Job Description
INTERVIEWS FOR SUMMER 2026 WILL COMMENCE IN LATE JULY 2025. The Palm Beach County Public Defender's Office, 15 th Judicial Circuit, is a client-centered, dynamic advocacy office providing representation to people whose lives and liberty are at stake.
The office handles close to 30,000 cases per year and has approximately 200 employees including lawyers, investigators, social workers, and support staff. The main office, housing the trial and appellate divisions, is in downtown West Palm Beach and there are four branch offices in other areas of the county.
Divisions include: County Court; Felony; Mental Health; Major Crimes; Youth Defense; Appeals; and Investigative & Social Services’ Units.
Recruiting Academic Year 2025-2026 and Summer 2026 Certified Legal Intern Volunteers: Students enrolled in a credit-bearing law school practice program, or who have already participated as a CLI in such a program, may receive academic credit and are unpaid/volunteer. Internships run for 10 weeks over the summer and are full time.
Overview: Certified Legal Interns ( CLIs) shadow a County Court attorney for a week (on average). Next, our Misdemeanor Division assigns the CLI a small County Court caseload, for which they possess responsibility as they would if they were a practicing attorney.
Assigned to a single division, the attorney assigned to the misdemeanor division supervises and works closely with the CLIs. The Misdemeanor / County Court Chief reviews their cases with them. CLIs attend all court proceedings and act as the attorney of record for all of their assigned clients, with a supervising attorney present, and often try one or more cases as first chair attorney and multiple as second chair.
To be a CLI in Florida
as a law student ,
- The students – whether in or out of state – must have earned 48 semester / 72 quarter hours of credit. and have received the necessary clearance from the FLA Bar (one would have to apply to the FLA BAR ASAP for that clearance).
- The in-state FLA students must either be participating in their school’s law school “practice program”/clinic for credit or have already done so and as a result already have CLI approval.
- The out-of-state students must either have participated or are participating in a law school “practice program”/clinic for credit.
- Students planning to volunteer as CLIs must submit to PD-15 their school’s commitment for them to participate no later than January 2026.
- Students may receive academic credit.
- Interns are unpaid/volunteer.
Job Tags
Full time, Summer work, Summer internship, Work at office, Immediate start,