by Philip A. Guzman, Esq.

Philip is the director of Public Service Programs at North Carolina Central University School of Law. Follow him on Twitter @pag2010.

Leaving the practice of law and returning to teaching was a desire that I had for over 10 years before I finally took the plunge. What better job for a former high school teacher and community college professor?

Not only would I regain an element of “balance” in my life, but I would again be able to work with a diverse and interesting population of our next generation of lawyers. However, let it be known that the life of an attorney career counselor has not panned out to be just a relaxing 9-5 existence.

Try as I might to have what passes as a “normal” and “regulated” day, it simply rarely happens. No two days are the same and that is exactly what I like about the job. On any given day, I can wear up to five different hats as a law school career counselor.

1. Goal Planner.

The central most important thing that we do in our Career Services Office is to meet directly with our students and map out career strategies and goals, both short and long term.

Short term goals start with asking the most basic question of the student — “Why law school?” Initially, I was surprised to find that so many law students are unable to give a logical and cogent reason. However, as I get them chatting on their life and “passion” (what drives you on?), a student will usually begin to open up and explain his/her law school decision. Even in a very difficult economy, the reason that a student chooses the rigors of a law school education involves a life changing moment, or simply a “love” of the law and its nuances.

Now, with their reason for attending law school established, the student plunges into the revision of their resume with the next short term goal in sight –landing that first (or second) summer internship. Finally, in the case of 3Ls, we get to the long term goal: the attorney job and how to go about getting it.

2. Editor & Role Player.

I really enjoy this aspect of my job, which includes cover letter writing, the “mock interview” and all the skill sets that go into the identification of a prospective employer for an internship or permanent job.

After fully researching the prospective employer (I expect the student to the bulk of the research), I assist students with the general flow of a cover letter, its writing, along with the appropriate follow-up etiquette. When the cover letter leads to an interview, the next step for me is the mock interview. I role play all interviews and don the persona of the employer and act out a twenty minute interview.

Subsequently, the student and I will have another half-hour session where I provide feedback and help the student with the improvement of their interviewing technique. In my view, there is no more important role for a career service attorney than to walk with the law student in all aspects of the career search path.

3. Marketer.

The one aspect of my job as a career that is somewhat similar to what I used to do in private practice is marketing. In this case, the law school itself. As the Director of Public Service Programs at North Carolina Central University School of Law, I spend the majority of my time contacting lawyers in the public sector from the likes of USDOJ Honors, HUD, EPA, and various JAG offices on the federal level; to the North Carolina Department of Justice, Legal Aid of NC, Disability Rights of NC, and the Southern Environmental Law Center (to name only a few) on the state and local levels.  Promoting our law school to employers includes site visits whenever possible.

Periodically, I take time from my work with public service employers to also contact private firm recruiters and in-house counsel from national and local companies including the different pharmaceutical companies that make their home here in the Triangle area in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill areas of North Carolina.

I may often attend various “Meet & Greet” lunches, seminars, and legal conferences that will put me in the proximity of public service lawyers, recruiters, judges, alumni, and employers in all areas of practice in public service, pro bono, and in the private sector.

As a public service counselor, I am mindful that there is a “crossover” effect to working with private firms as many firms are beginning to emphasize work in the areas of pro bono and public service. Thus, I am always looking to match public service students with firms that emphasis pro bono work.

4. Event Planner.

I now truly appreciate all the time, talent, and patience that it takes to be a full time event planner in other industries. I have learned, through much trial and error I might add, that locating and then scheduling appropriate lawyers, judges and professors for student speaking events is an art form. Not only does it entail clearing a speaker’s schedule, but one has to also “juggle” the class schedules of all three law school classes (when do the 1Ls let out? ..but the 2Ls can only be there for a half-hour..what about evening students?).

It doesn’t stop there, there are issues involving landing an appropriate room (what size room? how many students are attending the event?) and also the actual publicizing of the event (on Twitter, Facebook, Symplicity? …on all? …how often? did the students receive appropriate notification?).

