Entries in the Category "Public Interest"
2008 Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair
The 2008 Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair will take place October 10-11, 2008 at The Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The Conference and Career Fair offers students an opportunity to meet with employers for volunteer opportunities, summer positions and postgraduate opportunities in the public interest sector.
REGISTRATION
Registration for the 2008 Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair is underway! Students may register online at http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/events/ccf/student Registration will close on September 26 at 5pm PDT.
SUBMITTING RESUMES TO EMPLOYERS
Students may submit their resumes for interviews at the Equal Justice Works 2008 Career Fair by visiting http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/events/ccf/student and following the instructions listed on the page. Employers are added daily, so check back often. Be sure to read the criteria carefully! Some employers provide very specific instructions on how to apply for their available positions. Send in your application materials as soon as possible and no later than September 12, 2008. This ensures employers have time to review your application and notify you of an interview opportunity prior to the Career Fair.
HOTEL INFORMATION
The Omni Shoreham Hotel has blocked off rooms for all Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair attendees at the special rate of $224 per night (excluding taxes) per room. Reserve your room online or call the Omni Shoreham at (202)234-0700. Make sure you mention you are attending the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair for the special rate.
AIRPORTS
Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) – 34 miles
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) – 6.5 miles
Dulles International Airport (IAD) – 27 miles
If you have any questions about the Conference and Career Fair, please contact the CSO.
Case Western Law Students Selected as Equal Justice Works 2008 Summer Corps Members
Five Case Western Reserve University Law School students have spent thes summer serving with nonprofit public interest law organizations as a part of the Equal Justice Works Summer Corps program. Elisabeth Christensen, Benjamin Faller, Melissa Kline, Daniel Leathers and Kari White will each earn a $1,000 education award voucher through this national AmeriCorps-funded program.
This year’s Summer Corps members represent 125 Equal Justice Works law schools. These 350 first- and second-year law students will each receive a $1,000 AmeriCorps education award voucher upon completion of a minimum of 300 hours of summer service at a nonprofit public interest organization. Summer Corps members will provide critically needed legal assistance to low-income and underserved communities in 38 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, Summer Corps members gain first-hand experience and legal skills in areas such as client intake, individual representation, research and writing.
Summer Corps members are engaged with a broad range of issues, including civil rights, community economic development, death penalty, disability rights, housing, domestic violence, education, public benefits and workers’ rights. For more information about the Summer Corps program, visit http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/programs.
Summer Funding for Public Service
Attention First and Second Year Students:
Adelstein Environmental Law Fellowship
The Stanley I. and Hope S. Adelstein Environmental Law Student Summer Grant is awarded to a Case law student who secures an environmental law-related internship or employment in the public interest field (including government employment). The position must be unpaid. The 2007 summer recipient was a legal intern for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The amount of the grant is $5,000 for an 8 to 10 week internship.
Application materials: application (application form available in CSO Hot Files); statement outlining work that will be done during the summer; statement of what the applicant hopes to accomplish during his/her employment
Application deadline: Rolling deadline; apply ASAP, and not later than Monday, March 17, 2008 at 1:00pm
Biskind Public Interest Fellowships
Each year, up to five Case law students will be eligible for Saul S. Biskind Public Interest Summer Fellowships. To qualify, students must do unpaid public interest legal work for 10 weeks during the summer at a nonprofit organization (excluding government agencies). The 2007 summer recipients were employed with the following organizations: Towards Employment in Cleveland, OH; Legal Aid Society of Cleveland in Cleveland, OH; Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC; Clean Air Conservancy in Cleveland, OH; and American Civil Liberties Union in New York, NY. The summer stipend is $3,500.
Application materials: resume; statement of interest; letter of commitment from employer
Application deadline: Monday, March 17, 2008 at 1:00pm
Social Justice Fellowships
Up to 3 Case law students will be eligible for a Social Justice Fellowship. To qualify, students must do unpaid public service legal work for 10 weeks during the summer at a nonprofit organization OR government agency. The summer fellowship is $3,500.
Application materials: resume; statement of interest; letter of commitment from employer
Application deadline: Monday, March 17, 2008 at 1:00pm
New Public Service Fellowship Available!
If you missed the presentation by Professor Casey on Friday afternoon, then you missed the announcement of a new fellowship opportunity for students taking unpaid summer employment in the public sector. Up to three Case law students will be eligible for this new Social Justice Fellowship. To qualify, students must do unpaid public service legal work for 10 weeks during the summer at a nonprofit organization OR government agency. The summer fellowship is $3,500.
