Description
The Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School invites applications for summer legal internship positions. The summer legal interns will assist in all aspects of the Clinic’s ongoing litigation and other activities.
About MFIA
The Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic is a law student clinic dedicated to promoting a functioning democracy by defending press freedom and free speech, safeguarding public access to reliable information, and holding government to account. The Clinic pursues this mission by providing pro bono legal services, conducting impact litigation, and developing policy initiatives. The Clinic’s current matters include, among others:
- Litigation and policy advocacy defending the newsgathering rights of journalists, including a challenge to retaliatory discrimination among journalists by public officials and litigation and policy efforts to expand meaningful public access to court records;
- Lawsuits and amicus briefs vindicating the First Amendment rights of speakers who rely on the government, including doctors who post their scientific studies on government-run websites, journalists who work for the government-funded but politically neutral Voice of America, and whistleblower attorneys whose security clearances have been revoked because of their protected expression;
- Challenges to the government’s use of surveillance technology, including a lawsuit over online speech monitoring used to revoke immigration permissions like visas and a public records lawsuit seeking transparency about the use of automated license plate readers;
- Freedom of Information Act litigation seeking disclosure of records concerning official misconduct, bungled criminal investigations, sexual assaults within the intelligence community, and treatment of journalists; and
More information about our work is available on MFIA’s website. The Clinic is a program of the Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at the Information Society Project.
Summer Legal Interns
The summer legal intern(s) will be responsible for assisting in all aspects of the Clinic’s current matters, including drafting pleadings and briefs in pending lawsuits, drafting FOIA requests and other submissions to government agencies, and conducting legal research in support of current or future cases. The legal interns will also have the opportunity to work on a research project of their choosing related to the topics of media freedom, information access, and free speech.
The internship is fully remote, with an optional in-person celebration during the interns’ last week. The summer legal interns will work under the supervision of David Schulz, Director of the MFIA Clinic and Senior Counsel at Ballard Spahr LLP; John Langford, Visiting Associate Clinical Professor at Yale Law School; and MFIA Fellows Tobin Raju and Stacy Livingston.
Qualifications
The position is open to law students at accredited U.S. law schools who have completed at least one year of law school. Applicants should have an interest in issues of press freedom, open government, free speech, law and technology, and/or civil liberties.
Salary
MFIA summer interns receive a stipend of $720/week for 10 weeks. Start date is flexible.
Application Instructions
Submit a cover letter, résumé, and law school transcript (unofficial transcripts OK) – ideally, as a single PDF file. There is no need to submit a writing sample at this time, but one may be requested of applicants.
Applications will be accepted immediately and will be considered on a rolling basis until March 1, 2026.
The positions may be filled before the listed deadline, and we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.
Applications or inquiries should be submitted by email to:
Stacy Livingston, Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, stacy.livingston@yale.edu
Please include “MFIA Summer Internship Application” in the subject line of your email.
Application Deadline: March 1, 2026
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