Equal Justice Works : Featured

The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools: 2007-08 Edition

Equal Justice Works — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:49:31 GMT

NEW SEARCH: Find public service and pro bono programs, curricula and financial aid information for more than 150 law schools. Start Your Search Here

A Vital Mission

Equal Justice Works — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:42:33 GMT

I have been well rewarded for my work as a lawyer, but I have to say that a large measure of the satisfaction I feel as I review a lifetime in the practice derives from the work with others in the volunteer sector—including fellow lawyers—to effect worthwhile, sometimes even important, results. There is, indeed, a widespread incidence of lawyers in the private bar who give time and advice to nonprofit organizations—sometimes through lawyering and sometimes through board, committee or management work. This volunteer public-interest work is nearly as important as the work of lawyers in a public-interest law office.

To me, a lawyer's responsibility to do public service can be summarized quite simply: to whom much is given, much is expected. And much is given to us who have had the opportunity to get a good education, get a law-school education, work in a law firm, make an adequate or better living and enjoy the fruits of the great education. We owe something back to the society that made it possible.

I see considerable overlap in the characteristics that lead a person to the practice of law and those that lead a person to be involved in civic activity. These activities share a major ingredient—the challenge of the planning and follow-through required to get a desired result. In both cases, the process is largely dependent upon persuading others to accept the wisdom of a plan and organizing a plan that works within the rules and traditions that govern the activity.

The essence of this civic work is problem-solving: the city needs a zoo, our schools need to pass a levy, foster children deserve a better shake. There are thousands of problems, virtually none of which are going to be rectified without organized citizen involvement.

Let me mention one of my activities that I feel particularly good about. I was asked to chair a long-range-planning committee for the Washington State Bar Association back in the '80s. The question we pondered was what the primary objective of our bar should be. In fairly short order, that group—which was an assembly of very experienced, thoughtful lawyers —came to a strong consensus: the most important thing that a state bar association could do and the priority of its agenda should be to improve the level of access to justice for all citizens. The Bar Board of Governors readily accepted this conclusion and obtained a rule from our state Supreme Court establishing a permanent Access to Justice Board, making this work a priority for the whole justice system.

In closing, I would add that the unpaid time and effort so many lawyers devote to the work of the profession itself—supporting the court system, administering lawyer discipline and the like—is a part, and an important part, of the whole of the voluntary work we do.

I feel sure I am not alone in these reflections.

For more information about the work of the Washington Access to Justice Board, go to www.wsba.org/atj.

Hillary Clinton on a Law Career in Public Service

Equal Justice Works — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:18:29 GMT

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)...

Reflecting on all of my experiences since law school, it's hard for me to imagine any other path. I have been blessed with so many opportunities: being part of the newly-created Children's Defense Fund, becoming a staff attorney in Congress and partner at a law firm, serving our nation as First Lady and serving New York in the United States Senate. And, of course, I met my husband when we were both students at Yale Law School.

But the truth is my decision to attend law school was by no means assured. I felt pulled in a million different directions. My graduating class at Wellesley was the class of 1969, a time of great change and anguish for America. My time as an undergraduate coincided with years of cultural tumult, controversy, and tragedy, including the escalation of the Vietnam War, the withdrawal of President Johnson from the presidential race and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

All you had to do was turn on a television set to see that there was so much going wrong in America. But in my young and idealistic mind, that meant there were so many different ways a young person like me could make something right. There was a spirit of civic involvement—of civic action—that permeated the campus and filled me with a sense of possibility, despite the social upheaval that marked the late 1960s.

There was, however, one thing I knew for sure. I wanted to participate in public life as an activist and a citizen. I believed in our country and our democratic institutions—and that you could achieve a lot of good by participating. In the years since, as a lawyer, as First Lady and as senator from New York, that faith has only grown. In the end, the decision to apply and attend law school was for me an expression of that belief: the system can be changed from within.

The law can be an incredible vehicle for social change—and lawyers are at the wheel. I think of Brown v. Board of Education and the Supreme Court cases that would follow, of the Voting Rights Act. In fact, in the Senate, we just renewed the Voting Rights Act, a reminder of the work that remains to ensure that every citizen's constitutional rights are safeguarded. (Alas, the work of public-interest lawyers is never done.)

I also reflect on my personal experiences: the inspiring lawyers I've met, like Marian Wright Edelman who founded the Children's Defense Fund, and the opportunities I've had to serve the public interest as a lawyer. One of my first jobs after leaving law school was gathering information about the Nixon administration's failure to enforce the legal ban on tax-exempt status for private segregated academies. These schools had sprung up in the South in an effort to avoid court-ordered integration of public schools. I remember traveling to Atlanta to meet with the dedicated, passionate lawyers and civil rights workers who were compiling evidence to prove that these schools were created solely to avoid the Constitutional and moral mandate.

In the end, the law is a profession unlike any other. By sheer strength of argument you can right wrongs, protect society against abuse and serve the public good. At its best, law can be a field where your belief in justice can become justice itself. Is the law right for everybody? Of course not. But I can honestly look back and say that my decision to become a lawyer was one of the most important in my life, affording me so many chances to learn, give back, find my own strengths and use them well.

Today, these many years since I chose to become a lawyer, America faces a new set of challenges—and will require a new generation's efforts to help meet them.

In the past five years, we have experienced great tragedy. We witnessed the deadliest attack on our soil in the history of the country. Our nation was changed forever, and you came of age and tried to begin figuring out your path even as our nation seemed to find itself on less sure footing. I also see in your generation much of what I saw in my own, including a renewed commitment to service. You need only look to AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and the focus on public interest at our nation's law schools to see this for yourself.

Now it's your turn to find your footing by helping America find hers. And of course, you have difficult decisions to make about how you will participate, about how you'll use your talents to be the best citizen you can be.

The path to giving back is not always the easiest one to follow—or even, at times, easy to see. But each of us has an opportunity to use our talents and blessings to help others. Each of us has a duty to one another. The law is one way—but by no means the only way—to fulfill that duty. You can make it your life or at least part of your daily life, with pro bono work, for example. As you look past your college careers, as you consider a career in law and the myriad opportunities that lie ahead, I'll leave you with this piece of sage advice passed on by the wise and learned philosopher—and Yankees Hall-of-Famer—Yogi Berra:

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."