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This is not a flame; I am an ignorant 0L and legitimately wondering if this is the average public interest timeline for those who forgo the BigLaw scramble.

1. Attend any school you want within reason, with likely a scary amount of debt.

2. Ignore OCI

3. Keep them grades up, graduate in a reasonable class percentile.

4. Find employment - govt. or NGO that qualifies for PSLF

OR

4. Find employment - legitimate non-profit, get your IBLR on, live like a pauper but helping others.

..

This is a great model until you realize that instead of spending three years accumulating no money and lots of debt to get a job that pays you 60k/year that you're locked into for ten years, you could spend much less time accumulating lots of money and taking on no debt to get a job that pays you 60k/year that you can leave whenever you want.

edit> and TCR is actually go to medical school and actually help people rather than work for a non-profit and pretend to help people.

Working at a non-profit will allow you to qualify for PSLF.

I don't think this a crazy plan, but the better plan is to retake the LSAT and get into a top school with a manageable amount of debt, so that if for some reason things don't work out as you had hoped they would (PSLF may get discontinued, working at gov't/non-profits may prove not what you hoped it would be and/or you don't get the sort of job you want, whatever), you can pay off your debt.

It's a bad model because the vast majority of the people that do it won't ever be able to achieve steps 3 and especially 4. Entry-level full time PI legal jobs are virtually non existent--you will usually have to do a fellowship for a year or 2 after law school before you can get one and many fellowships are extremely competitive. Government hiring (assuming you mean federal government) is very different from PI hiring and for most honors programs you need very high grades, demonstrated commitment, and frankly lots of luck. A much more likely way to end up in government is to do Biglaw or mid law for 2 years and then apply to lateral positions in government. Most people that follow this plan will end up in either lower level private sector legal jobs or in non-legal jobs in non-profits.

Also, there are very, very few non-profits that offer enough job-security to take that risk, even if you could get your foot in the door. Most LRAP plans require at least 3-5 years at a qualifying employer before they kick-in for real.

I think your plan is really only credited if you want to work for a DA's office, or something like that where there are a decent number of jobs available to new graduates, and where if you aren't particular about where you end up geographically, it's hard to strike-out on.

twenty wrote:This is a great model until you realize that instead of spending three years accumulating no money and lots of debt to get a job that pays you 60k/year that you're locked into for ten years, you could spend much less time accumulating lots of money and taking on no debt to get a job that pays you 60k/year that you can leave whenever you want.

edit> and TCR is actually go to medical school and actually help people rather than work for a non-profit and pretend to help people.

This depends on employment eventually found. In federal government, there's a possibility to reach six figures within three years. In ten years, you should be in a cozy salary far away from 60k. Not biglaw living, but certainly decent.

In public interest or other government, you could end up in 20k-40k per year and very little promotional opportunity. But the reward of helping others is priceless, right?

OP-

The path you are seeking does not have an average timeline. Think about it, public interest and service fields are so diverse, it would make no sense for there to be much common ground.

I know people with shitty grades because they spent every free time they had working pro bono for institutions that later hired them. Well, gave them fellowships.

There are people with excellent grades that missed the honors program train.

There are people who finished their one year fellowships at public interest places and are now scrambling for something else to do.

There are also biglaw people who didn't make it in the private sector who compete with those seeking PI and government.

zot1 wrote:In federal government

My (not great) agency received [edit> lots of] applications this year for 10~ slots. I feel like 0Ls banking on fedgov should maybe buy lottery tickets instead.

twenty wrote:

zot1 wrote:In federal government

My (not great) agency received [edit> lots of] applications this year for 10~ slots. I feel like 0Ls banking on fedgov should maybe buy lottery tickets instead.

Oh that's for sure! No job out there is a sure shot anymore with this economy. My point was that the salaries available, in my opinion, are slightly different than just 60k for ten years.

chenin_blanc wrote:This is not a flame; I am an ignorant 0L and legitimately wondering if this is the average public interest timeline for those who forgo the BigLaw scramble.

1. Attend any school you want within reason, with likely a scary amount of debt.

2. Ignore OCI

3. Keep them grades up, graduate in a reasonable class percentile.

4. Find employment - govt. or NGO that qualifies for PSLF

OR

4. Find employment - legitimate non-profit, get your IBLR on, live like a pauper but helping others.

Also, with PSLF, pay attention to the next budget. Obama is trying to cap public service forgiveness at 57k exactly because of number one.

Skool wrote:

chenin_blanc wrote:This is not a flame; I am an ignorant 0L and legitimately wondering if this is the average public interest timeline for those who forgo the BigLaw scramble.

1. Attend any school you want within reason, with likely a scary amount of debt.

2. Ignore OCI

3. Keep them grades up, graduate in a reasonable class percentile.

4. Find employment - govt. or NGO that qualifies for PSLF

OR

4. Find employment - legitimate non-profit, get your IBLR on, live like a pauper but helping others.

Also, with PSLF, pay attention to the next budget. Obama is trying to cap public service forgiveness at 57k exactly because of number one.

I hope that doesn't happen or it will be the end of me.

Depending on what your school's LRAP is, you should have something to fall back on should PSLF disappear. It will probably be less generous (ie. have a much lower zero-contribution cut-off), but you shouldn't be completely screwed.

White Dwarf wrote:Depending on what your school's LRAP is, you should have something to fall back on should PSLF disappear. It will probably be less generous (ie. have a much lower zero-contribution cut-off), but you shouldn't be completely screwed.

I guess this would be something for OP to consider when choosing schools.

My school caps the program to those making 80k or less so I will be ineligible sooner rather than later. Yay!

Thank you all, this has been a very informative thread!