Taking an interest in the public’s well-being

Walking into the law school Saturday morning, one could have
mistakenly believed it was a weekday.

The typical din of students and crowded hallways continued on
into the weekend as students from all over Southern California
convened at UCLA for the 21st Annual Southern California Public
Interest Career Day.

It was a day for networking, informal discussions and internship
interviews as law students sought out employment at nonprofit
organizations and governmental agencies.

With over 110 organizations, including the Anti-Defamation
League, the Federal Public Defender and the National Immigration
Law Center, law students had many opportunities to find their place
in public interest.

Public interest law is a field of legal practice that seeks to
advocate on behalf of the disenfranchised and less-represented
citizens of the population. Encompassing numerous types of law,
public interest lawyers can practice anything from civil rights law
to environmental law.

There were many reasons students showed up at the UCLA School of
Law on Saturday, but the hope of a lucrative career was not one of
them.

UCLA’s law school employment statistics for 2004 reveal
that students who entered large private firms made, on average,
$125,000 per year.

Students who entered public interest practices, on the other
hand, made just under $40,000 annually.

“Obviously, it’s not like I’m in it to get
rich,” said Marc Newman, a first-year law student from the
Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

Newman came to the event because he was interested in labor law
and tenant advocacy.

Having worked with a real estate firm after graduating from
college, he said he had really learned to despise the way the firm
had treated its clients.

Jennifer Leong, a first-year law student from the USC Law
School, said that for her, public interest was “just more
satisfying” because one got the chance to give help to people
“who wouldn’t get it otherwise.”

Looking for a summer internship, Leong said she wanted to work
at an organization where she could actually talk to the people for
whom she would be fighting.

“When you interview with big law firms, they act really
nice. But they’re just judging you. They’ll take you
out to lunch, but if you use the wrong fork they’ll say,
“˜Look, she’s not right for our firm,'”
Leong said.

Interviewing with the Children’s Legal Fund on Saturday,
Leong was excited that she might get the opportunity to work with
the organization over the summer and meet the children she would be
aiding.

“Instead of sitting in some corporate office and drawing
up a merger, public interest is about actually helping people. …
It’s a lot more interesting,” she added.

For some of the students at the event, past experiences in
advocacy work inspired them to pursue public interest law.

Angela Moi, a first-year UCLA law student, had worked with
CALPRIG when she was an undergraduate student at UCLA.

On Saturday, she interviewed with the Federal Trade Commission
““ her interest in environmental law had spread to other
fields.

“You have to have a heart to do this. … You’ll see
most of the people here are also people people,” said Andrea
Adelman, a third-year law UCLA law student.

Fifteen minutes before her interview with the Federal Public
Defender, Adelman said she was both nervous and excited.

Having previously worked with public defenders, she said
defending people’s civil liberties is very important to her
and was the reason she had come to the career day.