To apply for the fellowship, submit a resume, statement of interest, and letter of commitment from the employer by Monday, March 17, 2008 at 1:00pm. All application materials should be turned in to the CSO.
Public Interest Funding
Are you thinking about public interest work this summer? Be sure to check out the various summer funding options for students pursuing public interest work. Here are a few resources to get you started:
1) The PSLawNet Summer Funding Resource Page
This page has been updated for 2008! The list is organized by national funding sources and regional funding sources. New summer funding resources are added as they become available. The page is available at www.pslawnet.org/content/index.php?pid=50.
2) The Biskind Fellowship
Each year, up to five Case law students will be eligible for the Biskind Public Interest Summer Fellowships. To qualify, students must do unpaid public interest legal work for 10 weeks during the summer at a nonprofit organization (excluding government agencies). The application deadline is Monday, March 17, 2008 at 1:00pm. Applications are available in the CSO.
3) Public Interest Summer Grants & Fellowships Packet
This packet is available in the CSO and contains detailed information regarding summer grants and stipends. A must read for anyone pursuing public interest work this summer!
4) SPLIF
SPILF raises money to support summer fellowships. The number and amount of fellowships vary each year and the application process and deadline for these fellowships is determined by SPILF. Contact a SPLIF officer for additional information on how to get involved in SPLIF.
Please stop by the CSO pick up application materials and funding packets and to talk with a counselor about positions available in public interest and the various funding resources mentioned above.
NALP Travel Reimbursement - Public Interest Option
We know that most of you have at least some and in many cases alot of debt. But just in case you are in a position to support a public interest program, we wanted to be sure that you were aware of an opportunity to "give back." If you are interviewing with NALP employers, you know that NALP employers will reimburse reasonable travel-related expenses which you incur during your interviewing trip(s). The NALP Travel Expense Reimbursement Form, available at
http://www.nalp.org/content/index.php?pid=68, allows you to ask the employer to donate hotel or other expenses to a public interest program -- all you have to do is attach a program description and payment procedures to your NALP form.
Again, we know that most if not all of you need to be reimbursed for these expenses, but this may be an option for some of you.
College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007
Last week President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The Act cuts lender subsidies and redirects the savings toward programs intended to improve college access and affordability for low-income students. Importantly, it protects borrowers from excessive repayment burdens and provides loan forgivenness for public service employees, including lawyers.
The legislation contains a new Income Based Repayment program intended to protect students from excessive student loan debt burden after graduation. It caps monthly loan payments at 15% of discretionary income for all federal loans made to students (including graduate/law students). Also, borrowers who spend at least 10 years working in public service professions and make income-based payments thorugh the Direct Loan program would be eligible to have their remaining loan balances forgiven after 10 years. Professions with the government and 501(c)(3) organizations are included.
Tips for Choosing a Career in Public Interest
Periodically throughout the year the CSO will be posting blog entries from guest bloggers about various topics. Please note that the views expressed by our guest bloggers are the personal opinion of each blogger and are not necessarily the views and opinions of the CSO. The CSO guest blogger entries are intended as an opportunity for attorneys currently practicing in the legal field to share their insight and advice with law students.
To continue with our Public Interest Theme Week, our second guest blogger of the year, Elizabeth Lashley-Haynes (class of 2002), a public defender in LA, shares her advice on choosing a career in public interest.
Tips for Choosing a Career in Public Interest
By Elizabeth Lashley-Haynes (Class of 2002)
First and foremost, are you dedicated to this line of work? If you immediately say yes, then you are going in the right direction. If you are hesitant in your answer, then you may have some trouble in the public interest field. I am not suggesting you should not TRY it, of course, experience comes from trying new things. But, if you are not dedicated to the idea of helping others and not being thanked (at all) it is tough.
To those who answer yes right away, don’t be afraid to try a public interest career that may not be exactly what you are looking for. Let’s say you really want to do civil rights work, but a job opens up in the area of homelessness or environmental law. What you will probably find is that the job is fulfilling, and you learn a lot. Additionally, it will give you the opportunity to meet like-minded attorneys, and possibly open up doors in the field you are interested in.
