With information on everything from postgraduate fellowships to student loans, PSJD’s Resource Center is full of helpful materials to guide your path to a public interest law career. If you’re just beginning the internship or job hunt, the Career Central page is a great place to start!

Figure out the basics of why you want to practice public interest law with Harvard Law’s Career Search Self-Assessment. Get tips on cover letters, resumes, and networking. Check out the Public Interest Career Fair Calendar for upcoming dates. If you’re interested in criminal law, browse PSJD’s Careers in Public Defense and/or Careers in Criminal Prosecution guides. We’ve also recently added a variety of specialty guides, also produced by Harvard Law, on practice areas ranging from conservative public interest law to LGBT Rights law, just to name a few.

All of these guides and more are available on the Career Central page in PSJD’s Resource Center!

credit: KP Tripathi

Here’s a Washington Post article which looks at the value of degree and certificate programs for aspiring lobbyists.  But degree programs aside, this is worth a read for anybody who’s considering a lobbying career, particularly one in DC.  Lobbying is a strange mix of art and science.  A lot of lobbyists quoted in the piece emphasize the art side, i.e. good instincts, a friendly demeanor, and tact.

In short, you can go to school to learn about lobbying, but you don’t become a lobbyist by going to school. “I always start off the first night by saying, ‘If you thought when you finished this course you could be a lobbyist, you’re wrong,’ ” explains Julius W. Hobson Jr., a senior adviser at Polsinelli Shughart and former top lobbyist at the American Medical Association who graduated from the George Washington program in 1980 and has been teaching a course there twice a year ever since 1994. “Not everybody has the instincts to be a good lobbyist.”

…

[I]t’s not so much the culture you learn when you study lobbying as the nuts and bolts of the process and its various components, something its supporters call “applied politics,” compared with traditional political science, which is far more theoretical. “Let’s be candid,” says James Thurber, a political scientist who runs American’s lobby program. “It’s an area that pure academics look down on.” This semester, for example, George Washington’s 36 credit hour, two-year degree program in “political management” includes courses on fundraising, international lobbying, communications strategy and principled political leadership.

…

“One misconception about lobbying is that it’s simply hiring somebody who goes into Congress and talks to people to influence legislation. That’s a very narrow view,” says Thurber, adding that “what we think lobbying is, and what we teach, is that it’s important to develop a clear strategy.” These include everything from TV and print ads, social media, using survey research to evaluate how effective your lobbying campaign is to the public, developing grass roots and grass tops, coalition building, and knowing the law.”

Yet there is widespread agreement that perhaps the only sine qua non to becoming a successful lobbyist is a prior job on the Hill. “It’s not just understanding the mechanics,” says House, “it’s having a feel for how Congress operates and the mood of Congress, and the only way to get that is to have been part of the process.”

 And for a career-related resource, check out Yale Law School’s 2012 edition of “Working on Capitol Hill.”

Law students are stereotypically viewed as having “Type A” personalities: over-achieving, competitive, aggressive, excessively ambitious, etc. While these personality traits may not make for the best Thanksgiving family dinner, they can be of great benefit while climbing the legal ladder of success – especially in a job market that values who you know, almost as much as what you know.

So where does that leave all the law school introverts? Girl’s Guide to Law School guest blogger Michelle Williams, a 3L and self-described introvert, weighs in:

As a 1L, I was obviously overwhelmed by the reading, the writing, and the classes. But, I was also overwhelmed by the sheer amount of social interactions required by….NETWORKING. Networking is a buzzword, and I used to groan every time I heard the word.

I now understand that networking is simply building a network of professional support.

Therefore, your goal is to form bonds with people who understand your professional capabilities.

The checklist below offers some thoughts about networking that put an introverted twist on the information you have gotten from your local career services office.

 1. Get prepared.

You will likely feel more comfortable at the event if you plan ahead. You need business cards. Perhaps your law school can have some printed up for you. There are also several internet shops that will print at least 100 business cards for ten dollars or less. Your business card should have your name, e-mail address, and mobile telephone number.

Next, check your schedule. Figure out when you are available to go to events, and stick to your schedule.

2. Look for non-traditional networking opportunities.

The most well-advocated form of networking involves going to mixers or happy hours and generally striking up what is meant to be a worthwhile conversation with someone you don’t know. Epic introvert fail.

Instead of attending events billed as “networking events,” go to non-traditional events such as community service events or CLEs.

These types of events have a focus other than networking and mingling, so there is not as much pressure to strike up conversation. Check with your local city’s bar association to find out if they will allow you to come to a CLE for free or a discounted rate (since you are still a student and won’t be using the CLE credit).

While networking with lawyers and legal professionals provides a promising route to a job or internship, don’t ignore the possibilities of non-legal social events.

