Happy Bunny

Two years ago I mentioned the “Thank you easter bunny, bawk bawk” M&Ms commercial that popped into my head for some reason in relation to Easter. Recently, one of the people who claims to have been one of the kids in the commercial (I'm not sure which one) wrote me and sent the link so you can now download or watch it for yourself.

From that entry two years ago it seems I was pretty bitter about world events. Perhaps I've just become resigned to the fact that when things look bad, they can always get worse, so and instead of treating you to another rant I'll just wish you all: Happy Easter!

Posted 01:10 PM | TrackBack | life generally

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?

1. Public Defender intern.
2. Legal Aid Intern.
3. 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.
4. Prosecution intern.
5. Judicial Clerk.
6. 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 12:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | 3L