Finally, when you go into this line of work, you need to expect a few things:
1. YOU WILL NOT BE RICH, know it, accept it, and move on. There is something easier to deal with when you accept it ahead of time. Further, when everyone you work with is in the same boat, it becomes like a family...a poor family, but a family. You learn how to deal with the student loans, clothes shopping for sales, and driving a beat up car. After a while, you love it. I mean, after all, I am a public defender - what would I look like driving a new Mercedes? FYI - there has been a lot of legislation about loan forgiveness for public interest lawyers. See College Cost Reduction Act, passed early in September by Congress.
2. YOU WILL NOT BE THANKED, even when you do a good job. This mostly applied to people who go into the area of representing underprivileged people. You may work for days, weeks or months on something, or someone’s case. You may put in an exceptional amount of time, and do your very best. At the end of all that, you may just have a client who walks away without acknowledging anything you did, or worse, tells you off. Further, your supervisor or colleagues may never acknowledge what you do or did. You need to find within yourself why you are doing the job you are doing. You need to be happy with yourself and your work, all by yourself. You will very often not get any praise from anyone on the outside. Learn how to praise yourself on the inside. Everyone once and a while you will be graced with a “thank you” and it will warm your heart and make it all worth it.
3. THERE WILL BE DAYS WHEN YOU HATE YOUR JOB. This is related to #1 and #2 above. We are all human. After months or years of doing a public interest job, being underpaid and feeling underappreciated, you will have days when you will hate your job. Learn to accept those days and look forward to the next day. Make a mental list, or a actual list, about what you love about your job. It is easy to lose sight of the positive side of a public interest job. But, if you really loose sight of how good your job is you may make the mistake I did. I had a time when I felt this way and I left my job with the public defenders office to join a small, private criminal defense firm. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with criminal defense firms. Yet, if your heart is in public interest, and you leave for more money, you will probably end up feeling unsatisfied with your work. It took me less than five months to realize the private sector wasn’t for me. All I can say is that I felt like “it” wasn’t who I was. I said to myself, I wasn’t just working as a public defender, I AM a public defender, it is the very essence of who I am. Luckily the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Office accepted me back. Now, I am so grateful, happy, and fulfilled.
4. THERE WILL BE DAYS WHEN YOU LOVE YOUR JOB. This one is the most important. Hopefully, these day will outweigh the bad days. Probably the most important thing about working in the public interest field is that you will get to see how your work impacts the lives of other people, or society as a whole. You can walk home at the end of the day proud of the work you do. For me, I know that if I assist one drug addict in finding a drug program that helps them get sober; or help one juvenile get out of juvenile detention and back in school; or I free one innocent person from jail....I am satisfied with the work I do. This is the best feeling in the world. This is why I went to law school.
Public Interest Guest Blogger
Periodically throughout the year the CSO will be posting blog entries from guest bloggers about various topics. Please note that the views expressed by our guest bloggers are the personal opinion of each blogger and are not necessarily the views and opinions of the CSO. The CSO guest blogger entries are intended as an opportunity for attorneys currently practicing in the legal field to share their insight and advice with law students.
To kick off Public Interest Theme Week, our first guest blogger of the year, Jason A. Martin, Esq. (class of 2003), discusses the dilemma of public service and being able to serve the public.
Can I Afford to Serve the Public?
By Jason A. Martin, Esquire (2003)
The best public servants are those who come from the communities in which they serve and have a personal stake in the facilitation of justice, however, those potential public servants can’t afford to serve. It is difficult to give this subject the proper foundation without explaining how this dilemma came about.
Ironically, the best illustration of the dilemma comes from the medical field. In the early twentieth century the American Medical Association (AMA) felt that there were too many doctors. So they decided to make medical education so elitist and expensive, and so drawn out, that most students would be prohibited from even considering a medical career. The AMA set up requirements for four years of undergraduate education plus four years of medical school. The schools are required to have expensive laboratories and equipment, thus, by the end of World War I, the number of medical schools had been reduced from 650 to a mere 50 in number. The number of annual graduates had been reduced from 7,500 to 2,500.