Use the hobbies and interests that you have to open up more networking opportunities.

Book clubs offer opportunities to connect with people. Volunteering at a local public library or animal shelter allows you to get to know the community better. Such events offer an avenue to conversation because everyone is there for a common reason, and you will be under less pressure to say clever things about the law.

3. Prepare for conversation: think about your “grows and glows.”

You will need something to talk about at the event, guaranteed. Since you are building a professional support network, the people with whom you form bonds must know something about you.

Through conversation and contact, you need to express your glowing strengths as well as areas in which you are hoping to grow.

You also need to understand how you can use your strengths to assist the other person, and how her strengths can help you grow. Prepare yourself for this exchange of information by considering your grows and glows before you even get to the event.

…

For the full article, check out the Girl’s Guide to Law School blog!

Landed an awesome internship this summer, but in desperate need of funding? PSJD is here to help!

We just updated our Summer Funding Resource pages, available in the Funding & Debt section of the site’s Resource Center. Click here for a list of organizations that offer funding for internships located anywhere. For summer funding resources for work in a specific geographical region, click here.

These lists are continuously updated as the organizations renew their application cycles. PSJD is always checking for new deadlines, so stay tuned to the site for new updates.

Finding and applying for jobs within the federal government can be overwhelming. As the nation’s largest employer, the federal government has a huge array of occupational specialties. It can be tough to find the right position for your career goals or personal interests.

This is why NALP and PSJD produce the Federal Legal Employment Opportunities Guide (FLEOG), with information on the benefits of working for the federal government, an overview of where the most attorney jobs are in the executive branch, resources to aid in finding the ideal opportunity, and tips on the application process. In addition, there is even more content and resources on our Federal Government Careers page.

We hope you find the guides useful in your job search!

By: Steve Grumm

I dislike writing about myself, and I dislike pictures of myself even more.  But I had a great time meeting with North Carolina Central University School of Law students last week, and my friend Phil Guzman at NCCU put up a blog post to offer the key points of my presentation. Thanks, Phil, photo notwithstanding.

As Phil notes, it’s important for job-hunting law students to remember that bad job-market news is what makes news.  Media are not nearly as likely to cover the hiring of 10 public defenders as they are to cover the laying-off of 10 defenders.  What does this mean?  It means that job-seekers shouldn’t feel too disheartened if they encounter these bad-news items.  The job market is tough these days – no doubt.  But nonprofit and government law offices are hiring, and we are posting jobs on PSJD every day.

And while it’s tough to wade through bad news, following the news that affects public interest law offices is very important.  Why?  By following funding-related and other developments, job seekers will know where the jobs are.  Jobs follow funding.  So, for instance, state attorneys general throughout the U.S. have been channeling millions of dollars to civil legal aid providers so that they can serve clients with housing problems.  This funding comes from a huge national class-action settlement pertaining to fraudulent foreclosure practices; almost every state AG was engaged in this settlement.  So if I’m looking for a legal aid job, or if I’m looking to propose an Equal Justice Works or Skadden fellowships, I’m looking hard at the housing arena.  (An easy way to keep up with national news is to look at my weekly Public Interest News Bulletin, published every Friday).

Phil also touched on the value of professional networking.  That would require a much longer blog post from me.  Suffice to say, check out our networking (thanks for sharing, Harvard Law) and other job-search resources on PSJD’s Career Central page.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  Quite a week here in DC.  One of the most noteworthy election stories involves the changing faces of the American electorate.  Much ink has already been spilled about the youth (i.e. Millenial Generation), Latino, and women’s voting blocs’ influences on the election.  But it’s not just the voters who are changing.  It’s those whose candidacies are being voted upon.  For the first time, the women’s caucus in the Senate will swell to 20 next January.  And the Senate will also welcome its first openly gay member in the person of Tammy Baldwin.  Change is afoot. 

In other election-related news, here’s some unsolicited financial planning advice: I’m bullish on Frito-Lay sales in Colorado and Washington State.

On to the public interest news.  By way of transition I ask for your help in circulating NALP’s just-launched Public Interest Employment Market Snapshot Survey, a brief, anonymous survey of U.S.-based nonprofit and government public-interest law offices about 1) recent law student and attorney hiring and 2) hiring expectations for the immediate future. We will use the gathered data to produce a report about what the public interest employment market looks like.  We will make the report freely available in January, 2013.  The survey is available here.  Thanks for supporting this unique endeavor. 

This week’s news in very, very short:

• Making the economic case for civil legal aid in the glorious Keystone State;
• Stanford Law students help throw a little chin music at CA’s three strikes law;
• The  op-ed battle over who’s responsible for the tough circumstances confronting Missouri’s public defense program;
• Election Day proves to be Independence Day for New Mexico’s public defense program;
• It’s Pro Bono Week in the UK;
• A new MLP in Houston;
• Wisconsin Law opens a veterans clinic;
• Foreclosure fraud settlement funds channeled to the Legal Aid Society in TN.

