Fellowship Application Process

Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging offers two-year fellowships to law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging.

The two-year fellowship is $62,000 a year and is intended as a full-time position only. During the fellowship period, the Center’s director and former fellows are available to help fellows with the further development of their knowledge, skills, and contacts. Fellows may also receive from the Center financial support to attend appropriate professional education program opportunities. A fellow is expected to provide the Center with monthly activities reports. Fellows may live and work where they choose in the United States. Fellows must be either U.S. citizens or legally resident in the U.S.

A legal services or other non-profit organization involved in law and aging must serve as the fellow’s host agency and supervise a fellow’s activities and projects. The fellow’s host agency is responsible for providing employee benefits, employer’s FICA payment, administrative support, workspace, computer, telephone, and email access.

The two-year fellowship period typically starts around July 1 for those already admitted to the Bar and from not later than September 1 for those who must sit for the Bar exam after law school graduation.

Fellows participate in conference calls and other planned activities with other current and former fellows to encourage networking. Former fellows who successfully complete the fellowship period may also participate in the Center’s Former Fellows Grant Program.

Examples of some activities and projects by Borchard Fellows:

  • Working with an established legal services program to enable vulnerable, isolated, low-income seniors to age-in-place by addressing their unmet legal needs;
  • Providing holistic services to older clients facing consumer debt and foreclosure-related concerns;
  • Providing direct legal representation and holistic services to older tenants in “clutter cases”;
  • Implementation of a courthouse project to help elderly pro se tenants achieve long-term housing stabilization through the interdisciplinary use of legal representation and social services, allowing more elderly tenants to “age in place” at home; 
  • Increasing access to legal representation for older adults in immigration detention facilities;
  • Development of mobile clinics to help Chinese-speaking elders improve their access to public benefits and health care;
  • Development of a medical-legal partnership for low-income older adults;
  • Development of educational outreach efforts and legal services for older LGBTQ+ adults;
  • Development of legal services and informational materials to caregivers working on behalf of beneficiaries with cognitive impairment;
  • Development of a non-profit senior law resource center providing direct legal services and public education;
  • Development of an interdisciplinary elder law clinical program at a major public university law school;
  • Development of a mediation component for a legal services program elder law hotline;
  • Development of an interdisciplinary project for graduate students in law, medicine, and health advocacy to foster understanding and collaboration between professions;
  • Development of training materials and statewide trainings for lawyers, judges and other court personnel, and social service providers on new comprehensive state guardianship laws;
  • Development of legal services programs for older clients in consumer law and small claims matters, end-of-life matters, and in protection from financial and elder abuse for older clients whose first language is other than English;
  • Development of free legal clinics for older clients in suburban areas;
  • Development, administration, and interpretation of statewide senior legal hotline outcomes study;
  • Organizing and/or attending national conferences on law and aging issues;
  • Writing and publication of law review articles on law and aging issues;
  • Writing and publication of state specific, consumer oriented handbooks on legal issues affecting older persons;
  • Analysis of Medicare policies;
  • Analysis of Medicaid Home and Community Based Services with a focus on improving racial equity;
  • Analysis of SSI non-disability appeals; and
  • Teaching elder law and related courses at law schools where fellows reside.

Fellowship Application Annual Timeline

  • Application submission deadline: April 1
  • Application review process: April 1 through May 1
  • Fellows announced: No later than June 1
  • Fellowship period: July 1 through June 30 for two years (unless otherwise arranged)
  • Reports due: Monthly reports during the fellowship period; final report no later than one month following the end of the fellowship period.

Application Requirements

Applicants must submit a completed online application including:

  • an information form with the name of the applicant's host organization and the applicant's name and contact information;
  • a description of the applicant’s planned activities and projects;
  • a description of the applicant's interest in law and aging;
  • a current curriculum vitae;
  • a law school transcript;
  • a letter of support from the proposed supervisor at the host agency; and
  • two other letters of support.

Submit your online application here.

Questions? Contact Mary Jane Ciccarello, Director, at