(Note: The pdf for the issue in which this article appears is available for download: Bifocal, Vol. 36, Issue 3.)
Fellowship Information
The Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging affords three law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging, the opportunity to pursue their professional interests for one year.
During the fellowship period, the center’s Co-Directors and Fellows Coordinator stand ready to assist each fellow with the further development of his/her knowledge, skills, and contacts. A legal services or other non-profit organization involved in law and aging must supervise a fellow’s activities and projects. In addition to the fellow’s planned activities and project (unless the fellow’s project includes the provision of legal services), the fellow must also provide some pro bono direct legal services to older persons under appropriate supervision.
The fellowship is $45,000 and is intended as a full-time position only. The fellowship period runs from July 1 to June 30 each year, or for the calendar year beginning the month after the fellow’s completion of a state bar examination.
Applications are due on April 15, 2015.
Applicants must submit a completed online application including an information form, an explanation of the applicant’s planned activities and projects, a current curriculum vitae, a law school transcript, a letter of support from the proposed supervisor, and two other letters of support. All fellowship application information and the required online application are available at https://www.borchardcla.org/fellowships/application-process.
For further information, contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, Co-Director, at mjc@borchardcenter.org.
Examples of activities and projects by Fellows:
- Working with an established legal services program to enable vulnerable, isolated, low-income seniors to age-in-place by addressing their unmet legal needs;
- Providing holistic services to older clients facing consumer debt and foreclosure-related concerns;
- Implementation of a courthouse project to help elderly pro se tenants achieve long-term housing stabilization;
- Development of legal services and informational materials to caregivers working on behalf of beneficiaries with cognitive impairment.
- Development of a non-profit senior law resource center providing direct legal services and public education;
- Development of an interdisciplinary elder law clinical program at a university law school;
- Development of a mediation component for a legal services program elder law hotline;
- Development of an interdisciplinary project for graduate students in law, medicine, and health advocacy to foster understanding and collaboration between professions. ■