Equal Justice Center

Austin, TX

This is the 2025 fellowship description for this mentor organization.

The Equal Justice Center is a nonprofit public interest law firm that specializes in employment, immigration, and civil rights law, serving low-wage working people regardless of their immigration status. With offices in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, the EJC represents working people across the state of Texas. We use litigation and other forms of legal advocacy to empower low-income workers: we help workers to recover unpaid wages (minimum wage, overtime, prevailing wages, contract wages), combat workplace sexual assault and harassment and other forms of employment discrimination, and vindicate their NLRA rights to organize for better wages and working conditions. We also advocate for immigrants’ rights – through Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), DACA, applications for humanitarian immigration relief, and the enforcement of anti-labor-trafficking statutes – to build the foundation for comprehensive immigration reform while strengthening employment justice for all.

The EJC trains law student interns to handle cases as student-attorneys. After a comprehensive legal orientation, the Peggy Browning Fellow will be given a caseload of four to five active cases. The Fellow will work under EJC attorney supervision in fact-gathering and investigation, legal drafting, and legal research assignments – assisting EJC attorneys on various cases from individual claims to complex, multi-issue, collective or class action cases. Due to the intersectional nature of employment and immigration law, there may be opportunities to provide direct representation to clients pursuing both enforcement of their employment rights and immigration relief.

The Fellow may have opportunities to expand their professional horizons through co-counsel relationships with outside private and public interest attorneys; through networking with allied labor organizations, immigrant rights groups, and progressive private and non-profit attorneys; and through organized social events.

The EJC currently operates with a hybrid work model in which some employees work in person at the office full time, some part time, and others work remotely full time. The Fellow is invited to work with us to identify the best working arrangement for the summer.

The EJC affirmatively values and seeks diversity in its staff and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, religion, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, family status, or veteran status. Members of all underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.

The ability to communicate in another language, especially Spanish, is helpful to our work.

The total 10-week stipend for this fellowship will be $7,000.

Address cover letter to:

Chris Willett, Senior Attorney
Equal Justice Center
314 E. Highland Mall Blvd., Ste. 401
Austin, TX 78752