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What is Public Interest legal work?
Every year the GW Equal Justice Foundation (EJF) gives out around 10 grants to students who are doing “public interest” legal jobs for no pay during the coming summer. And every year the GW EJF struggles to answer the question: What is public interest? The question comes up because you have to have a “public interest” legal job in order to receive a grant.
The language we've used the past two years to “define” such legal jobs reads:
The employer must be a non-profit 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organization or a government agency. • Preference will be given to employers directly representing indigent, historically oppressed, or underrepresented people. • Employers advocating on behalf of indigent, historically oppressed, or underrepresented communities will also be considered. Indigent, historically oppressed, and underrepresented people and communities includes, but is not limited to, low income people and communities, victims of crimes, minorities, and gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons.
So the shorthand for that is if you work directly with needy clients, that almost definitely qualifies as a public interest job. If you advocate on behalf of needy people (e.g. in a more policy-oriented capacity, such as a human rights NGO), then you may qualify, but only if we have sufficient funds.
That all may sound clear enough as far as it goes, but the hard part comes when we have to look at specific legal jobs. For example, which of the following positions would you classify as a public interest job?
- Public Defender intern.
- Legal Aid Intern.
- Human rights NGO internship or similar (working for an organization which may write amicus briefs for litigation, but otherwise only “serves” or “works with” clients in a very broad sense.
- Prosecution intern.
- Judicial Clerk.
- Political intern (e.g. for a member of congress or local government official. These positions often are presented to the EJF tied to a specific project. For example, the student and employer both say “Student X will be researching and drafting model legislation to ensure that all children 18 and under will have full-service health care in our city.”)
I'm sure there are other options, but these are some broad categories that we have to deal with. My own initial preference has always been to fund the first three (in that order), and not the last three. However, many feel very strongly that jobs in the first four categories are clearly “public interest” legal jobs.
What do you think? Which of the above jobs is a public interest legal job and if you had to define such a job, how would you do it?
Posted April 16, 2006 12:13 PM | 3L
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I agree with your break down. Gtown won't fund any clerkships or political work for EJF summer fellowships. As far as the prosecutorial positions, they can be funded (after graduation, we have a separate LRAP program especially for prosecutors). I like EJF @ Gtown because they let people who donate money vote who they fund. Then everybody gets a say!
Posted by: AC at April 16, 2006 07:35 PM
I realize this may generate some negative comments, but I think that there is a need in today's legal and financial climate to help someone who is willing to work in a small or medium size firm that involves itself with a significant amount of CJA (or assigned counsel) work or Pro Bono work.
When I was at the Legal Aid Society, we were out-earning a lot of small firm and solo practioners. Moreover we had all kinds of help to wit: Social workers, Investigators, Secretaries and a steady crop of young and interested law and college students to do everything from file briefs and interview clients to fetch lunch.
Go to a courtroom one day and watch all the rich clients show up with their wealthy lawyers, then look at the indigent and the spirit and youth of their lawyers. Then watch a guy whose kid gets busted for Larceny or Aggravated Harassment, ask the judge for counsel and get turned down because he owns a home or has a $15 an hour job so he makes over $600 a week before taxes. He'll ask "does the kid need a lawyer?" "Do you know of any lawyers who will work for what I can afford?" (like about $500) It gets worse in the felony stage.
The guy will be besiged by the "dump truck" lawyers who roam the hallways of the court house. They will take his weeks wage (or 2) and plead the kid out without so much as taking a fact statement from the kid.
Every Law Prof or LAS (or PD) knows a lawyer who works for these kinds of people and does a good job for them. He'd help out more, but there are only so many hours in a day. I think with a screening committee these lawyers should be able to apply for the kind of students you are helping out here. These kids will get a lot of hands on experience and the lawyer might get to take a day off here and there and recharge the battery.
I have been lucky, I have a son who has been interning with me since Jr. High (kind of an indentured servant according to him.) He was just accepted to GW undergrad. (We're going to be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday this week in fact. Send an e-mail and I will spring for coffee.) If GW EJF ever funds a scholarship for small and solos who do the work I described, I'll donate $300.00 to start the fund off. I'd make it more but with a new 50K tuition bill...
Posted by: That Lawyer Dude at April 16, 2006 11:07 PM
