Ideas of international/internet law nonprofits?

October 2, 2007 7:05 AM

What's your favorite internet law/cyberlaw nonprofit that needs a 1L next summer?

I know I've got a few months before sending out resumes, and I'll put my time in at the career center before then. I'm just trying to get some ideas at this point; once I have a list of sexy nonprofits (or agencies, or NGOs/IGOs, or...), I'll do the research legwork myself.

So I know about the big groups (EFF, FSF, all the Berkman projects, etc.). But I'm curious about other ones that I haven't heard of or haven't considered.

My biggest interest is the international legal side of the internet. So, large-scale content filtering, ownership and governance, Net Neutrality to some degree, international IP ....

Of course, working abroad is a plus. I know what I'm getting into, so don't limit your suggestions to places that might be able to pay.

posted by electric_counterpoint to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, and if you have any advice not fit for Google, my email address is in my profile.
posted by electric_counterpoint at 7:17 AM on October 2, 2007

Best answer: Here's the list of nonprofits and federal agencies I made for myself last year, with similar interests (I ended up working with a professor instead, which I definitely recommend considering):

------------Nonprofits------------
Creative Commons

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Center for Democracy & Technology

Public Knowledge

------------Government------------
Smithsonian Institution, OGC

US Dept. of Commerce, OGC (includes USPTO)

LOC, Office of the Copyright General Counsel

FCC, OGC

Some of those links might be out of date at this point.
posted by Partial Law at 7:30 AM on October 2, 2007

Partial Law has already mentioned the one's that I immediately thought of when I saw your question. I'd also add that Public Citizen has a Litigation Group that, among other things, provides attorneys and other support to private citizens in the defense of Internet Free Speech.
posted by RichardP at 8:14 AM on October 2, 2007

I second EPIC as a great organization. I've talked to one of the main guys there a couple times since he was an old friend of an old professor of mine. I never worked there, but they do hire 1Ls and 2Ls.
posted by Falconetti at 9:05 AM on October 2, 2007

One additional note: many of these places, especially the nonprofits, are not NALP members and a sentence like "we hire summer law clerks on a rolling basis, with hiring typically completed by April," does not necessarily have the implied "starting on December 1st" clause that the firms have. Just something to think about.
posted by Partial Law at 10:12 AM on October 2, 2007

I'm heading into my 2L summer and looking to do this type of work as well, so I'll be watching this closely. Thanks for asking! :)
posted by Arbac at 11:21 AM on October 2, 2007