Please note that this fellowship is only available to law students who have been accepted as summer interns at CLS.
Find out how and when to apply for an internship on our Employment Page.
Please note that this fellowship is only available to law students who have been accepted as summer interns at CLS.
Find out how and when to apply for an internship on our Employment Page.
CLS’s mission as an organization is to fight poverty, challenge systems that perpetuate injustice, and change lives through cutting-edge advocacy and exceptional legal representation. To that end, CLS is invested in achieving a diverse staff that is reflective of the clients and communities we serve. The law student internship experience is a critical career stepping stone at CLS, as many of our law student interns eventually are selected as attorney fellows. CLS has established this scholarship fund for law students of color with financial need to enable future leaders in public interest law to spend their summer interning at CLS.
If you ask about her career, you will learn that Amber Racine was an esteemed litigator with Raynes & Lawn and a leader in the Philadelphia legal community as the former chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Board of Governors and former president of the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia. If you dig deeper, you will learn that she was a beloved daughter, friend, and mentor. She believed in public service as evidenced by her service on the board of Community Legal Services and the annual turkey drive she organized with the Barristers’ Association. She was a champion for diversity in the profession, providing mentorship and professional development opportunities to diverse aspiring law students and young attorneys. If you look over her life, you will see that Amber left behind a legacy of service, inclusion, passion, and excellence. A legacy that we are excited to carry on with the creation of a summer fellowship opportunity for diverse law students in her name.
Every summer, The Amber Racine Summer Fellowship will be awarded to a diverse, public interest-minded law student, paying them $5,000 to intern with Community Legal Services and serve Philadelphia’s most vulnerable community members. Fellows will be paired with a CLS Attorney mentor and a CLS Board Member mentor in honor of Amber’s legacy of reaching back to bring forward new leaders in Philadelphia’s legal community. It is CLS’s honor to celebrate a stalwart friend of our vibrant legal community and the wonderful clients we serve.
CLS is honored to name its Summer Law Student Fellowship after a former CLS client who went on to make history in the Pennsylvania state legislature.
Senator Roxanne H. Jones (May 3, 1928 – May 19, 1996) served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 3rd district from 1984 to 1996. She was the first African-American woman to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate and the second woman to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate. Her district included CLS’s North Philadelphia office. She worked as a legislator to successfully amend the state statute to lift welfare liens, which had resulted in families losing their homes to the state as a result of getting welfare benefits.
Senator Jones was born in South Carolina. She had to rely on welfare support as a young, single mother raising two children on a waitress salary. She became a tireless advocate for the needs of low-income women and families, and she believed strongly in the importance of legal representation for people living in poverty. Senator Jones served as chair of the Philadelphia Welfare Rights Organization (PWRO) and CLS represented PWRO and its members. When asked about why she got involved as a leader of the PWRO, she said, “First of all we wanted to bring about dignity to ourselves because we knew we were somebody. We were mothers, we loved our children just like a working person loved their kids. And we wanted to be respected that way. And we began to organize then. That’s how I became active. Being a welfare mother, being mistreated.”
She was the founder of Philadelphia Citizens in Action, a board member of the Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Authority, a member of the Martin Luther King Center of Social Change and a member of the National Congress of Black Women.
Scholarships are available on a competitive basis to law students of color with financial need. The eligible applicants must be enrolled at an accredited law school. Application for or receipt of a scholarship in a prior year will not disqualify an applicant in the current year.
The amount of the scholarship will vary and will be based on the need of the applicant as reflected in their personal statement. CLS will take into account other forms of financial assistance when determining the final award.
Eligible law students can apply once they have received an offer of employment to the incoming summer internship class. Applications will be due no later than April 30, 2021. The Selection Committee at CLS will notify applicants of a decision by May 14, 2021.
Scholarship recipients will be selected based on a number of criteria including the applicant’s background as a person of color, special financial circumstances establishing financial need, demonstrated commitment to public interest work and/or underserved communities, future career goals, and a demonstrated commitment to a public interest legal services profession, especially in the Philadelphia area. Achievements and experiences in work, school, life and community that speak to the applicant’s demonstrated commitment and dedication to public interest legal services work and underserved communities will be considered as well.