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Haywood Burns
A CSS Board of Trustee member for six years before his untimely death in 1996, Haywood Burns was a pioneering African-American lawyer. A tireless civil rights advocate and associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was lead defense attorney for inmates indicted in the Attica prison riot, and defense counsel for Angela Davis against kidnapping and murder charges, among his many courtroom achievements. A leading legal scholar, Mr. Burns was a former dean of the CUNY Law School at Queens College; a founder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers; director of the Greenberg Center for Legal Education & Urban Policy at City College of New York; and served on numerous boards, including those of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund.The Haywood Burns Internship
The Haywood Burns Legal Internship seeks to promote the study of public interest law among students who have completed their first or second year of law school. The intern will assist lawyers at CSS in devising legal intervention strategies that assure that public policy adequately addresses the needs of the poor. The ten-week internship takes place during the summer.Qualifications:
Applicants must be first- or second-year law students who will have completed all course requirements before beginning the internship. The successful applicant will have a demonstrated commitment to public interest law, excellent writing and analytical skills, and a deep interest in serving the poor through the legal process.
Internship Program:
The Haywood Burns Legal Intern will be expected to:
- Work directly at the CSS Department of Legal Counsel under the supervision of its attorneys for a ten-week period after the completion of the student’s spring semester. The intern will be responsible for conducting legal research and drafting memoranda relevant to current and anticipated CSS litigation.
- Participate in a Mentoring Program in which the Intern will meet and interview other public interest lawyers identified by the Department of Legal Counsel.
- Prepare a final report due in October of the internship year, which summarizes the internship and mentoring sessions and offers recommendations to CSS for continued work in the area of public interest law.
Remuneration:
The Haywood Burns Legal Internship at CSS pays a stipend to students who do not otherwise have funding from their law schools.
Applications:
CSS participates in the annual Public Interest Job Fair held at New York University Law School and selects the Haywood Burns Intern from among the interviewees at the Fair.
Judy Whiting
General Counsel 212-614-5323
jwhiting@cssny.org
The Haywood Burns Legal Interns