Internship Overview
In 1996, Chief Public Defender Lynn Pride Richardson started the Dallas County Public Defender Internship Program. The Internship Program was initiated with students from the University of Texas – Arlington, Southern Methodist University, Texas Wesleyan, Paul Quinn College and Townview Law Magnet. Since then, the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office has trained students from high schools, colleges, universities and law centers throughout the country and even abroad.* The office is an approved organization where law students and college students may receive school credit and/or complete their public service requirements.
Although most law schools require only 30 hours of public service, we request a minimum of a 60 hour commitment. Internship opportunities are available year round, including the summer and post graduate. Additionally, we have limited internships for newly licensed attorneys. The interns in our program do much more than library research. They are given the opportunity for hands-on involvement and are expected to fully participate in the preparation of cases from the date of appointment until the date of disposition.
Our comprehensive internship program has trained law students from more than 40 law schools across the country, including Southern Methodist University, Texas Tech, Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Howard University, Boston University School of Law, Wake Forest University, Case Western Reserve, William & Mary, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Tulane, University of Texas, University of Florida, University of Oklahoma and Bayreuth University in Germany.
Our office has recently established an Innocence Project Internship Program with Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas, in which students receive law school credit towards graduation for their work with this program. The office is also expanding its internship program to encompass a lawyer on loan exchange program. In the lawyer on loan program, associates in a firm will be partnered with an Assistant Public Defender and allowed to handle cases in the criminal courts as the lead attorney to gain valuable trial experience.
We are proud to say, after working with our office, many of our interns decided to pursue a career in indigent defense.
*Our interns are alumni of various high schools, colleges, universities and law centers.