Logistics for student events is very important. We in career services need to be mindful  that, while all events that we plan are important and great opportunities to network, they are not always at a time where a “busy” law student can take time from the rigors of his/her curriculum and attend such events. A “trick” I have learned is to try and have food (pizza is always a winner) with an event. I am amazed at the amount of, otherwise busy, law students who  manage to find the time to attend an event when free food is on the line!

5. Student.

I believe that a Career Services Office needs to visible to students. We need to be out in the flow of traffic with students at the school where students can see us and grab us for quick questions and/or concerns. I try to walk the halls between classes whenever my schedule permits and even sit in on the first fifteen to twenty minutes of a class.  It is important to “walk the walk” of students.

When a student mentions either success or difficulty in a particular course, I can put myself there. Additionally, it is a way for me to stay connected to the professors.  I may be an administrator, but I need to stay connected to the life of the law school – its students and professors.

Finally, law school career counselors need to be current in the latest trends and scholarship in the lawyer hiring.  This requires scholarship, reading and writing in all areas of attorney career development. For me, this is where Twitter and other areas of social media prove helpful.  I spend over an hour of my day reviewing articles and “tweeting” materials that I think are helpful for law students, recent graduates, and young lawyers starting their careers (catch up with me @pag2010!).

Furthermore, another means of keeping up in the field are the frequent gatherings I participate in with other law school career service professionals, both locally and nationally. I find these gatherings most helpful for me in trying to remain “current” in all areas of law school counseling and national employment trends. Also, it is a way to keep up with new friends and old in the profession who work at other law schools.

As I’ve said, no day is similar to the one before. There is no greater satisfaction for me than giving back to my profession and assisting the next generation of lawyers get their careers started.

by Kristen Pavón

*Updates: The Atlantic explains eligibility here and the Washington Post answers some more questions about the plan here.

Full disclosure here: I don’t know all the details about this new plan yet, I’m still a bit confused about all the eligibility requirements, and if I were you, I’d look to Heather Jarvis for some more guidance on it once more details come out today.

Today, President Obama will expand the Income Based Repayment program for federal student loans with his new plan, Pay as you Earn. This is the administration’s effort to address sky-high college tuition and student loan debt.

From what I understand, this plan was to start in 2014. However, with the Obama Administration’s new “we can’t wait” mantra, it’s being pushed to go into effect next year so that more students can get relief.

Here are the basic details as I’ve understood them:

Benefits:

• Reduce student loan payments to 10% of discretionary income (similar to the current IBR repayment option except that it’s currently capped at 15% of discretionary income)
• Federal loan forgiveness after 20 years worth of the right kind of payments (the current IBR option forgives loan balances after 25 years worth of payments)
• Consolidate loans & reduce interest rates

I’m liking what I’m hearing about the lowered cap for IBR payments, but I still need to learn more about this plan and find out whether graduates like myself, who have already elected the current IBR option, are even eligible.

Read more here, here and here.

by Kristen Pavón

The AmLawDaily posted an article last week about the watchful attorneys protecting individual rights at the Occupy Wall Street protest.

About 200 National Lawyers’ Guild members volunteered their time to monitor interactions between the police and protestors, collect information when anyone was arrested, and provide protestors with general advice.

The guild’s mission, says Gideon Oliver, a solo practitioner and member of the executive committee of the group’s New York City chapter, is to ensure that demonstrators are able to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Guild observers attempt to identify everyone who is arrested, record the arresting officer’s badge number, and obtain contact information for potential witnesses. Following those steps makes it easier to coordinate jail support services and legal representation, says Jane Moison, a guild member and associate at criminal defense and civil rights firm Rankin & Taylor.

The observers’ presence is especially important, Oliver says, when police make arrests in bunches.

“When arrests happen on a large scale, you need to get the names of people arrested to make sure they get through the system and out of police custody,” he says. And when tensions flare between police and protesters, the presence of guild observers provides a cooling effect, adds Martin Stolar, a New York City solo practitioner and former guild president: “Once protesters and police see the green hats, they know someone’s watching.”

