The Canadian Lawyer magazine recently posted a list of blunders law students make while trying to get their legal career off the ground. Here are few key mistakes that were mentioned:

“Mistake #3 – Not choosing a practice area before you complete your studies“: This is incredibly important! Employers want to see that you’ve made a demonstrated commitment to their practice area. It will also be pretty hard to compete against other law students who have experience directly related to a particular legal field.

“Mistake #5 – No legal web site or legal blog, only Facebook“: These days, it’s easier than ever to start your own website. You can use blogging platforms like WordPress or Tumblr for a free and user-friendly experience, with the option to upgrade to a more costly but customizable site. It’s a great way to set yourself apart from other applicants and provide easy access to your resume and legal writings.

Click here to check out the full list on the Canadian Lawyer website!

Calling all D.C. legal interns:

If you still need supplemental funding for your unpaid or low-paying summer public interest work, PSJD wants to work with you! We have a few spots left for part-time project assistants, who help us keep the website up and running over the summer. This gig is perfect for law students who can spend a few hours a week helping the global legal community access the latest nonprofit, government and public interest jobs and resources.

We pay up to $13/hour, and you’re free to set your own schedule (as long as it’s during normal business hours).

Still interested? Check out the full job description with application instructions here (log-in required). The deadline is 05/05/2014, so apply now!

Any questions? Email PSJD Fellow Ashley Matthews at amatthews@nalp.org. You can check out more summer funding opportunities in the Funding & Debt section of PSJD’s Resource Center!

Every year, we honor law student pro bono with the PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. Any 2L or 3L who attends a PSJD subscriber school and has significant pro bono contributions to underserved populations, the public interest community and legal education is eligible for nomination.

Every day this week, the 2013-14 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award winner and honorable mentions will be guest blogging about law student pro bono and their public interest commitments. Today, we’re featuring Merit Distinction honoree and University of California, Berkeley School of Law student  Ioana Tchoukleva, a prisoners’ rights advocate and creator of the student-run Post-Conviction Advocacy Project (PCAP). 

Read Ioana’s take on non-linear public interest career paths and how she balances her domestic and international legal work:

First year of law school, you are told that your 1L summer job matters — it will put you on the path to your dream job and somehow magically prepare you for the rest of law school. The following year, you are told that your 2L summer job basically determines where you will work after graduation, so you better choose carefully! In fact, throughout law school you feel a latent anxiety that underlies every move you make. For many, at the core of that anxiety lies a fear of not doing the right thing, of being behind in one way or another, of missing out on opportunities. This feeling of “not being good enough” runs deep and affects students in a variety of ways that reverberate way beyond law school.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Steve Grumm

As has been well documented, New York State is rolling out a requirement that candidates for admission to the bar complete 50 hours of pro bono work.  (On a related note, supporters of increased law school pro bono tried, without success, to persuade the ABA to build a pro bono requirement into the law school accreditation standards.  Here’s some background on that effort, and here’s the coverage of the ABA’s reaction.)  Now, UC Irvine Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky is making the case for states to join New York in requiring pro bono for bar admission.  Chemerinsky writes in the National Law Journal:

New York’s new requirement for pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar should be a model for other states to copy. Last May, Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of New York, announced this proposal. On September 12, the New York Court of Appeals adopted a requirement that, effective January 1, 2015, admission to the New York bar will require an applicant having completed 50 hours of pro bono service. This is to be applauded: Pro bono work helps to meet the enormous unmet demand for legal services, provides law students valuable legal training and hopefully instills a lifelong habit of public service.

At a recent meeting, an American Bar Association committee considering possible changes to accreditation standards seemed unreceptive to the idea of requiring all law schools to insist on 50 hours of pro bono work from their students. But that won’t matter if states follow New York’s lead and require pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar.

Read the full piece for Dean Chemerinsky’s exploration of the pros and cons.  We’d love to hear what our readers, particularly law students, think about the ideas of building pro bono requirements into either, of both, law school curricula or bar admission standards.

