Young Lawyers Turn to Public Service.

[elleng]

“This is an amazing work environment,” said Mr. Richardson, who graduated from the University of Chicago Law School. “I’m working with a lot of really smart people and getting published. I’m not sure if there’s anywhere else I could do this, at least at this point in my career.”

Mr. Richardson claims that everyone he knows has at least considered staying in public interest — and law school faculty members confirm that they are seeing a growing interest in that field.

Other deferred associates like Avi Singh see public interest law as a “sustaining motivation” that keeps him coming to work every day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/us/20defer.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage





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BACK to the FUTURE!!! This is GREAT news!

[UrbScotty]

1. Kick!

Just a bit too late to rec. Thanks elleng!

[elleng]

2. You're welcome, Urb! HAPPY that someone saw this! I think its great news!

[The Hitman]

3. Oh please

These guys are getting paid $75k from their corporatist law firms.

Don't get me wrong, I like these programs, but they aren't the most altruistic folks.

[elleng]

4. Oh really?

'Other deferred associates like Avi Singh see public interest law as a “sustaining motivation” that keeps him coming to work every day. Mr. Singh is a 2009 Harvard Law School graduate who decided to stay on with the Santa Clara County public defender’s office in San Jose, Calif., instead of returning to the firm Quinn Emmanuel after a four-month deferral. “Here, I’m helping clients on a very basic level,” he said.

“What’s interesting about the deferral process is that, even though I thought it wasn’t right, it got me to pursue what I wanted to do in the first place,” Mr. Singh said.

Educators say more students are holding on to their attraction to public interest law throughout law school.

“For the first time, there is now a public interest lawyer in the Oval Office,” said Diane T. Chin, the director of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School, as one explanation for why more young lawyers are considering service careers.

In 2009, 25 students entering their third year at Stanford Law indicated a commitment to public service. In 2010, that number was 36, according to Ms. Chin. The average class size is 180.'

[The Hitman]

6. Ain't no jobs in the private sector.

Thats what I think is motivating it.

[elleng]

9. I think you don't know much if anything about the practice of law.

[The Hitman]

16. Well

I have a J.D. and just took the bar exam. True, I have not been a practicing lawyer. Have you?

[elleng]

19. Yes, I'm a retired attorney, practiced as a VISTA volunteer attorney

working on immigration matters in Colorado, private criminal and appellate in Chicago, U.S. government administrative (transportation) in DC, and private contract work with firms (transportation) and temp research and document review work. I know a bit about various kinds of work, as well as ups and downs in the 'market,' which changes with time and geography.

[Recursion]

5. "he has decided to say no to Latham and stay with public interest law, even though it pays far less"

Just can't win, can he?

[The Hitman]

7. Good for him.

My apologies, I need to read closer. But I still argue he is the exception to the rule.

I think our law schools have been selling snake oil. I for one am $200k in student loan debt without a job. When I came in as a 1L, I was told that "the market is so hot, they would have to hire your whole class to keep up."

Should have went to public school. Sigh.

[Recursion]

8. I've been thinking lately of taking the LSAT

Because the future of engineering isn't looking so hot. But you're not the first lawyer I've heard say not to bother. Sigh.

[elleng]

10. Take it, if you're interested.

I am a lawyer, father, brother, cousin and uncles are/were lawyers. There are MANY areas of the law, something like medicine, and there's no way to determine at this time what the market in any particular area will be like in 3 years.

Certainly won't hurt to take LSAT.

[Recursion]

11. I do naval engineering right now; maritime law would be cool

I don't think I'd want to do the September one, but maybe December. *shrug*

[elleng]

12. Maritime interesting; history-laden.

Govt possibility, as well as large private/international sector. And military!

AND I really like the idea of engineer+law! GO FOR IT!

[Recursion]

13. Towards the end even the college of engineering was recommending it

Basically, "sorry that we've given you a degree for a field with no jobs. Try law school (for EE) or med school (for BME)." But I do know there are a lot of EE + JD people in patent law. It's just I have less than no interest in that. But before the collapse they were recommending EE's go to wall street. Rather than, say, reinventing the US grid.

[The Hitman]

17. IP law

It's still pretty hot right now. People in IP with less than stellar grades have much higher job prospects than those who are not qualified for the patent bar.

But it's not worth dedicating your career and $100k + in loans to something you won't enjoy.

Why not try to ask an IP lawyer out to lunch or something and pick their brain on it? If there's one thing lawyers (and people like myself who are about to become lawyers) love, it's talking about themselves.

If you don't know anybody, there are plenty of networking opportunities, such as the Bar or maybe a local law school's admissions office can point you to someone.

Do you by chance happen to live near DC?

[The Hitman]

15. I wouldn't go that far

If you want to be a lawyer, I don't think you should let a bleak economic outlook hurt you. There are plenty of folks with rewarding careers in a variety of fields.

But if you want to get rich working at a megafirm, it's not a safe bet. Tuition is high and the prospects are low.

Take a look at Above the Law, perhaps the most popular blog on the legal profession. www.abovethelaw.com. It's a great source for lots of info on hiring and firing and the "biglaw" life.

PM me if you want more of my take.

At any rate, don't let it dissuade you from taking the LSAT. Your scores are good for, what, 6 years? It's not terrible expensive either.

[seattleblue]

14. Public interest has always been a fall back for unemployed lawyers.

Unemployment is very high in the legal field. Law schools try and hide this by including any employment -- not just being a lawyer -- in the employment statistics for their graduates. It is fraud. The ABA continues to accredit new law schools every year when we have way too many already. The internet has reduced the need for time doing research that many lawyers used to do. Government documents are much easier to find and review now because of computer use. Legal work such as document review is being off sourced to India by way of the internet. So now everyone has a big interest in public interest. Right.

[The Hitman]

18. Indeed

And might I add, those with "legal" jobs are making $10 an hour working for a professor, 10-20 hours a week. Yet the school counts them in with those pulling in $160k starting at some megafirm.

It's false advertising.