WORK WITH US

About CCLA

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is a national, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization supported by thousands of individuals and organizations from all walks of life. Since 1964, CCLA has worked to advance rights, freedoms, and justice throughout Canada, working in the courts at all levels, before Parliamentary and legislative committees, and in classrooms across the country.

CCLA has developed a unique model of advocacy that supports five core activities: monitoring, litigation, research, public education, and civic engagement. Currently, CCLA’s work is focused on the following thematic areas: Fundamental Freedoms, Criminal Justice, Equality, Privacy and Education.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commitment

CCLA is an equal opportunity organization and is committed to taking proactive steps to provide and create opportunities for historically marginalized and equity seeking groups. We strongly encourage qualified candidates who identify as transgender, gender diverse, non-binary to apply and self-identify in their application materials. We also encourage applications from Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, individuals with disabilities, and other members of marginalized identities and communities.

About the Role

We are seeking a talented, dynamic, reliable, well-organized, and self-motivated law student to engage in substantive legal work supporting CCLA’s ongoing advocacy efforts in civil liberties and human rights, with a particular focus on trans rights.

The Trans Rights Summer Law Student will do two program rotations – one with the Equality team and one with another CCLA program based on the student’s preference. The student will be under the supervision of the Equality Director and the Trans Rights Legal Fellow. The Trans Rights Summer Law Student will also participate in education and enrichment activities at CCLA.

The student will be asked to conduct legal (and sometimes complementary social science) research and prepare written materials in a range of formats on various topics. This may include case briefs, contributions to reports, reviews of draft or proposed legislation, policy reviews, written submissions to public agencies, and research memoranda. The Trans Rights Summer Law Student will also assist in identifying and monitoring significant issues and developments with respect to trans legal rights and advocacy in Canada, and may contribute to public interest litigation CCLA is involved in. Areas of law encompassed by our work include constitutional, public, administrative, criminal and human rights law.

This is a 12-week full-time position. The successful candidate will receive a donor-funded stipend of $12,000.

The selected students must be able to attend (either in person or remotely) a mandatory orientation session that will be scheduled within the first two weeks of May 2026.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will:

• Be a law student enrolled in an accredited law school, or a recent graduate
• Have a demonstrated interest in civil liberties, human rights, and public policy
• Have lived experience relevant to trans advocacy work
• Experience and/or knowledge of issues that affect trans, gender diverse, and non-binary communities
• Be able to demonstrate legal excellence with strong research, writing, and analysis skills
• Be reliable, well-organized and self-motivated

Personal or professional experience working with non-governmental organizations is highly desirable. The ability to read legal and other materials in French is a strong asset.

Location

The role of the Trans Rights Summer Law Student will be hybrid, with the in-person component taking place in our mid-town Toronto office. There may be some flexibility offered for an exceptional candidate located outside of Toronto to participate remotely.

How to Apply          

Please email your application as one pdf, addressed to Aaden Pearson, to apearson@ccla.org with the subject line “2026 Trans Rights Summer Law Student”.

Your application should include the following documents in this order:

• Cover letter
• Resume
• Law school transcripts
• Reference letters, if any (these are not required, but up to 2 will be accepted)

Please ensure that we receive your completed application by 10 am EST February 13, 2026.  Applications received after this deadline may still be considered subject to availability.

The Interview Process

The interview process will occur remotely in late February-early March.

We thank all applicants for their interest, but only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. All candidates who are interviewed will be notified within four (4) weeks of their interview date of the outcome of their application.

CCLA does not use artificial intelligence or automated tools to screen or evaluate applications for this role. All applications are reviewed directly by human recruiters as part of our recruitment process.

Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process, as well as during placement at CCLA. Please direct any accommodation requests or questions about the recruitment process to apearson@ccla.org.