By: Steve Grumm

Catholic Law just hired Kirland & Ellis’s DC-office managing partner as its new dean.  Brooklyn Law did something similar recently.  It’s only two hires, but it’s interesting to wonder whether pressures on the law-school business model will lead to more schools bringing in deans who’ve got law practice management skills.  Here’s the latest from the National Law Journal:

For the second time in the past year, a law school has tapped a new dean directly out of private practice. 

The Catholic University of America on November 27 named Daniel Attridge as the future dean of its Columbus School of Law. Attridge has been the managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis’ Washington office since 1998.

In March, Brooklyn Law School chose Nicholas Allard, then chairman of Patton Boggs’ lobbying, political and election law practice, as its new dean. Leaders at Saint Louis University also named local trial lawyer Tom Keefe Jr. as dean in August, but only on an interim basis.

Attridge’s appointment could signal an increased willingness among university and law school leaders to look beyond the scope of academia, politics and the bench for dean candidates, particularly at a time when the traditional law school business model is under enormous pressure. Catholic University President John Garvey, who previously headed Boston College Law School, said that Attridge will bring something different to the table.

There are just over 200 ABA-accredited schools.  And, again, these are just two hires.  But it’s still worth considering whether schools will look to lawyers with law-practice management skills as they choose current deans’ successors.

The Student Affairs Officer for the Career Services at UC Irvine School of Law is responsible for developing and coordinating job opportunities for students, with a particular emphasis on law firm and corporate counsel placement.

Also, the Assistant Director will develop and interpret internal and external policies affecting the operations of the Career Development Office, make recommendations and implements decision on administrative/operational issues affecting strategically important department functions.

The Assistant Director will also develop goals to meet the department’s objectives, provide employment counseling and career education for law students, develop relations with the legal employment community and expands the traditional and non-traditional employment market scope both substantively and geographically, and build relations with bar associations for networking and employment opportunities.

To learn more about what a typical day might look like for this position, read this. To apply, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

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.

Plan Before You Borrow: What You Should Know About Educational Loans BEFORE You Go to Graduate School

Thursday, May 10, 2-3 p.m. EDT

Interested in government or public interest work after graduating? This webinar will help you plan ahead and make sure you can take full advantage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

The webinar will teach you about:

– Taking out the right kind of loans

– Consolidating or reconsolidating your previous student loans

– How the College Cost Reduction and Access Act can free you to pursue a public interest career

Register here.

by Kristen Pavón

Summer is finally here! What better way to celebrate than by sipping Piña Coladas poolside reading?! For pleasure! Imagine that.

Photo courtesy of http://waterytart23.blogspot.com

Last year, after graduation and the bar exam, I went on a leisure-reading binge — I must’ve read 10 books in less than 6 months! I had forgotten how colorful the world of non-case law books could be!

Well, now we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of 35 fiction and non-fiction books for the public interest-minded crowd. You can check them out here.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think!

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.

Plan Before You Borrow: What You Should Know About Educational Loans BEFORE You Go to Graduate School

Thursday, April 12, 2-3 p.m. EDT

Interested in government or public interest work after graduating? This webinar will help you plan ahead and make sure you can take full advantage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

The webinar will teach you about:

– Taking out the right kind of loans

– Consolidating or reconsolidating your previous student loans

– How the College Cost Reduction and Access Act can free you to pursue a public interest career

Register here.

The Assistant Director, Public Interest (Assistant Director) will be responsible for developing new programs, bringing coherence to WCL’s vision and managing the many on-going public interest/pro bono projects sponsored by WCL. 

This position will be an advocate for public interest law and will be responsible for maintaining an institutionalized, formal Pro Bono Honors Pledge Program that promotes specific work opportunities and offers students guidance in selecting pro bono projects.

The Assistant Director will encourage students to volunteer and become active participants during their law school career. The individual will also have oversight responsibilities for the Public Interest Public Service (PIPS) Scholarship Program and will work with each class of PIPS scholars to focus on various public service commitments while in law school.