In the past ten years, the fellowship market for law graduates has expanded significantly. Postgraduate fellowships offer recent law school graduates the unique opportunity for employment, training and distinction in one program. They can serve as an important step to permanent employment in an organization or within a field of practice. They can begin immediately after law school, following a clerkship or within the early years of practice. All fellowships are highly competitive, with labor-intensive application processes.
Many fellowships require significant entrepreneurial zeal, networking and planning.
Site-based fellowships often provide an established work environment with significant training, support and supervision. Project-based fellowships provide support for work conceived and proposed by the applicant, based in an organization that has agreed to sponsor the project. They offer the applicant considerable independence, flexibility and responsibility over the work product and process. While the majority of fellowships focus on civil practice to under-served communities, a number of programs are interested in supporting criminal defense or work related to the needs of prisoners and their families or reform of institutions. There are a limited number of fellowships for work outside of the U.S., but proposals can be crafted to include international work.