Alms Fellowships for the Poor: Only Unemployed Columbia Law Grads Need Apply
We’ve been trying to stay on top of all the things law schools can do to help their students who have been crushed by the current economic environment. Although it’s a little bit late, it looks like Columbia Law School will be offering a helping hand for some of its recent graduates that haven’t been able to find a job.
On Friday, Dean David Schizer offered five fellowships to the Columbia class of 2009:
I am delighted to announce the creation of five new fellowship opportunities for graduates pursuing careers in public interest law and government service: the Social Justice Pathways Fellowships. Each of the fellowships will carry a $25,000 stipend to fund up to eight months of work. The members of the J.D. Class of 2009 are the first class eligible to become Social Justice Pathways Fellows.These fellowships serve two important purposes. First, they allow qualified graduates committed to a career in public interest law to gain the experience, skills and networks that will assist them to get full-time jobs in their fields. Second, they provide talented young lawyers to organizations that are confronting great demand and diminished resources.
Cue the “they’re only doing this to massage their U.S. News ‘employed upon graduation’ statistic” in 3 … 2 … 1 …
More details after the jump.
NYU students might scream that Columbia has ulterior, U.S. News law school rankings, motives for the fellowship program. That isn’t going to matter much to the five otherwise unemployed recent graduates who get the fellowship:
The Social Justice Pathways Fellowships will be awarded to five graduates in the J.D. Class of 2009, presently unemployed, who seek job opportunities in public interest or government law offices. The Social Justice Program, directed by Dean Ellen Chapnick, will work with applicants to identify not-for-profit organizations or government agencies that would be a good match. Priority will be given to organizations that agree to provide summer internships and pro bono opportunities to current Columbia Law School students.
It’s kind of a law school version of an incoming associate deferral program isn’t it? The school will give you money, you will work for a non-profit, hopefully in a year everything will be better and we can never speak of this again.
And while $25K is a lot less than law firms are offering deferred incoming associates, it beats the bag out of a New York State unemployment check.
Good luck, “I’m so totally screwed” Pathways Fellowship applicants. Anytime you get a chance to get off the dole, you have to take it.
Read the full announcement below.
COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL — STATEMENT — FELLOWSHIP
I am delighted to announce the creation of five new fellowship opportunities for graduates pursuing careers in public interest law and government service: the Social Justice Pathways Fellowships. Each of the fellowships will carry a $25,000 stipend to fund up to eight months of work. The members of the J.D. Class of 2009 are the first class eligible to become Social Justice Pathways Fellows.
These fellowships serve two important purposes. First, they allow qualified graduates committed to a career in public interest law to gain the experience, skills and networks that will assist them to get full-time jobs in their fields. Second, they provide talented young lawyers to organizations that are confronting great demand and diminished resources.
The Social Justice Pathways Fellowships will be awarded to five graduates in the J.D. Class of 2009, presently unemployed, who seek job opportunities in public interest or government law offices. The Social Justice Program, directed by Dean Ellen Chapnick, will work with applicants to identify not-for-profit organizations or government agencies that would be a good match. Priority will be given to organizations that agree to provide summer internships and pro bono opportunities to current Columbia Law School students.
Interested students are required to notify the Law School of their intent to apply for a Social Justice Pathways Fellowship by the end of May. A formal application — which will include a commitment letter from a prospective employer — will be made during the summer. The fellowships will be awarded in time for the fellows to start work in September.
This program provides graduates with real opportunities to practice the kind of law that strengthens society and improves the world in which we live. I encourage you to learn more about this exciting new opportunity by contacting the Social Justice Program’s Center for Public Interest Law.
David
Earlier: Open Thread: What Can Law Schools Do?
Northwestern Law Gets ‘Proactive’
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Comments
fuck first
Couldn't have happened to a better group of people.
UVA2L
You're welcome!
what the hell is a colombia law school?
Um, they wouldn't collect unemployment, since they haven't been working (they'd be on welfare), but who cares about the law, minor minor details.
