American Bar Association / ABA, Law Schools, Money, Quote of the Day

The ABA Doesn't Care If Law Students Are Poor

Law students would be better off if they could receive pay for academic internships, but the ABA doesn't care.

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To ask the students to, on top of [paying for law school], do an internship and not get paid for it, I think that’s just ludicrous. The ABA should do better.

— Monalisa Dugué, a student at Valparaiso University Law School, commenting on the fact that the American Bar Association prohibits law students from receiving monetary compensation for academic credit-bearing internships and externships. Dugué, a mother of two, was forced to leave an internship this summer because working for free “became too expensive” — her financial situation eventually became so dire that she “couldn’t even afford to put food in the refrigerator.”

(The ABA had the chance to revise its rule barring pay for academic credit-bearing internships and externships this summer, but law students’ hopes were quickly dashed. Better luck next time, struggling students.)

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