ambivalent comment

I'm late to this party but I want to thank PD Dude for the great response to my questions, and everyone else for the insight they've offered into employment situations at different PD offices. the MO and FL PD systems sound pretty cool, but, well, they're in MO and FL. ;-) But seriously, I'm hoping to be further north and west, generally. I've heard CO has a statewide system like you describe for MO. I bet somewhere I could find a central database of information on the different PD systems in each state -- does anyone know where something like that would be? About paying law clerks: I've amost never worked for free, although since starting law school, I've rarely recieved any monetary compensation. To suggest that accepting alternative forms of compensation in exchange for your time and effort as a law clerk is "whoring" -- well, I appreciate the implicit desire to protect the rights of workers, but such a sentiment also suggests an excessive fixation on the almighty dollar. That's where your comparison to Mexican farmworkers breaks down -- what can those workers get from their farmwork besides a paycheck? Nothing. They're not learning new skills or making connections to advance their careers or enrich their lives, so money becomes all-important -- there's simply no other way to compensate them for their work. If the same can be said about a legal internship, you need to find another internship, because I guarantee you that money is about the least valuable form of compensation available from a good legal internship. Sure, I would love to get paid for my internships, but I value the experience I've gained far more than I value money. If I had to choose whether to get paid or get great experience doing something I really care about, I'd choose the experience any day. In a way, that's exactly the choice I've made in rejecting the BigLaw you confess to being a part of. If I can understand your desire for dollars w/out calling you a whore, perhaps you could try and understand my desire for other values w/out calling me one?