New York City Bar Justice Center Releases Report on Deferred Associates in Public Service
While there is no formal count out there, the Big Apple is very likely home to the most deferred associates engaged in public service placements during their deferral periods. In a report issued last week, the City Bar and its public interest arm, the City Bar Justice Center, detailed progress made through their Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project, which took form in 2009 to connect deferred associates to the public interest community and to provide ongoing support to help ensure that their public-service placements were fruitful both for them and their host organizations. This is the most robust infrastructure that has been built to promote success in deferral public-service placements (which is no surprise, given the relative size of the market). Indeed, the Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project was funded in large part through a grant from the New York Community Trust, which allowed for the creation of a project director position. Here are some interesting findings from the report:
- Among deferred associates who responded to survey efforts, “more than three-quarters of the respondents were in placements of more than nine months with 25% on deferrals of 12-24 months. Over 90% reported they were receiving a financial stipend, 50% had health insurance and over 60% received a bar exam stipend.”
- “[O]ur data shows that many of the deferred associates went to more well-known larger public interest legal organizations and to those that had long-standing relationships with the law firms. As a result, there were smaller organizations still seeking deferred associates at the start of the fall 2009 training program (and many continue to seek them today).” [A chart in the report shows that the Legal Aid Society is hosting or did host 37 deferred associates, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office 35, and the NYC Law Department 13. A piece in the New York Law Journal last year noted that the Brooklyn D.A.’s office was hosting 35 deferred associates.]
- “Almost 92% of those responding would recommend their placement to a future deferred associate; 89% thought the skills they had acquired in their placement would be helpful to them in their future career; and 73% responded that their interest in pro bono had increased as a result of their placement.”
- “Interestingly, when asked to rate satisfaction with placement, “Office Space and Resources,” “Training,” “Clients” and “Supervision” were the areas of greatest satisfaction [among deferred associates] while “Colleagues,” “Integration within the Office” and “Legal Work” received lower ratings.”
Check out the whole report to learn about the professional development curriculum and networking opportunities made available to deferred associates through the project, as well as recommendations and lessons learned from the project’s first few months of operation in dealing with an unprecedented employment phenomenon.
UPDATE: the New York Law Journal is running an article about the report today. Also, for those following deferred-associates-in-public-service-placements news and developments over the longer term, 1) a previous post of ours had collected news accounts from last fall, and 2) like us, you need to find some hobbies.