3L SPA Summer Intern (District Attorney’s Office)

3L SPA Summer Intern (District Attorney’s Office)

Employment Type: 5 - Summer Intern
Pay Range: $21.00 per hour
Location: Castle Rock, CO
Overtime Exempt: N
Elected Office / Department: DISTRICT ATTORNEY

Eligibility
This internship position is for current 2L law student applicants who anticipate having completed two full years of law school prior to their internship start date for the Summer of 2026.

See our recruiting webpage: Employment - Colorado District Attorney 23rd Judicial District

Our Jurisdiction - Explore All Colorado Has to Offer
The 23rd is the newest DA’s Office in the state, representing three counties and over 400,000 Coloradoans.

We are perfectly situated to the east of the mountains and between Colorado’s two largest cities. To the north is Denver, offering nightlife, performing arts venues, and all 5 major professional sports teams. Directly to the west are the Rocky Mountains, home to world class ski resorts, hiking, mountain biking, and rafting. Directly to the south is Colorado Springs, home to the Garden of the Gods, the Air Force Academy, Olympic Training Center, and Pikes Peak.

Douglas County is recognized as offering a quality of life unmatched elsewhere in the state. In 2024, Douglas County was named the 3rd Healthiest Community in America according to the U.S. News and World Report, which measures health and wellness across 10 categories (population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food & nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality, and infrastructure).

Our 3 counties (Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln) are home to hundreds of miles of trails, countless city parks and open space. We have more than 146,000 acres of Pike National Forest, Roxborough State Park, Castlewood Canyon State Park, and a boating reservoir at Chatfield State Park. Our large jurisdiction spans urban, suburban, and rural areas, offering a variety of communities to fit your individual or family needs.

Unparalleled Legal Experience
If you’re looking for an intern experience stuck behind a desk all day, our program is not for you. You WILL be in the courtroom. You WILL argue motions, sentences, and cases to a judge. You WILL conduct jury trials. Voir dire, opening, closing, direct and cross examinations, you will do it all. You WILL negotiate plea dispositions with defense counsel and pro se individuals. In addition to being in the courtroom, you will review real criminal cases, consult with real victims, and negotiate plea offers with defendants. This is real criminal legal experience, not just drafting briefs and memos.

Joining our SPA internship program is the first step towards a career as a prosecutor with our office. We pride ourselves in our dedication to training and preparing SPA interns to excel as trial attorneys, courtroom advocates, and most importantly, “ministers of justice.”

Office Benefits and Culture – More Than Just a Workplace
Earn pay, law school credit, or both. We pay SPA interns an hourly wage of $21.But our office is more than just a place to work: it’s a place you want to work. Just some of our office events are a yearly chili cook-off challenge, a cornhole tournament, and wildlife photo contest. We have an office softball and golf team. We hold an annual winter holiday party, trick-or-treat street, and frequent summer BBQs on our office grill.

Skills and Expertise – Learn from Experience
To be the best, you should learn from the best. Our office is staffed with experienced prosecutors who have tried some of the highest profile and most complex cases in Colorado history. You’ll find our prosecutors teaching at both statewide and national conferences, law schools, and authoring statewide manuals on prosecution.Prosecutors working at our office have been two-time winners of the Colorado Trial Team of the Year, Colorado Prosecutor of the Year, Colorado Prosecutor Trainer of the Year, and a host of other individual awards.

Our office strives to be at the forefront of prosecution. From leading the state in giving the public an unprecedented level of insight into our office with our data dashboards, solving decades old cold case murders through DNA analysis from our dedicated forensic crime lab, to solving crimes through digital data analysis of cellphones and geo-location analysis.
We designed our SPA internship program to equip our interns with the skills and knowledge to seamlessly step into a full criminal caseload and try jury trials solo the day they pass the bar. In addition to the extensive experience each SPA intern acquires handling real criminal cases, we provide weekly trainings, daily guidance and supervision from deputy district attorneys in the courtroom, and one-to-one mentorship from the County Court Chief Deputy District Attorney and Senior Deputy District Attorney. Our leaders are seasoned trial attorneys, experienced in handling some of the highest profile cases in the state, and versed in cutting edge trial presentation and technology.

Our Interns Are Part of Our Team
Our SPA interns are not an afterthought, using shared computers, and excluded from opportunities afforded deputy district attorneys. Our SPA interns are an integral part our team and we treat them as such. They join in with county court deputy district attorneys for meetings, trainings, and gatherings.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education: Candidates are required to currently be attending law school and must be qualified to practice under the Student Practice Act prior to starting the Student Practice Act Internship. See C.R.C.P. Rule 205.7.

Experience: None

Hours: During the Summer semester, Student Practice Act Interns work 8 hours a day, 5 days week. Accommodations to this schedule can be made. Please list and discuss any accommodations required during your interview.

This Summer Student Practice Act Internship Program is for the Douglas County Office, located at 4000 Justice Way, Castle Rock, CO.

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The position may be filled prior to the listed closing date. Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible to ensure consideration.

For more information, please contact County Court Chief Deputy District Attorney Garrik Storgaard at gstorgaard@coda23.gov

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Closing Date: 12/5/2025 5:59PM MST. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a suitable candidate is selected.

The job details outlined in this posting may represent a modified summary of the full job description. For a full copy of the job description CLICK HERE to view our job classifications.

In the event of an emergency/disaster in or near the County, all County employees are expected to make every effort to be available to assist the County Manager, Elected/Appointed Officials and Department Directors to ensure the continued operation of any and all necessary County functions. This may mean being available to perform additional duties and hours beyond what is normally required. In the event that an exempt employee does work more than 40 hours a week in support of County operations during an emergency, such employee may receive overtime or other appropriate wage compensation in accordance with existing County policies or at the discretion of the County.