The Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellowship provides two graduating NYU Law JD students with the opportunity to spend one year working with an innovative human rights organization.
Applications for 2024-2025 Masiyiwa-Bernstein fellowship with Beyond Legal Aid and The Clooney Foundation for Justice are accepted on a rolling basis until November 10, 2023.
Application Requirements
Applicants must submit the following materials:
1) a short personal statement (500 words maximum) describing the applicant’s relevant experience, interest in the work of the organization, and future aspirations;
2) two letters of recommendation, including one letter from a current or former professor or other person associated with NYU School of Law and one letter from a supervisor or employer familiar with the applicant’s human rights work or recent work experience;
3) a résumé
4) law school transcript
5) writing sample
Application Instructions
Submit all materials by e-mail to pilc.info@nyu.edu. Recommenders may email letters directly to this email address.
Qualifications
The Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellowship Selection Committee will review applications and select finalists to be interviewed by the organizations. Factors the committee will consider include:
a) the applicant’s human rights experience (in law school courses, extracurricular activities, summer jobs, and full-time work);
b) the applicant’s leadership capabilities and likely future commitment to human rights work; and
c) the applicant’s interest in and commitment to the organization’s work.
About Beyond Legal Aid
Beyond Legal Aid is transforming how lawyers and communities work together. Our model unites lawyers and activists to shift the power of the law to communities directly impacted by injustice: partnering with grassroots organizations to build community-located, community-operated, and most importantly community-directed legal aid programs. We do this to not only support the empowerment of community members but also to leverage the power of organized communities. Through our network of over 20 community-driven programs, Beyond collaborates with over 4000 underserved community members annually on a comprehensive range of legal issues including employment, housing, family, immigration, civil rights, and criminal records—combining legal services with organizing and activism to achieve more impact than lawyers working alone.
Beyond seeks candidates with demonstrated experience in social justice and commitment to community lawyering. The fellow would contribute to Beyond’s expansion of its participatory defense and community-driven litigation strategies across multiple practice areas and programs (based upon the needs and priorities of Beyond’s community partners and the fellow’s preferences), as well as Beyond’s efforts to amplify community voices and incorporate healing-informed storytelling in its work.
About The Clooney Foundation for Justice
The Clooney Foundation for Justice, an international nonprofit organization, was founded by Amal and George Clooney to gather evidence of mass human rights abuses, provide free legal support to victims and work to ensure that perpetrators are held to account. TrialWatch is a CFJ initiative that monitors criminal trials against the most vulnerable worldwide, provides free legal support to get innocent people out of prison, and advocates for the reform of unfair laws. TrialWatch has monitored trials in over 40 countries, focusing on journalists, women and girls, democracy defenders, LGBTQ+ people and activists, and minorities. Using information we gather directly from courtrooms around the world, TrialWatch is building a Global Justice Index that will be the first to evaluate and rank countries on their justice systems through real-world data.
TrialWatch is seeking candidates with experience or an interest in promoting fair trial rights across the world and a commitment to seeking to reform unjust legal systems. The Fellow would contribute to TrialWatch across the full life-cycle of its work, from collaborating with partners to identify potential cases for monitoring, to contributing to analytical reports on those trials measuring their fairness against international standards, to assisting with the implementation of tailored legal advocacy strategies to pursue remedies for violations, such as submissions to international or regional bodies, or amicus curiae briefs at the domestic level.