students work on a clinical or pro bono basis at your law firm or organization. If you are getting in touch with us for the first time, please complete the Placement Organization Registration form before contacting our office.

The role of the supervising attorney is invaluable in the educational experience of our students, and for that reason, we have certain requirements:

• Students must be supervised by a licensed attorney. The attorney should hold an initial meeting to explain expectations and set goals for the student's work; meet regularly with the student; give regular feedback; and submit written evaluations to us.
• The student's work must be law-related, involving the application or interpretation of law, formulation of legal policy, or drafting of legislation or regulations. Students should not do clerical or fundraising work. Eligible tasks include: assisting an attorney at a trial, client and witness interviewing and investigation, drafting documents, assisting pro se litigants in court, community legal education, and research, writing and policy analysis.
• Students can work for you for academic clinical credit or to fulfill Harvard's pro bono requirement.

Clinical credit: For clinical credit, the student commits to working on an unpaid basis for 5, 10, or 15 hours per week during a full semester, and takes an academic course related to the work project. This is a good choice if your law firm or organization can host the student on-site in your offices or wherever your work is done, supervise the student regularly, give frequent informal feedback, and complete two written evaluations of his or her work. We will work with you in conjunction with the professor teaching the related course. Please contact us as soon as you know you may wish to have a student work with you as there are enrollment deadlines and procedures to follow.

Pro bono hours: The Harvard Law School pro bono requirement mandates that all students perform at least 40 hours of unpaid legal work for a nonprofit, government agency, or law firm. This may be a good choice for you if your firm or organization seeks a student to assist you in providing unpaid legal services to a client. Pro bono projects are best for timely cases that need immediate and short-term assistance, one-time events, or research and writing projects that can be done off-site. This work is not necessarily done as part of a concurrent course and students may work for a concentrated time or spread their hours over many semesters. Students are apt to take on pro bono projects during the school year, except during exam times. Students are also looking for discrete 40-hour or one-week projects at the end of the summer and during holiday vacation, January term, and spring break. If we approve your pro bono project, we will advertise it students via our public service database and emails. Students will contact you directly to discuss the assignment, hours required, and work schedule. Then both you and the student will decide if it is a good “match.” All work done by the student must be supervised by a licensed attorney on staff, a volunteer attorney at the host organization, or an HLS faculty member in conjunction with an on-site supervisor.

Keep the Harvard Law School Academic Calendar in mind when making your project requests. We cannot guarantee that students will be available or interested in all advertised projects or that your requests will be approved.

Contact our office to find out which options might work best for you.

If you are a potential client looking for someone to help you with your own legal issues, you are not eligible to hire a student directly. Please see our Legal Help page for resources