For many public-interest minded law students, whether they are hunting for summer or postgraduate work, winter and early spring constitute interview season.  Harvard Law School’s Office of Public Interest Advising maintains a very helpful interviewing resource webpage, which includes lists of questions to expect from interviewers.  And PSLawNet offers a concise, bullet-pointed interview tips guide.  Some key points: 

• Take advantage of mock interview opportunities.  Explore with your career services office the possibility of setting up mock interviews so that you can work out the kinks and develop a comfort level with the formality of interviews.  Ideally, the (mock) interviewer will be an attorney with some experience in the area of work that you are trying to break into.  Even if you feel you are a strong interviewer, there is absolutely no downside to practicing.  For instance, you may be asked a question in the mock interview that challenges you.  By thinking through it and developing an answer in a no-consequences environment, you can hit it out of the park during a real interview.   
• Be able to explain your motivation.  Public interest employers look for students who have a genuine interest in their organizations’ missions.  If  you have past work experience in an area related to the job you are seeking, that demonstrates a personal commitment.  By all means, you should highlight this experience during the interview.  Even if you do not – and many law students do not have a lot of public interest experience under their belt when they begin school – you must prepare to explain what motivated you to apply for the specific job.
• Don’t  just prepare to answer questions; prepare to ask them.  A good interview is a conversation, and you risk seeming disinterested if a potential employer offers you an opportunity to ask questions and you take a pass.  You should prepare a short list of questions based upon your pre-interview research about the organization, and perhaps even a question for the interviewer personally, such as, “How did your career path lead you to your current position?” 

Occasionally we will feature guest authors here on the PSLawNet blog to share their unique wisdom and insights with you. Today, we have Andy Cowan writing about five things he wish he’d known while he was still in law school. Andy graduated cum laude from the Cornell Law School in 2008. He summered at the Pro Bono Project of New Orleans and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and now works as a public defender at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Lowell, MA. Andy is an editor of the Public Defender Blog “Incorrigible Dicta” at http://www.dictablog.net.

Keep Reading for Andy’s Advice

• 1.27.10 – Dallas Morning News – the new Dallas Bar Association president, Ike Vanden Eykel, is making a priority of raising funds to benefit legal services through the Campaign for Equal Justice.  Vanden Eykel, who himself is one of the city’s elite, highly-paid, attorneys, “intends to strong-arm those at the top of the legal system so that those at the bottom of society can have access to it.”  Link to article.

• 1.26.10 – San Jose Mercury News – Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr has instructed prosecutors in her office to stop bringing criminal cases before Superior Court Judge Andrea Bryan.  Bryan “recently angered prosecutors by finding that a trial prosecutor committed numerous acts of misconduct.”  Carr is defending the decision as being based not just on this action by the judge, but on a pattern of actions.  And she notes that other prosecutors and public defenders have taken similar steps in other California courts.  Nonetheless, “experts in criminal law and ethics said the blanket boycott [of a particular judge]…is an abusive tactic that can damage the court system.”  Carr is running for re-election to her post.  Link to article.

• 1.27.10 – MinnPost Website (Minnesota) – Minnesota’s Department of Human Services decided on Wednesday to extend its General Assistance Medical Care coverage for low-income adults by one month.  The program had been scheduled to terminate on March 1 because funding for it was “unalloted” through cost-saving measures by Governor Tim Pawlenty.  The DHS decision came two days after the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis threatened a lawsuit to stop the government from cutting the program off.  The legal aid program noted that “they would use the same arguments [in this effort] that were posed in a separate lawsuit that led a Ramsey County judge to rule that [the governor] overstepped his authority when he unalloted money for a state nutrition program.”  Link to article. 

• 1.27.10 – North County Times (Southern California) – a high-stakes courtroom battle played out in Vista, California, as a “senior member of the…public defender’s office argued to Superior Court Judge Harry Elias that there has been ‘a continuing pattern of failure’ by prosecutors to supply evidence that could be important to the defense.”  While this argument took place in the context of minor theft case, the “heavyweight allegations drew a heavyweight audience in the courtroom,” including high-level members of the Vista branch of the D.A’s office and a chief administrator from the D.A.’s headquarters.  The D.A. released a statement attesting to her office’s high ethical standards.  Noteworthy also is that prosecutors have accused Judge Elias of bias.  Link to article.

• 1.26.10 – KGNS TV Website (NBC Affiliate in Laredo, TX) [Video story and transcript] –  Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid has sued the state in “an attempt to force them to help starving families, many of which are here in Laredo.”  The lawsuit, filed in December against the Texas Health and Human Services Office, is “attempting to force [the office] to make quick decisions on the piles of pending Food Stamp Applications and bring in the manpower needed to complete the task.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: you may view past coverage of the suit from the Houston Chronicle (12/23/09) and Austin American-Statesman (12/18/09).]

• 1.25.10 – Los Angeles Times Money & Company Blog – President Obama is proposing changes to the College Cost Reduction & Access Act’s Income Based Repayment program that would lower the required monthly payment amount, and is also proposing an expansion of the CCRAA’s debt forgiveness program that would lower the pay-in period for qualified borrowers from 25 to 20 years.  Those in public service would still be eligible for forgiveness in 10 years.  Link to blog post.

• Government Executive Newsletter – the federal Office of Personnel Management unveiled a new version of its USAJobs website on Monday.  The new, cleaner looking version of the website “simplifies the site’s searching capability” and “also includes updates on the status of positions as well as a candidate’s application.”  Link to article.

