Neat Opportunity for DC-area Students Interested in Public Defense
This comes to us courtesy of Jen Thomas at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (who blogged for us way back in January). It sounds like a great opportunity for any law students who are in the DC area this summer and are considering indigent defense work.
Public Defender Advocacy, Training & Hiring Conference (PATH): This biennial conference will take place at Georgetown University Law Center on Saturday, July 31, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Immediately following the conference, we will have a networking happy hour at a local venue. Students can register for the conference at http://www.pdsdc.org/LegalCommunity/CalendarItem.aspx?TrainingID=75.
PATH is a free conference for law students committed to, or interested in exploring careers in, indigent criminal defense representation – the ‘PD committed’ and the ‘PD curious’. I conceived of the conference in 2008 as a way to help students navigate the very specific recruitment and hiring processes of public defender offices. In this vein, students may choose from 12 sessions on the Advocacy, Training or Hiring tracks to self-direct their learning. Although the conference is PD-specific, there are panels that will be of interest to students who are focusing on civil legal services work with low income, low wealth clients. Those students should feel free to register for PATH. You can check out the schedule for the conference online as well (pdf).