Our “Expert Opinion” series moves into 2011 with a post on job search strategery from our friend Nicole Ayala…

Nicole Ayala is the Assistant Director, Public Interest & Fellowships at the University of Connecticut School of Law’s Career Planning Center.  Nicole’s extensive experience in the public service field includes having worked for a legal services organization, the federal government, unions and nonprofits.  She received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law, a Master of Divinity from Harvard and a BA in political science from the University of Iowa.

Now, more than ever, landing that public-interest dream job right out of law school is a daunting task.  As a result, you should be thinking strategically about how to position yourself to get the job you want when hiring picks back up.  What follows is a five-part outline to use in developing a strategic plan that will move you closer to your career objectives. 

1. Describe your immediate employment goal(s) as precisely as possible.  Think in terms of both outcomes and skills.  For example, an outcome-based statement would be “I want to work in my home state as a legal services attorney, focusing on immigration and domestic violence issues.”  A skills-based statement would be, “I want to do a combination of litigation and policy advocacy work, with a substantial amount of client interaction.”  Specificity is important, as it not only helps you to articulate a concrete goal, but it also serves as the foundation for building your strategic plan. 
2. List obstacles/challenges.  This section should also address outcomes and skills.  Building off the example above, the challenges could include the following: “The legal services organization in my home state just did layoffs, I have yet to argue a motion in court, and I only speak English.”  Other categories of possible obstacles could include logistics (e.g. “I need to have an income now,”) attitude (e.g. “I refuse to look for a non-legal job,”) and networking (e.g. “What’s an informational interview?”).
3. Brainstorm potential strategies for addressing challenges.  Like any brainstorming session, no idea should be left unexplored, no matter how idealistic or obvious.  Often this is how truly innovative strategies are formed.  For example, only speaking English definitely presents a challenge to getting hired to do immigration work for a legal services organization.  Possible solutions for remedying this problem could range from the extreme of moving to another country for a language immersion experience to the relative ease of buying the Rosetta Stone program of your choice.
4. Prioritize strategies based on feasibility and marketability.  You should be able to prioritize the strategies that are feasible for you based on your personal circumstances (e.g. cash flow, geographic restrictions, family responsibilities), but you may want to talk to your law school’s public interest career advisor for input on determining which strategies to pursue based on marketability.  Your advisor will have knowledge of the hiring criteria and skills that public interest organizations value most.  By addressing both internal and external factors, hopefully you will be able to create a list that is both realistic and well-suited to your targeted position or organization.
5. Develop an action plan.  Once you have identified your priority strategies, think through the specifics of how to make them happen.  Generally, an action plan should include the following three components: tasks (what), resources (what / how / who) and timeline (when).  Returning once again to our example, let’s assume you decide to make the bold move of going to South America for six months to learn Spanish.  Your action plan might look like this: 

•  
  • Tasks:  Research language immersion programs and costs.  Find out if there are any visa requirements or travel restrictions.  Make sure I can sublet my apartment.  Check with my student loans lender to see if deferment is a possibility. 
  • Resources:  Family members (cost).  Fellow classmates (program recommendations).  Mentor (encouragement).  Landlord (finding a subletter).  Personal savings account (cost).  Temporary job (cost).    
  • Timeline:  One month from now: Complete research on programs.  Two months from now:  Speak to at least two graduates of the program and figure out travel logistics.  Three months from now:  Decide on program.  Four months from now: Arrange to have domestic issues taken care of, including apartment sublet and loan deferment.  Five to six months from now:  Move and start program.

             [On a related note, the PSLawNet Blog recently posted about Spanish language immersion programs.]

***

There is no question that the current employment climate is difficult for public interest law students and graduates.  But jobs are out there, and you will do yourself a tremendous service by taking a methodical approach to finding the right position for you.  Good luck!

Yesterday the commy-pinko liberal website The Huffington Post bestowed it’s “Today’s Greatest Person” honor on a truly deserving advocate: Anneliese Gryta, an Equal Justice Works Fellow working at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) in Toledo, Ohio.  Most folks, when they think of “civil legal services,” think of lawyers helping low-income clients who are facing homelessness, domestic abuse, medical problems, and the like.  But a more recent innovation in delivering legal services to low-income communities involves a focus on community economic development issues – aiding small businesses and nonprofit organizations which are the commercial backbones (and keys to revitalization) in low-income neighborhoods.  This is where Annaliese has made herself an expert in the Great State of Ohio.

    After graduating from law school in 2008, Anneliese immediately set out to help. With the Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellowship, she began her work helping small businesses with legal aid and clinics. For those untrained in the legal intricacies of starting a business, help from seasoned attorneys can be invaluable.

