Georgetown/Equal Justice Foundation Summer Fellowship 2




	Georgetown/Equal Justice Foundation Summer Fellowship


	Equal Justice Fellowship (EJF) Summer 2011 Summer Funding Application Instructions www.law.georgetown.edu/ejf EJF 2011 summer funding is available to JD students engaging in unpaid law-related work for a public interest organization or governmental entity (including judicial internships). EJF fellowships are guaranteed at $3,250 for 6 week, full-time internships. Note that many employers require an 8-12 week commitment, even though the EJF commitment is only 6 weeks. This is acceptable and encouraged under the EJF rules. ELIGIBILITY Applicants must be JD students with a current status of 1L, 1E, 2E, 2L, or 3E, or joint or concurrent degree candidates graduating no sooner than December 2011. Projects must involve law-related work for a public interest organization or governmental entity. Outside sources of funding for EJF-funded projects or payment for other work are permitted to the extent such funding complies with the Policy on Outside Funding and Other Employment, detailed below. RESPONSIBILITIES OF APPLICANTS All EJF Fellowship Applicants: 1. Must complete an initial online application by Monday, February 28, at 6:00 pm. This is a MANDATORY deadline, but a confirmed offer of employment is not required by this date. The initial application is very easy to complete, but it must be submitted by the deadline. 2. Must attend a MANDATORY EJF Information Session, on either Wednesday, March 2 at 3:30 pm in McDonough 205 or Monday, March 21 at 4:45 pm in McDonough 202. If you are an evening student and cannot attend either session, contact OPICS at opicsfunding@law.georgetown.edu to schedule a brief individual appointment (which can be in person or by phone). 3. Must complete an hour of phonebanking or two hours of phonebanking-supervising for the 2011 spring fund drive. Spring volunteer hours must be completed by April 2, 2011. EJF will send out further details and instructions to sign up for hours. 4. Must complete a 1) final hard copy application, 2) employer participation agreement, 3) assumption of risk form, and all 4) payroll paperwork (payroll paperwork must be completed at a payroll workshop, detailed below), and submit all of these documents together to OPICS (McDonough 212) by Monday, April 11, 2011, at 5:00 pm. A confirmed offer of employment is required by the April 11 deadline. To access these documents, see APPLICATIONS AND IMPORTANT FORMS, below. 5. Must, if traveling abroad, complete and submit all necessary international travel paperwork. This paperwork must be completed before submission of the final application (due Monday, April 11, 2011, at 5:00 pm). See Internships Abroad, below, for more information. Early submission is strongly encouraged! If any of the steps listed above are not completed by the specified deadlines, we cannot guarantee your funding, and/or your funding payments might be delayed, and/or you may not be able to receive direct deposit. RESPONSIBILITIES OF RECIPIENTS All EJF Fellowship recipients: 1. Are asked to provide at least 5 hours of volunteer assistance toward the EJF Auction, if it is held in the fall. 2. Must submit a reflection paper on their summer public interest experiences. Instructions for the reflection paper will be available on the OPICS website later in the semester. The paper is due Wednesday, August 10, 2011. 3. Must participate in a faculty-led group discussion regarding their summer public interest experiences. Discussion groups will be held in Fall 2011 and each student must register for a discussion group by the deadline, which will likely be on or around August 23, 2011. 4. Must submit a summer evaluation on Symplicity before classes begin in Fall 2011. These evaluations are used by students in subsequent years to learn about public sector employers. Note: The names of all EJF recipients and their employers will be made available to other students; if you do not wish your name to be included, you must specifically opt-out by notifying OPICS when you submit your final application. FELLOWSHIP DETAILS Full-time means as observed by the employer. EJF recipients do not need to make up hours for employer-observed holidays, such as Memorial Day or July 4th. INTERNSHIPS ABROAD All students going abroad for an internship must complete pre-departure materials. Students contemplating accepting an international internship in a location that is covered by the State Department Travel Warning are required to request and obtain advance permission from the Office of Transnational Programs (OTP). Additional information and application procedures can be found here. Note that the approval process may take a substantial amount of time, so you should contact OTP as soon as possible. All international forms must be submitted to OTP prior to submitting your final EJF application to OPICS (your final EJF application is due by Monday, April 11, at 5:00 pm). IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS currently in the US Holding a Non-Immigrant Visa Status (such as F1 Student or J1 Student Status), please note the following: 1) if you will be traveling outside of and then reentering the US, there may be reentry concerns or other matters impacting your situation of which you are not aware; and 2) if you will be employed, providing a service, or volunteering in the United States, you may need work authorization. The processing may take up to three months. In addition, work authorization is required for you to receive any compensation, including EJF funding. Please contact Indira Dingledine, the Georgetown Law Center Visa Coordinator, for more information. She can be reached at img4@law.georgetown.edu or (202) 