TakeRoot Justice provides legal, participatory research, and policy support to strengthen the work of grassroots and community-based groups in New York City to dismantle racial, economic and social oppression. TakeRoot employs a unique model of partnership with grassroots and community-based groups. Our partners take the lead in determining the priorities and goals for our work and advance our understanding of justice. This upends the traditional power dynamics between communities and service providers. We believe in a theory of change where short-term and individual successes help build the capacity and power of our partners, who in turn can have longer-term impact on policies, laws and systems that affect their communities. Our work is done in connection with organizing, building power and leadership development. Candidates with proficiency of a second language – especially Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, East Asian, or South Asian languages – are strongly preferred.
Application Instructions & Deadlines
We accept intern applications for summer positions from current 2L students until December 1, 2023, and from 1L students from December 1, 2023 to February 1, 2024. Review of applications and offers for internship positions will be made on a rolling basis, with the exception of our Workers’ Rights practice as stated below. To apply, please e-mail a cover letter and resume, in a single PDF attachment, to the attention of Tedmund Wan at jobs@takerootjustice.org, with “Summer 2024 Legal Intern” and the preferred practice area(s) in the subject line. Cover letters should explain why the applicant is interested in working with TakeRoot and the preferred practice area(s). All law school interns will be expected to work full time for a minimum of 10 weeks. This internship may require regular night meetings.
Summer Funding
TakeRoot will work with summer interns who do not receive funding from their law schools to apply for funding from outside sources and will compensate summer interns who receive little or no outside support. All interns are required to apply for at least two sources of funding, one of which can be funding from the law school they currently attend. As long as the intern meets this requirement, TakeRoot will contribute any additional funding necessary to ensure the intern is paid at least $5,250 for the internship period. Interns will not be required to apply for two sources of funding if they already have funding totals more than $5,250. Interns will be paid in the range of $0 to $7,000 from TakeRoot.
Hybrid Workplace
As TakeRoot is a hybrid remote workplace and much of our staff works remotely, it is likely that the majority of this summer’s internship programing will take place remotely as well. However, interns will have the option to work from TakeRoot’s office.
Practice Areas
Capacity Building for Community Non-Profits and Worker Cooperatives: We support and strengthen worker-owned cooperatives, community- based institutions, grassroots campaigns and local organizing. In addition to providing public policy support and technical support for local campaigns, our practice area advises on a variety of transactional matters, including incorporation, tax exemption, internal governance, contracts, commercial leases, and compliance with corporate, non-profit, employment, tax, and other laws. Please note: This position is funded in part by the New York State Bar Association’s Kenneth G. Standard Diversity Internship Program and requires applicants to submit a separate application.
Consumer Justice: We support community-based organizations whose members and constituents are experiencing debt collection abuses. We represent low-income consumers on matters such as identity theft, credit reporting issues, rental arrears lawsuits, and unlawful debt collection practices. Our work often intersects with other practice areas in TakeRoot, such as Immigrants’ Rights and Tenants’ Rights.
Equitable Neighborhoods: We work with grassroots groups, neighborhood organizations and community coalitions to help make sure that people of color, immigrants, and other low-income residents who have built our city are not pushed out in the name of “progress.” We work together with our partners and clients to ensure that residents in historically under-resourced areas have stable housing they can afford, places where they can connect and organize, jobs to make a good living, and other opportunities that allow people to thrive. We often work with the Capacity Building and Tenants’ Rights practice areas.
Housing & Tenants’ Rights: We provide direct legal assistance to community groups, organizers, and their members engaged in tenant organizing. Our practice includes affirmative litigation on behalf of tenant associations, as well as individual anti-eviction litigation. We train community groups and their members on tenants’ rights issues, collaborate with tenant organizers, assist with legislative and/or regulatory advocacy, and lead housing clinics. Types of cases include HP actions for repairs, rent strikes, and 7A proceedings to strip landlords of control of their buildings.
Immigrants’ Rights: We aim to protect individuals from detention and deportation, keep families together, and build power in immigrant communities. We work with our partners to provide legal clinics, KYRs workshops, and strategic advocacy efforts. We provide full representation to partners’ members on a wide range of immigration case types including citizenship, T and U visas, asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile status, detention defense and much more. We are also involved in efforts to support the development of immigrant community defense networks, challenge harsh immigration laws and enforcement practices, promote language access and combat immigration fraud.
Workers’ Rights: We represent low-wage workers from workers’ centers against employers for failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, tip-stealing, labor trafficking, unlawful discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and other violations of the labor laws. We also collaborate with community groups to provide legal support to employees involved in a variety of labor-related organizing efforts. Please note that our Workers’ Rights intern is exclusively hired through the Peggy Browning Fund, and applicants should follow the deadline set out by the Peggy Browning Fund. We will not review Workers’ Rights applications sent to us outside of the Peggy Browning process.
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TakeRoot Justice is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under the law.
TakeRoot encourages applications from people with diverse backgrounds, including, but not limited to, women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, LGBTGNCNBQI+ people, people from low-income backgrounds, people of all ages and people with personal experience with the criminal justice system. We strongly encourage applications from people who have had lived experience in the communities we serve. TakeRoot believes that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.