…

In her second fellowship with Equal Justice Works, Anneliese is aiming even higher–helping businesses acquire the loans they need to get off the ground, with a focus on the economically disadvantaged.

“In this economy, in a place like Toledo with such a high unemployment rate you may have to create your own job,” she said. “I wanted to do something that treated the cause of poverty–lack of resources, lack of finances, lack of credit, lack of education in how to handle money.”

Her newest project involves founding two microloans funds for Toledo-based businesses. Assets Toledo helps with very small loans up to $5,000 for graduates of the business training program they also run, with a special focus on those with little credit history.

This is terrific, and inspiring, news.  Annaliese has made use of Equal Justice Works’s AmeriCorps Legal Fellows program and it’s traditional fellowship program to build expertise in economic development issues affecting Ohio communities.  Well done. 

BONUS!  Appropo of nothing else than the fact that this story involves Ohio, we present you with our favorite song about the Buckeye State: Damien Jurado’s Ohio.

If you are a law student or practicing attorney considering a federal clerkship or working as a staff attorney in the federal appellate courts you should get to know OSCAR.  No not that adorable grouch from Sesame Street, but the federal Judiciary’s online system for clerkship application and review.

Who is using OSCAR?

OSCAR has recently celebrated its sixth birthday and in 2010 was used by 1,501 federal judges (= 2/3 of all federal judges) to handle their clerkship application process.  The system allows judges to post open positions and choose to accept applications online or paper applications.  By 2010, 82% of judges were accepting online applications.

In 2010, 50% of the applicants were 3Ls and 50% were law school alumni.  This was a slight deviation from 2009, when 52% of the 10,722 applicants were alumni.

Another change in 2010 was the system’s expansion to allow staff attorney office’s in the federal appellate courts to post open positions.

The staff attorney module was introduced last May, and 10 positions were posted between that month and the end of September. The positions posted by staff attorney offices accepting online applications attracted 2,598 applications.

What does the future hold for OSCAR?

The OSCAR Working Group has “endorsed a proposal to add a module for pro se, death penalty, and bankruptcy appellate panel law clerk hiring.”

Learn more about how to utilize OSCAR to apply for federal clerkships and appellate staff attorney positions.

The National Law Journal just ran a well reported but very sobering (at best) piece about the funding woes confronting civil legal services programs throughout the nation.  This passage aptly sums up the circumstances:

Law firms may be benefiting from the slow economic recovery, but legal aid groups face the most dire circumstances in decades. The problem is a perfect storm of IOLTA funding declines, cuts in state and local funding, uncertain federal support and a tight private fundraising environment. The situation is exacerbated by steep increases in demand for free legal services as millions of low-income Americans face long-term unemployment, foreclosure and other serious problems.

The article offers a detailed, data-driven review of the funding cuts plaguing the nation’s legal services programs, and is well worth reading.  Very troubling for us are the numbers concerning staff constrictions and layoffs: 

• Texas RioGrande Legal Aid “stopped filling open lawyer positions in 2010 to prepare for cuts and may close offices, institute layoffs and roll back its caseload in 2011…”
• The Legal Aid Society in NYC “eliminated 30 staff positions in its civil division” and “can help only one of every nine people who ask for assistance.”
• Legal Services of New Jersey, an umbrella for Garden State legal services programs, was forced to “eliminate about 200 of its 700 positions since 2007, and President Melville Miller Jr. anticipates cutting another 50 to 70 jobs in 2011 if more money can’t be found.”
• New Mexico Legal Aid’s “employees agreed to a six-day furlough in 2010 to save money, but it may need to close one office and lay off four or five workers in 2012.” 

This is in keeping with what we’ve heard from other legal services executive directors, who have been struggling to make budgetary ends meet without cutting staff.  This situation is distressing for at least two reasons.  First, we know that many law students and recent grads have invested time, effort, and money in preparation for serving clients on society’s margins.  And while so many would-be advocates around the country want nothing more than the opportunity to serve as legal services lawyers, the opportunities to do so are increasingly few and far between.  Second, and more importantly, fewer lawyers means fewer clients served.  As noted in the NLJ piece, demand for services from the swollen numbers of low-income clients has skyrocketed in the recession’s wake.  It’s alarming, and positively disheartening, that the legal services community has been so hobbled by funding cuts at a time when it is needed to protect and assert the rights of so many vulnerable people and families.

Happy New Year!  The PSLawNet Jobs Report is back after the holidays and ready to share updates on new job opportunities and career advice.