662-9319. POLICY ON OUTSIDE FUNDING AND OTHER EMPLOYMENT An EJF stipend cannot be combined with Georgetown-related funding, including the Clifford Chance Summer International Public Interest Fellowships, the Women's Bar Association Fellowship, and Equal Justice America Fellowships; and an EJF stipend cannot be combined with any other salary or source of funding from the University such as on-campus jobs, including RA positions. Applicants may receive additional funding from outside sources (other than any of the sources noted above), up to $10,000 TOTAL, including EJF. Applicants are highly encouraged to seek outside sources of funding for their summer work. View the OPICS Summer Funding Page for a list of additional summer funding sources. "PUBLIC INTEREST" LAW FIRMS Public interest law firms are organized as for-profit entities, but advancing the public interest is one of their primary purposes – i.e., it’s a core mission rather than a secondary concern. The clients and matters these firms work on typically more closely resemble those handled by a not-for-profit organization or government agency than a private firm. We approve ‘public interest law firms’ for EJF funding only upon receipt of a letter on the firm’s letterhead confirming the following: The law firm is a predominately public interest firm (at least 51% of time is spent on public interest matters); The student will be working solely on public interest matters; The student’s time will not be billed; The firm will not submit the student’s time in a later application for attorney’s fees; and The firm will not pay any of its student interns during the summer. The firm must agree to ALL of these points. EXTERNSHIPS Students may elect to participate in a summer externship, in DC or elsewhere, and receive course credit instead of receiving EJF funding. Students cannot receive both externship credit and EJF funding during the summer (even for different internships). If a student elects to do a 3-credit externship, s/he may be eligible for loans for tuition and/or living expenses. Students interested in this option should contact OPICS. APPLICATIONS AND IMPORTANT FORMS The Initial Online Application was due February 28, 2011, at 6:00 pm. (This was a mandatory deadline, but a confirmed offer of employment was not required by this date.) HARD COPIES of the following must be turned in together by Monday, April 11, 2011, at 5:00 pm, to the OPICS office, McDonough 212: 1) Final Application, 2) Employer Participation Agreement (this must be filled out completely and signed by your employer; note especially that start and end dates must be entered - these dates should coincide with the six-week period for which you will receive EJF funding and not necessarily the entire time period you will work for the employer), 3) Assumption of Risk Form; and 4) Payroll Paperwork OR Payroll Paperwork Waiver Form (see below for detailed instructions). Payroll Instructions: Your final application will NOT be accepted without proper payroll documentation, which includes either all necessary Payroll Paperwork as listed in A) below or a Payroll Paperwork Waiver Form as indicated in B) below. The Office of Payroll is conducting EJF ‘payroll workshop’ days for you to complete this process. You must attend one of them unless you have a scheduling conflict, in which case you must go to the Payroll office (McDonough 583) to schedule a separate time to complete the process. The workshops will be held on the following dates, and you can stop by at any time for 10-15 minutes: Friday, 3/18 9:30 am – 12:00 pm McDonough 205 Monday, 3/21 9:30 am – 12:00 pm McDonough 110 Friday, 3/25 9:30 am – 12:00 pm McDonough 206 Thursday, 3/31 9:30 am – 12:00 pm McDonough 110 Additional Workshops JUST ADDED! Monday, 4/4 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Law Library 520AB Friday, 4/8 10:00 am - 2:00 pm McDonough 202 Monday, 4/11 9:30 am - 12:00 pm McDonough 220 A) Payroll Paperwork (available at the workshops and in the Payroll office): Federal Tax Withholding Form (W-4)** Federal Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9): You must bring identity documentation to the workshop in order to complete this form. See the I-9 for a list of of acceptable documents, which must be unexpired. State Tax Withholding form (D-4, VA-4, or MW 507) Personnel Transaction Form Georgetown University Employee Supplemental Data Sheet Direct Deposit Form Use this Checklist to ensure you have completed all the Payroll Paperwork, OR B) Complete the Waiver at the bottom of the Checklist. This option is only for those who have previously completed payroll paperwork for Georgetown. You must CONFIRM with the Office of Payroll that your paperwork is up-to-date AND that you do not wish to change your tax withholding status. (We strongly encourage you to check your current tax status to ensure you do not want to make any changes for the summer.) Remember, we will not accept your Final Hard Copy Application without either all completed payroll forms and the Checklist, or a completed Waiver on the Checklist. ** NOTE: If you do not claim EXEMPT (by leaving the Allowances line blank and writing "EXEMPT" on the exemption line), you will have income taxes taken out. Please discuss this with the Office of Payroll if you have any questions. If any of the steps listed above are not completed by the specified deadlines, we cannot guarantee your funding, and/or your funding payments might be delayed, and/or you may not be able to receive direct deposit. Questions, comments and concerns about the above or other aspects of the EJF summer funding process may be addressed to: OPICS at opicsfunding@law.georgetown.edu or 202-662-9655; or EJF at ejf@law.georgetown.edu or 202-662-9258.