The summaries:

• 11.8.12 – making the economic case for civil legal aid in PA: “Poverty legal services fill this void and have a long history of defending the most vulnerable among us from both fraud and abuse, but recent cuts to their funding guarantee that they will be able to help fewer and fewer people and– studies show– that affects all of us.  ‘This is the type of funding that not only rights wrongs but makes clear economic sense,’ explained Al Azen, Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (PA IOLTA), a non-profit program that provides funding for civil legal aid.  A new study by PA IOLTA, shows that over the last fiscal year the work of poverty legal services created $594 million for the Pennsylvania economy, an unheard-of eleven fold economic return on their funding.”  This story’s from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Unfortunately I can’t find the referenced report from the IOLTA board.  [EDIT: here’s the report, which was released in April.]

• 11.7.12 – “Stanford Law School students and faculty celebrated on election night, after years of hard work paid off when California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, which reforms the state’s tough ‘three strikes’ sentencing law.   The…school’s Three Strikes Project worked with the New York-based NAACP Legal Defense Fund to draft and promote the legislation, which won widespread support among California law enforcement and civil rights advocates. Proposition 36 represents the first time that voters have approved more lenient sentencing for offenders already serving prison time. With the change, offenders who commit nonviolent crimes as their third offense will no longer receive life sentences.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.)

• 11.7.12 – after a Missouri prosecutor blamed the state public defense program’s leadership, and not high caseloads, for the program’s struggles, a return volley: “Missourians deserve undistorted facts when faced with such serious criminal justice decisions. Instead, prosecutors take technical disagreements about how best to calculate public defender case overload — as raised in a new state auditor’s report — and conclude that the report ‘shatters the myth’ that public defenders are overworked. In reality, the report found “MSPD’s growth in caseload has outpaced its growth in staffing resources….”  (St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed from the director of the Sixth Amendment Center.) 

• 11.6.12 – “New Mexico voters have approved a constitutional amendment that establishes the Public Defender Department as an independent state agency….  The amendment calls for forming an independent commission that would appoint the state’s chief public defender, who would then oversee the department. Currently, the governor appoints the chief public defender.”  (AP story via KKOB’s website.)

• 11.6.12 – It’s Pro Bono Week in the UK, so there’s been a rash of stories about what is, and isn’t being accomplished by the bar across the pond.  Here’s a little bit about pro bono performed by UK’s “Biglaw” firms: “The value of pro-bono work in the UK is almost half a billion pounds a year, with research from legal recruitment company Laurence Simons finding that the top 20 firms carried out £180m of free work – the equivalent of 1.85 per cent of their budgets – in 2011….  The research, which was released to coincide with pro-bono week, show that the average value of voluntary work for each lawyer was £5,194. However, with the survey suggesting that 52 per cent of lawyers did no pro-bono work at all last year, the figure is likely to be double that amount.”  (Article from The Lawyer.)
  • an op-ed in The Guardian looks critically at how pro bono numbers demonstrate a polarization in the legal profession, and what that could say for the future of promoting access to justice.   

• 11.4.12 – ” Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Bar Association’s Houston Volunteer Lawyers recently announced the formation of a medical-legal partnership (MLP) that will provide Texas Children’s low-income patients and patient-families with critical legal assistance. This is the first partnership of its kind to be offered in the Houston area.  Through the program, a dedicated Houston Volunteer Lawyers staff attorney will provide legal advice and representation to Texas Children’s patients and their families with assistance from outside pro bono lawyers. The project is being funded in part by a donation from Walmart, which created a successful MLP with Arkansas Children’s Hospital last year with plans to expand the benefits of MLPs to other major pediatric hospitals nationwide.”  (Story from the Bellaire Examiner.)

• 11.2.12 – Wisconsin Law goes to bat for local vets.  “Legal assistance for Dane County veterans will be available starting Thursday, Nov. 8 when the University of Wisconsin Law School launches the new Veterans Law Center….  The free legal center is funded by a $5,000 Pro Bono Initiative grant from the State Bar Legal Assistance Committee. The project is administered by the UW Law School’s Pro Bono Program and is a collaborative effort with support from the Dane County Veterans Service Office, the Dane County Bar Association, Porchlight, Inc. and representatives from the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison. Habush Habush & Rottier SC recently contributed an additional $5,000 to fund the center.”  (Here’s the story from the Univ. of Wisconsin.)   

• 11/2/12 – funds from the national mortgage foreclosure fraud class-action settlement flow to legal aid in Tennessee: “The Legal Aid Society has launched a new initiative to help Tennessee homeowners dealing with foreclosure and mortgage rescue scams.  The expanded project is funded through an agreement with the state attorney general’s office.  The money is the result of a nationwide settlement between state attorneys general and major banks that engaged in questionable mortgage practices.”  (Story from CBS MoneyWatch.)