• 1.25.10 – Blog of the Legal Times – the National Veterans Legal Services Program filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government in 2008, alleging that some veterans “were illegally denied disability benefits despite being diagnosed with severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder that should have qualified them for free care.”  This week, NVLSP announced that through an agreement with the government, an “estimated 4,300 class members will be eligible for a faster review of their disability ratings, as well as a correction of their past and future benefits.”   Link to article.

• 1.25.10 – New York Law Journal [Article contributed by Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge, State of New York] – the New York legal community, which “is at the vanguard of a nationwide increase in lawyer pro bono,” must remain proactive in the public interest arena because IOLA funding for legal services program has declined markedly.  One new tool to aid in providing legal services to New York’s most needy is the Attorney Emeritus Program, which allows retired lawyers in good standing who are at least 55 years old to take on “Attorney Emeritus” status, allowing them to provide pro bono services “under the auspices of qualified organizations, including legal services programs, bar associations and…volunteer lawyer programs.”  Attorneys Emeritus will be exempted from CLE requirements and will receive malpractice insurance coverage through the organization with which they volunteer.  Link to full piece.   [Ed. Note: the New York Times had covered the Attorney Emeritus program in an article on 1.6.10.] 

• 1.23.10 – “Delaware Online” Website – Delaware’s Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., is sharing $364,621 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with another nonprofit.  The Legal Aid Society will use the grant funding “to help finance investigations into alleged housing discrimination and to enforce the state Fair Housing Act…”  Link to article.

• 1.22.10 – New Orleans Times-Picayune – the Orleans Parish district attorney’s and public defender’s offices have agreed upon a plan to ramp up efficiency in the assignment and  management of criminal cases in the courthouse, but judges have not gotten on board yet.  In effect, the change in process would allow one prosecutor to remain with a criminal case beginning to end, avoiding the occurence of cases bouncing from one prosecutor to another.  The district attorney has cited a letter from judges, raising “unspecified concerns about due process for defendants if the…process was changed.”  An official with the Vera Institute for Justice, which has worked in support of the proposed plan, does not believe that it would “violate any state or federal standards.”  Link to article.

The ABA Journal reports that the Northwestern University School of Law has become the third law school (Georgetown, Berkeley) to dovetail their public service loan forgiveness program with the College Cost  Reduction & Access Act’s “Income-based Repayment” and “Public Service Loan Forgiveness” provisions.

When regs were being drafted in 2008 to implement the CCRAA, many educational-debt experts wondered how its programs to reduce monthly payments and ultimately forgive the loans of qualifying public service lawyers would interact with the potpourri of differently-structured LRAPs already offered by law schools, state governments, and some employers.  These three law schools have decided that the best solution is to put the CCRAA at the center of things and rework their programs to orbit around it.

Anybody who has looked at or applied for federal jobs knows the USAJobs website all too well. Today, there’s good news! The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed yesterday a brand-new interface for the USAJobs site, featuring more user-friendly ways to sort and search for jobs, refine searches, and most importantly, track the status of your applications. A brief article from Government Executive summarizes the changes and provides some nice quotes from OPM officers explaining the motivation for change. One particularly nice feature to check out is the Students page, which has information on internships, fellowships, and routes into permanent federal service.

Technola blogged today about the release of the newest version of A2J Author 3.0, which can be used to create “user-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants fill out court forms and other legal documents.” A2J Author is free for non-commercial use and is available for download – check out Technola, the Center for Access to Justice and Technology, and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction to learn more.

Equal Justice Works just posted about a new Q&A resource from the U.S. Department of Education explaining how income-based repayment (IBR) works to help alleviate student loan debt. IBR is a critical part of the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which also includes provisions for student loan forgiveness for people engaged in public service careers. You can learn more about IBR, CCRAA, and student loan management through Equal Justice Works’ resources (linked to in their post) and the resources on the PSLawNet Financing a Public Interest Career page.

My colleague Katie put up an excellent post about public interest networking last week.  It reminded me that I was asked several months ago to explain networking’s usefulness.

I’ll go into the answer I came up with below.  First, though, for context, I will note that I was diametrically opposed to the concept of networking while in law school.  In fact, I refused on principle to use the word “network” as a verb.  Six years later, my professional network is by far my most valuable asset.  This is in large part due to the fact that I have come to disassociate “networking” (which allows us to achieve professional goals by working with others) from “schmoozing” (which allows us to learn how to hold a wine glass and plate in one hand while shaking hands with the other).  I thought networking and schmoozing were one and the same.  I was wrong.  Networking is a necessary undertaking for professional success.

Click through to learn about the importance of networking…

The Partnership for Public Service (whose mission is to “revitalize our federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works”) has a weekly feature in the Washington Post titled “Federal Player of the Week.” This week’s profile in particular caught our eye – Christina Stanford is an attorney in the Office of Legal Advisor in the U.S. Department of State. She discusses the breadth of her experience, from working on the 9/11 response task force to being stationed in Baghdad to working on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

“Sanford said she always had an interest in public service, but she never imagined a career so rich, diverse and challenging.”

If you are interested in a career in the federal government, read this profile, and explore the information on the Partnership website as well as the PSLawNet Federal Government Resources. Legal hiring is one of the top five areas where the federal government is going to be hiring in the next few years, and the breadth and depth of opportunity in a federal career is worth exploring.

As a recent law school graduate, I remember listening to the endless advice in school of “network, network, network!” and trying my hardest to tune it out because, let’s face it, talking to strangers can be scary. However, I’m here now (about a year into my efforts to proactively network) to tell you two things: 1) it turns out strangers aren’t that scary (and a lot of networking isn’t with people you’ve just met), and 2) networking is vitally important for students pursuing public service careers!

Keep reading to learn more about networking ⇒