Senior Attorney Sabbaticals

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION  

The Independence Foundation is specifically interested in addressing the need for legal aid and assistance to the disadvantaged.  In order to help meet this need the Foundation has designated funding to the public interest legal sector and, since 1996, has supported a fellowship program for up to two years for young attorneys in this arena.  

The Foundation also believes that senior attorneys in the public interest law sector, and indirectly their clients, would benefit from the opportunity for a hiatus from this demanding work.  To that end, the Independence Foundation has created a new two year pilot project, to begin in 2008, of a two month sabbatical for senior attorneys with over ten years in the sector.   Up to two sabbaticals will be awarded this year and next.

An applicant must be a senior lawyer from a public interest law organization in the five-county Philadelphia region that is a current or former Independence Foundation grantee.  Applicants should have spent a minimum of ten years of full-time consecutive service in the public interest law sector and have taken no other sabbatical within the previous five years.  Applicants must commit to a minimum of two years working in the sector following the sabbatical.

The duration of each sabbatical will be two months and may be used for travel, study, connection to peer organizations, or other purposes as described by the applicant.  The fellowship will provide a maximum of $20,000 inclusive of salary reimbursement and associated travel (capped at $10,000).

The organization sponsoring an applicant is required to provide health care coverage and  all other normal benefits during the sabbatical.

The application calendar is:

• applications due May 1, 2008
• sabbatical(s) awarded July 1, 2008

Click here to download application.