I wonder if there are Guild members watching the Occupy protests in other locations too. Anyone know?

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), New England’s lgbt and HIV public interest legal organization, is looking for a full-time Attorney for its work in the six New England states.

GLAD is particularly interested in expanding its ability to address the needs of lgbtq youth in a variety of settings. Therefore, along with litigation, this attorney will be also be responsible for community, coalition, policy, education and legislative work devoted to lgbtq youth.

If you have litigation and legal research and writing experience along with a commitment to working with and on behalf of lgbtq youth, and knowledge of issues that particularly affect lgbtq youth of color, APPLY!

To read more about this position or to apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

The Washington Post reports that TMZ founder Harvey Levin has advised TV and print media channels that their models are broken and they had better adapt or die.

While Levin’s journalistic credibility is …. questionable, at best, his comments got me thinking about how communication has changed and wondering whether we’re doing ourselves a disservice by relying so heavily on online communication, particularly for relationship management and when on the job hunt.

I’ve heard a lot about this issue lately, especially as it relates to Millennial law students —  they are losing touch with traditional forms of communication. They’re hesitant to pick up the phone to speak to someone at a courthouse or law firm and they’d prefer to exchange text messages rather than have a face-to-face conversation with a mentor.

Social media has changed how we discover new information and how we can connect with people with similar interests. However, social media makes it too easy to connect with other people and can cheapen the value of online interactions and in turn, weaken your relationships.

And with job hunters doing the majority of their job search online — searching career sites like PSLawNet, linking employers to their Linkedin profiles, using Twitter to find job opportunities, and even adding prospective employers as friends on Facebook or Google+. — it’s important to step away from the computer.

For real results, bring your online networking into the real world!

Meeting up with someone in person and chatting over coffee about your job search, cannot and will not be replaced with a tweet (Got that, Levin?). The real (and critical) value of social media is the offline relationship you can create and maintain by utilizing online networks.

Let’s bring traditional back — leave some of your traditional networking/communication success stories below!

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) has an immediate opening at its headquarters in Washington, DC for an immigration attorney to provide legal services to Roman Catholic Dioceses and religious institutes bringing foreign-born religious workers to the United States. 

Applicants must be admitted to the bar and licensed to practice law and will be responsible for carrying a substantial caseload. The attorney must have immigration law experience and a strong commitment to public interest law. Experience in religious immigration work and fluency in a foreign language are helpful.

If you’re interested in this opportunity, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

The White House’s Champions of Change program honoring legal leaders in closing the justice gap was inspiring and I got some wonderful advice about public service and pro bono work, and learned a great deal about issues I was unfamiliar with.

Here are a few of my notes/thoughts/questions/tips from the program:

1. Get some perspective. Evaluate the difference in value between what you’ll give and receive from participating in pro bono opportunities and forgoing these opps to get an A instead of a B+ in Torts.

2. Reaching unreachable clients. Is video conferencing an option for your organization to reach clients who live in rural areas and would otherwise not have legal representation?

3. Experience. During your first year in law school — visit a court! This is critical. You need to see firsthand what goes on in the courts.

4. Changing our structure. Legal services professionals need to think about ways we can change the legal services delivery structure to be more efficient and effective.

5. Recognize, reward and support. This is how law schools can best encourage pro bono work among students.

Were you at the Champions of Change program at the White House? Did you catch the webcast? What did you take away from the Champions?

By: Steve Grumm

It makes perfect sense.  The civil legal services community can not keep up with swelling demand for services.  Meanwhile, the Baby Boomer exodus from the practice of law has begun, as the oldest Boomers are at retirement age.  This being the case, what about providing opportunities to represent the poor for those lawyers who wish to leave fee-generating practice but also want to remain in practice?

The National Law Journal looks at D.C.’s Senior Attorneys Initiative for Legal Services (SAILS), a program which matches attorneys in or near retirement with pro bono cases (password-protected).

Last October, the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission and the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program created a program to better engage firms with pro bono work called SAILS — Senior Attorneys Initiative for Legal Services. The program included 11 founding D.C.-based law offices.

