Public Health Law & Policy invites motivated and capable law students and graduate students in public health, urban planning, or public policy to apply for its internship program.

About PHLP

PHLP focuses on improving the public’s health by drawing on the expertise of an inter-disciplinary team of lawyers, urban planners, and policy experts. We work with community-based organizations, local public health and planning departments, schools, elected officials, government attorneys, and private counsel to create groundbreaking policy solutions to critical public health challenges. Our staff provides comprehensive training, technical assistance, and legal and policy tools to advance public health policy. Working closely with law professors, private attorneys, and other experts, we craft policies that reflect the most creative and innovative thinking on public health issues.

PHLP Program Areas

Student Interns work in the fall, spring, or summer, in one or more of the following programs:

• The Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) provides legal information and technical assistance to advocates of tobacco control policies in California.  TALC has served as a model for similar programs around the country.
• The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network (NPLAN) convenes legal researchers and advocates across the United States to identify, research, and draft policy strategies to prevent and reduce childhood obesity.
• Planning for Healthy Places (PHP) explores community planning solutions to increase access to healthy foods and physical activity through improvements to the built environment.  PHP develops tools for training advocates about the relationship between the built environment and public health, and provides technical assistance for creating and implementing land use policies that support healthier communities.

Duties and Responsibilities 

Duties and responsibilities may include any or all of the following:

• research and writing on a variety of cutting-edge public health policy issues
• development of community-based advocacy strategies
• policy design and development
• assisting attorneys and planners in providing research, analysis, and information to advocates seeking to pass or strengthen local public health laws, policies and contracts
• assisting staff in the development of internal systems to enhance delivery of such services to public health advocates
• work with program evaluators to develop and implement systems and procedures to monitor the effectiveness of PHLP programs

In addition, law students may be engaged in:

• regulatory design and development
• development of compliance and enforcement tools
• assisting staff attorneys with legal research, writing and development of model legislation

Compensation 

Compensation will be posted with internship announcements on our employment page.

Requirements 

First or second year graduate students in public health, planning, or public policy and second and third year law students with excellent research and writing skills; well-organized; detail-oriented; and good telephone manner.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Employer