Harvard Law Students Hit by Federal Hiring Freeze, Face Rescinded Summer Internships and Job Offers

Many Harvard Law School students found themselves without jobs or summer internships last week after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to pause hiring, forcing departments to rescind permanent and temporary employment offers to law students.

The freeze, signed on Jan. 20, prohibits filling civilian vacant positions and creating new positions in all federal executive departments and agencies, including the Department of Justice. The administration also directed the budget office to create a plan to shrink the federal workforce permanently within 90 days.

Federal clerkships, which employ more than 10 percent of the law school’s graduating class each year, are unaffected by the freeze.

In a Friday email to HLS students obtained by the Crimson, the school's Office of Public Interest Advising addressed the freeze, writing that it will “impact both paid and unpaid, volunteer summer internships, and that previous offers will be revoked.”

“We are reaching out to you as we know that many of you have applied to, or accepted offers for, summer internships in federal government agencies,” the OPIA office wrote. “As you have likely heard, an executive order establishing a federal hiring freeze was issued on January 20th, and we know that many of you have questions about how this may impact you.”

Law School spokesperson Jeff Neal declined to comment on how many students are likely affected or if the school is anticipating permanent employment changes.

Julia A. Kepczynska, a second-year law student, had accepted an unpaid summer internship at the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Department of Justice before it was rescinded this week.

Kepczynska had not heard from HRSP for several days after Trump’s order and contacted the department after receiving OIPA’s email.

“I got an email that, pursuant to the executive order, they had to rescind my offer,” she said.

“On top of that, part of it, I believe, is that they’re no longer allowed to communicate at all with candidates,” Kepcyznska said. “So I am not to respond to the email.”

Kepcyznska said she spoke to an HLS advisor and several employees in the Department of Justice after the November election to determine if her work might be in jeopardy. “They weren’t anticipating anything,” she said.

Instead of working in Washington, Kepcyznska is now looking abroad, both for her second-year summer internship and for full time work after graduation.

“I really was not anticipating — especially the office I was in — to get impacted,” Kepczynska added.

Many law school students plan to return to their second-year summer job after they graduate, and even a temporary pause in hiring could affect long-term employment plans. Kepczynska said the order had quickly captured the attention of HLS students.

“Everyone’s talking about this,” she said.

The executive order also affects students who had accepted full-time federal job offers, including students accepted into the DOJ’s Attorney General’s Honors Program, which places recent law graduates into jobs throughout the DOJ. The competitive program offered fifteen HLS students full-time jobs in 2022, the last year for which data is publicly available.

There were 22 students from the HLS Class of 2023 who entered jobs in government after graduation.

In the email to the student body, OPIA wrote that the order had sparked questions about government jobs for law students.

“We realize uncertainties remain about the status of positions at other federal agencies, and as we learn more, we will continue to share updates,” they wrote.

—Staff writer Caroline G. Hennigan can be reached at caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cghennigan.

—Staff writer Bradford D. Kimball can be reached at bradford.kimball@thecrimson.com.