The practice of law has traveled the same path as medicine. The practice of law has become an elite profession. The cost to become a lawyer has gone up astronomically over the years. Let’s add it up. To go to a decent law school, yearly tuition is about $20-30,000, not including living expenses, which could run up to $18,000 per year. The cost of books could be an additional $1,500 to $2,000 per year. At the end of the three years of law school, you must take the bar examination to become a licensed attorney. To take a bar examination preparation course will cost between $2,000 and $3,000. To take the actual exam is another $300 to $500. If you are fortunate enough to pass the exam, your money woes continue. There are bar membership fees that could run up to $350 per year and also continuing legal education to maintain your license, which can cost hundreds of dollars per year. The average cost of legal education and bar admission alone could cost someone upwards of $153,000.
Needless to say, new attorneys need to make a decent salary to offset the costs of becoming licensed. Unfortunately, the field of public interest law does not pay well at all. This has caused public interest law to become an elite field of practice. Many public servants, particularly prosecutors come from middle class to wealthy backgrounds. Many of my colleagues in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office lived in Manhattan, exclusive neighborhoods in Queens, Long Island, etc. All places where the cost of living is very high. Almost none of them lived or came from the communities that are most effected by the criminal justice system. This causes a disconnect between the public servant and the very public he/she is trying to serve.
In my experience, many defendants feel as though their attorneys, including legal aid, do not care about them, respect them, and identify with them. This often causes very tumultuous relationships between attorney and client. This occurs because many of the attorneys, in particular, public defenders, do not come from the communities that they are trying to serve. On the prosecution end, many prosecutors come from middle class to wealthy backgrounds, which greatly affect the way they perceive the people they are prosecuting. Many prosecutors operate from stereotypes, generalizations, prejudices and fear of the people they prosecute, especially “minorities”. This problem occurs because many of the people in the criminal justice system are “minorities” from poor neighborhoods, while most of the public servants are whites from middle class to wealthy neighborhoods. This is caused by the cost prohibitiveness of legal education and practice. This is a topic that is almost never talked about by those who could change this reality not only in the practice of law, but in every field of public service.
Case Western Reserve University Law School students selected for 2007 Equal Justice Works Summer Corps Program
Two Case Western Reserve University Law School students will spend this summer serving with nonprofit public interest law organizations as a part of the Equal Justice Works Summer Corps program. Jennifer Becker and Marc Epstein will each earn a $1,000 education award voucher through this national AmeriCorps-funded program. These students were among 592 applicants for 350 participant slots nationwide.
The 2007 Summer Corps members are first- and second-year law students from 117 law schools. They will each serve at least 300 hours in public interest projects, providing critically needed legal assistance to low-income and underserved communities in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Summer Corps members will also gain first-hand experience and legal skills in areas such as client intake, individual representation, research and writing.
Summer Corps members work on a broad range of issues, including civil rights, community economic development, death penalty, disability rights, housing, domestic violence, education, public benefits and workers’ rights. In addition, 42 members are part of the Equal Justice Works Katrina Summer Corps, providing disaster-related legal services to populations affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Jennifer Becker will serve with The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland in Cleveland; Marc Epstein with HIV/AIDS and LGBT Project of the National ACLU in New York.
Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1986 by law students dedicated to working for equal justice on behalf of underserved communities and causes. Today, Equal Justice Works is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers as well as in urging more public interest programming at law schools. For more information about Equal Justice Works, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org.
Law-Medicine and Cox Stipends
Law-Medicine Center Stipends
The Law-Medicine Center will offer up to $8,000 in 2007 to students who secure health law-related summer positions with public interest or government organizations that will not pay a significant salary or stipend. No student will receive more than $2,000. In addition, one more $2,000 stipend will be awarded to a Health Matrix journal editor who secures a health law-related summer position with a public interest or government organization that will not pay a significant salary or stipend. The 2006 summer recipients were employed with the following organizations: Vermont Medical Society in Montpelier, VT; Patients Not Patents in Washington, DC; and UNAIDS/WHO/AMI in Rangoon, Burma.
Application materials: resume; one-page description of the position and what you expect to accomplish; Summer Internship Budget Worksheet (available in the CSO Resource Room)
Application deadline: Friday, March 23, 2007 at 1:00pm in the CSO
Cox International Law Center Stipends
The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center offers stipends of up to $1,000 to $3,000 to Case students who secure international law-related summer internships. During the summer of 2006, students who received this stipend worked for: International Trade Centre in Geneva, Switzerland; Amnesty International in Washington, DC; U.S.-Canada Law Institute in Ottawa, Canada; Abrahams & Gross in Capetown, South Africa; Clyde & Co. in Shanghai, China; O’Connor & Company in Brussels, Belgium; Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Defense Counsel for the ICTY in the Hague, Netherlands; U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; International Bar Association in London, England; and many more. (In 2006, the majority of awards were in the $1,000-2,000 range.)
