by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

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!

Editor’s note: Our “Expert Opinion” series offers thoughts, insights, and career advice from public interest lawyers, law students, and others who work for the public good.  This edition’s Expert is Ruta Stropus, the Director of Attorney Recruitment and Professional Development for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Stropus has graciously agreed to offer some much-needed tips and advice on applying for positions within the government. This edition is all about what to do (and what not to do!) during the pre-application process. Next time, Stropus will tackle cover letters and resumes. 

On to the advice…

Tips from a Government Employer

First of all, let me thank every wonderful professional who works in law school career centers.  I realize that you do tremendous work counseling and advising stressed out law students who are panicked about finding a job in these difficult economic times.  With the increase in law school debt, the decrease in law jobs – not to mention hiring and salary freezes in the government sector – being effective and positive is no easy task.

I rely on law school placement professionals to help recruit for my office.  We do not participate in the on campus interview process, because we rarely hire new graduates.  However, law school alumni networks are our lifeline, and we couldn’t do it without you.

Unfortunately, not all lawyers listen to the advice of their placement counselors.  After spending nine years as the director of attorney recruiting at a state agency, I still see candidates making the rookie mistakes before even getting in the cover letter and resume or making it to the interview.  So, although you and I know these are “don’ts”, many out there are still do-ing.

1)    The job search.  Other websites often list our positions.  That’s a good thing – we want to advertise broadly.  However, the most accurate and current information is on the agency website.  Therefore, candidates should always the employer’s website for complete information before calling the recruiter with questions.  I have spent a lot of time crafting job descriptions, setting out the application procedures, drafting a frequently asked questions guide.  One of the ways I judge applicants is their ability to follow directions.  For example, we do not allow candidates to email their application materials; if someone does so, not only is the person disregarding an employer’s specific request, but they are demonstrating that they haven’t read the instructions.

2)    The posting.  I am honest in my communications.  If the website notes that the position requires, at minimum, three years of post-graduation civil litigation experience, then that is the minimum requirement.  Just today, I had a candidate call and ask:  “The posting says that three years of criminal prosecution experience is required. I have six months experience. Will you consider my application?”  My response?  “No, we require three years.”  Others call and emphasize their interest in the position:  “I am very interested in the position, and I am a quick learner.”  Although that might be well and good, interest is not experience.  My favorite is the ole’ switch-a-roo:  “Your posting says the position is in Springfield, but I’m really interested in Chicago.”  Well, if the posting says Springfield, then the position is in (wait for it) Springfield!!!!

3)    The tenor.  As a recruiter, I am a professional.  My job is to find the very best candidate for the job.  Therefore, I do not be-friend applicants on Facebook or link with them on LinkedIn.  I do not go out for coffee with candidates who “want to learn more about the position.”  I do not like it when candidates email or call me and begin the conversation by addressing me by my first name.  When a candidate calls or emails with a question, I expect that question cannot be answered by our website and is something more than “I really just can’t email you my application?” Because I answer my own phone, I expect a greeting such as: “Hello, may I speak to Ms. Stropus?  Ms. Stropus, hello, my name is Cindy Earl and I have a quick question about your job posting.”  Sadly, what I usually get is:  “Ah …. hi…. yah…. I’ve been looking at your website and I’m confused….”

Bottom line here for candidates: You start interviewing for the job from the minute you start your job search.  Even before they submit their application paperwork, I expect candidates to have visited the agency website and read ALL the information that is available on the position and the agency – that includes the mission, the history, the recent activity.  If the candidate has a genuine question, I expect a polite and professional call or email, complete with salutation and thank you.

Next time on the PSJD Blog: the cover letter and resume!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

Do you feel lost while searching for jobs on PSJD? Are you a career counselor struggling to inform law students about using PSJD to find public interest jobs, internships and fellowships?

If so, listen up: we just added the perfect resource for you!

Our new Job Seeker User Guide has step-by-step directions that will walk you through registration, finding resources, running simple and advanced job searches, setting up Email Alerts and Favorites, and more.

The guide is housed under the “About PSJD” section. Click the “How To Use PSJD” option and select “Job Seekers”. A link to the User Guide will be at the very top of the page. (Click the image below for a larger screenshot.)

We hope this makes it easier to navigate PSJD.org. If you have more specific technical questions on using the site to find public interest law opportunities, or just want to share a suggestion, give me a call at (202) 296-0076 or email me at AMatthews@nalp.org.