I suppose I should know the answer to this question, but is Columbia Law School accredited by the American Bar Association?
What a joke, this is just to boost their employment rates for US News and to provide cheap labor for the socially progressive nonsense that law schools spew out ad nauseum
Sprio Agnew never needed a fellowship
You would think MysTTTal would be cognizant of how the unemployment insurance system works, such as how you have to have worked for six months (and thus paid into the insurance system) before you're eligible, which would not include any unemployed Class of 2009 graduates.
Or did he expect that people automatically get free government money for doing nothing?
Change we can believe in.
I blame this miscarriage of bureaucracy on the gays.
Michele Obama's Penis
Unemployed Colombian attorneys can go sell drugs like everyone else in Colombia, so who cares?
I thought this site was for American lawyers.
How does offering fellowships to 5 students out of the entire graduating class indicate that "they're only doing this to massage their U.S. News `employed upon graduation' statistic"? A bit of a leap, don't you think?
I've had just about enough of your Vassar bashing
You all wish you had our CLS numbers.
Are there seriously unemployed 3Ls at CLS? Show yourselves.
And by unemployed, I mean not deferred
And by unemployed, I mean not deferred either
I know some unemployed CLS 3Ls
My other car is a Vagina filled with centipedes
NYU Law has done this for a long time.
18- are they bottom 10% or just unemployable or both?
For the record, Columbia and NYU (and I imagine other schools, but those are the two I know of for sure) do a version of this every year with the public interest people who don't have jobs at graduation because the hiring season is late (or bad). This Columbia $25k fellowship thing is just a better paid, more formalized version of what's been happening for years in hush-hush conversations with the concerned 3Ls. I know people from both CLS and NYU who were offered this money/fellowship arrangement in the past, though only two (over a few years) who actually ended up having to take it. Most of the people who have it offered to them end up geting job offers in late May or June (i.e. when Legal Aid gets its shit together) and don't need the fallback. Of course, I imagine things are quite different this year and that's why Columbia formalized this.
21 - One is unemployable and did not get a biglaw offer from the summer. Another had a permanent offer rescinded. Both summered at biglaw firms meaning probably not bottom 10%. Bottom 10% probably have nothing with a good salary.
Wait...aren't 'fellowships' like where you go bang old people for no money and they teach you things about a certain craft, like shoemaking?
Pls Advise
(22 again) And they're not bottom 10% or unemployable. They're looking for public interest jobs. These are hard to come by straight out if you don't win the fellowship lottery in any year, and this year the deferred folks and funding cuts are crowding out the graduating public interest-bound 3Ls.
Why would you go to CLS if you are interested in public interest anyway
If you went to CLS you would know that there are no class rankings.
Comment removed by moderator.
I heard CLS chicks all have AIDS.
What kind of gpa gets you bottom 10% at CLS?
NAMBLA scholarship = CLS gunner
#28 Great put down - you assume that if I am smart enough to get into CLS, I must be gay or a Jew or both. What a pathetic master race you represent ! -TTT for you
32 - sorry about your tiny pink HLS rejection
I know for a fact that all graduating 3Ls have jobs.
34 - how do you know this?
I personally know at least 3 people laid off from BOTH NYU and Columbia (over 6 total).
I don't even know that many people, so I would have to assume that they are just the tip of the iceberg.
It's pretty rough out there.
CLS is physically located in the middle of a friggin' ghetto and these five idiots can only get hired by their law school? Really?! Has it really come to this for CLS??!! Yikes--CLS makes NYLS look good.
"Yikes--CLS makes NYLS look good."
blatant HLS trolling
"Priority will be given to organizations that agree to provide summer internships and pro bono opportunities to current Columbia Law School students."
Sounds like a blatant attempt to bribe someone--anyone--into working with a CLS grad. I bet it doesn't work. Everyone knows CLS grads are categorically d-bags.
On the other hand, there may be a detrimental reliance argument here. Even if there were, I wouldn't expect a CLS grad to know where to look to parse that out, though.