Canadian Lawyers Abroad’s 2012 Student Internship Program

Each year, CLA offers law students from across Canada the opportunity to spend their summer working with organizations working in developing countries and in Canada on important legal issues. This experience gives a number of legal students the chance to improve their legal skills while participating in inspiring and often life-altering experiences that they share with their classmates on their return.

This year, we have 19 students from 14 law schools across Canada participating in our 2012 student internship program. This amazing group of students will be spending their summers working with CLA’s partner organizations in Africa, Asia and Canada.  Their experiences will range from assisting criminal counsel at the Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik Legal Services Centre in Iqaluit, to working with the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya on its Transformative Justice program, to conducting research on traditional and restorative justice with the United Nations Development Program in Timor-Leste. We also have a number of new internships including with Building Markets in Ottawa and with the Centre for Democratic Development in Ghana.
 

Jordan Sewell, a Queen’s University law student, will be interning with the Behdzi Ahda First Nation in Colville Lake, NWT this summer.

This year, CLA has focused on raising awareness about Indigenous Rights and the steps that Canada can and should be taking to increase access to justice for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. CLA is pleased to be partnering with several organizations that work in this area. CLA interns will be working with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), with the Behdzi Ahda First Nation in Colville Lake, NWT, with the Law Society of Nunavut in Iqaluit, and with the Legal Services Board of Nunavut in Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit.  We will also have an Aboriginal law student working for CLA on our Dare to Dream program to mentor and empower Aboriginal youth, a position generously supported by Norton Rose LLP.

Stay tuned throughout the summer for blogs from our students as they describe their experiences!
 

McGill law student and CLA Chapter President Jacqueline Madden will be interning with the Asia Foundation in Timor-Leste this summer.

CLA would like to thank LexisNexis Canada Inc. and The Dominion for their generous sponsorship of our Student Program.

P.S.  You can also read about our 2011 interns’ experiences! You can read about the experiences of Stephanie Cox, a Windsor law student who spent her summer on a CLA internship with UNDP in Timor-Leste here. You can read about JoAnne Barnum’s reflections on her internship with the Legal Services Board in Rankin Inlet here. Jaimie Tax’s reflections on working with The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka can be viewed here.