Apply Now: Legal Fellowship with the Charles Ogletree Reparative Bar Association 2025
The Charles Ogletree Reparative Bar Association (ORBA) is proud to announce the launch of its inaugural Legal Fellowship, a novel and absolutely funded alternative for early-career attorneys who’re obsessed with shaping the way forward for reparative justice legislation in the United States. This is not only a authorized place—it’s a probability to affix a pioneering motion targeted on racial restore, justice, and fairness.
The 12-month fellowship begins September 1, 2025, and gives a $125,000 skilled award to at least one excellent candidate prepared to guide on this rising authorized discipline.
About ORBA and the Fellowship
The Charles Ogletree Reparative Bar Association is known as in honor of the late Professor Charles Ogletree, a number one determine in civil rights legislation and reparations advocacy. As the authorized discipline evolves to confront legacies of racial injustice, ORBA is creating an expert neighborhood for attorneys working in reparative justice. The Legal Fellow will work straight with Professor Justin Hansford, a nationally acknowledged scholar and motion lawyer, and function a foundational member of a rising authorized establishment.
Professor Hansford is a college member at Howard University School of Law, the government director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, and a co-founder of the African American Redress Network. Under his steering, the Fellow will assist to construct ORBA’s mental, organizational, and advocacy infrastructure whereas participating in a dynamic, interdisciplinary authorized atmosphere.
Fellowship Responsibilities
The chosen Fellow will work throughout 5 core pillars that replicate ORBA’s mission to broaden and deepen the discipline of reparative justice legislation:
1. Praxis
Collaborate with attorneys who’re main reparations-related litigation and coverage work throughout the nation. Help develop authorized case research and discover how reparative frameworks may be built-in into numerous authorized contexts.
2. Education
Contribute to the improvement of educational {and professional} curricula that prepare the subsequent technology of reparations legal professionals. Assist in course design, supplies improvement, and tutorial help for authorized schooling partnerships.
3. Network-Building
Engage straight with legislation corporations, bar associations, educational establishments, and advocacy organizations to broaden ORBA’s nationwide footprint. Represent ORBA in skilled settings and domesticate relationships throughout the authorized and justice sectors.
4. Strategy Development
Join strategic conversations with Professor Hansford and a gaggle of authorized and coverage advisors to develop a forward-looking agenda for reparations legislation. Participate in mapping the discipline’s potential development and establish rising alternatives and challenges.
5. Public Engagement
Attend nationwide conferences, produce thought management items, and co-represent ORBA in public boards. Help form the narrative round reparative justice and promote broader authorized and public understanding of its significance.
Candidate Profile
ORBA is searching for a extremely motivated and visionary lawyer with the following {qualifications}:
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2–3 years of post-graduate authorized expertise, with sturdy educational {and professional} credentials.
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Exceptional writing capacity, together with expertise drafting authorized memos, coverage papers, op-eds, or analysis stories.
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Strong challenge administration expertise, together with the capacity to juggle a number of duties, meet deadlines, and work each independently and collaboratively.
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Professional presence and communication expertise, with the confidence to have interaction with senior authorized professionals, students, and authorities stakeholders.
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A deep dedication to racial justice, fairness, and collective liberation, demonstrated by way of earlier work, activism, or educational focus.
Applicants from all authorized backgrounds are welcome to apply, particularly these with expertise in civil rights legislation, racial fairness, human rights, or associated fields.
Application Details
This is a distant, full-time fellowship open to U.S.-based candidates. The place is hosted in partnership with Global Development Incubator (GDI), a company that helps revolutionary ventures tackling systemic social challenges. GDI offers operational and strategic help to ORBA as its incubation accomplice.
To apply, candidates ought to submit:
Apply by way of GDI website. Applications shall be reviewed on a rolling foundation. Early submissions are inspired.
Why This Fellowship Matters
This is a uncommon alternative to step right into a management function in the discipline of reparative justice legislation, shaping authorized frameworks that advance fairness in a multiracial democracy. The ORBA Legal Fellowship gives a platform for artistic authorized considering, strategic advocacy, and deep engagement with a few of the most consequential authorized and social problems with our time.
Whether you’re a practising lawyer seeking to pivot into justice work or a latest graduate in search of a significant early profession path, this fellowship offers the coaching, publicity, and help to make a long-lasting influence.
For extra alternatives like this, go to Opportunity for Youth.
Apply Now: Legal Fellowship with the Charles Ogletree Reparative Bar Association 2025