Fellowships and Funding
Fellowships
OU Law sponsors three summer funding programs: the Coats Fellowship for Summer Public Service, the Marjorie P. Maute Memorial Fellowship and the Cindy Foley Memorial Indigent Defense Fellowship. The number and amount of fellowships are determined on the basis of available funding in any given year. Eligible students must demonstrate completed arrangements to work unpaid for a public service or public interest organization over the summer.
Appropriate host organizations include, but are not limited to, Legal Aid, Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, Public Defenders, District Attorney's offices, Catholic Charities, ACLU, Trinity Legal Services, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Oklahoma Indigent Defense Services and other local, state, or federal government offices.
Fellowship Applications (all open as PDFs in new windows).
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Coats Fellowship for Summer Public Service (pdf, opens in a new window)
Marjorie P. Maute Memorial Fellowship (pdf, opens in a new window)
Cindy Foley Memorial Indigent Defense Fellowship (pdf, opens in a new window)
Generally, applications are due in late March or early April, and summer fellows are recognized at the SATJ annual awards reception in late April.
Other Funding Resources
Students
Some of the most interesting and rewarding summer jobs are unpaid law clerk positions with public interest organizations, government agencies, and the judiciary. There are a variety of sources of funding for rising 2Ls and 3Ls to support their summer public interest work.
- The Equal Justice Works Summer Corps (opens in new window) provides fellowship funding to students providing legal services to low-income and underserved communities.
- PSLawNet has compiled a list of additional summer funding sources (opens in new window).
Graduates
If you are concerned about how to pay back your student loans after graduation while pursuing a public interest career, several resources are available.
- Start with the Federal Student Aid website (opens in new window) and the Equal Justice Works website (opens in new window).
- Entrepreneurial post-grads who are interested in starting their own public interest law programs can research the Equal Justice Works Fellowship (opens in new window) and the Skadden Foundation Fellowship (opens in new window).