by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

It’s no secret that looking for legal employment in today’s market is tough.

In fact, job-hunting is like a full-time job in itself. If you’re serious about landing a legal job, you are more than likely searching sites like PSJD and Idealist every day (maybe multiple times a day). You’re probably networking like crazy. If you’re still in law school, you may even be stalking your career services office and Symplicity’s job bank.

There are thousands of other law students and lawyers doing that exact same thing, but there are other ways to help yourself land the legal job of your dreams. American University Washington College of Law’s Walter A. Effross wrote a great National Law Journal article, “10 Tips for Landing J.D. Jobs for Law Students and Graduates,” focused on providing specific practices for maximizing your credentials, networks and career opportunities. Here are a few tips from the article that may be of particular relevance to public interest law students and lawyers:

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by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

New York recently became the first state to mandate pro bono hours for all new lawyers applying for admission to the state bar. The requirement, announced by New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, is a part of an initiative to help close the justice gap for the growing number of low-income people who are unable to afford legal services.

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by Kristian Smith, PSJD Summer Projects and Publications Coordinator

This article is part one of a two part series about alternative public interest work. Check back next week for Part Two: Private Public Interest Firms.

When many law students and new lawyers are beginning to plan for their careers, they usually have to make a choice between working at a law firm or practicing public interest work. While law firms and public interest work are typically viewed as mutually exclusive, there are many ways for law students and new lawyers to do public interest work while still gaining training and experience at a law firm.

Many large, traditional law firms now have opportunities for attorneys to work on public interest projects while still receiving the training and resources that come along with large firms. With OCI and summer associate hiring fast-approaching, this is something for law students to keep in mind when looking for jobs.

Erica Knievel Songer, an associate at Hogan Lovells, has had a unique experience as a law-firm associate who has been able to spend much of her time at the firm working solely on pro bono projects. Songer said that Hogan’s pro bono practice has a rotation process for junior and senior attorneys to work solely on public interest work for a year at a time.  She said that she has been able to work on many different types of cases – from housing to voting rights – and that her firm encourages all attorneys to practice pro bono work. She said that doing public interest work at a law firm, as opposed to a non-profit or legal services agency, provides a wealth of resources that make it easier to make a difference in the lives of others.

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by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

Hey public interest law students!

If you have a great idea for a project that could greatly help a legal aid or nonprofit organization provide better services to their clients, it may be time to start applying for sponsored post-graduate fellowships. (And if you have no clue what a sponsored post-graduate fellowship is, no worries – just start here.)

For most project-based fellowships, the official application cycle doesn’t open until the fall. However, many organizations have their own process of choosing the right project proposal and co-applicant, and they may be starting that process right now. Here are a couple of steps you can take to stay on the right track, all with a little help from everyone’s favorite virtual public interest resource center (ahem – that means PSJD):

Step One. After educating yourself with our Background Info & Resources, reinforce that knowledge with Yale Law’s Guide to Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowships. Keep reviewing the basics and get some tips on the application process!

Step Two. Stay up-to-date with deadlines by using PSJD’s Fellowship Application Deadline Calendar. We update it on a rolling basis, so you should stay even more ahead of the game by signing up for our daily email alerts.

Step Three. Do yourself a favor: check out PSJD’s mini-guide “Project-Based Fellowships: Tips from Those Who Know” as early as possible! Use this downloadable resource to find out what works and what to avoid when drafting a project proposal or fellowship application. Be sure to contact your career counseling office and have them take a look at your application as well!

With that said, good luck to everyone applying for a 2014 fellowship! If you have any questions, you can email us anytime at psjd@nalp.org or during regular business hours at (202) 296-0076.

Besides housing PSJD, the National Association for Law Placement, or NALP for short, is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond. The NALP Judicial Clerkship Section has a special message they would like to share with the PSJD community about recent changes to the federal law clerk hiring plan. These changes will affect summer internship scheduling and could possibly create conflicts of interest and other issues for employers and participating law students.

From the NALP Judicial Clerkship Section:

Last month, the federal judges’ committee overseeing the federal law clerk hiring plan announced a modification to the 2013 hiring schedule. Instead of hiring 3Ls after Labor Day, the new application submission date for federal clerkships is Friday, June 28. Beginning June 28, judges can review applications from rising third-year students, schedule and conduct interviews, and extend offers.  This change also affects state court clerkship hiring, as some states have moved their hiring dates in response to the federal change.

Employers who are currently welcoming second-year students into your summer programs may be confronted with issues not faced since the late 1990s. Some students will be coming to their summer jobs already committed to a judicial clerkship commencing in 2014, or perhaps 2015. Some students will have applications pending with judges or will be submitting applications to judges in June, in accordance with the new hiring plan date. Judges reviewing applications during the summer are likely to schedule interviews in June or July, which may present scheduling challenges for students.

Factors employers may want to consider include:

1. If an intern receives one or more clerkship interviews, will he/she be able to miss work to travel to interviews?
2. Does your organization have technology such as videoconferencing or teleconferencing available to students for clerkship interviews?
3. Who is the best person at the organization for students to talk to about questions or issues that arise surrounding clerkships, including possible conflicts of interest on cases/matters, and when is the best time to have that conversation?

