Summer Funding
Heerey Fellowships
To demonstrate its commitment to public interest and government work, the University of Chicago Law School will provide financial support for students who engage in qualifying summer public interest or government work for four or more weeks during the summer following the first year of law school.
Program Details. Students undertaking qualifying public interest work that first summer are eligible for a $6,000 partially forgivable loan available at summer's start. Funding for this program has been generously provided by the Bernard Heerey Family Foundation.
Qualifying Position. A qualifying position is defined as work in the public interest that pays less than $1,200 per week for employment with a not-for-profit organization or government unit. Positions must be full-time and in a position that has some bearing on legal work. (Specific exclusions include, but are not limited to, judicial clerkships, positions at law firms, research assistant positions and clinical positions.)
Loan Forgiveness. If you complete at least four full-time weeks in a qualifying position in your first summer of law school, up to $3,000 of the loan can be forgiven. This forgiveness is in addition to any salary paid by that or another summer employer and is in addition to any other grant you may have received, so long as you are not receiving more than $1,200 per week for your qualifying work. The loan balance may be repaid as much as fifteen months later, so that you can use your second summer's earnings (which average more than $2,000 per week for 2L Chicago students) as a source of repayment. If you also work in a qualifying position for 10 weeks of your second summer, the entire first-summer loan can be forgiven.
In the summer of 2009, University of Chicago Law School students worked at organizations such as:
- Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Australian Human Rights Centre
- City Attorney of Pasadena
- Federal Communications Commission
- Dept of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
- Greater Boston Legal Services
- Immigration Equality
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- Kurdish Human Rights Project
- Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
- Mississippi Center for Justice
- National Human Rights Commission of Korea
- National Senior Citizens Law Center
- Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
- Southern Africa Litigation Centre
- US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia
Process. Applications will be available to 1Ls in April and the online form will be due on May 15. Funds are usually distributed by the Student Loan Administration during the first two weeks of June.
Questions? Specific details will be provided to 1Ls along with the application. Terms of the loan and determinations of eligibility are at the discretion of the Financial Aid Committee.
