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Thursday, April 06, 2006
Career counseling and the public interest
Thanks to Prawfsblawg for having me back as a guest blogger! As Dan mentioned in a previous post, I am currently visiting at Hofstra for the year and will be joining Willamette this fall. So I've gotten an interesting look at the workings of law schools this year--being a visitor is very much like being a fly on the wall, of the school but not totally enmeshed in it.
In any case, April has finally arrived (springtime is a-cumin in), and with it, a lawprof's thoughts turn to exams and grading, and a 3L's thoughts turn to graduation and future employment. To that end, I've met with a variety of 3L students these past few weeks, all of them with one key question: what's the best way to go about getting a public interest job? To a one, each student has expressed frustration with the law school's OCI office, grumbling that all the resources are focused on channeling students to the corporate law world.
I don't think anyone can take issue with that complaint, no matter what school you might attend. By their very nature, most law school career counseling offices are set up to best handle the streamlined process of law firm recruitment, and since many (if not most) law students want to practice in a firm for a while, it makes some sense to focus the resources in that area.
This reality leaves public interest devotees somewhat at a loss, however. Now, granted, there are no centralized mechanisms for obtaining a public interest job--as a former crim. app. defender, I can tell you that the search is haphazard and often by word of mouth. Sure, D.A.s, Legal Aid, and the DOJ have regulated recruitment, and there are a variety of public interest job fairs, but what about the more eclectic public interest jobs? How is a student supposed to learn about these, besides blind luck and copious internet searching?
In a nutshell, what I'd like to see is a more concerted effort by law schools to assist and support those interested in the public interest. I think this could be done in a variety of ways:
1) create a really strong public interest alumni network, with mentoring and interning options;
2) designate one OCI counselor to spend at least half of her time devoted solely to public interest;
3) have workshops explaining to students how it's possible to earn a public interest salary and still pay your rent, loans, and eat;
4) visits and meetings from local public interest attorneys;
5) continued assistance *after* graduation, since often it takes a little longer to find p.i. jobs; and
6) at least some form of loan-repayment schemes for eligible grads.
Further suggestions welcomed!
Posted by Laura I Appleman on April 6, 2006 at 12:40 PM in Life of Law Schools | Permalink
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Comments
Maybe someone should start a blog on public interest jobs. Or better, a wiki. People could contribute information on the jobs that are out there and how to apply for them.
Posted by: Bruce | Apr 8, 2006 5:07:45 PM
I'm a little skeptical that career services offices at most law schools will ever provide more than nominal assitance to students interested in public schools. I tend to think that most of what is provided in terms of student services generally is geared toward creating happy students who will be happy graduates who will be happy alumni, who will write big checks and get their firms to write even bigger checks. That works against giving more public interest assistance in two ways. First, the more people the school helps place in low-paying jobs, the more alumni they have that won't be making large financial contributions in the future. Second, if public interest oriented students feel alienated and frustrated with the school upon graduation, no big deal, because they're not likely to be big contributors as alumni anyway.
Of course, there are notable examples of law schools that provide extensive help for public interest job seekers, and significant loan repayment assistance. But my sense is that you don't see much of it outside of the top 15-20 schools.
Posted by: Jane | Apr 7, 2006 7:39:38 PM
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