With Barack Obama headed to the White House, government and public interest law jobs are suddenly looking like good options for a growing number of law students.
Deborah Ellis, assistant dean for public interest law at New York University (NYU) School of Law, had sensed growing enthusiasm for government law jobs during the course of the presidential campaign, when Obama repeatedly extolled the value of public service.
But a recent e-mail to law school faculty from a third-year student highlighted the extent to which some students have taken Obama’s message to heart.
“He has an offer from a New York law firm, but he said he is now looking at pursuing a job in the Obama administration,” Ellis said. “There is a great deal of interest in the federal government, and that is exciting to me.”
Interest in government jobs from NYU law students has been scant during the Bush administration, Ellis said, and the feeling was apparently mutual. NYU’s “progressive law students,” Ellis said, had little luck obtaining jobs with the U.S. Department of Justice during the past eight years.
A pipeline
David Stern, executive director of Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization that promotes public service law among law school students, said he believes that the Obama administration will create a pipeline from law schools to government law jobs. It would follow the pattern established by John F. Kennedy, who, like Obama, was a very charismatic attorney who encouraged public service, he said.
“Years ago, when Kennedy was president, people looked at public service as a noble calling,” Stern said. “I think we’re going to see a similar resurgence. I think we will see some Big Law attorneys who say, ‘This is my opportunity to do something for the world.’ “
Not only is Obama inspiring a new wave of enthusiasm for government and public-sector legal work among students, law school administrators and advocates of public interest law say they are hopeful that an Obama presidency will mean added financial assistance for people who opt for those types of jobs.
“He has spoken many times about providing debt relief to people who go into public service,” said Robert Klonoff, dean of Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. “In him, I think we have somebody who is a real advocate of public service, and I sense that there is a lot of hope that he will make it easier for people to go into public service law.”
Obama has advocated for quadrupling the AmeriCorps program and expanding the Peace Corps, among other things.
Klonoff said he often hears from students who would like to go into public interest law but worry that they can’t make a living and pay off students loans. About 50% of Lewis & Clark law graduates go into public interest and public service jobs, and they aren’t the only ones struggling to make the numbers work.
Lawyers in public interest and public sector jobs typically make far less than attorneys who work at law firms. For example, a recent report by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) found that the median entry-level salary for public defenders nationwide is $47,000. By contrast, $160,000 is a typical starting salary at private law firms in large cities, according to the NALP’s associate salary survey.
Klonoff and Stern said they would like to see Obama provide more federal money to help repay the student debt of graduates who go into public interest law. It’s not uncommon for students to leave law school with $100,000 or more in debt. A growing number of schools have their own loan repayment assistance programs, although most pay only a portion of students’ law school loans.
A new federal loan forgiveness program will begin this summer, but it is available only to attorneys who stay at their public- sector law jobs for 10 years. Stern said he would like to see a similar program available to people who work in public-sector law jobs for five years.
This article originally appeared online Nov. 6.
