Pro Bono Program
Pro bono service is a key component in the leadership development of Duke Law students.
The Pro Bono Program offers students experiential learning opportunities through volunteer pro bono work with non-profits, government agencies, private firms, and Duke Law faculty. Under the supervision of licensed attorneys, students contribute to public service, develop their legal and professional skills, build relationships important to their future careers, and work to address unmet legal needs.
Most opportunities are open to all J.D. and LL.M. students with options to fit personal interests and time commitments.
Student Pro Bono Groups are student-run organizations supported by the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono offering a broad array of projects serving the Durham community and beyond. Student groups work under the supervision of licensed attorneys with legal skills ranging in scope from brief research to in-depth client interviewing, investigation, and document drafting. Students are encouraged to explore different interests and may participate in more than one group.
The Coalition Against Gendered Violence (CAGV) has a three-fold mission: (1) to raise awareness in the Duke Law community about domestic violence and sexual assault; (2) to foster student advocacy on behalf of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors; and (3) to identify and address gaps in services available to domestic violence and sexual assault victims.
CAGV will partner with nonprofit organizations across the country and organizations on Duke's campus to provide pro bono and advocacy opportunities.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: Project dependent
- Time Commitment: 3-10+ hours (project dependent)
The Duke Decarceration Project (formerly Clemency Project) works to reduce the number of North Carolinians in prisons and jails through advocacy and education. The Project works with incarcerated people across the state to help them be free through clemency petitions, parole advocacy, and other remedies. The Project also raises awareness about the white supremacist roots of the criminal legal system, and its negative impacts on communities and individuals.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: 2-3 hours
- Time Commitment: 15-25 hours/semester
The Duke Law Fair Chance Project helps North Carolinians access better employment and housing opportunities through criminal record expunction and driver's license restoration efforts. The project works to eliminate or minimize the collateral consequences of dismissed and not guilty charges, juvenile, misdemeanor and felony convictions, and suspended or revoked licenses. The project also aims to educate the Duke Law community on how collateral consequences inhibit people with criminal records from accessing opportunities and perpetuate inequities in the criminal justice system. Student volunteers get hands-on legal experience reviewing North Carolina criminal and driver's license records to determine clients' eligibility, writing client advice letters explaining their findings, and drafting petitions for relief.
The project partners with nonprofit organizations and local government agencies including Legal Aid of North Carolina, the Durham Expunction & Restoration Program (DEAR), and Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA). Volunteer opportunities include ongoing work sessions, special clinics, and break projects.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: 2 hours
- Time Commitment: flexible, but minimum of 5 hours/semester
The Duke Immigrant and Refugee Project (DIRP) assists immigrants and refugees in the Triangle Area to gain a sense of security and control over their lives by focusing its efforts on research, resources, and outreach for this target population. DIRP offers a variety of pro bono projects including research assistance on human rights issues or country conditions, client interviewing for asylum applications, preparing legal memoranda for representatives of asylum seekers, and more. DIRP also educates Duke Law students on current immigration issues by hosting multiple events each semester.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: 1-6 hours (project dependent)
- Time Commitment: Flexible; 3-30+ hours/semester (project dependent)
The Duke Street Law program at the Durham County Youth Home provides law students the opportunity to volunteer with young people in juvenile detention, serving as teachers, mentors, and friends. Law students prepare and lead fun lessons about civil and constitutional rights, civics, and more. Past lessons have covered the legal system’s role in society, the Supreme Court, music law, contracts, and marriage equality. This is a great opportunity for those seeking to support the greater Durham community through mentoring and spending quality time with our youth.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: criminal background check, informational/training meeting(s)
- Time Commitment: 6-12 hours/semester
Duke’s Environmental Law Society (ELS) strives to promote student discussion and awareness of environmental issues. It accomplishes these goals by hosting speakers and panels to facilitate discussions, participating in national competitions and conferences, coordinating social and community service events, and fostering a community of students and faculty passionate about sustainability, environmental, and climate issues. ELS strives to enhance legal education through the maintenance of a vital environmental law program at Duke Law and to promote career opportunities in environmental law in both the public and private sectors.
ELS partners with various environmental non-profit organizations and offers a range of pro bono opportunities throughout the academic year.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: TBD
- Time Commitment: ~15 hours/assignment
Duke Law students work with the Durham County Guardian ad Litem program to become trained as independent advocates to represent and promote the best interests of abused, neglected or dependent children involved in the court system. In this highly rewarding work, students carry their own caseload under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Certification is required for participation in this pro bono experience, which involves a significant training that takes place over a series of evenings in either the fall semester or spring semester.
