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June 24, 2010
Yesterday, the University of Chicago Law School announced that Susan Curry would join the law school in the capacity of director of the Public Interest Law and Policy Program. Her formal appointment will begin on July 12, 2010 once she steps down from her post as executive director of the Chicago-based Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI).
Prior to joining PILI in 2004, Curry held leadership roles at the P-Fund Foundation, Minnesota Justice Foundation and AIDS Legal Council of Chicago. She obtained her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame College of Law and was admitted to the bars of Illinois and Minnesota before beginning her brief career as a private sector attorney at Gardner, Carton & Douglas.
During her . . . → Continue Reading
June 10, 2010
For the past eighteen years students participating in the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project have represented Italo Sanders in Illinois state courts. At 16 years old, Sanders was accused of killing a man based on the testimony of a 7-year-old eyewitness. Since then, Chicago Law students and professors have worked countless hours on his case.
It all began in 1992 when Sanders’ mother contacted the Clinic and reached out to Randolph Stone, who served as the Mandel Clinic director from 1991 until 2001. Stone, along with Clinical Professor of Law Herschella Conyers, decided to take the case due to its alignment with the goal of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project. With the . . . → Continue Reading
June 4, 2010
Yesterday, UW School of Law announced that it was the recipient of a $500,000 donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that would help to further enhance the law school’s public interest and public service programs.
Five years ago, the Gates Foundation gave UW School of Law a gift of $33.3 million in honor of William H. Gates Sr., who received his bachelor’s and law degrees from University of Washington and is Bill Gates’ father. This contribution funded the creation of the Gates Public Service Law (PSL) Program. Each year, five students who are about to begin their J.D. studies at UW are named Gates PSL Scholars. These selected students are awarded full tuition scholarships that also . . . → Continue Reading
May 28, 2010
The Duke University School of Law recently announced that it will be making its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) accessible to a larger number of graduates for the 2010-2011 academic year. The new guidelines will cover all loan repayments for graduates making up to $60,000 per year. Previously, only students making less than $35,000 were eligible for complete loan forgiveness. Furthermore, graduates with salaries ranging from $60,000-$75,000 will be able to apply for partial loan assistance based on a sliding scale.
Like the old program, however, participants must remain eligible throughout the year in order for loans from that year to be fully forgiven. Additionally, interested alumni should note that they must have graduated within the past ten years and . . . → Continue Reading
May 26, 2010
Yale Law School recently announced the winners of a number its public interest fellowships. Twenty-seven members of the graduating class of 2010 learned what the shape of their first post-graduate year would be while nine earlier graduates, mostly from the class of 2009, will soon be making changes to their resumes. Seven students were awarded the Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship and planned on working in a variety of settings on many different issues, from isolated prisons in Texas to the restaurant industry of New York State. The three winners of the Heyman Federal Public Service Fellowship program were given the opportunity to work for, and with, a high level leader . . . → Continue Reading
May 20, 2010
Mindy Friedman and Alisa Wellek, both class of 2010, along with Kristin Connor ’08 were named Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellows earlier this month. EWJ, founded in 1986 and now the largest post-graduate legal fellowship program in the US, awards two-year grants for recipients to undertake public interest work anywhere in the US with underrepresented populations and on overlooked domestic issues.
Wellek, who was recently named an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberty Fellow, and Friedman will complete their fellowships in New York City with the Immigrant Defense Project and at New York Lawyers for Public Interest (NYLPI), respectively. At the Immigrant Defense Project, Wellek will continue work she began through the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic and Bronx Defenders . . . → Continue Reading
May 17, 2010
On Thursday, Harvard Law School announced the recipients of its post-graduate Bernard-Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising fellowships, which are to be used for the purpose of funding one year of living expenses while the new graduates work for public interest law organizations. Twenty-five graduating students and one member of the Class of 2009 were given funding this year through four fellowships: the Skirnick Public Interest Fellowships, the Holmes Public Service Fellowships, the Irving R. Kaufman Fellowships and the new Redstone Fellowships.
The students and graduate will be starting work this summer for a variety of public interest law organizations located across the U.S. and abroad, including Children’s Law Center in Washington D.C., the Southern Poverty . . . → Continue Reading
May 6, 2010
The Public Interest Law Association (PILA) at the University of Virginia School of Law has announced that it will be awarding over $361,000 to 1Ls and 2Ls who are pursuing public service jobs this summer. The number of students directly benefiting from the summer grants has increased by one since last year to a record total of 85 students.
