Summer 2025 Legal Internship

The Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling the systems that create and perpetuate poverty. Justice means racial justice, economic justice, and social justice.  

Founded in 1967, LAJC provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights & Racial Justice, Health Justice and Public Benefits, Housing and Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, and Immigrant Advocacy. The Civil Rights and Racial Justice Program (CRRJ) works to end the criminalization of poverty in Virginia by exposing and addressing criminal legal system policies that target people because of poverty and race. The Health Justice and Public Benefits Program (HJPB) promotes health equity by dismantling legal and financial barriers to healthcare access and protecting and advancing people’s rights in the administration of public benefits programs, such as unemployment, food stamps, cash assistance, and disability insurance. The Housing and Consumer Justice Program (HCJ) engages in systemic advocacy to assist individuals and families in Virginia who face housing and consumer protection issues, including eviction from their homes, egregious housing conditions, and unlawful debt practices.  The Youth Justice Program (YJP) partners with youth, their families, and their communities to achieve racial justice, social justice, and economic justice for all young people by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty. Our Immigrant Justice Program (IJP) supports low-income immigrants across the state in their efforts to find justice and fair treatment through representation in legal proceedings, legal advice regarding their rights, helping them take steps to empower themselves and prepare for the worst, recovery of unpaid wages they have earned, combatting workplace and housing discrimination, and fighting for civil rights. The Worker Justice Program provides legal services, resources, and community legal education to low-income workers in remote areas of the state, including farmworkers and seafood workers, poultry and meatpacking workers, and other immigrant and migrant workers. 

LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, and Falls Church, and last year our clients hailed from 55 different cities and counties in every corner of the Commonwealth. Because we know that communities are stronger when everyone ’s rights are respected, we work with our individual clients to identify their neighbors facing the same challenges so that they can advocate together for solutions that meet community needs. 

Last year, we helped over 3,500 people facing loss of their stable housing and over 900 people get or maintain access to health insurance, Medicaid, or other public benefits. We helped over 700 people navigate our immigration system, and we helped youth in 26 different communities enforce their right to a high-quality public education. We continue to represent the 1,200 women and trans people held at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in their fight to get basic healthcare. Historically, LAJC reached a settlement agreement with the Federal government putting in place important protections for detained people from the threat of COVID-19 at ICA-Farmville Detention Center, including a dramatic reduction in the number of people who can legally be held at the facility; we (together with Virginia Poverty Law Center, Legal Aid Works, and pro bono partners Consumer Litigation Associates and Kelly Guzzo, PLC) succeeded in getting the Virginia Employment Commission to release more than one billion dollars in “stopped” payments to nearly 180,000 Virginians; we fought the reinstatement of presumptions against bail, which result in accused persons being held in jail until their case is resolved; conducted outreach to thousands of farmworkers around the Commonwealth, organized alongside workers and community coalitions in rural and urban areas throughout the state, and recovered significant monetary damages on behalf of victimized workers; and in 2022, the Fund Our Schools Coalition, of which LAJC is a founding member, won the largest ever investment in the At-Risk Add On ($145 million), which will supplement funding at high-poverty schools. 

LAJC boldly tackles issues of systemic injustice and aims to raise public and policymaker awareness of some of the most pressing challenges facing low-income Virginia residents. For more information, visit www.justice4all.org.