Sidley Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship
Sidley offers a Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Initiative for second year law students who join Sidley’s summer program. Click for more information on the Sidley Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship.
Sidley 1L Diversity Fellowship Washington, D.C.
Sidley’s Washington, D.C. office is pleased to offer a 1L summer fellowship opportunity for up to two first-year law students. Through this fellowship, student(s) will intern in our Washington, D.C. office for 10 weeks in the summer while also participating in professional development and mentoring programs. Aspects of the fellowship include: working on complex legal issues, researching, drafting legal memoranda and related documents; participating in Sidley’s 1L Diversity Mentorship Program; and the opportunity to work on Sidley’s pro bono cases. Click here to apply for the 1L Diversity Fellowship.
The deadline for all materials is Monday, January 17, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST. Please note that with the exception of the law school transcript, all of the required documents must be submitted before the application deadline. Upon receipt of first semester law school grades, please send a copy of your law school transcript to dcdivfel@sidley.com.
To learn more, download Sidley’s 1L Diversity Fellowship Washington, D.C. Overview.
Questions? Please email dcdivfel@sidley.com.
1L Diversity Summer Mentorship Program
Launched in 2010, Sidley’s 1L Diversity Mentorship Program provides rising 2L diverse law students, who are employed elsewhere during the summer in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco or Washington, with opportunities to network with lawyers from Sidley, other firms, legal departments and government agencies. This program is an effort to support the diversification of the legal profession as a whole and large law firms in particular.
Mentors and mentees meet informally to discuss topics such as the fall recruiting and summer associate program processes, interviewing best practices and questions related to practice area selection. Program participants are also invited to attend opening and closing networking events, a formal workshop conducted by Sidley lawyers and recruiting staff, resume reviews and mock interviews, and our Diversity Dialogues program that occurs each summer. Mentors and mentees often stay in touch during the subsequent law school years and into the mentees’ careers.
To learn more about the 2022 1L Diversity Mentorship Program, please read the 1L Diversity Mentorship Program Overview. To apply, please download and submit the 2022 1L Diversity Mentorship Program Application.

Sidley lawyers and program alumni gather at the 5th anniversary celebration of the 1L Mentoring Program in D.C.
Local Office Programs
Our New York office is a Diversity Trailblazer sponsor of Practicing Attorneys for Law Students, Inc. (PALS) which works to build the pipeline of minority students into legal practice. A Sidley lawyer sits on the board of this organization and our lawyers act as mentors to law students. PALS and LatinoJustice recently established a PALS civil rights Fellowship, underwritten in part by Sidley. Through this Fellowship, Sidley sponsored a 2L student to work at LatinoJustice during the summer of 2013.

On July 20, Sidley’s New York office co-hosted a panel discussion on navigating bias encounters in the workplace with client JPMorgan Chase and Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program, Inc. (PALS). From left: Martin Jackson; Dionne Fraser, vice president & assistant general counsel at JPMorgan Chase; Cassye M. Cole, former PALS mentee and litigation associate at Patterson Belknap; Alison L. Moore, managing director & associate general counsel at JPMorgan Chase; George Madison; María Meléndez; Paula Donaldson, PALS Executive Director; and Mike Schmidtberger.
Sidley’s London office supports two programs for law students through the BLD Foundation, a charitable organization aimed at increasing opportunities for diverse first-year law students and second year non-law students. Sidley hosts a summer workshop for First Headstart students at its London office; students visit later in the year for two days of work shadowing. Through the Foundation’s nine-month Legal Launch Pad program for second-year law students, final year non-law and some postgraduates, three students are also selected to join the Sidley office for a two-week structured Vacation Scheme.