Can AI expand access to legal services? This aspiring lawyer hopes to find the answer.

With an associate's degree from Northern Virginia Community College already in hand by the time she graduated high school, Sharanya Maddukuri was determined to make the most of her final two undergraduate years. Because of its top ranking in Virginia for internships, George Mason University was the place for her.

Maddukuri, an Honors College student, is majoring in government and international politics with a minor in ethics and artificial intelligence (AI) and wants to attend law school. She's already hit the ground running, landing two internships at the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, D.C., during spring and summer semesters in 2025.

How did you find your internship with the LSC?

I'm in the [Schar School of Policy and Government] mentorship program, and I'm paired with Tim O'Shea, BA Government and International Politics '19. He's currently a lawyer for the government. I told him about how I was having trouble finding an internship for the spring 2025 semester, and he recommended I look at opportunities with LSC.

You've interned in two different sectors of LSC. Your first internship in the spring was with the Pro Bono Innovation Fund (PBIF). What kind of work did you do?

Basically, the PBIF offers grants to legal aid organizations across the nation to help them engage more lawyers and non-legal professionals in pro bono services to help close the justice gap. So, one of my main projects was a five-month audit of the Pro Bono Innovation Fund, where I analyzed data from 30 legal aid organizations. After presenting my findings, I realized my work had sparked a genuine shift in how the team approached its largest grant, which made this project one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had.

I also helped my supervisor plan a panel on pro bono work for the Equal Justice Conference in San Francisco, and I got to attend the conference to see the panel I had worked on for five months come to life! I had the opportunity to hear about pro bono cases all around the world, like a case of international kidnapping where private attorneys from a big law firm stepped in to provide resources and help the client. Hearing about these cases where pro bono made a difference was really inspiring.

In the summer, you transitioned to the Disaster Grants Program within LSC. How did your responsibilities change?

In the Disaster Grants Program, I mainly worked on the Legal Aid Disaster and Heartland websites, which are both resources for legal aid professionals working in disaster areas and for disaster survivors. One exciting project I did was paving the way for a site-wide content audit to support the development of an AI chatbot, which will greatly assist disaster survivors navigating the plethora of legal issues that arise after a disaster.

You mentioned the justice gap: Is this an issue you're passionate about?

Yes, definitely. The justice gap has been growing since the '80s, and LSC reports that low-income Americans did not receive any or enough legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems. Having been exposed to the ways that legal aid organizations and LSC are using AI, I know I want to pursue a career helping legal aid organizations incorporate AI. Using AI responsibly to help reduce the load of their intake processes for applications, developing AI self-help resources for legal advice or completing paperwork, or even chatbots that can provide translation services: Those would really help people who don't have access to legal services, and therefore would help narrow that gap. I would love to be at the forefront of that.

How have your experiences at George Mason helped prepare you for the responsibilities of your internships?

The Jurisprudence Learning Community (JPLC) in the Schar School has been really helpful in equipping me with pre-law resources. The director of the JPLC, Assistant Professor Shea Holman Kilian, has been a great resource as well, particularly helping me prepare to apply for the internship. And her class is also very similar to a class you would take your first year of law school, so I feel better prepared for law school when it's time.

Law and Society with [assistant professor] Kelly Richter was a welcome challenge and incredibly helpful. We analyzed the dynamic relationship where society shapes the law, and in turn, the law shapes society. And since I took that course in the spring, I was learning about procedural justice and all its complications while developing this pro bono panel that talked about procedural justice. I got to use what I was learning to develop my work.

And my courses with the Honors College prepared me with research skills that I've been able to use at LSC.

What have you gained from your time with LSC?

After this experience, I've decided that once I become a lawyer, I'll be doing pro bono work, no matter what. I think it instilled that culture of service and caring about the community and really help reinforce that law is where I want to be. I believe in LSC's mission now more than ever, and having had my eye on this profession since I was 11, this experience has only made me more certain that it's the right place for me.

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