Internships
The Mecklenburg County Public Defender's Office is a state run agency in Charlotte, NC. We represent indigent persons charged with criminal offenses by providing quality legal assistance, counsel, and advice. Our office practices holistic defense, and we seek to help clients with changing fundamental issues in their lives that are intertwined with their criminal charges. We are one of the largest and most prominent defender offices in the South.
Legal Internships
We offer a 10 week unpaid internship during the summer that begins in May and ends in August. Interns receive tremendous practical experience in the areas of client and witness interviewing, discovery review, investigative techniques and courtroom observation. Second year certified interns will participate in courtroom procedures including pleas, bond hearings, negotiation, and trials. We also have opportunities for legal research and writing assignments. All interns participate in a week-long intensive training schedule at the start of the internship that provides valuable insight from topics as diverse as handling bond hearings, sentencing and probation, to calculating jail credit, court decorum, local courtroom procedure, and much more.
Our office presents a unique opportunity to work on the front lines in the South on criminal justice issues with great attorneys who truly care about their clients and their community. The city of Charlotte is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. The program that we put together here is truly one of the premiere internship opportunities in the Public Defender field. We pride ourselves especially on the amount of training and confidence that we instill in our students in a courtroom setting.
How To Apply
We recruit on campus at every law school in North Carolina, and at the University of South Carolina. Be sure to contact your Career Services department to schedule an on campus interview if you are a North Carolina law student. Our program also welcomes out-of-state interns and recruits students nationally.
We also recruit for Summer Interns at the Equal Justice Works Career Fair in Washington, D.C. (October) and the NYU Public Interest Career Fair (February).
If we will not be coming to your campus or you are unable to attend one of the career fairs, please submit a resume and cover letter to our intern coordinator, Samantha Grill, at samantha.l.grill@nccourts.org.
A summer internship offers not only the chance to work with us, but also to be included in our office community - we have summer social activities including an office picnic, co-ed softball games in the Bar league, and more.
Social work internships
The social work team has supervised BSW and MSW interns from UNCC, Johnson C. Smith University, and Winthrop University. Interns generally work with our office for the academic school year from August-May, but we occasionally supervise summer interns. Interns typically spend 2-3 full days per week with our office according to the requirements of their academic program.
Social work interns work closely with our master's level social workers. Interns can expect to interact frequently with clients and attorneys, attend court regularly and make jail visits, visit and collaborate with community agencies, and more.
How to Apply
Interested students should speak with the field placement advisor at their university. Resumes or letters of interest can be directed to Juaniska Davis, MSW, LCSWA (Lead Clinical Social Worker) at juaniska.s.davis@nccourts.org.