Swearer Center for Public Service
Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship at Brown University offers 4 undergraduate students an opportunity to participate in public interest law projects for a summer. Broadly defined, public interest law includes helping those often lacking resources to retain attorneys, engaging in a variety of advocacy work and participating in shaping public policy.
Structure
Students selected as Liman Fellows secure their own placement, with support available from the Swearer Center and Brown Center for Career Exploration. Summer Fellows have worked on issues such as immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, prison conditions, educational equity, juvenile justice, and marriage equality. Placements can include non-profit organizations providing civil or criminal legal services to individuals, institutions representing particular groups, entities focused on problems of legal and public policy, and law-related media. The fellowship does not provide funding for students to work in for-profit, federal government, law firms, or even those that engage in pro bono work
See a list of suggested resources for identifying opportunities.
Eligibility
All rising sophomores, juniors and seniors who will return to Brown for at least one full semester following the summer fellowship period are eligible to apply.
Students must also satisfy SPRINT Fellowship eligibility requirements.
Funding
The base stipend for domestic SPRINT Awards is $2,500. In addition, students with Brown financial aid will automatically receive an additional Gap Award ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 based on their Parent Contribution/Responsibility as determined by the Office of Financial Aid, for a total award of $4,500 - $5,500.
Apply
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship application opens every Spring in UFunds.
Students must follow the SPRINT Fellowship application process.
For the Liman Arthur Public Interest Fellowship this includes:
- Submission of a Student-Generated SPRINT Fellowship Google Form application, in which you provide a detailed description of the internship.
- Upload a Supervisor Statement Form confirming you have an offer pending for this internship.
Your application will not be complete until all steps are completed and submitted. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
The deadline to complete these steps is 12:00 pm EST (noon) on Monday, March 2, 2026.
Contact
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Joshua Rodriguez
Associate Director, Co-Curricular Learning
About the Fellowship
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship at Brown is managed by the Swearer Center in partnership with The Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School. The program is named in honor of Arthur Liman, a 1957 Yale Law graduate. Through his distinguished career, he demonstrated how dedicated lawyers in private practice and public life can serve the needs of people and causes that might otherwise go unrepresented.