“The point of SAILS was to institutionalize pro bono work among partner and senior lawyers,” said Marc Fleischaker, Arent Fox partner and chair of the SAILS working group.

Maureen Syracuse, outgoing executive director of the D.C. Bar’s Pro Bono Program, also is working to have senior attorneys spend their last several years as devoted to pro bono work as possible. “We are trying to tap all the resources of the firms,” Syracuse said. Funding for legal service providers has always been scant, and the prolonged harsh economic times have compounded the issue. It has also made some lawyers more leery of hanging up their hat, even as more approach retirement age.

But she argues that, in their last years at their firms, some senior attorneys have an increasing desire to give back. “These are the people that went to law school to change the world,” Syracuse said. “When they hit the last stage of their career, there will be a sizable number that want to do something more. We think we will find a number of lawyers with that mindset.”

SAILS isn’t the only program harnessing the experience and expertise of the gray-hairs profession’s elder statespeople.  In New York State, the Attorney Emeritus Program does something similar.  On the national level, the Pro Bono Institute’s Second Acts project facilitates the movement of retiring attorneys into volunteer work.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in DC is looking for two bright and creative attorneys with organizing skills to serve as an Associate Counsels for the Voting Rights Project.

The attorneys will work with the Voting Rights and Legal Mobilization Projects in implementing the Election Protection Program – the nation’s largest, non-partisan voter protection program which works year round to address barriers to the ballot box for traditionally disenfranchised voters. The ideal candidates must be able to balance traditional legal with some organizing responsibilities.
Ideal candidates will be licensed attorneys in their first 4 years of practice. The positions requires candidates who can work well under the pressure of a campaign-type environment, handle significant responsibility and make thoughtful decisions in short time periods. Candidates will become proficient in identifying and addressing obstacles to the ballot box and work with pro bono legal networks in to identify legal issues and develop and implement solutions. Additionally the positions will assist in legislative advocacy efforts on the state and federal level.

Fluency in Spanish is a plus and extensive travel will be required. The positions are temporary and will last from January 2012 to December 2012 with a possibility of continued employment based on performance and available funding.

by Kristen Pavón

Now that our  annual Public Service Mini-Conference is over, we will now resume our regularly scheduled program here at the PSLawNet Blog!

The conference was a great success! On Wednesday, we hosted the Public Interest Advising 101 program for new or newish law school career advisors.

During our 101 program, panelists talked about student debt (by the wonderful Heather Jarvis), how to use PSLawNet to find PS jobs and career resources, and common challenges a public interest advisor faces in their first years on the job. In addition to the useful tips and information, the program was a fab opportunity for advisors to meet colleagues from across the country.

After PIA101, some attendees braved the nasty weather and kept the party going at the Round Robin Networking Dinners — at Zengo, Old Ebbitt Grill and Matchbox — to nosh with colleagues. Zengo got particularly high marks for tastiness and ambiance! (We’ll see, I have a reservation for tonight!)

Yesterday, at Arnold & Porter, LLC, more than 150 law school professionals and attorneys gathered for public service-focused programming.

The day started with introductions, NALP’s Public Service Section Workgroup updates, and NALP & PSLawNet updates.

Then, after presenting Felicia Cantrell, ASU Law 3L, with the 17th Annual Pro Bono Publico Award and Deb Ellis with NALP’s Award of  Distinction, groups broke out for sessions on labor & workers’ rights careers, teaching professionalism and advocating public service programs within law school administrations.

After the breakout programming, everyone reconvened for a “whirlwind tour” of hot topics affecting public interest career professionals. Panelists let attendees in on some techie secrets (topsy.com, google news alerts for your name and Klout.com), talked about student debt, Uncle Sam’s attempt to streamline the federal attorney application process, best practices for employer outreach, and ABA accreditation standards.

Finally, at the end of the day, federal legal recruiters joined us for a networking reception to mix and mingle with law school career services professionals.

Were you at the mini-conference? What did you think about the programming?