Pro Bono Fellowships

Each year, Kirkland funds multiple postgraduate fellowships as part of the Firm's commitment to the Public Interest Law Initiative® (PILI), an organization with a mission to cultivate a lifelong commitment to public interest law and pro bono service within the Illinois legal community. The fellowships allow incoming Kirkland lawyers to work at public interest legal aid organizations across Chicago while studying for the bar exam. The legal aid organizations help clients become citizens, buy homes, adopt children, secure disability benefits and gain asylum, among many other achievements. Kirkland sponsors approximately 30 PILI Fellows every year, the most of any law firm in Chicago.

Kirkland’s New York office annually awards Public Service Fellowships to outstanding law school graduates from Columbia Law School and the New York University School of Law for a year of public service work aimed at addressing unmet legal needs in New York City.

Rebecca Suldan, from New York University School of Law, and Allison Langley, from Columbia Law School, were selected as Kirkland’s 2020–21 New York Public Interest Fellows. Rebecca is working with the Bronx Defenders to assist clients who have successfully resolved prior claims brought to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Mistreatment, but whose records may still have lasting consequences for clients and their families. Allison is working with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance to support the interests of drivers, including through a clinic to address issues related to driver pay and lease overcharges.

For more information about the 2021–2022 New York City Public Service Fellowships, view our webpage and application.