This number is not surprising given that PILA received 40 more grant applications than it had the previous year. Assistant Dean for Public Service, Yared Getachew, noted that “the PILA board really worked hard to accommodate the increased interest in public interest of the past year.” In an effort to raise money, PILA held a book sale along with their annual . . . → Continue Reading
April 29, 2010
Following in the footsteps of peer institutions, Duke University School of Law on Tuesday announced that it has reformed its system of loan repayment, easing the burden on graduates who work in public interest law.
The most notable changes to the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) are an increased salary cap for alums in the public interest legal sphere – from $60,000 to $75,000 – and the elimination of the current $80,000 lifetime loan forgiveness cap.
“This enhanced LRAP will greatly reduce the degree to which financing the cost of a legal education limits career options,” said William Hoye, Duke Law’s associate dean for admissions and student affairs. Hoye noted that involvement in public interest law is also on the rise . . . → Continue Reading
April 26, 2010
Students at Harvard Law School have begun a grassroots campaign aimed at funding a classmate for one year of work in the public interest legal sphere.
In a letter to the Harvard Law Record, the students behind the Post-Graduate Student Funded Fellowship wrote that the goal of the effort “is to support one of our peers, someone whom we have shared classes with, been inspired by, and who is eager to tackle the problems of the world.”
The letter’s writers also “believe that this Fellowship has the power to positively influence the school’s culture, building greater community on campus.”
According to The National Law Journal, . . . → Continue Reading
April 8, 2010
The University of Virginia School of Law on Wednesday became the latest top-flight law school to reform its loan forgiveness program, easing the burden for qualifying graduates who enter public interest legal fields.
Currently, graduates who make less than $35,000 in public service jobs can have their loan payments covered. The new Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program (VLFP II) raises the salary threshold to $55,000. Public interest graduates who make less than $75,000 are also eligible for some assistance, on a prorated scale.
“The changes are designed to enable even more of our graduates to participate in the program with the goal of allowing students to pursue the careers they want regardless of educational debt,” said Dean Paul Mahoney . . . → Continue Reading
March 2, 2010
By virtue of a multimillion dollar gift, Cornell University announced last week that it is creating three postgraduate fellowships, of which one or two, on a rotating basis, will be awarded to a Cornell Law School graduate interested in public interest law.
Operating on a two-year timetable, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Public Interest Law Fellowships will be administered by the school’s dean and will be awarded to graduates working for nonprofit and human rights organizations. The $5 million funding for the fellowships comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies, a group focused on aiding “disadvantaged and vulnerable people.” Rhodes was an Atlantic board member after serving as the university’s president for nearly two decades.
“This gift comes at a . . . → Continue Reading
March 1, 2010
An article in the February issue of National Jurist magazine has singled out four law school programs — Boston University School of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Cornell University Law School, and the University of Maryland School of Law — for their “A+ public interest support.”
The programs are all briefly profiled in the article, and also are said to have certain unifying aspects: financial and emotional support from administration, faculty and staff; an office or administrator “solely devoted” to public interest law; a “large and vast array” of projects; some sort of social network for students exploring public interest law; and “orientation programs, welcome receptions and recognition awards.”
“If you present opportunities, students . . . → Continue Reading
February 11, 2010
Harvard Law School announced Tuesday that it is launching the Public Service Venture Fund to aid graduates who wish to enter careers in public interest law.
The program, which begins with a $1 million annual budget, provides funding for graduating students who want to create their own non-profit ventures and salary support for those who want to work at existing non-profits or government agencies. Interested students will have to submit detailed proposals to receive the grants.
Said Dean Martha Minow in a school statement: “It’s an investment that will pay dividends not only for our students but also for the countless number of people whose lives they will touch during their public service careers.”
The program . . . → Continue Reading
January 27, 2010
Following in the footsteps of certain peers, Northwestern University School of Law has become the latest top-tier program to enhance its public service loan forgiveness alongside federal initiatives.
The move, outlined Tuesday in a school press release, follows Berkeley School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center, respectively, in offering full federal loan forgiveness for graduates who work in public interest law for ten years. As with the other schools, Northwestern’s plan dovetails off of federal loan modifications outlined in 2007′s College Cost Reduction Act and is individually tailored in accordance with debt and salary levels.
Additionally, the law school’s forgiveness program offers assistance over the first five years after graduation, thereby ensuring that . . . → Continue Reading
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