The New York Law Journal reports that the number of summer interns working in government or at non-profit organizations is up this year. This “bumper crop” of public interest summer interns is partially a result of the increased funding for such work from many law schools, making it much easier to find and accept positions. Harvard Law School guarantees summer funding for all its students doing public service work through the SPIF program. The article, which quotes HLS students Christine M. Billy ‘08 and Kara Loewentheil ‘08, also notes that public interest jobs offer more responsibility than summer work at private firms. Full story here (free subscription required).
July 23rd, 2007
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opia |
News, Students |
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Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air interviews Louise Arbour, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ms. Arbour, onetime chief prosecutor in the Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunals, discusses U.S. policy on detainees in the fight against terrorism, as well as her position as a female lawyer and the differences between her work as a prosecutor and at the U.N.
July 23rd, 2007
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News |
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William Dalrymple’s recent piece in the New Yorker investigates the May lawyers’ demonstrations in the streets of Islamabad against the military government of President Pervez Musharraf. Dalrymple focuses on Asma Jahangir, one of Pakistan’s top human-rights lawyers, who has “spent her professional life fighting for a secular civil society, challenging the mullahs and generals, and championing the rights of women at risk of ‘honor killing’ and religious minorities accused of blashpemy.”
July 23rd, 2007
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Adam Liptak reports on a recent study which found that lawyers paid by the hour are less qualified and achieve worse results for their clients than public defenders earning salaries.
The study, conducted by Radha Iyengar of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, concludes that “appointed lawyers impose an additional $5,800 in costs for the system for every case they handle,” costing “taxpayers $61 million a year more than salaried public defenders would.” Defendants represented by court-appointed lawyers also received longer sentences: eights months longer on average, and up to a year and a half more for those convicted of weapons charges. Full New York Times story here. Text of the study here (.pdf).
July 16th, 2007
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Travis Altman writes in TheStreet.com that the rising cost of a law degree is harming grads’ abilities to go into public interest work. “Attorneys from the class of 2005 borrowed nearly $80,000 on average if they went to a private institution and just over $50,000 if they attended a public institution,” he writes. Altman cites Equal Justice Works as one way law grads can find assistance while doing public service work.
Harvard Law School’s Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP), the first law school program of its kind, is designed to ameliorate this post-graduate financial issue, preserving freedom of job choice for HLS grads. Lea Weems ‘05, who receives financial help from both Equal Justice Works and Harvard, is cited in Altman’s article as one graduate who lives a relatively comfortable lifestyle while doing public interest work in Chicago. “‘I am in a very lucky position,’ she says.”
July 11th, 2007
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Alumni, News |
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Slate reports that even two years after Katrina, there is still a shortage of public defenders in New Orleans. What can law firms do help the Bayou’s criminal-defense bar recover? Slate article here.
The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog also picks up the story, comparing it to a recent WSJ op-ed criticizing U.S. law firms for not doing more to help the Iraqi bar.
July 9th, 2007
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News |
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Last week’s Supreme Court decision declared that public schools can’t take explicit account of race to achieve integration, but will a colorblindness mandate succeed? New York Times story here.
July 2nd, 2007
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News, Supreme Court |
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