Getting a permanent job in the public interest is harder than getting a job at a large company. However, if you want to work in a small business in a small town, the effort is similar. This is because public benefit organizations (and small businesses), with the exception of large state-owned employers, sometimes have vacancies (compared to 50 new employees per year in a large private sector law firm) and have limited resources. These two facts often mean they don`t hire recruiters, don`t join the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), don`t attend law school job fairs, and can`t send notifications about their vacancies. That doesn`t mean they don`t want you, it just means you have to go to them. Compared to the active recruitment cycle of large companies in the fall, the hiring process may seem more difficult in the public interest. However, this is exactly what a normal job search looks like when you`re no longer a law student. From the students` point of view, this decision makes a lot of sense. What`s wrong with working in a law firm for a few years when you can pay off your debts, gain good legal experience, and spend most of your career in the public interest? What are a few years in the grand scheme of things! Realistically, it is important to think about your financial situation and your future when deciding whether or not to go into public law.
While there are certainly ways to make it work, and many people do, a public interest salary can cause financial stress and uncertainty, especially if you live in a big city. All of this can be overcome by ensuring that we do a lot of pro bono work during private practice, maintain and maintain contacts in the public interest community, and continue to live a simple life. Make sure you have an exit strategy: know when you`re ready to leave the company. This could be if you have repaid a predetermined amount of your loans, if you have acquired a certain skill, or another quantifiable benchmark. Try to volunteer as much as possible in the company. If you are unable to do so, try to maintain your public interests by volunteering in a non-legal context, serving on the board of directors of an organization that is important to you, or joining relevant bar committees. Both inside and outside government, public interest advocates work on environmental issues, predatory lending, debt collection issues, and more. Their work may include litigation before the courts, practice within or before government agencies, efforts to shape agency laws and rules, and the preparation of reports and documents designed to push for reform. There`s a reason public interest lawyers are among the happiest in the legal profession: they use their legal skills to fight for important causes and marginalized clients who otherwise have little hope of a chance in our legal system.
Start by looking at clinical and external offerings from a law school. Most of these options allow you to combine excellent legal education and public service while earning academic credits. Public interest lawyers work in a variety of fields. Choose almost any topic in the news and any area where people are struggling, and you`ll find public interest lawyers working tirelessly for them. Public interest law has its challenges, and it certainly does not lend itself to an easy career path. It also has immeasurable rewards and can make it easy to live with from the heart. Your decision as to whether you want to deliver justice in the public interest is a very individual decision that requires weighing many factors, including your willingness to accept uncertainty in exchange for profound life experiences. If you`re not quite ready for law school, you can still get a taste of public interest law in many ways. Most public interest organizations and government agencies employ non-lawyers (paid and unpaid) to assist their lawyers.
These non-lawyers can serve as paralegals, investigators, data collectors and in a variety of other ways that provide an important service and allow you to learn more about public interest law. Given that research shows that a happy life as a lawyer involves interesting, engaging, personally meaningful, and focused work on helping others, it`s no surprise that public interest advocates find such satisfaction in their legal careers. Take a close look at the skills and knowledge you are likely to gain at a large law firm and see if they are transferable to the public interest work you want. If you develop an in-depth knowledge of mergers and acquisitions in the business, it is unlikely to be useful in the area of public interest.