For Law Schools

The Peggy Browning Fund provides unique opportunities for law students to work for economic and social justice. We accomplish this goal through a variety of activities, including the sponsorship of legal fellowships and workers' rights conferences for law students. In so doing, it is our belief that law students who are exposed to these positive experiences will have an increased understanding and appreciation for the issues facing workers and what representing working people is all about.

Our Fellowship Program provides students with an opportunity to work for non-profit labor-related organizations. Our office works closely with participating law schools in soliciting qualified and committed students for our programs. Additionally, we provide networking and other support services to the selected Fellows. Each year we bring the Fellows and their supervisors from the mentor organizations together for a half-day workshop. The mentor organizations present worker rights/labor issues facing their clients; students outline the work projects accomplished during their respective fellowships.

Through our annual National Law Students Workers' Rights Conference, we provide educational opportunities for law students to learn more about the issues facing labor today. Each fall, through formal and informal sessions and interactive workshops, top academicians and practitioners address the issue of labor's relevance in the coming years. The goals of our conference are two-fold: to offer encouragement to law students already committed to workers' rights, and to inform students not currently committed to these interests, in the hope that as they become leaders in their communities they will bring an appreciation of workers' rights issues to their work as lawyers and community leaders.

Students benefit from the numerous other networking opportunities we provide as well. Employers frequently contact us with job openings, and we include job postings on our website. Many applicants for our fellowships are hired by our mentor organizations in other positions, so our recruitment efforts help place far more than the students we directly support.

The prestige of a Peggy Browning Fellowship is widely recognized. Our alumni are organizers, associates, general counsels, partners, and law professors at unions, union-side law firms, workplace justice nonprofits, and law schools across the country. Many organizations and law firms have reported that—because of our reputation, our Fellows' drive for workers' rights, and their experience as a PBF mentor organization—they consider a Peggy Browning Fellowship as an especially important credential.

Over 150 law schools have been represented among our Fellows. From 1998 through 2023, PBF has awarded over 1,400 fellowships throughout the nation. Over 3,800 students have attended our annual conferences, over 3,500 attended our Regional Workshops at participating law schools, and many have found summer positions or even longer-term employment through the networking opportunities we have provided.

Any fully accredited law school wishing for more information about our Fellowship program is welcome to contact PBF. Schools interested in hosting future Regional Workshops or Fellowship Information Sessions, which PBF hosts throughout the fall and spring semesters, can contact PBF and identify a Career Service Officer and a Labor Law Professor to serve as liaison for event organization, or to simply learn more about these events. Finally, PBF encourages schools to connect labor or public interest related student organizations' executive board members with PBF; we're happy to provide insight into our application process directly to student organizations. 

Contact us to learn more about how PBF works with schools to support students interested in worker-side labor law and workplace justice lawyering at:

Rachel Del Rossi
Executive Director
Peggy Browning Fund
100 South Broad Street, Suite 1208
Philadelphia, PA 19110
Email: rdelrossi@peggybrowningfund.org
 

Please include all contact information (including email address) for any liaisons identified for your school.