One of the most exciting and overwhelming aspects of public service is that there are so many different career paths to explore. While many of my peers in public service pursued laudable careers in prosecution and public defense, I sought out less traditional experiences. Though choosing less common paths can be risky, it can also… Continue reading In Support of Non-Traditional Lawyering
Category: Student Posts
Thinking About Externships?
Externship application season is quickly approaching, and you may be wondering whether an externship is right for you. Externships might seem scary because they take up your entire semester and/or may be located outside of Charlottesville. This past semester I had the pleasure of completing a full-time, individualized externship at Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal)… Continue reading Thinking About Externships?
Shaping Justice Conference Inspires, Activates Students
It’s not always easy to keep in mind why we’re in law school. However we plan to use our education, the daily demands associated with getting that education often distract us from our goals and the values that inform them. The law school institution itself, for better and for worse, can feel isolated from the… Continue reading Shaping Justice Conference Inspires, Activates Students
Get Out: Becoming a Practice-Ready Lawyer
Law school is an ivory tower. It exists hundreds of miles above our clients’ on-the-ground experiences. We sit in these rooms—divorced from reality—deriving “holdings” from age-old judicial opinions. We theorize, contemplate, and speculate about principles of law from our aerial view. And in the “elevated” exercises of the traditional law school class's Socratic method, we… Continue reading Get Out: Becoming a Practice-Ready Lawyer
Reflections from a Courtroom
I had never walked into a courtroom before law school. The only people I knew who had been in courtrooms entered as defendants. For me, courtrooms had a very serious and almost terrifying power about them. And yet this year, I have walked into a courtroom at least once a week. To say the experience… Continue reading Reflections from a Courtroom
Convincing the Skeptics
As a law student who arrived at UVA knowing that I wanted to do public service immigration work, I have at times felt like I was swimming upstream. Most 1Ls either plan to work in the private sector or have not yet found their niche within the legal community. As someone who did not fit… Continue reading Convincing the Skeptics
The Public Service Imperative
Life is beautiful. It is easy to get wrapped up in our work and our goals and struggles and to forget what an absolute gift it is to be on this earth, to wake up each day, to experience the myriad joys, great and small, that each day holds. To move through our lives, to… Continue reading The Public Service Imperative
Amicus Advocacy: An Alternative Path in Impact Lit
Many of us in the LPS community are interested in impact litigation – indeed, analyzing how to construct an impact lit campaign was a centerpiece of Professor Coughlin’s Law & Public Service class for fellows this past spring. While affirmative litigation remains the focus of organizations like the ACLU, NAACP LDF, and the Brennan Center,… Continue reading Amicus Advocacy: An Alternative Path in Impact Lit
Why Environmental Law is Public Service Law
Public Service Law is not a field whose boundaries can be cleanly demarcated based on the subject matter addressed, the type of client represented, or the policy positions taken by its practitioners. This much is obvious to members of the public service legal community, which includes prosecutors and defenders, government agencies and nonprofits, client-focused work… Continue reading Why Environmental Law is Public Service Law
My Public Service Identity (Crisis?)
If you’re reading this “Law and Public Service” blog, I imagine you came to law school, or are currently considering law school, because you believe the law will equip you with a powerful tool for social change. While that wasn’t the only reason I came to law school, it was certainly the driving force. I… Continue reading My Public Service Identity (Crisis?)