Thanks for using PSJD!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

Gideon’s Promise, an innovative program that supports and trains public defenders across the South, has partnered with the Department of Justice to initiate the Law School Partnership Project.

This new program will give law schools an opportunity to join Gideon’s Promise and southern public defender offices by contributing to the training and support of their graduates for up to one year, or help Gideon’s Promise identify sponsors for their graduates. Gideon’s Promise places the law graduate in a southern public defender office and provides three years of invaluable training and mentorship.

The public defender office will guarantee permanent, full-time employment within the graduate’s first year of the program. (I put that in bold because it is AWESOME, especially in today’s shaky legal job market.)

The right to counsel is a basic human and civil right, but it continues to have difficulties being implemented within the American criminal justice system. As public defenders continue to face crushing caseloads and funding crises, programs like this are greatly needed to ensure the enforcement of our constitutional rights and fulfill the promise of equal justice.

Check out this Information Packet from Gideon’s Promise for more information. If you have questions, contact Jonathan Rapping at jon@gideonspromise.org or Ilham Askia at ilham@gideonspromise.org.

Attention all future public defenders!

Is your dream is to provide counsel for indigent defendants, but you have no idea where to start? Look no further than PSJD’s Careers in Public Defense page, located in our Resource Center on PSJD.org.

New York University School of Law just released the updated version of their amazingly helpful 2013 Public Defender Handbook (look for it on the Careers in Public Defense page). This guide is divided into FAQ’s and information about selected public defender offices. It also includes information on capital defense offices that hire entry-level attorneys.

Check it out now on the PSJD Careers in Public Defense page, and don’t forget to take a look at the other helpful guides from Harvard Law and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Happy job hunting!

PSJD.org has always housed a Career Fair calendar, a one-stop shop for public interest lawyers, recent grads and law students to find information on upcoming job fairs throughout the year.

To make this resource even better, we’ve just added general public interest events to the calendar! Now, law schools and public interest organizations can use PSJD’s  revamped Public Interest Career Fair and Events Calendar to publicize large meetings, conferences, or special events that are open to the local or national public interest law community. We’ll be posting and publicizing both school-sponsored and student-sponsored events on the calendar, as well highlighting some on the blog and our Facebook and Twitter pages.

First on the new Events calendar: The Emory Law Public Interest Committee’s 10th Annual Conference, “Neighbors for Sale: Modern Slavery in Atlanta”:

Date: Saturday, September 21, 2013

Time: 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM (continental breakfast served 9:30 to 10:00 AM)

Location: Emory University School of Law, 1301 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322

The Emory Public Interest Committee (EPIC) invites you to attend its tenth annual conference, “Neighbors for Sale: Modern Slavery in Atlanta,” on Saturday, September 21, 2013.  Led by keynote speaker Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, a host of state and local government and non-government organization leaders will assemble to discuss the realities of modern slavery in Atlanta, to share their own stories of modern abolition, and to share how attendees can become involved in the fight against slavery.

Registration: Please register via the link below by Tuesday, September 17.  A continental breakfast and boxed lunch will be provided for as many as funding permits on a first-come, first-served basis.  Attendance is capped at 250 registrants.

http://www.law.emory.edu/intranet/current-students/student-organizations/epic/conference.html

What to expect: Attorney General Olens will begin the morning discussing the local realities of sex trafficking and all that can be done to combat it.  After this primer, attendees will chose two from among a series of panel discussions addressing victim rescue, victim aftercare, the changing face of forced prostitution, criminal investigation, criminal prosecution, and structural transformation through lawmaking.  The day will close with a full-conference panel on what more can and should be done to combat sex trafficking in Atlanta, beginning with the Attorney General’s “Georgia’s Not Buying It” campaign.

Selected Panelists:

• Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernan Keenan will discuss the work of GBI’s Human Trafficking Unit.
• Georgia Department of Education Chief of Staff Joel Thornton will discuss the DOE’s efforts to identify trafficking victims in public schools.
• Fulton County Prosecutor Camila Wright and DeKalb County Prosecutor Dalia Racine will discuss their work trying sex trafficking cases.
• Representatives from Atlanta-based organizations including Mary Frances Bowley, founder of Wellspring Living, as well as others from StreetGrace, and Nightlight will discuss their efforts to find and rescue trafficking victims.

