Deciding On A Public Interest Law School 101

If you're looking to go into public interest work, lay the groundwork before you even set foot on campus.

law_school1-e13663075495591-RFIt’s been awhile since this column ventured into the territory of law school selection for prospective public interest lawyers. But ‘tis the season, so forth we venture: First, let’s recap what you, prospective public interest lawyers, should be looking for in your law schools. Then, let’s take a look at some good things a couple of law schools are doing to support students like you.

So you want to be a public interest lawyer. You’ve taken the LSAT, fired off your applications, and received some yeses — congratulations! Now where should you go?

My first recommendation is also my most emphatic: avoid debt. Go for free if you can. There are exceptions, of course: if you get into Yale, go there! (And ignore the rest of what I say.) But for the rest of us, debt avoidance should be principle number one. You don’t want to be $180,000 in debt — or $80,000 in debt, for that matter — when you launch into your $40,000-a-year legal aid job. So yes, if you can go for free, don’t worry about prestige — just do it.

My second recommendation is to look for other forms of support the law school offers: Best would be a program like the University of Washington’s Gates Scholar program that covers your books and living expenses as well as tuition. More common, and very important, are programs like a summer stipend system that’ll pay you when you get that unpaid summer position at the nonprofit of your dreams, or a generous loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) that’ll help you pay down any loans you might take out to pay for living expenses while you’re in school.

Also keep an eye out for non-financial support for aspiring public interest lawyers — things like a standalone public interest institute housed within the law school, a public-interest-focused clinical program, and of course academic offerings that mesh well with what you want to do. All these can help you find your brethren and help you not to stray from the path of the angels.

I promised at the outset that I’d give a couple examples of good things law schools are doing to support prospective public interest lawyers. The University of New Mexico School of Law just received a grant that will fund what appears to be a nicely engineered public interest program there.  Here’s how it works:

The program begins by supporting “law student ambassadors” who will “reach[] out to high schools and colleges serving student populations traditionally underrepresented in social justice lawyering across the state.” Students from this pool (and others) may enter into a program in the law school focused on “social justice training,” which comes with a $15,000 scholarship and $5000 in summer funding. (I assume both these numbers are annual rather than cumulative, but I don’t know for sure.) Now, a $15,000 scholarship sounds paltry — until you realize that in-state tuition at the University of New Mexico School of Law is $15,940. So that’s all but a full ride.  And the program doesn’t stop there: it will also “create two-year fellowships with local nonprofits and will allow for salary and loan repayment assistance.”

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If these details check out, then the University of New Mexico has just built itself a really nice public interest program. It checks the boxes for debt avoidance, summer stipends, loan repayment assistance, and non-financial support. Go ahead and take a look.

The other new development worth noting is that Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law has added some nice forms of support for its public-interest-oriented students. First is what Northwestern believes to be “the most generous summer public interest funding guarantee of any law school in the country” — a guarantee of $8,000 for a summer of public interest work. That is a good deal indeed. And second is financial support for off-campus job fairs (often very helpful for public interest hiring) and public interest job interviews. These are the kinds of details that make life just a little easier for students eschewing the big bucks to follow their heartstrings and do some good.

So, prospective public interest lawyers: there’s a world of possibilities out there. Sort through them with care, and good luck!


Sam Wright is a dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding-heart public interest lawyer who has spent his career exclusively in nonprofits and government. If you have ideas, questions, kudos, or complaints about his column or public interest law in general, send him an email at PublicInterestATL@gmail.com.

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