Fellowship and Grants

The Davis Polk Leadership Fellowship is a yearlong program that provides recipients with resources and support from faculty, staff, and leadership coaches to build their leadership capacities. Fellows receive a $5,000 stipend, attend bi-weekly leadership development sessions with other Fellows, receive individualized mentorship, and are automatically accepted into the Lawyer-Leadership course and/or Public Education Policy Lab for the following year or semester (if interested, and as applicable). In addition to the stipend, Fellows receive project funding (up to $1,000) and support to design and implement a yearlong project that builds leadership within the CLS community and effectuates positive change at CLS, in the legal community, and beyond. Fellows also engage in mentorship of others as stewards of leadership within CLS. 

The Innovation Grants provide project funding of up to $1,000 and support from faculty, staff, and leadership coaches for individuals or groups of students, staff, or faculty to design and implement semester-long projects designed to effectuate positive change at CLS, in the legal community, and beyond.  

Fellowships for 2022–2023 are now closed. Spring 2023 Innovation Grant applications will open on October 17, 2022. More details and an FAQ are available here, or you can apply directly here. If you have any additional questions, please contact us at LeadershipInitiative@law.columbia.edu.

"Through the Leadership Initiative, I learned to better communicate and collaborate with people who had very different backgrounds and values than my own, enabling me to better effectuate the change I wanted to see within academia."  - Tanner Zumwalt, 2019–2020 Fellow