Legal Hiring
40 Years of Serving the Public Interest
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP hires recent law school graduates for its three-year fellowship program. The firm also employs law students as law clerks, full-time during the summer and part-time during the school year. Successful applicants for both the clerkship and fellowship often have demonstrated interest and experience in our areas of practice and/or other types of public interest or public sector work. The firm strives for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We are proud to be one of the few majority-women-owned law firms in California. More about the firm’s DEI efforts, including changes to hiring practices, can be found here.
COVID-19 has changed how we work, at least for now. The Firm is operating at full strength with attorneys and staff working from home. We have maintained a full complement of clerks and fellows throughout the pandemic, and plan to do so for 2022-23. Deadlines and application procedures, as explained at the links below, are unchanged, although interviews may be conducted via Zoom.
Clerkships
The firm hires several law students as full-time summer clerks. The firm also hires second- and third-year law students as part-time law clerks during the academic year. Spring and fall clerks work a minimum of 15 hours per week. Many of the attorneys in our fellowship program were law clerks at the firm during law school.
Clerkships offer:
- Opportunities to work on substantive assignments that would go to junior attorneys at larger law firms.
- Broad exposure to the firm’s practice areas and the opportunity to work with many of the firm’s attorneys.
- Participation in client meetings and hearings.
- Informal relationship-building through social events with attorneys and staff.
All applications for summer clerkships must be received by Labor Day.
We consider applications for term clerkships on a rolling basis for work during the spring and fall semesters. Applicants generally should apply no later than October 1st for the spring term and May 1st for the fall term, but we consider applications as we receive them. Compensation is currently $34/hour, but may be modified over time.
Fellowships
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger offers its three-year fellowship to highly qualified recent law school graduates, public-interest fellows, and judicial clerks. Fellows function as junior associates and gain hands-on experience and instruction in environmental, land use, energy, real estate, and local government law, as well as in law firm management. Typical duties include:
- Conducting legal and factual research.
- Writing briefs and memoranda.
- Drafting agreements and transactional documents.
- Counseling clients.
- Participating in administrative hearings and case strategy discussions.
- Appearing in court (once admitted to practice in California).
Fellowships offer:
- Twice-yearly in-depth reviews that allow fellows to discuss their progress and ensure that they are obtaining a broad base of experience.
- Extensive informal mentoring with senior attorneys and support from peers.
- The opportunity to take on significant responsibility early in their fellowship.
Past fellows have gone on to positions as counsel for state or local public agencies or environmental nonprofits, deputy city attorneys and attorneys general, associates in the sustainable energy or land use practice groups of law firms, and law school professors. Compensation is currently $101,500/year, plus generous medical, retirement, vacation and sick leave, and other benefits, but may be modified over time.
Applications must be received by Labor Day for fellowships beginning in the fall of the following calendar year.