Looking for Civil Legal Services Jobs? Remember to Follow the Funding.
By: Steve Grumm
The jobs picture has not been rosy for law students who are pursuing careers in civil legal services. Funding cuts have hurt many organizations. Layoffs and hiring freezes have been implemented. (Read this report from the Legal Services Corporation about layoffs even as more and more would-be clients need services.)
It’s important, then, for job seekers to keep abreast of funding developments. Where there is new funding, there may be new jobs. Attorneys general throughout the U.S. are channeling millions of dollars to the legal services community so that its lawyers can serve low-income clients with housing problems. The source of funding is a multi-million dollar class-action settlement over fraudulent mortgage foreclosure practices. Individual states, in most cases through their attorneys general, have been directing some of this settlement money to legal aid organizations. See this recent news out of Illinois, Nevada, and Washington State.
We track these developments in our weekly news bulletin, which we release every Friday. I know it can be disheartening to read a lot of bad news about public interest jobs – to say nothing of the effect that job cuts have on client communities. But there are good funding developments out there, and we consistently post legal services jobs on PSJD. So keep up with the latest news and don’t lose heart.