Need a job or internship? During the  last week PSLawNet has posted:   29 new attorney positions,   20 new internships, and  9 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,015 active opportunities in our job database.  To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is seeking an experienced professional for the role of Legal Advisor in ABA ROLI’s response to a USAID Request for Applications. The Legal Advisor will be responsible for advising Liberian justice sector institutions and officials, professional judicial and attorney associations, civil society partner organizations, legislators, government officials, and international domestic NGOs on the Liberian criminal justice system, pre-trail practices and procedures and Federal Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure.  Deadline to Apply:  January 18, 2011.  Visit PSLawNet for full details.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NIRP) is seeking summer interns for their Tacoma office.  The NIRP provides legal services to immigrant detainees at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), which holds up to 1500 detainees, 90% of whom are unrepresented.  Both the Tacoma office and the NWDC are a 35-minute commute from downtown Seattle.  Summer interns will directly represent detainees under the supervision of the attorneys in removal proceedings.   This includes appearing in immigration court hearings, preparing clients for court, preparing witnesses, drafting a number of legal briefs and making oral arguments in court.  In addition to their direct caseload, intern responsibilities include:  conducting “Know Your Rights” presentations at the NWDC to groups of detainees; conducting intakes with individual detainees; conducting workshops to assist detainees with applying for relief; identifying legal issues and potential forms of relief for detainees; drafting pro se briefs for detainees; and performing a variety of administrative tasks.  Deadline to Apply:  February 28, 2011.  Check PSLawNet for additional details and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Looking for attorney positions with the federal government? As we shared last Friday in the Public Interest News Bulletin, a federal jobs expert shared some job-seeking wisdom in the Washington Post:

In each budget justification submitted to Congress, you get to see what an agency says it needs, as well any additional hiring requests to carry out its work … For the Justice Department to strengthen national security and counter the threat of terrorism the 2011 budget requests $300.6 million. The request includes 440 additional positions, including 126 agents and 15 attorneys. To enforce immigration laws the department is requesting an $11 million program increase, including 125 positions – 31 of them attorneys.  You can read an agency’s budget proposal on its Web site.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .

So long , 2010.  We close out the year with two week’s worth of public interest news.  We’re also happy that this week’s edition is packed with stories highlighting the extraordinary work of several extraordinary advocates.  Our Inner Scrooge’s heart is warmed.  Featured: a new place to look for new federal jobs; a law intended to help CA foreclosure victims hiccups; a report on whether the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is actually helping clients who seek unemployment benefits; Cooley Law School establishes a new pro bono initiative with the private bar; a successful public interest employment “bridge” program at Florida Coastal Law; the tremendous public interest commitment of an award-winning UConn law student; adios, Federal Career Intern Program; a busy legal services development chief is profiled; $500K going to a clinic and public interest programs at Cardozo Law; the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s incoming president knows firsthand what it’s like to be a legal services client; the business case for supporting legal services in Eastern Missouri; a big federal-court win for a Yale Law School clinic; a Cleveland judge and two attorneys dig deep to help out a low-income defendant; here are some phrases to keep off of your resume; a five-part story on Missouri’s beleaguered public defense system; and the New York Times editorial board weighs in on the importance of supporting legal services.

• 12.30.10 – how do you find federal jobs?  Pore through budget  proposals.  Not what you wanted to hear, we know.  But here’s a great bit of job-seeking wisdom, courtesy of the Washington Post: “In each budget justification submitted to Congress, you get to see what an agency says it needs, as well any additional hiring requests to carry out its work … For the Justice Department to strengthen national security and counter the threat of terrorism the 2011 budget requests $300.6 million. The request includes 440 additional positions, including 126 agents and 15 attorneys. To enforce immigration laws the department is requesting an $11 million program increase, including 125 positions – 31 of them attorneys.  You can read an agency’s budget proposal on its Web site.”

• 12.29.10 – Southern California Public Radio reports on an unintended consequence of a California law intended to benefit homeowners facing foreclosure proceedings: “A California state law to protect homeowners is backfiring—foreclosure lawyers can’t legally get any money until the case is done, so lawyers leery of losing or getting sued aren’t taking cases at all. That leaves homeowners facing foreclosure in a tight bind, effectively shutting them out of legal representation when they most need it.”

• 12.28.10 – the New York Times Freakonomics blog highlights what they characterize as a “remarkable randomized experiment (“What Difference Representation?”) with evidence showing that offers for free legal representation from the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) ended up hurting unemployment claimants.”  Well, sort of.  The circumstances are fairly complex, and we haven’t had a chance to read the researchers’ report yet, just the blog post.  Anyway, we wanted to pass this along for those readers who are data dorks.

