Since 1983, the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program (WLPPFP) has enabled recent law graduates with a special interest in women's rights to work in Washington, DC, with organizations involved in legal and public policy issues affecting women. Those selected for participation are assigned to a placement organization that employs the Fellows for one year, including women's rights groups, civil rights groups, governmental agencies, and Georgetown University Law Center clinics working on women's issues. Periodically WLPPFP is able to offer specially designated fellowships. The Women's Law Fellows are supervised by experienced advocates at the organizations where they are placed, and they work specifically on women's rights issues. They also attend events organized by WLPPFP, such as leadership training sessions and seminars on current women's rights issues, and they may audit Georgetown University Law Center courses on gender and the law and women's legal history. Starting in 1993 WLPPFP has also administered a program for women's human rights lawyers from Africa (the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa Program, or "LAWA"). The LAWA Fellows participate in all WLPPFP trainings, networking events and other activities, and both the U.S. and LAWA Fellows benefit greatly from this diversity and interaction.

WLPPFP is advised by a board of leading women's rights advocates, chaired by Eleanor Holmes Norton, Member of Congress for the District of Columbia, and also including Judith Areen, Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center; Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women's Law Center; Judith Lichtman, Past President of and Senior Advisor to the National Partnership for Women and Families; Mary Hartnett, legal scholar and author and former WLPPFP Executive Director; and Wendy Webster Williams, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.