Music!  This week’s song is dedicated to campaign TV commercials.  We hardly knew ye.  On second thought, we knew ye all too well and saw ye all too often.  Ye were never welcomed.  Good riddance.

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:

Educational debt has become a crippling burden for far too many, and especially for those who want to pursue careers in public service. Equal Justice Works provides in depth information on loan repayment assistance programs and relief programs like Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness to help everyone pursue the career of their dreams.

The big news this month is that our new student debt eBook is available in the Kindle Store! Take Control of Your Future is a comprehensive guide that offers information and guidance from a student’s initial borrowing through repayment and eligibility for relief programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness. We go into the details borrowers need to understand and the exact steps they need to take to manage their educational debt and take control of their future.

 We were also busy last month writing our U.S. News blog the Student Loan Ranger. We examined the competition traditional colleges and universities might face from Silicon Valley in the near future, looked at a new report from The Institute for College Access and Success on the continued rise in student debt and discussed how student debt is increasingly affecting generations of Americans.

Every month, our free, live webinars also provide a comprehensive overview of the debt relief options available for students and graduates – including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Based Repayment – and provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of our webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Our current sessions include:

How to Pay Your Bills AND Your Student Loans: Utilizing Income-Based Repayment

Thursday, November 15, 3-4 p.m. EST

Saddled with high student debt? This webinar reviews Income-Based Repayment, a powerful provision of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that allows anyone with high debt relative to their income to reduce their federal student loan payments.

This interactive webinar will teach you:

– How to understand your federal loans

– How Income-Based Repayment works and if it is right for you

– How to sign up for Income-Based Repayment

 

Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Thursday, November 29, 3-4 p.m. EST

For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.

You will learn about:

– The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans

– What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

– How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

Hey, law students: Is democracy for sale?

Public Justice, a national public interest law firm dedicated to advancing the public good, wants to know your opinion. Public Justice has been hosting their annual law student writing competition for 40 years. The recently revamped contest, which used to focus only on environmental justice, now covers a wide array of social justice issues. By entering the competition, law students are offered the opportunity to investigate and offer solutions to injustices relevant to the topic. This year’s competition is, quite fittingly, all about democracy:

For the 2013 contest, writers should address the question, “Is Democracy for Sale?”

• Have Citizens United‘s holdings run amok?
• Legal challenges left to Super Pacs?
• Can funding disclosure be required?

Prize: $5000 and free 2013 Public Justice membership

Any student currently enrolled in an accredited American law school may enroll in the contest. Each entry must be submitted through a faculty advisor. All entrants must fill out and submit an intent-to-enter form by January 31, 2013 (see link at bottom of page) and mail, fax or e-mail it to: Hogan/Smoger Access to Justice Essay Contest, Public Justice Foundation, Attention: Cassandra Goings, 1825 K St. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20006. Fax: 202-232-7203. E-mail: cgoings@publicjustice.net.

DEADLINE

Essays must be received by March 31, 2013.

ELIGIBILITY OF ESSAY

If the essay is prepared for academic credit, it is eligible only if submitted for credit during the 2012-13 academic year. If the essay was neither prepared nor submitted for academic credit, it is eligible only if prepared for this contest during the 2012-13 academic year. If the essay was prepared as part of paid legal work outside of law school, it is not eligible for this contest.

To enter the contest, students must submit an intent-to-enter form by January 31, 2013. For more information on contest deadlines, eligibility and rules, visit the 2013 Hogan/Smoger Access to Justice Essay Contest page!

By: Steve Grumm

Hi, folks. We at NALP have just opened collection on our 2012 public interest employment market survey.  (Response deadline: 11/30.)  The survey will provide us with information about current and future hiring expectations in nonprofit and government law offices, with respect to both summer law students and attorneys.  Please spread the word to your contacts at U.S.-based nonprofit and government law offices by forwarding this blog post or using the below language.  Thanks much!

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is conducting a brief, anonymous survey of U.S.-based nonprofit and government public-interest law offices about 1) recent law student and attorney hiring and 2) hiring expectations for the immediate future. We will use the data to produce a report about what the public interest employment market looks like now and how it may change in the near future.

NALP will release the report in January 2013. The report will be made freely available online. The report will NOT identify any responding organizations by name. We hope the report will benefit the public interest legal community as well as law students and attorneys who are on public interest career paths.  Please participate in the short survey by clicking here.  The survey deadline is Friday, 11/30/12.  If you have questions please contact Steve Grumm, NALP’s director of public service initiatives, at sgrumm@nalp.org or 202.296.0057.