Work With Asylum Seekers

Attorney Volunteers

Through Human Rights First’s Refugee Representation program, volunteer lawyers have the unique opportunity to change the lives of refugees by helping them win asylum in the United States. Our clients have fled from political, religious, ethnic, and gender-based persecution in countries plagued by human rights violations. They cannot afford counsel and desperately need representation. Volunteer lawyers learn about U.S. asylum law and international human rights law and then have the chance to represent individual clients at an asylum interview or a hearing before an immigration judge.

If you are an attorney interested in taking a pro bono case with Human Rights First, please contact:

• New York, NY: [email protected]​
• Washington, D.C: [email protected]
• Los Angeles, CA: [email protected]

Interpreter Volunteers

Many of our clients do not speak English, bi-lingual volunteers help us during screening phone calls and intake interviews and can translate foreign language documents into English. If you are fluent in English and another language and you are interested in volunteering with us as an interpreter/translator, please reach out:

• New York, NY: [email protected]​
• Washington, D.C: [email protected]
• Los Angeles, CA: [email protected]

Student Interns

Human Rights First’s Refugee Representation program relies on our interns to help conduct client intakes, perform extensive research regarding the human rights conditions in countries around the world, and help analyze potential clients’ asylum claims.  We offer summer and semester internship opportunities to law students, undergraduate, and graduate students.  If you are interested in an internship during the academic year or summer, please check the Human Rights First Careers page.

Medical and Psychological Volunteers

Many of our clients have endured torture and other brutal forms of persecution, and may have physical and psychological scars. Volunteer health professionals can help our clients earn asylum in the U.S. by providing them with medical and psychological evaluations to help corroborate their accounts.

If you are a medical or mental health professional who would like to donate your skills to this important cause, please reach out to organizations that regularly work with Human Rights First volunteer attorneys and clients: Physicians for Human Rights or HealthRight International.