• 12.28.10 – yet another example of a pro bono collaboration involving a law school and volunteer attorneys.  From the Examiner in Detroit we learn that the “Thomas M. Cooley Law School and the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association (DMBA) have joined forces to create a new program to expand free legal services in Detroit and Wayne County. The Cooley Law School-DMBA Pro Bono Mentorship Program will allow students from Cooley’s Ann Arbor and Auburn Hills campuses to collaborate with a mentoring attorney in providing free legal services to clients.”  Cases will be referred to the new program from local public interest organizations.

Keep reading . . .

A few days ago the ABA Journal picked up on some advice offered by a career-guru type from the LinkedIn website.  She listed 10 words/phrases that may appear empty and trite to an employer reviewing your resume.  Drumroll…

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

The PSLawNet Blog sees the wisdom in thinking twice before dropping a line about how you’re a “highly motivated problem solver with experience working in fast-paced environments.”  If you offer nothing to support that statement, it’s basically hogwash.  With that said, we’d offer a caveat: if a job description uses a certain word in characterizing what kind of professional skills an employer wishes to see in job applicants, then it should be fair game (at least in a cover letter if not a resume).  If an employer lists “sense of entrepreneurship” as a qualification sought, then you can use the word “entrepreneur” in your application materials.  But – and this is important – you should be able to support it.  So you don’t write “natural entrepreneur” and leave the phrase to hang there unsupported.  You write, “entrepreneurship as exemplified by X, Y, Z”  In any event, this is easier to do in the cover letter as opposed to the resume.  In the resume you want to be as specific about your skills as possible.  This, we think, is the moral of the story here: Don’t use the above words as meaningless space fillers on a resume.  Tell employers what you’ve actually done: wrote a brief; participated in a service project that helped X number of people in need, etc. 

Next month, The PSLawNet Blog will offer several posts with resume, cover letter, interviewing, and networking tips.  Stay tuned…

The Washington Post has run a good piece today highlighting the criticism that’s befallen federal, state, and local government workforces as politicians, seeking to close alarming budget gaps, accuse government employees of being overcompensated.  And the public seems to have embraced the perception of cushy government service gigs:

Three-quarters of those who were surveyed in an October Washington Post poll said they believe federal workers get better pay and benefits than people doing similar jobs outside the government, and 52 percent said government employees are overpaid.

The Post article reviews some of the available data getting at the question of whether government employees are in fact overcompensated…

Much repeated by Republicans is an August review of Bureau of Economic Analysis data by USA Today. It showed that the average salary and benefits of federal employees had grown faster than that of private employees for nine years running, to the point where federal compensation had reached $123,049 in 2009 – more than twice the level of the average private-sector worker.

Other research suggests that once you adjust the numbers for the fact that government workers tend to be older, more educated and more experienced, they show that public employees don’t do all that well in comparison.

Also complicating the equation is the fact that while government salaries are often lower than those in the private sector, benefits are often better.

The nonpartisan National Institute on Retirement Security found that, on average, total compensation is 6.8 percent less for state employees and 7.4 percent less for local employees than for comparable non-government workers.

Of course this article focuses on government workforces at large, not on attorneys.  And as noted in the above quote block, some research shows that when you control for education level, some highly educated professionals could do much better in the private sector than in the public sector.   So, are government attorneys enjoying bloated compensation relative to their private sector counterparts?  Well, on average: no.

• As to local government attorneys, NALP’s 2010 Public Sector/Interest Attorney Salary Report offers a national median starting salary figure of $50,000 for prosecutors.  And after 8-10 years of work experience, those salaries increase to almost $76,000.    By comparison, NALP’s 2010 Associate Salary Survey reports that the national median starting salary for law-firm attorneys is $115,000 – more than double the prosecutor salary.  And even the median starting salary at a small law firm (2-25 lawyers) is $72,000 – almost 50% larger than the prosecutor salary.  After 8 years of experience, associate salary is $160,000.  (And remember that by year 8 in practice, many law firm attorneys will achieve partnership status, bringing with it considerable upward income mobility that is not reflected in these data.)
• Federal attorneys are the highest earning public service attorneys, but their salaries are still generally lower than their private sector counterparts.  Starting salaries for federal attorneys vary based on which agency they work with and other factors, but they generally fall in the $50,000-$75,000 range.  Federal attorneys can pass the $100,000 mark over time, but on average still don’t have the upward earning potential of private sector attorneys.  We do wish to note that federal attorneys typically have impressive benefits packages, and loan repayment assistance helps take financial weight off the shoulders of debt-laden junior attorneys.  Nevertheless, the road through federal service seems to be better described as relatively comfortable, but hardly lucrative.

