Schools for local public defenders office? Forum

[Lovechild1969]

I want to work in a public defenders office in Twin Falls, ID what is the best school for this?

[rad lulz]

.

[johnnybgood]

I like your style girl

[Tanicius]

Any school in the Idaho or Montana area.

[notstevedoocy]

It is not terribly difficult getting a job as a public defender. Look at schools that specialize in trial advocacy in order to get the most out of your law school experience but ultimately if that's what you know you want to do, stay in-state or take the best school that gives you a large scholarship.

Don't pay sticker anywhere.

[spleenworship]

I am assuming this is a troll, but just in case: Go to law school in Idaho.


/thread

[apropos]

It is not terribly difficult getting a job as a public defender. Look at schools that specialize in trial advocacy in order to get the most out of your law school experience but ultimately if that's what you know you want to do, stay in-state or take the best school that gives you a large scholarship.

Don't pay sticker anywhere.

Local is good advice. Little caveat to the above: Public defenders pay their loans back for 10 years at 10% of their income, so the total amount of loans you get doesn't really matter. (Of course, loan amounts start to matter once the loan gets less than 10% of 40-50k (income) x 10. Ie. less than 45k or so roughly.

[IAFG]

It is not terribly difficult getting a job as a public defender.

But what about in a city with a population under 45k? I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket.

[splitbrain]

Yale, followed closely by Stanford and Harvard.

TCR

Simple answer to a simple question.

[juliachild-ish]

Yale, followed closely by Stanford and Harvard.

TCR

Simple answer to a simple question.

Actually, if you really knew what you were talking about, you would know this is completely the wrong answer. I go to Stanford, and I'm interested in becoming a public defender, so I speak from experience. I want to go back to a much larger market than the one the OP is talking about (Phoenix), and in my experience reaching out to county/city public defenders, they only hire from the local schools and have absolutely no interest in someone from Stanford. The federal public defender is a completely different story though--but that's not what the OP mentioned.

I would say go to either an in-state school or a strong regional school (and yes, low levels of debt are definitely preferable, even with IBR). But I would also say not to put too many of your eggs in one basket--there's a good chance the PD's office in a smaller city won't be hiring when you happen to graduate from school. There is a lot of turnover in that profession, true, but currently people seem to want to hang on to whatever job they have, especially if it's a government job with solid benefits and decent pay (of course not decent compared to BigLaw salaries, but in a smaller market, it's a very liveable wage). The PDs I've talked to haven't been very encouraging about the likelihood of there definitely being a job opening for me (or anyone) when I graduate/after I do a clerkship.

[splitbrain]

Welp, I just got served. Thanks for the input - really surprising.

[juliachild-ish]

Welp, I just got served. Thanks for the input - really surprising.

Haha, no worries, I just wanted to make sure the OP got the best advice from someone with more firsthand knowledge. I would still say that going to YHS is worth it if you can get in, because like I said, the chances of there actually being a job opening at the PD's when you want it are small. Plus you may change your mind during law school, and a highly-ranked school opens up a lot more doors. And it is a really hard, emotionally-draining profession to go into--you're often not respected by your peers, not appreciated by your clients, etc. Also, I didn't mean to say that it is absolutely impossible to find work at a local PD's office with a degree from YHS, just that it's not going to give you the boost you might expect and may actually work against you.

[splitbrain]

Welp, I just got served. Thanks for the input - really surprising.

Haha, no worries, I just wanted to make sure the OP got the best advice from someone with more firsthand knowledge. I would still say that going to YHS is worth it if you can get in, because like I said, the chances of there actually being a job opening at the PD's when you want it are small. Plus you may change your mind during law school, and a highly-ranked school opens up a lot more doors. And it is a really hard, emotionally-draining profession to go into--you're often not respected by your peers, not appreciated by your clients, etc. Also, I didn't mean to say that it is absolutely impossible to find work at a local PD's office with a degree from YHS, just that it's not going to give you the boost you might expect and may actually work against you.

Yeah I really appreciate that input. It's just weird seeing these schools as anything other than a skeleton key to the profession. Not to derail the thread (that never happens on TLS, right?) but the statement about not being respected by your clients reminded me about Chemerinsky's pro-bono client that is appealing claiming "inadequate representation" haha.

[Tanicius]

Yale, followed closely by Stanford and Harvard.

TCR

Simple answer to a simple question.

Actually, if you really knew what you were talking about, you would know this is completely the wrong answer. I go to Stanford, and I'm interested in becoming a public defender, so I speak from experience. I want to go back to a much larger market than the one the OP is talking about (Phoenix), and in my experience reaching out to county/city public defenders, they only hire from the local schools and have absolutely no interest in someone from Stanford. The federal public defender is a completely different story though--but that's not what the OP mentioned.

I would say go to either an in-state school or a strong regional school (and yes, low levels of debt are definitely preferable, even with IBR). But I would also say not to put too many of your eggs in one basket--there's a good chance the PD's office in a smaller city won't be hiring when you happen to graduate from school. There is a lot of turnover in that profession, true, but currently people seem to want to hang on to whatever job they have, especially if it's a government job with solid benefits and decent pay (of course not decent compared to BigLaw salaries, but in a smaller market, it's a very liveable wage). The PDs I've talked to haven't been very encouraging about the likelihood of there definitely being a job opening for me (or anyone) when I graduate/after I do a clerkship.

Thank you so much for saying this. I thought the comments before were tongue and cheek, so I didn't bother to point this out. The fact of the matter is that government trial offices view the top schools as overly academic, and they view the students coming from those schools as full of themselves. In the interviews I've had with PD offices that don't typically hire out of Berkeley, their first question is always along the lines of, "So why did you choose to go to a more theoretical school like Berkeley if you actually want to work with an office like us?" They're very skeptical until they to get to know you, which I imagine has to be a huge problem if you're trying to resume carpet bomb the country; they'll just discard your app without a second thought.

[spleenworship]

I am assuming this is a troll, but just in case: Go to law school in Idaho.


/thread

I said this days ago. I love that it took someone from a T14 a paragraph to get y'all to believe me.

[splitbrain]

I am assuming this is a troll, but just in case: Go to law school in Idaho.


/thread

I said this days ago. I love that it took someone from a T14 a paragraph to get y'all to believe me.

yeeeeeeah sorry about that

[spleenworship]

I am assuming this is a troll, but just in case: Go to law school in Idaho.


/thread

I said this days ago. I love that it took someone from a T14 a paragraph to get y'all to believe me.

yeeeeeeah sorry about that

No prob.

I honestly think we need a special area on TLS for people going to state and strong regional schools. The game is very different when you are going to law school at places like Idaho/New Mexico/Montana/ Wyoming/Oklahoma/Either of the Arizonas/UWashington/CU/Etc. And that is just the West... I bet there are special schools in the Midwest and even the east that have strong regional ties where the game isn't as simple as T14 or don't go. Temple, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio State spring to mind.

Mods, if you see this, can you PM me and tell me what you think about such an idea?