Doing Good Is Doing Well
Public service is popular again among students, and law schools are taking note
To meet the need, many schools are expanding clinics that serve clients while teaching practical skills. Some examples:
Students in the Disability Law Clinic of Pennsylvania's Dickinson School of Law file cases for people charging wrongful denials of Social Security aid.
An institute at the University of New Mexico School of Law provides legal services to native American tribes.
Wake Forest students counsel elderly patients referred by the university's medical residents.
Bridgeport School of Law in Connecticut runs a clinic where students help 150 clients annually with tax problems. Last year, one such case made it to the Supreme Court; many of the 24 students who worked on it watched Prof. Stuart Filler present arguments to the justices.
Conservatives and libertarians who think clinics promote liberal politics rather than serve the public have begun a small-scale option. Each year, the Institute for Justice brings two dozen students to Washington for training in cases that reflect free-market principles and property rights.
Despite conservative objections, 11 schools believe so strongly in the service ideal that they have decided to require pro bono work for graduation. The trend began in 1988 with Tulane's 20-hour rule. The University of Pennsylvania mandates 70 hours. Penn's Judith Bernstein-Baker says, "Lawyers can contribute to society in many ways, and we give them a broad choice," from helping AIDS patients write living wills to teaching "street law" to public-school students who may be ignorant of their legal rights. But should students be forced into community service to earn degrees? The issue will be debated in April at an American Bar Association conference. Harvard's Clark argues that mandatory programs are unnecessary; he notes that Harvard's voluntary clinics now involve more than half of its students. Two decades ago, hardly any took part. And the service spirit imbues many new Harvard alumni, too. A record 66 members of last year's class of 500 went into public-interest law, including five who set up services offering advice on issues like immigration and domestic violence.
Many schools seek a middle ground, offering what Dean Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago terms "creative ways of instilling a sense of public service." Chicago publishes a slick, 25-page guide to public-interest fellowships and jobs, brings in alumni to talk about government or nonprofit work and supports student summer pro bono work through a matching-grant program.
Still, the burst of do-good spirit among students is not dramatically expanding the ranks of young lawyers in full-time public service. Some 28 percent of law school graduates now enter public-interest work, which broadly includes jobs in government as well as judicial clerkships. To encourage graduates who leave school burdened by $50,000 or more in loans to accept jobs with legal-aid agencies paying $25,000 or less, 46 law schools now offer loan-forgiveness programs that reduce monthly payments for those going into public-service law.
While the American Bar Association urges lawyers to perform a modest 50 hours of pro bono work each year, many do not do so. Clearly, it will take time to remake a profession largely motivated by ambitions other than serving the public. Yet as law schools graduate more students inspired by the new idealism, lawyers some day may value public service as much as they do billable hours.
This year's rankings For the third year in a row, Yale and Harvard finished first and second in law the law school category of the U.S. News survey (tables, Page 62). The one switch in the top 25: The University of Wisconsin at Madison replaced the University of Washington. In the remainder of the first quartile. Southern Methodist University replaced Brigham Young University (table, Page 64).
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