Public Interest Jobs Forum
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Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
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Lawl Shcool
- Posts: 766
- Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:44 pm
Public Interest Jobs
To be honest I had never even considered PI before getting to school. However, given the scarcity of big $ jobs and the big debt I am about to take on if I decide to transfer I want to start looking into some IBR-qualifying gigs as "back-ups." I know these positions are tough to get and also competitive, and shouldn't be "back-ups: etc, etc. but I honestly don't know of many PI jobs besides public defenders, prosecutors, and government work (no clue what these jobs are or entail). So collective wisdom of TLS, please tell me about the other possibilities in the world of public interest.
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swester
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:02 pm
Re: Public Interest Jobs
International NGO's and non-profit organizations are also places to look. As you've noted, competition these days is high, even for these relatively low-paying positions. And most of these orgs will have larger offices in DC or NY, with smaller offices in some other cities.JPU wrote:To be honest I had never even considered PI before getting to school. However, given the scarcity of big $ jobs and the big debt I am about to take on if I decide to transfer I want to start looking into some IBR-qualifying gigs as "back-ups." I know these positions are tough to get and also competitive, and shouldn't be "back-ups: etc, etc. but I honestly don't know of many PI jobs besides public defenders, prosecutors, and government work (no clue what these jobs are or entail). So collective wisdom of TLS, please tell me about the other possibilities in the world of public interest.
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Lawl Shcool
- Posts: 766
- Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:44 pm
Re: Public Interest Jobs
What about non-profits that do a lot of civil litigation?
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Renzo
- Posts: 4249
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:23 am
Re: Public Interest Jobs
Go to PSLawNet.org and browse through the postings. It'll give you a good idea of the various jobs out there.
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ccs224
- Posts: 465
- Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:27 pm
Re: Public Interest Jobs
First, I would suggest not going into PI if you have no interest in it except qualifying for IBR.
Second, I'm an 0L, so all this is worth shit, but my general understanding is that PI gigs are often suspicious of people applying w/o any background in PI work or in the orgs area of focus. Unless you go to a really prestigious school where they would overlook that for your degree, if you are really serious about PI, you might want to do a little bit of Resume Tailoring in advance.
Second, I'm an 0L, so all this is worth shit, but my general understanding is that PI gigs are often suspicious of people applying w/o any background in PI work or in the orgs area of focus. Unless you go to a really prestigious school where they would overlook that for your degree, if you are really serious about PI, you might want to do a little bit of Resume Tailoring in advance.
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swester
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:02 pm
Re: Public Interest Jobs
Yeah, 0L's don't give the best advice.ccs224 wrote:First, I would suggest not going into PI if you have no interest in it except qualifying for IBR.
Second, I'm an 0L, so all this is worth shit, but my general understanding is that PI gigs are often suspicious of people applying w/o any background in PI work or in the orgs area of focus. Unless you go to a really prestigious school where they would overlook that for your degree, if you are really serious about PI, you might want to do a little bit of resume tailoring in advance.
Just get a good PI internship during the school year or perhaps in 1L summer, preferably in the area in which you want to work. By the time you're interviewing for actual jobs, it'll have been about 3 years since your pre-law days, so it is hardly going to matter as much as what you've done during LS itself.
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Lawl Shcool
- Posts: 766
- Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:44 pm
Re: Public Interest Jobs
Ok, how about this. Assuming the math works out (haven't actually done calculations yet, waiting till after finals) and I would net more after paying loans in the first 10 years out of school doing PI + IBR than private practice, what is a PI job that would be a good lead into the private sector?
Off the top of my head I would think doing PD/Prosecutor work then jumping to private defense work would be the most common. What PI involving tax/bankruptcy that I could use to lateral (for lack of a better word) into business or private firm work?
Side note: If going the IBR route, does starting your own non-profit qualify?
Off the top of my head I would think doing PD/Prosecutor work then jumping to private defense work would be the most common. What PI involving tax/bankruptcy that I could use to lateral (for lack of a better word) into business or private firm work?
Side note: If going the IBR route, does starting your own non-profit qualify?
