Doing Good Is Doing Well
Public service is popular again among students, and law schools are taking note
When Michelle Patterson entered Tulane University School of Law in 1991, she was prepared to endure a string of lectures on the intricacies of contracts, civil procedure and other fundamentals of the law. The 26-year-old Kansas City native never anticipated a course of study that would take her to a state prison in rural Louisiana. Yet when Patterson set about meeting a Tulane rule that students perform at least 20 hours of public service, she found herself inside Hunt Correctional Facility. Her assignment: to help an ailing inmate, in jail for drunk driving, prepare papers seeking a parole hearing.
Patterson's experience illustrates a new spirit motivating students in the nation's law schools. Unlike the 1980s, when the prevailing goal was to win high salaries at the most prestigious firms, today's new lawyers insist on doing good, not just on doing well. "Students are realizing there is more to life than working 80 hours a week in mega law firms to earn $200,000," says Henry Ramsey, dean of the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Many new lawyers insist that their employers give them time to perform pro bono work.
Public-service law is helping to reshape legal education, as well. For many years, the basic curriculum has centered on the legal problems of large corporations and wealthy individuals. Now, many schools are modifying bread-and-butter courses on contracts and property to include discussions and readings dealing with problems of the poor. "Law needs to be taught and understood as it affects all kinds of people," explains Prof. Gerry Singsen of Harvard Law School, who is coordinating a national drive to incorporate more poverty law in the curriculum.
Pro bono protests. The credo of public service has become so integral that, for example, after Harvard Dean Robert Clark eliminated the part-time job of student public-service adviser, students held sit-ins and rallies and forced him to change course. The office now has two full-time lawyers who have counseled more than half of Harvard's 1,500 law students.
The pro bono spirit has spread rapidly. Although it is only seven years old, the student-initiated National Association for Public Interest Law boasts chapters at 119 of the nation's 176 accredited law schools. Moreover, almost 50 schools have started programs to ease the debt burden of graduates who go to work for legal services agencies or government. And more than 20 schools have placement aides to help students find public-sector jobs.
The interest in service does not stem from pure altruism alone. With fewer big-money slots available at major firms and companies, public-service law has become more appealing. "The market is forcing graduates to think more about what they want to do," says Susan Schechter of the Public Interest Clearinghouse in San Francisco, which helps students at five California law schools find public-service positions ranging from a $15,000 job aiding rural farm workers to a $35,000 one enforcing state environmental laws.
The new emphasis on service also reflects a reaction to criticism that law schools have shirked their moral responsibilities. Federal Appeals Judge Harry Edwards of Washington, D.C., complains that as law schools have gravitated "toward pure theory" and law firms "toward pure commerce, the middle ground--ethical practice--has been deserted by both." Supporting Edwards's arguments, experts estimate that less than 20 percent of the legal needs of the indigent are being met in the United States, which has nearly 800,000 lawyers.
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).
This story appears in the March 22, 1993 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.