Finally, we’ll close by noting what we see as the most troubling potential side-effect of the barrage of criticism of public servants: a sort of demonization of government service.  Attorneys in government service are not there for the money.  For the vast majority, there is tremendous satisfaction in working to promote public safety and welfare, national defense, preservation of individual rights, environmental justice, and on and on.  We hope that this is not lost in the rancor as the entire country – including its government attorneys – confronts post-recession fiscal realities.

UPDATE: after publishing this post we were reminded of this vigorous defense of the federal workforce against charges that is it bloated and overcompensated.  The author is Max Stier, the head of the Partnership for Public Service, with which PSLawNet and NALP have collaborated in the past.

NOTE: the PSLawNet Blog will skip next week’s Jobs Report as we will still be on holiday.  Never fear though, a jam-packed issue of the Jobs Report will be back on January 3, 2011.  Happy Holidays!!!

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   65 new attorney positions,   28 new internships, and  10 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,238 active opportunities in our job database.  To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

The ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties is current accepting applications for a Staff Attorney/Civic Participation Fellow.  The Fellow will be responsible for cultivating and supporting the ability of local nonprofits to engage in political advocacy and policy change, including compliance with applicable c3/c4 rules and lobbying/disclosure requirements.  The Attorney will also be concerned with election protection and voter rights, including efforts to make voting easier for low-income communities, communities of color, immigrants, young voters, first-time voters, and/or limited English speaking communities.  The Attorney will serve as a community legal resource, educating organizations and individuals on their rights to vote and participate in political advocacy, as well as building up capacity for such work in the local legal community.  The Attorney will engage in non-litigation advocacy where appropriate.  The Attorney will also screen and develop impact litigation, including direct representation and amicus curiae briefs, on relevant issues, in conjunction with members of the legal community.  Visit PSLawNet for full details.

The Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts (CLCM), with offices in Lynn and Lawrence, is seeking 3-4 law student interns for Summer 2011.  These internships provide students a great opportunity to assist in advocacy on behalf of young clients in critical legal matters.  CLCM provides direct representation to indigent children and youth in child welfare, CHINS, delinquency, mental health, and educational matters.  During the twelve-week summer program, student interns concentrate on one or two of the five substantive practice areas.  Each student is assigned to a specific mentoring attorney who they accompany to court and/or education meetings and hearings and provide case support.  Students have direct client contact and assist in client interviewing, investigation, and preparation of motions and memoranda.  In addition, CLCM provides appellate advocacy in delinquency and child abuse and neglect cases.  If a case is pending during the summer months, a student may be asked to assist in research and writing of appellate briefs.  Check PSLawNet for additional details and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Do you think you might be interested in pursuing summer and/or career employment in a local/state prosecutor’s office? Check out Yale’s Guide to Criminal Prosecution.  Visit PSLawNet’s Prosecutors/Public Defenders Career page for links to other resources regarding working in a local/state prosecutor’s offices or as a federal prosecutor.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   69 new attorney positions,   55  new internships, and  27 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,263 active opportunities in our job database.  To search the database visit PSLawNet.

Featured New Positions:

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) is looking for an International Program Specialist to assist with the development and implementation of plans for technical assistance in developing countries in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, but may be called upon to work in Sub-Saharan Africa and other regions as well.  Deadline:  December 16.  Visit PSLawNet for full details.

The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PAILP) is currently seeking a 2011 Summer Intern.  The PAILP was created and designed to meet the needs of low income residents of PA’s prisons, jails, state hospitals, and state centers with the goal of ensuring equal access to justice for indigent institutionalized persons.  The intern will be responsible for legal research and writing, case development and investigation and other related duties under the supervision of a staff attorney.  Additionally, the intern will be taken to client meetings and court whenever appropriate.  Deadline:  Feb. 1, 2011.  Check PSLawNet for additional details and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Attention 2Ls and 1Ls:  Are you interested in a postgraduate fellowship? Get a jump start by visiting our Fellowship Info and Resources page and Application Deadline Calendar.  Postgraduate public interest fellowships enable recent graduates to secure entry level positions with nonprofit organizations, government entities, and educational institutions.  Applications for project-based fellowships are typically due either late in your 2L summer or early in your 3L year.  The work you do during your second summer may be an essential component in a strong fellowship application.  Indeed, while not necessary, it’s ideal if your second summer placement is your would-be fellowship host.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .