Fellowship Application Information

Q: Who is eligible to apply for the Skadden Fellowship?
A: You are eligible to apply if, at the time of application, you are in the fall of your final year of law school (generally 3L year), an LL.M. program or a clerkship, or have graduated from law school in the prior two years. You may still apply during an LL.M. program or a clerkship even if you worked between graduating from law school and starting the LL.M. or clerkship.

Q: Must I be a U.S. citizen to apply?
A: No. However, in connection with your employment at your host organization, you will be required to verify your identity and eligibility to work in the United States, as required by applicable law.

Q: Do I have to attend a U.S. law school to apply?
A: No, but you must have taken or plan to take a bar exam in the United States.

Q: Who is ineligible to apply for the Skadden Fellowship?
A: Law school graduates are not eligible to apply unless they are currently serving in a clerkship or enrolled in an LL.M. program, or have graduated from law school in the prior two years. Directors and Officers of the Foundation, employees of the Foundation, current and former Skadden partners, current Skadden employees and their family members are ineligible to apply for or receive a Fellowship. Applicants who graduated from law school within the past two years should clearly demonstrate a commitment to pursuing a full-time career in public interest law.

Q: What organizations are eligible to host Fellows?
A: The host organization must be a stand-alone 501(c)(3); it cannot be a project or clinic within a law school. The organization must currently employ at least two full-time attorneys on staff who (1) devote the significant majority of their working time to civil legal advocacy, and (2) are able to supervise the Fellowship project. Additional details are available under the Information for Host Organizations tab and in the Host Certification Form.

Q: When is the Skadden Fellowship application due?
A: The exact deadlines for 2026 are still being finalized but the deadline will likely be the week of August 31, 2026. The process for submitting applications is being updated but the questions, including essay prompts, will be the same as in 2025. 

Q: What does the Skadden Foundation look for in applicants?
A: We are focused on the clients and whether the applicant and host organization are well positioned to address the clients’ needs through the proposed project. We look for passionate law students, judicial clerks and recent law school graduates committed to public interest work, who listen to and learn from their clients, and who have insight into the role of a public interest lawyer. We do not set a GPA cutoff, but we seek high-achieving students who will be excellent lawyers for their clients. In our application and selection process, we prohibit discrimination against applicants and Fellows on any basis prohibited by applicable law. Strong applicants typically show a track record of meaningful public interest work, leadership and academic success.

Q: How do I request accommodations during the application process or as a Fellow?
A: We want you to succeed in this process. We provide reasonable accommodations (and bear any reasonable accommodation-related expenses) during the selection process as requested, and also throughout our programming during the Fellowship. Many Skadden Fellows have received accommodations during the selection process and during their Fellowships. Prior reasonable accommodations related to our interviews have included ones for mobility (all offices are accessible), having a service animal present, a lactation room, a remote/video format instead of in-person, ASL interpretation, live transcription, extra time, masking and providing written questions at the start of the interview, as well as other needed reasonable accommodations. Schedule changes are challenging to accommodate in our abbreviated interview window, so they are generally not allowed but will be approved for bona fide reasons, including medical or religious reasons. While our default interview format will be in-person, a remote option will be available on request for those experiencing certain hardships. We recognize that an in-person interview may present a hardship for some applicants for any of a variety of reasons, such as if you are out of the country or unable to travel due to caregiving responsibilities or health considerations. Remote interviews will follow the same format as in-person ones. Any applicant who may need assistance or reasonable accommodations should reach out to the Skadden Foundation. During the Fellowship period, we regularly accommodate requests, including for personal, family or medical leaves. If there are special circumstances that affect your participation in the Fellowship or any of our programs, please let us know.

Q: How difficult is it to be selected as a Fellow?
A: The process is highly selective, as we receive many strong applications each year — far more than the number of Fellowships we are able to award. We strive to identify those applications that demonstrate a broad, nonpartisan approach to addressing the unmet civil legal needs of people living in poverty in the United States.

Q: What if my host organization or law school has never had a Skadden Fellow?
A: That is not a problem. You can introduce us to an exemplary organization — we simply have not gotten to them all yet — and every day new organizations are being founded by accomplished legal services attorneys. Similarly, we are always looking for students and recent law school graduates who have excelled at schools that have not previously had a successful Fellowship applicant.

Q: Do you have a GPA cutoff?
A: No. We consider the whole applicant, including recommendation letters. Because the clients whom Fellows serve have significant and often complex legal needs, we are looking for excellent students and recent law school graduates. Many successful candidates will be at the very top of their law school classes, and most will have grades that fall in their law school’s top quartile. We know that some applicants attend law schools without grading systems and that schools have different grading curves. We also understand that some students go to school at night because they work full-time, or have family obligations, and such circumstances may impact their grades and activities in law school.

Q: After I submit my application, how does the application process proceed?
A: The exact timeline for 2026 is still being finalized. If you are selected to receive an interview, the Skadden Fellowship coordinator will email you in mid-September. Interviews will be conducted in October in the following cities: Palo Alto, Boston, Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Foundation will pay for your travel to the location of your interview. After the interviews, the Advisory Committee will select Finalists, who will be presented to the Selection Trustees. Finalists will be required to undergo a social media check to ensure that candidates' online public acitivies do not violate the Firm's policies or otherwise compromise the interests of the Firm, the Foundation, or the host organizations. The Selection Trustees will meet in November to select the Fellows. Fellows will undergo a criminal and credit background check once selected.

Q: What if I have additional questions?
A: You may call or email anytime. The Skadden Foundation is committed to the transparency of the application process. Access our contact information.

Q: How do I develop a project proposal?
A: You will need to secure an eligible host organization with which you will apply. Together, you will design a project proposal. In honing your application, please feel free to reach out to us. We do not pair applicants to host organizations or recommend host organizations to applicants.

Q: What types of work does the Skadden Foundation fund?
A: The Skadden Fellowship Foundation is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization. Skadden Fellowships address the unmet civil legal needs of people living in poverty in the U.S. Your project must be legal in nature and serve low-income clients, although we do not apply a one-size-fits-all poverty test. Projects that do not screen clients individually based on income must still be targeted at and accountable to poor clients.

Q: Are there types of work the Skadden Foundation does not fund?
A: Yes. We do not fund criminal representation, legal work for which the government provides guaranteed representation, or projects that are civil in nature but serve a client population that is detained in the adult carceral system (either jails or prisons). If you are unsure if your idea fits within our funding guidelines or would like advice on how to frame and focus your proposal, we encourage you to contact us while you are formulating the project.

Q: What does the Skadden Foundation look for in project proposals?
A: Skadden Fellowship projects need to address an unmet civil legal need of people living in poverty in the U.S. Applicants should apply having already designed their job and secured a strong, nonpartisan host organization, which is the nonprofit that will supervise their work. Skadden Fellowship projects do not need to be innovative. In fact, we have found that Fellows report more favorable experiences and greater confidence in the service they provide to their clients when their project hews closely to the core mission of their host organization.

Q: What types of lawyering strategies and advocacy does the Skadden Foundation fund?
A: Skadden Fellowships are open to the full, broad array of lawyering strategies, so long as the Fellow must be an attorney to complete the proposed project. Most projects we fund will include some direct client representation, and many projects we fund combine various types of advocacy. In addition to exclusively direct representation projects, Skadden Fellows have worked on projects focusing on transactional work, impact litigation, movement lawyering and more. Overall, we expect that the applicant and host organization be well prepared to deliver the planned legal advocacy, and that the host organization has expertise in the type of lawyering contemplated. You should not add a legal component (such as direct service or impact litigation) in hopes of making your proposal more competitive; instead you should craft your project to best address the legal needs of your clients.

There are some specific points to keep in mind about systemic reform projects. Before a Fellow represents clients as a class or works exclusively with organizational clients, we expect the applicant to deeply understand their clients as individuals, as well as the attorney-client relationship. We therefore expect applicants with more systemic proposals and their host organizations to have a high degree of insight into their client population.

Q: Where geographically may Skadden Fellows work?
A: A Fellow, the host organization and their clients must be located in the United States, U.S. territories or Native American communities.

Q: What if I have additional questions?
A: You may call or email anytime. The Skadden Foundation is committed to the transparency of the application process.

Q: When do successful applicants start their Fellowship?
A: Fellows select their start date in coordination with their host organization. Your Fellowship must begin in the fall, absent extraordinary circumstances.

Q: What assistance is provided to Fellows during their Fellowship?
A: Skadden Fellows receive significant support. Before your Fellowship begins, and each year during your Fellowship, Fellows attend a symposium in New York City with incoming and current Fellows. Current Fellows are provided complimentary access to LexisNexis as well as unlimited in-person and web-based CLE by the Practising Law Institute. Sometimes Skadden attorneys are able to provide pro bono legal work for cases and matters of both current and former Fellows, and Fellows call the Foundation for advice and support on topics large and small. Both current and former Fellows are part of our exceptional community of public interest attorneys and receive programming, including webinars, trainings, and meetings focused on relevant topics. They also receive a regular e-newsletter with community updates. Our Fellowship network is connected online through our website and LinkedIn group.

Q: What additional support is available after the conclusion of the Fellowship?
A: We consider our Fellows to be Fellows for life. Former Fellows are periodically invited to regional reunions and networking opportunities. They may apply for funding, including $7,500 to write an academic article relevant to the public interest law community or $15,000 to experiment with a novel approach to benefit their clients (via Flom Incubator Grants or FIGs). We provide honoraria of $2,500 to former Fellows who have been practicing in the public interest arena for at least 10 years to deliver training sessions to our current and more recent Skadden Fellows (through the Fellows to Fellows (F2F) initiative). Former Fellows who volunteer as sites for current Fellows’ On-site Learning Initiative visits are also provided an honorarium of $1,000. Former Fellows continue to keep in touch with the Foundation and benefit from the network of other current and former Fellows.

Q: What reporting is required in connection with the Fellowship?
A: No ongoing reporting is required during the Fellowship, but we keep in touch with current Fellows. Additionally, all Fellows have a check-in with the Foundation executive director around the halfway point of the Fellowship. Upon the completion of your Fellowship, you are required to submit a confidential evaluation of your experience at your host organization.

Q: What, if any, constraints should I be aware of regarding the supports the Foundation provides?
A: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Skadden Foundation is nonpartisan, and its resources cannot be used to participate or intervene in any political campaign for elective public office. Further, as a private foundation, the Foundation is prohibited from itself engaging in lobbying or earmarking its grants for lobbying.

Fellowship projects that may include lobbying activities must comply with the safe harbor provisions in Treas. Reg. § 53.4945-2(a)(6)(ii), including the documentation requirements of Treas. Reg. § 53.4945-2(a)(6)(iii). We work with host organizations, in the fall that our Fellow begins their Fellowship work, to ensure we have a proposed budget from the host organization, signed by an officer of the host organization, showing the host organization will spend more than the amount of the Fellowship grant on nonlobbying project activities.

In our application and selection process, we prohibit discrimination against applicants and Fellows on any basis prohibited by applicable law.

Q: What support does the Foundation provide to hosts for the Fellow’s salary?
A: As the employer, the host organization sets the Fellow’s salary, benefits and employment policies, subject to floors set by the Foundation. The details of our support to host organizations are outlined in the Host Certification Form. For host organizations with Fellows in the class of 2026, the Foundation will provide $68,000 per year in base salary support, plus $5,202 to cover the employer side of the FICA. Host organizations are required to disclose the Fellow’s starting salary in the Host Certification Form. Host organizations must pay Fellows $68,000 or more in salary; organizations are ineligible to host if they cannot pay the Fellow $68,000 per year, unless they submit with their certification their collective bargaining agreement which mandates a lower salary. For hosts in the class of 2026 that pay their Fellow a salary of $73,000 or above, the Foundation will provide an annual supplemental support of $5,000. Fellows must be employed full-time by their host organization over the Fellowship term, and will devote their full working time, attention, and best efforts to the Fellowship.

Q: What financial support does the Foundation provide to Hosts for the Fellow’s benefits?
A: The Foundation reimburses host organizations for the full cost of certain benefits that the Fellow would be entitled to as a staff attorney including medical, dental and life insurance and disability. Both the employee and employer contribution of the mentioned benefits are covered by the Foundation. In addition, the Foundation will cover the full cost of a Fellows dependent(s) medical and dental insurance coverage elected by a Fellow.

Q. What other financial supports does the Foundation provide to Host organizations?
A: Fellows each have a budget for approved professional development opportunities. We set aside $2,000 for trainings directly related to the Fellow’s public interest work and selected by the Fellow, and provide reimbursement for up to $1,500 for travel associated with the Foundation’s On-site Learning Initiative, which connects current Fellows to visit and learn from experienced former Fellows.

Q: What financial supports does the Foundation provide directly to Fellows?
A: Direct supports available to our Fellows include (1) reimbursement for bar expenses, (2) reimbursement for relocation expenses and (3) loan repayment assistance for the debt service due during their Fellowship on law school loans. These supports are available on a showing of financial need, and as long as another entity is not covering the expenses.