New DOJ Program for Law Grads to Do Domestic Violence Prevention Work
Perhaps a silver lining to the recession is that it’s given rise to some unique collaborations in delivering legal services to low-income clients and others on society’s margins. For instance, we have been writing about the development of temporary public -service placements for deferred law firm associates.
Here’s something similar. According to the National Law Journal, the Department of Justice has launched the Access to Justice for Domestic Violence Victims program:
The idea behind the Access for Justice for Domestic Violence Victims program is for law firms to hire recent law school graduates who have participated in a domestic violence clinic, then subsidize their full-time work at a legal aid organization for a certain period of time, said Tania Tetlow, the director of the Domestic Violence Clinic at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.
There are two pilot programs at work now, one in New Orleans and one in Baltimore. Tulane is the participating NOLA law school and the University of Baltimore is active in Charm City. So, while the details are still being sketched out, it seems as if a student would participate in their school’s DV clinic, then would throw their hat in the ring to be hired by the firm, then take a temporary, full-time placement doing DV-prevention work with a legal services organization.
We at the PSLawNet Blog know that students on public service career tracks greet such programs with mixed feelings because the path toward a “regular” public interest job has become so difficult of late – there’s actually a quote in the NLJ story from the DV clinic director at the U. of Baltimore to the effect that $40,000 nonprofit jobs are harder to get than $140,000 law firm jobs. Nevertheless we are happy to see resources from the law firm world leveraged in favor of serving clients who are so vulnerable. And hey, it strikes us that a student who shows an unwavering commitment to working on DV prevention would be a very strong candidate for positions like these, maybe even if they aren’t on law firm career paths.
