Our Career Development Office (CDO) is dedicated to helping students find opportunities with employers of all types, including public service employers. "Public service" encompasses both public interest and government employers.

The CDO has strong relationships with public service employers and engages in ongoing outreach to build and maintain relationships within the public service community in order to create job opportunities for students and graduates. Our programs allow students to engage with public service employers, help students learn about public service opportunities, and educate students about how to develop strategies for pursuing public service opportunities.

Our thorough understanding of students' backgrounds and interests combined with our knowledge of public service employers' missions, needs, and preferred qualifications enable us to effectively connect students and graduates with employers that fit their public service goals.

Learn more about Public Service Programs at Colorado Law

Summer Employment

During the summer of 2022, 33% of employed 1Ls and 32% of employed 2Ls spent their summer working for a public service employers.

Twenty-six of these students worked for out-of-state employers including:

  • Alliance for Affordable Energy
  • Cook Inletkeeper
  • Federal Communications Commission
  • Future of Privacy Forum
  • Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
  • Lee County Illinois, State's Attorney
  • Lewis and Clark County Montana, Attorney's Office
  • Natural Resources Defense Council
  • Orange County California, District Attorney's Office
  • Public Knowledge
  • San Carlos Apache Tribe Department of Justice
  • U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Montana
  • U.S. Department of Commerce
  • U.S. Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Branch
  • U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division
  • U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
  • World Wildlife Fund

For those students who stayed in Colorado, twenty-three worked for the Colorado State Public Defender, ten of them worked for Colorado District Attorneys' Offices, and five students worked for the Colorado Office of the Attorney General.

Additional public services employers included:

  • Alpine Legal Services
  • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado
  • Boulder County Colorado, County Attorney's Office
  • Bridge to Justice
  • City of Arvada Colorado, City Attorney's Office
  • City of Boulder, Office of the City Attorney
  • Colorado Juvenile Defender Center
  • Colorado Legal Services
  • Colorado Municipal League
  • Colorado Water Trust
  • Denver City Attorney's Office
  • Denver Water
  • Earthjustice - Colorado
  • Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel
  • Metro Volunteer Lawyers
  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
  • Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel
  • Sierra Club
  • The Public Interest Network
  • U.S. Army JAG Corps
  • U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado
  • U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights
  • U.S. Department of Energy, Golden Field Office
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
  • U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division
  • U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fuels Enforcement Branch
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  • Western Resource Advocates

Post-graduate Careers

20% of employed graduates from the class of 2022 (31/157) reported working in public service jobs ten months after graduation. Twenty-one of these graduates remained in Colorado, while ten moved out of state. Six of these graduates are working for public defender offices and five of these graduates are working as prosecutors throughout Colorado.

Eight of these graduates were working for the U.S. federal government in Colorado, South Dakota, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC such as U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and U.S. Air Force JAG Corps.

The other twelve graduates are working for various government and public interest employers in Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, and Texas such as Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Colorado Office of the Attorney General, Denver City Attorney's Office, and Colorado Department of Labor & Employment.

100% of these graduates shared their salaries with the Career Development Office for reporting purposes. For those graduates working in government, the median salary was $61,947 and the mean was $67,853. For those graduates working in public interest, the median salary was $64,260 and the mean was $64,178. 

Government and Public Interest Law Career Fair

Colorado Law co-sponsors an annual Government and Public Interest Law Career Fair with the University Denver, Sturm College of Law every spring with an average of 60 public service entities participating each year. Participating organizations have included:

  • American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado
  • Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Colorado Civil Rights Division
  • Colorado Department of State
  • Colorado Department of Transportation
  • Colorado District Attorneys' Council
  • Colorado District Attorney’s Offices (multiple Districts)
  • Colorado Legal Services
  • Colorado Office of Administrative Courts
  • Colorado Office of the Attorney General
  • Colorado State Public Defender's Office
  • Denver City Attorney's Office
  • Denver Water
  • Disability Law Colorado
  • Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Colorado & Wyoming
  • Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas
  • Governor’s Office of Legal Counsel
  • Jefferson County Attorney's Office
  • Justice and Mercy Legal Aid Clinic
  • National Association of Counsel for Children
  • Office of Legislative Legal Services
  • Office of the Child's Representative
  • Office of Respondent Parent Counsel
  • Public Employees' Retirement Association of Colorado (PERA)
  • Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center
  • The Colorado Lawyers Committee
  • The Sierra Club
  • U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado
  • U.S, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Office of Chief Counsel
  • U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
  • U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division
  • U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office of Immigration Review
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  • WildEarth Guardians

Law School Programming

To inform and educate students about the public service realm, our CDO presents information sessions throughout the academic year. Attorneys who work for public service employers are often the featured speakers. Recent public service information session topics have included:

  • Careers at Earthjustice
  • Colorado State Public Defender's Office
  • Equal Justice Works: Programs & Public Interest Career Resources
  • Financing Your Public Service Career
  • Navy JAG Program: Internship & Career Opportunities
  • Nuts and Bolts of the LRAP Application
  • Post-grad Public Service Job Search Planning for 2Ls
  • Presidential Management Fellowship ("PMF") Program
  • U.S. Department of Justice Honors and SLIP Programs
  • Wednesday Morning Coffee with the Colorado Governor's Office of Legal Counsel

In January 2018, the CDO sponsored the 7th Annual JD Pathways, a career conference that brought together 104 students and 71 attorneys, a number of whom work for public service employers. The conference included mock interviews, an Interviewing Tips and Techniques Panel, and a Public Interest Law Panel, all of which featured members from the public service law community.

The CDO also hosts approximately 80 employers each academic year through the fall and spring On-Campus Interview (OCI) programs. Public service employers participate in Colorado Law's OCI programs alongside private sector employers. Participating public service employers who participated in our OCI programs during the 2017-2018 academic year included:

  • Boulder County Attorney's Office
  • Colorado District Attorneys' Council (CDAC)
  • Colorado Judicial District Attorney’s Offices (4th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Districts)
  • Colorado Office of Administrative Courts
  • Colorado Office of the Attorney General
  • Fort Collins City Attorney's Office
  • Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel
  • Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
  • The Public Interest Network
  • U.S. Air Force JAG Corps
  • U.S. Army JAG Corps
  • U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado
  • U.S. Department of Energy, Golden Field Office
  • U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Financial Support

Colorado Law provides fellowships/stipends for summer work that would otherwise be unpaid or extremely low-paid. Colorado Law's Public Service Summer 2021 Fellowship Program, provided 39 students with stipends ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 for public interest work with government agencies and non-profits located both nationally and internationally. Both donor gifts and the fundraising efforts of student groups help support the fellowships offered at Colorado Law.

Summer fellowships for work involving environmental, natural resources, social justice, the public sector, international human rights, and public policy issues are available to students as a result of the generosity and public service commitment of Colorado Law's alumni and friends.

Graduates employed in qualifying public service positions may receive awards through Colorado Law's Loan Repayment Assistance Program to help them meet their student debt obligations.

Job Search Resources

Our CDO maintains a regularly updated database of internship, externship and post-graduate job opportunities. The CDO also provides students and graduates with access to outside tools which are essential for learning about public service job opportunities, such as PSJD and the Government Honors and Internship Handbook. Colorado Law is also an Equal Justice Works member school, making our students and alumni eligible to participate in EJW's annual career fair, educational stipend program, and post-graduate fellowship programs.