Dominique Hamilton of Equal Justice Works outlines Design Your Own fellowship, application tips and $66,500 salary cap

Dominique Hamilton, network engagement manager at Equal Justice Works, walked prospective applicants through the organization’s Design Your Own (DYO) fellowship in a webinar, explaining who is eligible, how to design a competitive project and the application timeline.

Hamilton described the fellowship as a two‑year position at a nonprofit legal services organization in which a fellow carries out an innovative, community‑rooted project the fellow and host organization design together. She said DYO fellows are paid under a cap “up to $66,500 per year” and may be eligible for a loan‑repayment assistance program she said provides up to $5,000 annually for DYO fellows. Hamilton said host organizations must provide healthcare and other employment benefits.

Why it matters: EJW’s fellowships are explicitly designed to launch public‑interest legal careers. Hamilton said EJW has placed hundreds of fellows and that 85% of alumni remain in public interest work, creating a pipeline to nonprofit leadership and policy roles.

Hamilton set out the four core components of a successful DYO submission: the candidate, the project, the host organization and the sponsor. Candidates must be graduating law students (JD or LLM) or otherwise meet eligibility and must not have previously held a full‑time public‑interest attorney position (clerkships and private‑sector work do not disqualify an applicant). Projects must serve an underserved population, address an unmet legal need, be innovative but feasible within two years, and include metrics for sustainability after the fellowship ends.

Hamilton advised applicants to build a review team and practice mock interviews. The application materials include a personal “why‑you” statement, a project description, goals and timeline, evidence of host‑organization fit and history, and letters of recommendation. She warned against overambitious or vague proposals and said applicants should write to sponsors’ likely priorities because many sponsors are law firms, corporations, foundations or bar associations that engage during selection and the fellow’s two‑year term.

Hamilton provided recent program statistics: the DYO class of 2024 had 84 fellows; classes in 2025 and 2026 had 60 fellows each. She said recent classes represented 21 states plus Washington, D.C., 35 law schools, 54 host organizations and 61 sponsors. On supply and demand, Hamilton said EJW’s available fellowships depend on sponsorship commitments; for the last two cycles EJW confirmed 60 sponsorships and receives about 300 applications annually.

On eligibility and host organizations, Hamilton said host organizations must be registered nonprofit entities (she referenced 501(c)(3) status in answering a question) and must have legal staff capable of supervising a new attorney. She reiterated that only one proposal may be submitted at a time with one host organization.

Application timing and process: Hamilton said the DYO application opened in May and will close on September 17 (as stated in the webinar). She described the review timeline: alumni review in October, interviews on a rolling basis from November through March, and announcements of the fellowship class the following spring; fellows typically start at their host organizations in September. Applications are submitted through EJW’s online platform (Submittable).

Hamilton closed by offering resources for applicants — EJW’s fellow archive, online application resources, and connections to alumni for mock interviews — and said organizers will email slides and post the webinar recording on EJW’s website.

The webinar included a brief Q&A in which Hamilton answered attendee questions on multiple submissions, sponsor engagement and how to find host organizations; she emphasized outreach (cold emails, informational interviews) and campus networks as practical ways to secure a host organization.