USA Scholarships
Weinstein JAMS Fellowship 2027 - Up to $20,000
The Weinstein JAMS Fellowship is built for one kind of person: a lawyer, judge, court administrator or mediator working outside the United States who wants to make dispute resolution work better back home. The JAMS Foundation approves fellowships of up to $20,000 to fund a self-designed project carried out in the USA over one to four months. Read the first eligibility rule before you plan anything else, because it rules out a lot of people: applicants may not be citizens of the United States. Fellows also attend a week-long gathering of their whole cohort in the San Francisco Bay Area in early September. Applications for the 2027 fellowship are open now and close on 6 November 2026.
What is the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship?
The Weinstein JAMS Fellowship is one of the few awards that assumes you already know what you are doing. The JAMS Foundation started it in 2008 and aims it at judges, lawyers, law professors, court administrators and mediators working outside the United States who want to make dispute resolution more available where they live. You come to America for one to four months, work on a project you designed yourself, and take the result home. The foundation approves awards of up to $20,000 to pay for it.
Start with the rule that decides everything else. Applicants may not be citizens of the United States. That is the foundation's own wording, and it is not a preference or a tiebreaker. American lawyers looking for a mediation fellowship need to look elsewhere, because this money exists specifically to move expertise outward from the US system to courts and communities in other countries.
What you actually do with the time is left to you, which is the appealing part and the difficult part. Some fellows sit in on court-annexed mediation programmes, some work with university ADR clinics, some study how a particular state runs small claims diversion and rebuild it for their own jurisdiction. You find the host organisation yourself. The foundation makes introductions where it can, but it says openly that researching and establishing those affiliations is your responsibility, so the applications that land best are the ones where someone in the United States has already said yes. Every fellow also spends a week with the rest of the cohort in the San Francisco Bay Area in early September, and the foundation prefers applicants who can start their fellowship with that week.
Two practical things catch people out. The funding only supports activities inside the United States, so work you do at home before or after the trip has to be paid for some other way, and the award is taxable as income. The JAMS Foundation is also not an approved visa sponsor, which means the visa is entirely your problem and your timeline. None of that is a reason to skip it. A small cohort, a real budget, and four months to build something you can carry home is a rare combination. Applications for the 2027 fellowship close on 6 November 2026, and since you need two signed recommendation letters and ideally a host who has already agreed, the work starts now rather than in late October.
Eligibility
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✓You may not be a US citizenThe official wording is blunt: applicants may not be citizens of the United States. The programme exists to bring dispute resolution expertise back to other countries, so American citizens are excluded no matter how strong the project. If you hold dual nationality and one of those passports is American, this award is not open to you.
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✓Based outside the United StatesThe fellowship is intended for people working outside the USA who are advancing dispute resolution in their own countries. Your working life and your project should be rooted somewhere other than America, with the fellowship as the visit rather than the destination.
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✓Fluent in EnglishApplicants must be fluent in English. No test score is named, but you will spend the fellowship in American courts, mediation sessions, classrooms and meetings, and the whole cohort week runs in English. Judge yourself against that, not against a certificate.
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✓A professional background in law or dispute resolutionPreference goes to applicants with experience as judges, lawyers, law professors, court administrators, government officers or ADR practitioners. This is not a student award. The foundation is looking for people already in a position to change how disputes are handled where they work.
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✓A project that travels home with youYou propose the project yourself, and it should increase the availability of dispute resolution education, training or services in your home country and beyond. A study tour with no plan for what happens afterwards is the weakest kind of application here.
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✓A US affiliation you arrange yourselfMost fellows attach themselves to an American court, university, mediation centre or ADR organisation. The foundation makes introductions where it can, but it states plainly that researching and establishing those affiliations is the applicant's responsibility. Start that work before you submit, not after.
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✓Able to attend the September gatheringFellows attend a week-long gathering of everyone in their cohort in the San Francisco Bay Area in early September of their fellowship year. Preference goes to applicants who can start their fellowship with that gathering, so check the dates against your work calendar early.
