Program Overview
The HCBA 1L Diversity Clerkship Program places first-year law students with Minnesota legal employers for full-time, paid summer associate experiences. Ultimately, the program hopes to find its participants becoming future partners and leaders in Minnesota’s legal community. The RCBA Diversity Committee has partnered with the HCBA Diversity and Inclusion Committee to support these efforts.
The summer of 2023 was the program’s sixteenth year, and more than 50 students applied, and 15 students were placed. Hundreds of law students, including those from underrepresented backgrounds, have been served by the program since its inception.
The 1L Diversity Clerkship program's mission is to provide fair and equitable clerkship opportunities for local law students. Any student may apply, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, or disability.
How It Works
- Each 1L law student, who provides a complete application will be interviewed by members of the HCBA Diversity and Inclusion Committee and other volunteer attorneys during the last two weeks of January.
- A limited number of students (based on the number of participating employers) will be chosen for a second round of interviews in early February. Those students chosen for the second round of interviews are guaranteed summer employment; however, they will still need to interview with participating employers between February 22 and March 2 via Zoom. In the past all students have interviewed all participating employers, but due to an incredible high employer participation rate, each student will be interviewing with 10 of the total participating employers.
- The employers and students will then rank their choices from first to last.
- HCBA 1L Diversity Clerkship Subcommittee will then generate a blind match of employer and students, which will determine the employment matches for the clerkship program. *Note: This means students may get anywhere from their first to last ranked choice. Students should take this into consideration for applying. We hope students are excited and open about the opportunity to work in a variety of firm/organization areas.
- 1L students will coordinate with their employer match of start date and will start their clerkships in Summer.
For additional information, please contact Erikka Ryan, Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Foundations at
eryan@mnbars.org
Timeline
- October 15–November 13, 2023: Employer Registration
- November 15–December 17, 2023: Student Registration
- January 8–19, 2024: First Round Interviews
- February 20–March 1, 2024: Employer Interviews
- March 11, 2024: Matching Preferences Due
- Week of March 18, 2024: Student-Employer Match Reveals
- April 2024: Summer Orientation
2024 Employers