- Duration: yearlong (preferred if students can commit to remote summer work as well)
- Training Requirement: 40 hours
- Time Commitment: 20+ hours/year (due to the length of the commitment, this project is not open to LL.M. students)
Health Care Planning Project (HCPP) students provide legal assistance to cancer patients and other North Carolina residents who are interested - and in need of - advanced care planning. Alongside supervising attorney volunteers, students prepare Power of Attorney, Healthcare Power of Attorney, and Advanced Directive documents. The project's goal is to help our clients ensure their voices are heard by assisting them with appointing trusted individuals to act on their behalf and documenting their healthcare preferences.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: TBD
- Time Commitment: 2-4 hours/semester
The Human Rights Pro Bono Program will provide research assistance to civil society and United Nations human rights actors beginning in the spring semester of 2023 through projects developed in collaboration with identified external partners.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training requirement: TBD, but introductory training in international human rights law will be required
- Time Commitment: Flexible; 5-20+ hours/semester (project dependent)
If/When/How is a national network of law students and legal professionals who work together because reproductive justice doesn't just happen. The organization believes that achieving reproductive justice will take thoughtful action and strategic activism: acknowledging the intersection of identities, collaborating across disciplines, and working toward a critical transformation of the current legal system. If/When/How ensures that all people have the right to decide if/when/how to create families.
The Duke Law chapter of If/When/How seeks to broaden the reproductive justice dialogue in the Duke community through lunch panel talks and social events. The chapter is currently mobilizing to create more community-based reproductive justice-focused pro bono opportunities for Duke Law students to engage in. Membership is open to the entire Duke Law community, and the project explicitly encourages and supports an inclusive environment.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: project dependent
- Time Commitment: project dependent
The Duke Law Innocence Project is a volunteer student organization that works to exonerate victims of wrongful convictions by investigating claims of actual innocence. After completing a careful review according to set criteria and guidelines, the various student teams present their conclusions to the project leadership and faculty supervising attorneys.
The Duke Law Innocence Project looks at wrongful convictions not only on an individual case-by-case basis, but also engages in policy reforms, and outreach to the community in education. The organization also helps its exonerees in their reintegration to society.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: TBD
- Time Commitment: 1-10 hours/week (assignment dependent)
The need for legal assistance to those with limited means far exceeds the capacity of Legal Aid of North Carolina. To bridge this gap, private attorneys throughout the state provide pro bono representation to many of these clients through the Lawyer on the Line (LOTL) program.
Legal Aid is providing Duke students the opportunity to take part in this effort. Under the supervision of a Legal Aid attorney, students will provide advice and counsel to Legal Aid clients over the phone. Cases involve four possible areas of law: consumer, employment, expunction and landlord/tenant law. Prior legal knowledge of these issues is not required.
Students will interview clients about the facts of the client's case, then research the issue presented and prepare appropriate advice. After the supervising attorney approves the advice, students will advise the client. Relevant statutes and regulations will be provided to participating students to narrow down the research process. Each case can be completed in less than 3 hours from start to finish.
This is a perfect opportunity to improve effective interviewing and advising skills, while also helping very low-income individuals who would not likely get the advice they need otherwise.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: <2 hours
- Time Commitment: minimum of one case (~3 hours)
The Lyme Disease Advocacy Project focuses on advocating for legislative change, increased funding, better education, and the prevention of Lyme and tick-borne disease. There are a multitude of unique structural issues surrounding Lyme and tick-borne disease and many people struggle to receive unemployment and disability benefits, or even qualify for insurance coverage.
Students will work with Lyme disease non-profits to conduct research around these issues, write memos with their findings, draft legislative and advocacy pieces surrounding Lyme disease, and assist with educational programs. This project will be great experience for anyone interested in health law, public policy, government, unemployment and disability law, or anyone who wants to make a difference for a very common and misunderstood disease.
- Duration: fall and spring semesters
- Training Requirement: project dependent
- Time Commitment: project dependent
Veterans Assistance Project (VAP) students work with legal service nonprofits, including Swords to Plowshares and Legal Aid of North Carolina, as well as pro bono attorneys, to assist indigent veterans in two specific areas of veterans law: discharge upgrades and Department of Veterans Affairs benefits claims. This is a great opportunity to interact directly with clients. At a minimum, students conduct client interviews and draft memos to their supervising attorney. Students may also sit in on client meetings and help draft legal briefs.
- Duration: Training (fall semester); Casework (fall and spring semesters)
- Training Requirement: ~4 hours (in-person or pre-recorded video)
- Time Commitment: 3-9+ hours/case
Individual Pro Bono Projects are direct placements with non-profit legal service organizations, government agencies, and private firms engaged in pro bono practice. Students in the past have gained experience in a wide variety of pro bono practice areas including arts and intellectual property, domestic violence, and employment law. Students may also create their own individual project to help address an unmet need.
Semester Break Pro Bono Trips allow Duke Law students to partner with legal services organizations to provide high-impact legal work to underserved areas of North Carolina and across the United States not usually accessible while classes are in session. The Office of Public Interest & Pro Bono organizes trips during the fall and spring semester breaks and provides funding for student participation. Interest meeting dates will be announced at the beginning of each semester along with application information and deadlines. Selected students will be required to attend training prior to the trip.