by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

In today’s National Law Journal Opinion section, attorney and Albany Law professor Ray Brescia makes the argument that the true value of a law degree is held in its ability to change the world – a sentiment the PSJD staff agrees with whole-heartedly:

…Thousands of lawyers across the United States are not in it for the money and never have been. What’s more, many of these lawyers find their jobs incredibly rewarding and find that their law degree actually helps them change the world.

It’s hard to put a monetary value on such power.

Lawyers across the country defend the accused, prosecute perpetrators of crime and counsel nonprofit organizations that are helping survivors of domestic violence and offering job training and other assistance to veterans. They can be found in national organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and in hundreds of local legal aid organizations offering free legal assistance to those who cannot afford it.

For 15 years, I was fortunate enough to hold jobs in organizations like these. I represented low-wage workers in New York’s Chinatown and low-income tenants and homeowners in Harlem. It was always hard work. I spent my mornings defending my clients in some of the lowest courts of the land and my evenings walking dark streets, traveling from client meeting to client meeting. And I loved every minute of it.

Many lawyers will devote their whole careers to this type of work — helping hungry families get food stamps, securing Social Security benefits for the disabled, fighting human rights abuses at home and abroad, rooting out discrimination. They will work long, thankless hours and will have to defend what they do at cocktail parties and over Thanksgiving dinner tables. They will be asked why they’re not “real lawyers,” and sometimes clients will ask for their “legal aide,” not realizing their lawyer is, in fact, a lawyer.

Their pay is a fraction of what Wall Street lawyers make. Even long-serving veterans of this type of work make less than a first-year lawyer at a big firm.

Fortunately for these public interest lawyers, they’re not in it for the money, and financial support is available. Those considering public interest law as a career can access a federal loan-forgiveness program that will completely forgive their federal student loans if they stay in qualifying public interest jobs for 10 years.

Still, it’s not easy. The recession has left state and county governments, which often fund such jobs, strapped for cash. During just the past two years, the largest program that funds free civil legal assistance for low-income people, the federal Legal Services Corp., has had its budget sequestered and reduced by 15 percent — from $400 million a year to $340 million. As a result, far more people who qualify for LSC-supported services are denied representation than receive it. The American Bar Association asserts that funding for LSC must be increased fivefold just to meet the needs of those who qualify.

With money in such short supply, graduate students interested in pursuing a public interest career will need to work hard to get their dream job. Post-graduate fellowships made possible by donations from private law firms, such as the Skadden Fellowship and those offered by Equal Justice Works, make job opportunities available to almost 80 law graduates a year — which means such slots are highly competitive, to say the least.

Just as an aside: If you’re interested in learning more about those public interest fellowship opportunities, stay tuned to this blog because PSJD’s 2013-2014 Comprehensive Fellowship Guide is being released this week!

Check out the entire article on the National Law Journal’s site.