Internships -- Undergraduate, Public Health, Medical and Law Students

Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston provides direct legal services to low income patients at Boston Medical Center.  The goal of MLP | Boston is to ensure that patients receive assistance with “social determinants of health” and that assistance is provided before problems rise to the level of a crisis.  Patients are referred directly by medical providers, whom MLP | Boston trains to recognize possible legal needs.  MLP | Boston assists patients in a variety of areas, including housing, education, income supports, family law, and legal status.

Student interns are crucial to MLP | Boston's capacity to meet the increasing demand for legal advocacy in the clinical setting.  Interns come from many academic backgrounds ranging from college students exploring public interest career options, to graduate public health, law and medical students.  As varied as their backgrounds are, successful MLP | Boston interns have one quality in common: a sincere commitment to maximizing the well-being of families who face the myriad challenges of poverty and other inequalities.

Tasks

• Provide legal advocacy to clients and administrative assistance to program staff
• Conduct legal intakes at one of MLP | Boston’s weekly clinics
• Under the supervision of staff attorneys, act as the primary MLP | Boston contact for clients
• Handle client follow-up, factual investigation, legal research and various other advocacy tasks
• Conduct research and writing projects related to systemic advocacy efforts
• Assist in development of training materials

Qualifications

• Ability to work independently while exercising sensible judgment about seeking guidance as needed
• Clear communication skills, written and oral
• Solid interpersonal skills; ability to build cross-cultural rapport with clients, stakeholders and others
• Facility with word processing in Microsoft Word, Excel and Access skills appreciated
• Bilingual skills highly valued

Interns must be able to commit to 16 hours per week.  MLP | Boston accepts 6-8 interns per semester.