I graduated law school in May of 2009, and I’m very intersted in taking on a one or two-year legal fellowship at a public-interest nonprofit. Most of these fellowships are targeted towards “recent” graduates. In the experience of our learned LawDopers, do I likely qualify?
Yes
I’m a layman here, but I don’t see why not.
A scientific association I’m a member of has a “Young Investigator Award.” Anyone who received a PhD in the last 10 years qualifies, so you can get a degree at 40 and be a young (at heart?) investigator.
Absolutely. My definition would be “until about the time the average big-firm associates start leaving their jobs, plus a year or two.”
I’d say yes.
A year is still recent. Go ahead, the worst they’ll say is “not recent enough”. I’d think that being recent and having had about a year of experience would be an asset, not a liability.
It appears you have a pulse and a JD. The vast bulk of these types of outfits won’t really care about anything else.
If they wanted only 2010 graduates they would say so, or they would offer the gig only to “new” graduates. You are definitely “recent”. Go for it.
Thanks for the responses, all! I’m going for it. 
I milked it for 3 years after I graduated.
I agree with the three year thing for “recent graduate”. After that, you’re more of a “young lawyer”.