Clinical Intern

Clinical Intern (2026/2027 Academic Calendar)

Application deadline is March 5th, 2026 at 5pm PST

About UnCommon Law

UnCommon Law fights to ensure that all people incarcerated for violent crime have access to healing, justice, and effective legal representation.

Through our unique, trauma-informed model of advocacy, we provide the space currently missing in the system for healing, accountability, and safe pathways home from prison. In developing new self-narratives, the people we serve are able to more effectively disrupt violence inside and outside prison and become leaders who change negative societal narratives about those incarcerated for violent crime. Our groundbreaking approach is changing policy and outcomes, driven by the voices and experiences of system-impacted communities.

About the Role

Uncommon Law provides legal and therapeutic counseling to people currently serving life or lengthy terms in California prisons. We work with people who are incarcerated to identify how life experiences and trauma contributed to their personal development and how they continue to impact their lives today. We counsel people to develop self-awareness, insight and a comprehensive life narrative. We develop plans with our clients to attend groups or educational programs or correspondence courses, or we select and share resources that meet their individual needs. 

The Clinical Intern provides direct services to clients inside California prisons, supporting people to more deeply understand and heal from their histories of trauma, and to navigate their current experiences. The clinical intern collaborates with legal team members and with other members of the clinical team to support their work.

The Clinical Intern position is part-time (24hours/week) over the 2026/2027 Academic Calendar, beginning September 7, 2026 and ending April 23, 2027. This position is unpaid and includes a $1,500 stipend per semester. UnCommon Law will be flexible about scheduling and understands that many students are not only busy with school, but are also working. This is a hybrid position that requires a minimum of two days in person for a minimum of 16 hours per week spent either traveling to prisons or at our office in Oakland.

We encourage people who have been directly impacted by incarceration to apply.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Direct client support

• Provide therapy to 4-6 clients weekly, including in-person and video visits


• Develop counseling treatment plans


• Coordinate and collaborate with attorneys


• Consult with clinical team members


• Work with clients on life timelines


• Work with clients on relapse prevention plans


• Work with clients on parole plans


• Work with clients on remorse letters


• Evaluate client progress at regular intervals


• Review Comprehensive Risk Assessments


• Provide case management support to clients


• Write a summary of the work completed to be presented to the Board of Parole Hearings

Other areas of support and interest to be explored

• Resource library review and development


• Reentry resource development


• Staff support and sustainability
  

Experience

• At least one year of clinical (intern level) experience in healing settings, ideally with a trauma-informed approach.


• Experience working in diverse settings with people across all socio-economic spectrums and a wide variety of personalities and roles - staff, participants, local agencies, vendors, volunteers, etc.

Abilities, Attributes, and Qualifications

• Strong interpersonal, team development, organizational, and management skills


• Highly organized with attention to detail; patience; ability to work independently and coordinate multiple, diverse projects, set realistic deadlines, and manage a timeline


• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and unwavering commitment to the organization’s mission


• Strong interpersonal skills


• Willingness to learn and grow with the organization
  


• Valid California ID
  


• BA, plus graduate school courses towards clinical degree 


• Reliable transportation to visit institutions (preferred)

 Application Instructions

Please submit a resume and a cover letter describing your interest and relevant experience for the role, along with contact information for two professional or academic references to our hiring portal (https://uncommonlaw.bamboohr.com/jobs/). Applicants who submit cover letters that are not tailored to the position or the organization will not be considered.

Please note that all correspondence in the hiring process will be through the BambooHR portal. Following the submission of your application, you should receive an automatic response (via email) thanking you for your application. If you do not receive this, please check your spam folder.

UCL is committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming, and culturally responsive environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. UCL does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, or prior contact with the criminal justice system. We strongly encourage applications from people impacted by incarceration as well as from traditionally underrepresented communities.