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Student Involvement

The Pace Energy and Climate Center (“the Center”) offers numerous opportunities for Pace University students (with preference given to law students and LLM candidates) in the form of legal internships and research projects. The Center has a history of providing practical training and experience to interns, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, government, public interest, and business. Involvement at the Center provides students an opportunity to gain valuable experience in a unique and challenging area of the law while working with an interdisciplinary staff of lawyers, scientists, economists and journalists.

2012-13 Ottinger Energy Research Fellowship

  • Application form
    • Please fill in the blanks on the application before printing
    • For the two references, contact information is sufficient; Letters are not required.

Intern Program

Interning at the Center.Interns play a critical role in the day-to-day operations of the Center.  They have the opportunity to gain experience in nearly all of the activities taking place here, including researching and drafting reports on current energy policy and attending conferences and public hearings.  In particular, the Center’s Intern Program intends to (1) Contribute to legal education of students through fulfilling work and good mentoring; and (2) Prepare interns for future careers by providing professional experiences and connections to practitioners.

In order to ensure that interns have interesting and substantial work, and to provide for the accomplishment of at least one significant work item to add to a student’s professional portfolio, assignments will take the following approach:

  1. Long-term Legal Project.  Interns will be given a long-term legal assignment to complete during their time at the Center.  The topic will involve energy and/or climate topics, and the assignments will take the form of legal writing, such as a white paper for publication, legal memo, filing/brief, official comments or similar finished work product.
  2. Project Work.  Interns will be assigned project work, meaning that they will work with a staff member on a contract which involves work in a particular area of energy policy or climate change.  An effort will be made to ensure this work is consistent with the student’s professional goals and academic interests.

The Center recognizes that class work is a first priority. Therefore, during the academic year students may work from 5 hours up to 20 hours per week. During the summer, interns may work on a full-time basis.  Pace University limits the total number of combined hours a student can work for Pace during the summer to no more than 35 hours per week.

Strict observance of the Center’s Plagiarism Policy is enforced. 

Applying for an internship:  Interns working at the Center may either be paid ($10/hour) or volunteer.  Depending upon workload, the Center solicits applications each semester.  Interns have the option to either work for one semester or to stay on for a full year (two semesters).  The Intern Program is competitive, with a limited number of paid slots available.  All new applicants must submit the following three required application items:

  1. Writing Sample.  Students must draft an original two-three page memorandum following the instructions outlined in this document: Writing Exercise;
  2. Application Form; and
  3. Resume.

DEADLINE:
Applications for Summer 2012 must be received by Friday, May 4, 2012.

Once you have assembled the completed application materials, you may (1) send them via email to Anne Marie Hirschberger, Intern Coordinator, at ahirschberger2@law.pace.edu, or (2) drop off hard copies to Anne Marie in Room 212 of the E-House or to Loretta Musial, Office Administrator, in Room 204 of the E-House.  Once we receive your application materials, we will let you know if we will be scheduling you for an interview.  After the interview, we will let you know whether we will be able to hire you.

Ottinger Interns.  Dean Emeritus and Center founder, Richard L. Ottinger, supervises several volunteer interns each semester.  These interns work exclusively for Professor Ottinger, on energy topics related to international sustainability.  Interested students should bring their ideas to Dean Ottinger to discuss this opportunity.