Gants Judicial Scholarships Expand Access to Court Internships

The Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants Judicial Scholarship Program has awarded $8,000 scholarships to 20 outstanding law students interning in Massachusetts courts during the 2025/2026 academic year. The program helps make public service and judicial careers more accessible by providing financial support to students pursuing unpaid judicial internships.

Created in memory of the late Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants, the program reflects his lifelong commitment to advancing equity within the Massachusetts legal system.

The initiative is a collaboration between the Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants Fund for Racial Equity and Access to Justice; Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Law, Equity, and Race (CLEAR); the Massachusetts Bar Foundation; and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, which provides funding to support the program.

By helping to remove the financial barriers that can prevent students from accepting unpaid internships, the scholarship gives recipients an opportunity to gain valuable, firsthand experience in Massachusetts courts.

Recipients are selected based on their undergraduate and law school academic performance, personal achievements, demonstrated leadership, and commitment to public service.

“Each year, I’m grateful to the Massachusetts Legislature and the Chief Justice Ralph Gants Racial Equity and Access to Justice Fund for their support of this program. Their generosity lets law students who couldn’t otherwise afford an unpaid judicial internship serve alongside our state’s judges and justices, sharpening their research and writing, and gaining insight into judicial decision-making,” said Professor Emerita Deborah Ramirez, who spearheaded the launch of the scholarship in honor of her late husband, Chief Justice Gants. “We hope this experience prepares them to become excellent lawyers and perhaps inspires some to one day serve as judges themselves, helping build a judiciary that’s ever more skilled, compassionate and reflective of the communities it serves.”

Judicial internships can open doors to clerkships, public interest fellowships, and other opportunities, while giving aspiring attorneys meaningful exposure to the judicial process early in their careers. By ensuring that these experiences are not limited to students with the financial means to work without pay, the Gants Scholarship Program helps to broaden and strengthen the future of the legal profession and the judiciary.

For more information about the Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants Judicial Scholarship Program, please click here.