If you’d like to include an event or career fair on PSJD’s calendar, please forward all information to our PSJD Fellow, Ashley Matthews, at psjd@nalp.org.

As usual, we are always looking for ways to make PSJD.org an even better resource for public interest law students and lawyers. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to contact us!

PSJD’s Federal Legal Employment Opportunities Guide (unfortunately, the acronym is FLEOG) offers a broad-based review of different career opportunities and paths to employment for law students and graduates interested in federal legal careers.

The Guide is a distillation of the key content from PSJD’s more extensive Careers in Federal Government page. If you’re still hungry for more information, browse through our entire Government Careers section – we have everything from State & Local Government Career Resources to a guide on the U.S. Federal Government’s Pathways Program.

We hope you find these resources useful!

PSJD would like to give a special shout-out to Emory Law 2L Kristian Smith, who served as our wonderful Summer Projects and Publications Coordinator and contributed to this year’s FLEOG!

Created by executive order in 2010, the Pathways program creates a clear path to federal internships and entry-level careers. With a focus on improving the federal government’s recruiting efforts, Pathways offers a unique opportunity for students and recent law graduates to gain access to fulfilling government careers.

If you want more information on the Pathways program, PSJD has got you covered! We just created a new page in our Resource Center devoted specifically to helping you navigate the program, with links to even more helpful resources.

Check it out on PSJD!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

If you’re on the job hunt, you’ve probably heard about Idealist.org. It’s a great jobs site that focuses solely on nonprofit and social impact work, and includes everything from development gigs to international human rights fellowships. Last week, Idealist contributing writer Katie Mang wrote a great blog post on starting and implementing a pro bono project. The article is written in general terms to apply to any career field, but she’s got lots of great tips for us law students and lawyers as well. Here’s a few tips that especially apply to law student and attorneys providing pro bono service:

Read the rest of this entry »

by Kristian Smith, PSJD Summer Projects and Publications Coordinator

This is the second part of a two-part series on Alternative Public Interest Work. Check out “Part One: Can I Do Public Interest Work at a Law Firm?” here!

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, law firms and public interest work don’t always go hand-in-hand, but there are many ways for law students and lawyers to combine a law-firm setting with public interest work. Though typically smaller than a traditional law firm,  private public interest firms provide a setting similar to that of other law firms while focusing their practice primarily on public interest work.

First things first: What is a private public interest firm?

According to a paper written by Scott L. Cummings of UCLA School of Law and Ann Southworth of University of California, Irvine School of Law, the term private public interest law firm refers to a range of “hybrid” entities that fuse private and public goals. The paper defines private public interest firms as “for-profit legal practices structured around service to some vision of the public interest. They are organized as for-profit entities, but advancing the public interest is one of their primary purposes—a core mission rather than a secondary concern.” Harvard Law School, which produces a Private Public Interest Law Firms guide in coordination with Columbia School of Law, similarly defines private public interest firms in the guide as “private, for-profit firms that dedicate at least a significant portion of their caseload to matters that have some broad social, political, or economic impact.”

Private public interest firms can be the perfect blend of the public interest work of non-profits and the resources of large law firms because, according to Cummings and Southworth’s paper, private public interest firms can take on large-scale social change litigation that non-profits can’t pursue because of resource limits and big-firm pro bono programs won’t take on because of business conflicts.

But not every private public interest firm is the same. Some firms focus solely on public interest issues and take on only no-fee or reduced-fee clients while others also take on plaintiff’s torts cases for funding. While civil rights and employment law are the most popular practice areas for private public interest firms, some firms specialize in other areas, such as environmental law. Most of these firms take on a large range of cases – from discrimination, housing and voting rights, to consumer protection, human rights, and plaintiff class action suits. These firms may also represent a wide range of clients, including individuals, nonprofits and community groups. Some examples of these firms include Traber & Voorhees, Chatten-Brown & Carstens, and Miner, Barnhill & Galland (where President Obama practiced!).

How to Get Hired

It may be more difficult to find jobs at these types of firms than at traditional firms due to their smaller size, but many of these firms still hire summer associates and entry-level attorneys. Some firms, such as Bernabei & Wachtel, also offer fellowships as a way to hire new attorneys. For a comprehensive list of public interest firms and their hiring practices, check out Harvard and Columbia’s private public interest firms guide.