Students, we encourage you to discuss the implications of this timeframe with your career services offices and with your employers, paying special attention to the questions above, where relevant to you, and to due dates for assignments that fall around late June and early July, when judges may be interviewing.

We hope this blog post will offer a starting point to frame the issues and develop responses attuned to your individual programs. Many of your law school colleagues have begun to deal with these issues and would be eager to continue a discussion with you. We encourage you to be in touch with colleagues at schools from which you hire interns, to benefit from their insights and share your perspectives with them as you both seek to provide students the best advice and opportunities.

The NALP Judicial Clerkship Section leaders and members look forward to the opportunity to talk through these issues with public interest employers. This message was brought to you by:

NALP Judicial Clerkship Section Chairs: Melissa Lennon (Temple, 2012-13); Amy Perez (Miami, 2013-14)

NALP Judicial Clerkship Section, OSCAR Work Group: Susan Staab (Chicago), Vice-Chair; Marilyn Drees (Yale); Sheila Driscoll (George Washington); Eric Stern (Berkeley)

NALP Judicial Clerkship Section, Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan Work Group: Amy Killoran (Georgetown), Vice-Chair

It pays to be smart about student loan debt, especially for public interest advocates! Take a look at this message from our friends at Equal Justice Works:

Welcome to May! Here in DC, winter has finally relented completely and the pollen counts have begun to climb relentlessly.  Despite the latter, we have a full schedule of free webinars that provide a comprehensive overview of the federal debt relief options available for students and graduates. Our May webinars are:

Drowning in Debt? Learn How Government and Nonprofit Workers Can Earn Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Thursday, May 16, 3-4 p.m. EST

Thursday, May 30, 3-4 p.m. EST

A must attend for anyone with educational debt planning to work or currently working for the government or a nonprofit, this webinar explains how you can benefit from income driven repayment plans, including President Obama’s new Pay As You Earn program, and exactly how Public Service Loan Forgiveness works.

Enter to Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

As summer approaches, it’s also time to start thinking of escaping to the beach. Which entails, of course, light summer reading. We recommend bringing our new eBook, Take Control of Your Future, which provides the in-depth information on powerful federal relief programs like income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness students and graduates need to manage their student debt and pursue the careers of their dreams.

If a comprehensive guide to borrowing and repaying student loans isn’t your preferred beach reading, make sure enter our $100 Amazon Gift Card Sweepstakes.  Just enter the promo code MAY1. And feel free to pass on information about Take Control of Your Future and the promotion to everyone on your summer vacation list.

 While you’re in the office, don’t forget to read our weekly U.S. News blog, the Student Loan Ranger. It will keep you up to date on issues such as fixing legal education, the implications of President Obama’s budget for student loan borrowers and the student debt of Members of Congress.

by Ashley Matthews

Hunting for the perfect entry-level postgraduate job? Start your search with PSJD’s Postgraduate Fellowship Application Deadline Calendar, a handy little resource that lists opportunities by deadline and contains links to job postings on PSJD. We just updated the page with more jobs from awesome public interest organizations like the ACLU of Idaho, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the International Service for Human Rights, and more.

Check it out on PSJD!

by Ashley Matthews

If you’re gearing up to take the bar exam this summer, take a look at the Bar Exam Toolbox to help yourself get ready! This site was created specifically for recent law graduates who are prepping for the bar exam. It contains links to resources that will help you succeed and blog posts on everything from making sure you’re ready to take the exam, to when you should actually start hitting the books in preparation.

If you’re a public interest law student, you may also want to consider applying for BarMax’s Public Interest Scholarship. A BarMax scholarship will cover 60% of the program’s price, making the bar review course only $395 for students working in public interest/service. Student loan expert Heather Jarvis gave the BarMax prep program a thumbs up, so it may be worth a shot.

Good luck!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

It’s almost time for every recent law grad’s favorite time of year: postgraduate fellowship application season!

Okay, we’ll admit – like most other PSJD content, this maybe only applies to public interest law students interested in working with non-profit or legal aid organizations. These fellowships allow recent law graduates to secure entry-level jobs with organizations that serve marginalized or vulnerable client populations, while gaining a entire network of like-minded colleagues in the public interest legal community.

With that being said, it’s time to gear up and get ready to apply! Our Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowships Application Deadline Calendar offers a running list of deadlines to help you keep track, along with links to the organization’s profile and job description.

The list is always being updated, so check back on a consistent basis for approaching dates. Since the summer/fall is prime-time to apply, be sure to check last year’s deadlines to get a feel for how you might manage your applications.

Law school debt affects many elements of an attorney’s professional career. From the selection of a post-graduate employer to stressing about repayment options, lack of proper debt management can have a wide range of consequences. For this reason, NALP has engaged Heather Jarvis to serve as our student debt expert to provide members with information, best practices and professional insight related to educational debt and repayment options for law students and graduates. Please respond to this brief survey to help Heather Jarvis tailor her efforts to your needs!

Heather has also created Student Loan Toolkits with separate resources tailored specifically to public interest or law firm employers, and an employer’s guide to Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Each presents a collection of resources that employers can make available to their staff to help lighten the pressure on lawyers with student loan debt. Resources on NALP include recordings of webinars, slides and handouts, and step-by-by guides for public service and law firm employers (member login required).