Benefits
- Fellowship funding Up to $20,000
- Length of fellowship 1 to 4 months
- Cohort gathering in the Bay Area One week, early September
- Self-designed project in the USA Funded
- Introductions to US host organisations Where possible
- Open to US citizens Not eligible
- Activities carried out in the USA Funded
- Award paid against your proposed budget Capped at $20,000
- Activities outside the United States Not funded
- Visa sponsorship You obtain your own visa
- Tax on the award Taxable as income
- Guaranteed US host placement You arrange it
Document checklist
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✓Fellowship application formThe foundation's own form, downloaded from the Weinstein Fellowship page. It carries your professional background and the substance of your proposed project, so treat it as the main document rather than a cover sheet.
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✓Cover letterYour case for the fellowship in your own voice. Say what is broken or missing in dispute resolution where you work, what you would do about it, and why doing part of that work in the United States is what makes it possible.
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✓Curriculum vitaeA full professional CV covering your legal or ADR career, any judicial or teaching roles, training you have delivered, and publications. The selection panel reads it for whether you can actually deliver change at home.
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✓Two signed letters of recommendationTwo letters, signed. Pick referees who can speak to your professional standing and to the realism of your project rather than to your general character. Ask them in September so you are not chasing signatures in November.
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✓Project plan and budgetSet out in the application form: what you will do in the USA, over how many of the one to four months, and what the money pays for. Awards go up to $20,000, so an itemised and realistic budget helps your case more than a round number.
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✓Details of your proposed US affiliationNames of the courts, universities, mediation providers or ADR bodies you plan to work with, and how far those conversations have gone. Confirmed interest from a host is stronger than a wish list.
How to apply
Deadline and timeline
FAQ
What is the Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship?
It is a programme run by the JAMS Foundation, inaugurated in 2008, that funds dispute resolution professionals from outside the United States to spend one to four months in the USA on a project of their own design. Fellows work with American courts, universities, mediation providers and ADR organisations, then apply what they learn to building dispute resolution capacity at home. The foundation approves awards of up to $20,000 per fellow.
Can US citizens apply for the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship?
No. The official eligibility wording states that applicants may not be citizens of the United States. The programme is aimed at people based outside the USA who are working to advance dispute resolution in their own countries, and the American visit is the means rather than the goal. If you hold US citizenship, including through dual nationality, you are not eligible.
How much is the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship worth?
The JAMS Foundation approves fellowships of up to $20,000. That is a ceiling rather than a flat payment, so what you receive follows the budget you propose for your project. Funding can only be used to support fellowship activities in the United States, and it is subject to taxation as income, which is worth factoring into your numbers before you apply.
When is the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship 2027 deadline?
Applications for the 2027 Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship are being accepted through 6 November 2026. The complete package, meaning the application form, cover letter, CV and two signed letters of recommendation, needs to be submitted by that date. Because the letters must be signed and returned by your referees, start asking for them well before the closing week.
How long is the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship?
Fellowships range from one month to four months. You propose the length that fits your project rather than being assigned a fixed term. On top of the project period, fellows attend a week-long gathering of their entire cohort in the San Francisco Bay Area in early September of their fellowship year, and preference goes to applicants who can start their fellowship with that week.
Does the JAMS Foundation sponsor visas for fellows?
No. The foundation states that it is not an approved sponsor with regard to the issuance of visas to foreign nationals, so each fellow is individually responsible for obtaining the necessary visa. Plan for that timeline yourself, since visa appointment waits vary a great deal between countries and a delay can cost you the September gathering.
Who is eligible for the Weinstein JAMS Fellowship?
You must be a non-US citizen, fluent in English, and working to advance dispute resolution outside the United States. Preference goes to applicants with experience as judges, lawyers, law professors, court administrators, government officers or ADR practitioners. There is no age limit and no degree requirement beyond the professional background, but this is an award for practitioners rather than students.
How many Weinstein JAMS Fellows are selected each year?
The cohorts are small. Published fellow lists show roughly eight to thirteen people a year, with nine named in the 2026 cohort. Fellows come from a wide spread of countries, and the small size is part of the design, since the whole cohort spends a week together in the Bay Area and stays in touch afterwards.
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