The Bronx Defenders (BxD)—an innovative, progressive, holistic indigent defense office in the South Bronx—seeks passionate second-year (2L) law students committed to public defense to join our Criminal Defense, Family Defense, Immigration Defense, Civil Action, and Impact Litigation Practices for our 2026 Legal Summer Internship Program. 

Founded in 1997, The Bronx Defenders is a public defender nonprofit that has developed a nationally recognized model of representation called holistic defense, which provides people with teams of lawyers, social workers, and advocates to defend them zealously in court as well as to address the underlying drivers and enmeshed penalties of legal system involvement.   

Since opening our doors, we have grown into an organization of more than 400 staff members defending nearly 20,000 New Yorkers each year in criminal, family, civil, and immigration proceedings who face incarceration, family separation, eviction, and deportation, among other devastating consequences.   

Today we are reimagining the role of public defense even further, using community organizing and engagement, legislative advocacy, and impact litigation to partner with the communities we represent to bring about long-lasting systemic change.   

We also share our model and lessons learned with current and future public defenders. We run two legal clinics at NYC law schools and train public defenders from one end of the country to the next on how to move to a holistic model of representation.   

The Bronx Defenders 2026 Legal Summer Internship  

Over a period of 10 weeks, The Bronx Defenders Legal Summer Internship provides a unique opportunity for interns to receive extensive training in various legal disciplines and play an integral role in holistic defense. Legal interns receive a comprehensive orientation with an introduction to all of our interdisciplinary practice areas and special projects, gain invaluable client interactions, participate in a summer-long intensive legal skills training series, and have the opportunity to advocate for clients in legal settings on the record at their supervisors’ discretion.  

Criminal Defense Practice 

The Bronx is one of the most aggressively policed boroughs in New York City. As a result, we represent thousands of people each year, nearly 40% of whom are charged with low-level offenses such as shoplifting, traffic offenses, and drug possession. As part of our holistic approach, we spend time getting to know the people we represent and gaining a deeper understanding of their lives and needs. With that understanding, we advocate for people by thoroughly investigating their cases, raising novel legal arguments, using creative tools of persuasion and storytelling, and addressing needs that go beyond the scope of their cases.    

Civil Action Practice 

A sweeping array of civil punishments are triggered the moment someone faces arrest, deportation, or family separation. The people we represent risk losing their jobs, homes, income, property, and basic civil rights – struggles that can be more devastating and long-lasting than the charges themselves. Last year, we helped 2,200 people obtain concrete benefits like maintaining their jobs, homes, income, property, and rights.     

Family Defense Practice 

As residents of the most heavily disinvested borough in the city, families in the Bronx experience the highest rates of family policing and parent-child separation. We serve as the primary institutional provider defending parents and caretakers against the painful and unnecessary removals of their children in the Bronx. Together, our attorneys, social workers, and parent advocates provide the legal defense and support necessary to keep families together and interrupt generational cycles of family court involvement.    

Immigration Practice 

Nearly a third of the residents of the Bronx were born outside the United States, and many face the unprecedented threat of detention and deportation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Our attorneys help people facing criminal, family, and civil proceedings make informed and strategic decisions to protect their rights. We are also one of the three public defender organizations leading the nation’s first-ever universal representation program for detained immigrants facing deportation.    

Impact Litigation Practice 

Our Impact Litigation Practice seeks to identify, develop, and litigate challenges to systemic violations and injustices that affect the communities we represent, including racially discriminatory policing, government seizure of property, lack of access to justice and due process rights, curtailment of parental rights in family court proceedings, and immigration abuses. 

Legal interns assist attorneys in every aspect of representation, including: 

• preparing for hearings and trials 

• interviewing witnesses and clients  

• conducting legal research 

• writing legal motions 

• connecting clients with key services and resources, and  

• representing clients in court, pursuant to the Student Practice Order  

Legal interns also have the opportunity to observe or work as co-counsel on cases in a variety of judicial venues, including Criminal Court, Civil Court, Family Court, Immigration Court and Administrative Hearings. Each legal intern works alongside attorneys in the Immigration, Civil Action, Criminal Defense, Family Defense, and Impact Litigation Practices. 

To be eligible, applicants must be: 

• A second year (2L) law student at an American Bar Association-accredited law school 

Applicants must demonstrate: 

• Commitment to directly defending people ensnared in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal systems 

• Commitment to challenging systemic injustice and carceral systems  

• Experience working in and with racially and ethnically marginalized communities of color targeted by systemic injustice 

• Ability to effectively and respectfully communicate, collaborate and connect with people from various backgrounds and experiences 

• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with an interdisciplinary team of lawyers and non-lawyers  

• Commitment to fierce advocacy and willingness to strategically challenge authority in defense of the people we represent 

• Effective research, writing, and courtroom advocacy skills 

• Strong legal analytical skills and capacity to employ non-legal resources to support the people we represent 

• Ability to multitask, maintain order and meet deadlines in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment  

• Meticulous attention to detail 

• Ability to think critically and creatively in fast-paced setting, finding innovative solutions to unique obstacles 

• Ability to receive constructive feedback, demonstrate introspection, and shift behavior accordingly 

• Ability to exercise good judgment, discretion, and confidentiality around sensitive issues 

Our 2026 Legal Summer Internship runs from May 26, 2026 to August 4, 2026. 

To apply, please click APPLY TO THIS JOB ONLINE and upload your resume and a cover letter in one document. Your cover letter should share why you want to do this work at our office as well as some key lived and/or professional experiences that have prepared you for this position. Please note that applications without a cover letter will not be considered. 

You will be contacted via email if you are selected for an interview. Interviews for applications submitted outside of career fairs and OCIs will be conducted virtually on a rolling basis through October 1st, 2025.  

The Bronx Defenders is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a workplace that embraces staff with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We acknowledge the ways in which systemic oppression and injustice can undermine access to professional opportunities and are committed to conducting hiring and promotion processes that are equitable and accessible to those commonly excluded from the workforce. We do not discriminate against and in fact specifically encourage applicants from marginalized communities to apply, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, disabled, neurodivergent, and those directly impacted by criminal, civil, family, and immigration legal systems. We value lived as well as professional experience and particularly welcome applications from the Bronx community that we serve.