Best Practices Guide

In January 2024, the NALP First-Year Diversity Recruiting Task Force provided a set of best practices for diversity fellowships. As a reminder, all hiring programs should be reviewed by counsel for compliance with federal and state law.

Download Best Practices Guide for First-Year Diversity Fellowships (PDF)

Common Application

In September 2024, the First-Year Diversity Recruiting Task Force released a Common Application for First-Year Diversity Fellowship Programs, intended to simplify the recruiting process for diversity fellowship programs for firms and for students.

Read more in this September 2024 Bulletin+ article (PDF)

Download the Common Application for First-Year Diversity Fellowship Programs (fillable PDF)

The Common Application is protected by copyright. NALP grants legal employers who offer fellowship programs a royalty-free, limited license to link to, repost, make copies, and distribute the Common Application for the sole purpose of administering their fellowship program. This license does not include the right to alter or make derivative works of the Common Application.

Employers can download this fillable PDF form and send to students, or students can download, complete, and save the form for inclusion with their applications.

Law Firm Fellowships & Scholarships

In conjunction with the launch of the new Common Application for First-Year Diversity Fellowship Programs, NALP has made the listing of fellowship information available as part of the NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Employers can now provide information about fellowships and scholarships they sponsor directly on their employer profile in the NALP Directory, and students will be able to use these fields as search and comparison criteria.

Employers, you can update your organization's fellowship information at any time. Log in to the NALP Directory using your employer ID and password, then navigate to the Recruitment & Hiring tab and select Fellowships & Scholarships to enter the program description, along with opening dates and application deadlines.

Students can search for fellowships right from the landing page of the NALP Directory of Legal Employers by selecting their class year from the "Offers Fellowships For" dropdown menu or refine their search further using the search filters on the results page.