Hana Pham
by Hana Pham
The Nebraska Public Interest Law Summer Fellowship program (NPILF) provides stipends to University of Nebraska College of Law students who secure unpaid public interest positions for the summer.
3L Hana Pham, a 2026 NPILF recipient, worked with Lawyers for Children in New York, NY.
Lawyers for Children is a nonprofit organization located in Lower Manhattan, New York aimed at providing legal and social work services to children primarily in foster care. The organization uses a unique model where each child is provided with an attorney and a social worker within the same office. These two are then tasked with working together to advocate for the child. The organization also concentrates efforts towards appellate and policy advocacy. The organization has a robust team of attorneys and social workers who represent a wide array of professional, economic, and geographic backgrounds.
Commonly, clients are youth from infancy to the age of 21 who are facing foster care, custody, juvenile delinquency, immigration, LGBTQ+, and domestic violence issues. The organization’s office is located near the New York County Family Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, providing easy access to the courts for staff.
As a legal intern, there were many branches of opportunity and/or responsibility. I was introduced to seven other legal interns and nine social work interns. The intern class had the opportunity to participate in training sessions intentionally scheduled throughout the summer. These sessions covered many things including, but not limited to, public policy & impact litigation, youth advocacy, domestic violence laws, witness examination, appellate advocacy, immigration law, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. These sessions gave the interns an opportunity to bond as a group as well as be introduced to various team members at the organization. Each session was led by a different staff member, allowing us to observe different perspectives and passions from within the organization.
Beyond these training sessions, my primary work was with my two supervising attorneys, both assigned at the beginning of the internship. With these two attorneys, I observed them in court, participated in legal strategy discussions, met with clients, and conducted relevant legal research and drafting. I was lucky to have two supervising attorneys as it exposed me to the different ways an attorney can achieve the same goal. One attorney had more experience while the other was a recent law school graduate. This was greatly beneficial and helped me capture the core of the work instead of just the perspective of a singular attorney. I was additionally exposed to the scheduling challenges of these attorneys, as they balanced time in court, time meeting with clients, and time actually working on their client matters. I was intrigued by this experience because each attorney had such a high case load, resulting in a very fast-paced and lucrative legal environment.
Once I had completed the required number of hours at the internship, I then had the opportunity to appear on the record in court under the New York State Student Practice Order. This exposed me to my own verbal advocacy skills and was amazing practice for my future as an attorney.
In sum, this was an amazing and career-defining opportunity. No matter where my career takes me, I will be able to look back on the foundation built with Lawyers for Children. I was exposed to many cases, many hours of court proceedings, and a large number of legal professionals all representing various backgrounds and professions. I am thankful for the NPILF funding, because it gave me the freedom to seek such an opportunity. I hope that, even if slight, I made a difference this summer.
P.S. Go Knicks!
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