Application materials: application (application form available in CSO Hot Files);resume; one-page statement of interest; Summer Internship
Budget Worksheet (available in CSO Resource Room) and the amount (between $1,000-3,000) requested to support summer work
Application deadline: Friday, March 23, 2007 at 1:00pm in the CSO
2007 Summer Corps Funding
On Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at noon, the 2007 Summer Corps application will be available online at www.equaljusticeworks.org. Before applying to Equal Justice Works, students must secure their own summer placement at a qualifying nonprofit public interest organization. Information about the program can be found at www.equaljusticeworks.org/summercorpsindex.php. If you have questions about the program, please contact Sarah Jayne Dipert, AmeriCorps Program Coordinator, at 202-466-3686 ext. 125 or summercorps@equaljusticeworks.org.
Student Public Interest Fellowship (SPILF) Application Information
On Behalf of SPLIF:
Application Deadline: April 2, 2007.
A committee of SPILF officers and members will conduct interviews with all applicants during the week of April 9, 2007. To receive a summer fellowship, a student must have given time to SPILF activities during the school year. The committee also considers applicants’ financial need and the jobs in which they will be working.
Please remember the following prerequisites to qualification to SPILF funding:
A summer opportunity in public interest law
Unpaid internship (if the internship is low-paid, please
indicate anticipated salary)
At least four (4) hours volunteering for SPILF Events please
attach hours sheet)
Please attach a statement from your summer employer confirming your summer offer and indicating the compensation you will receive, if any. If you cannot provide such a statement or have not been definitively offered a position, please indicate as much in the space asking for your summer position. Though we ask that you have a position secured before applying for funding, we understand that circumstances may prevent you from securing summer employment before applying for SPILF funding. Please indicate which opportunity you reasonably expect to secure; please forward a statement confirming your employment once it is confirmed.
Applications may be obtained from the SPILF mail folder in Blackacre. Please submit all application materials by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 2, to the SPILF mail folder.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any of the SPILF officers:
Cristin Roush, president (car34@case.edu)
Emily Weidenhamer, vice president (eew4@case.edu)
Rose Osborne, secretary (rmo5@case.edu)
More Public Interest Funding Opportunities
In addition to summer internship funding highlighted in the December 19, 2006 CSO blog entry, PSLawNet's "Summer Funding" section contains information on funding opportunities offered by 40 nonprofit organizations. Look for the link at www.pslawnet.org.
Also, Equal Justice Works/Americorps offers "Summer Corps" stipends to support law students working to deliver legal services. Summer Corps provides 315 law students with a $1,000 education award voucher for qualifying legal internships. For more information, go to www.equaljusticeworks.org.
To 3Ls: Florida Public Defender Career Fair
The Law Office of Julianne M. Holt, Public Defender of Hillsborough County (Tampa), 13th Judicial Circuit, is hosting a Career Fair on Saturday, January 6, 2007. All interested applicants should visit their website at www.pd13.state.fl.us to apply on-line of fax their resume and cover letter to 813-277-0841. Candidate interviews will be scheduled for Saturday, January 6, 2007. Please submit your application by December 1, 2006. Office of the Public Defender, 13th Judicial Circuit, 700 East Twiggs Street, Tampa, FL 33602. This event is open to third-year law students, recent law school graduates, and licensed attorneys admitted to the Florida Bar or the Bar in another state.
If you are going to be in Florida on October 6...
Robert Wesley, Public Defender for Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, invites second- and third-year students, certified legal interns and members of the Florida Bar to the Orange County Courthouse Complex to discover firsthand the benefits of pursuing a career in public services.
At their fall series of open-house events, visitors have the opportunity to tour Orange County, Florida's state-of-the-art courthouse facility and speak with hiring officials from the Public Defender's Office.
The first open house will be on Friday, October 6 beginning at 10:00am at the Law Offices of the Public Defender in the Orange County Courthouse Complex, 435 North Orange Avenue, Suite 400, Orlando, FL 32801. If you wish to attend this event or future open houses contact Angie Sharkey at asharkey@circuit9.org or 407-836-4751.