Justice for all

A couple of Fridays a month, I like to feature non-profits and changemakers on my blog to raise awareness of the great work they do, provide a dose of inspiration, and show that positive change is possible. Catch up on my other Feature Friday posts here.

This Friday, I would like to feature an incredible non-profit organization, the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR). From their website:

The Southern Center for Human Rights provides legal representation to people facing the death penalty, challenges human rights violations in prisons and jails, seeks through litigation and advocacy to improve legal representation for poor people accused of crimes, and advocates for criminal justice system reforms on behalf of those affected by the system in the Southern United States.

Considering my passion for criminal justice reform and the improvement of access to justice for the poor and marginalized, it’s clear that I think the SCHR is a great and much-needed organization. SCHR uses litigation to improve the criminal justice system, particularly when it comes to the application of the death penalty, unfair and inhumane prison and jail conditions, the right to competent legal counsel, debtors’ prisons (where people are imprisoned because of inability to pay fines), and fear-based policies spurred by policymakers who emphasize the need for public safety.

As you may know if you read this blog regularly, my particular passion centers around the right to high-quality legal counsel for all people, even the poor and marginalized. So it’s no surprise that one project of the SCHR, the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC), especially impressed me. The SPDTC trains newly minted public defenders throughout the south through a three-year training curriculum. Having worked with international organizations committed to improving access to justice by using a methodology of training public defenders in developing countries, I feel that this model can be incredibly effective in improving and expanding the quality of legal counsel available to the poor.

Check out the organization and it’s various projects, and I’m sure you’ll be impressed by their commitment to equal justice and criminal justice reform throughout the American South as well! The SCHR is a prime example of how litigation can be used to advocate for the rights of disadvantaged populations, and proves an effective model for non-profit law firms throughout the country.

Path to Justice from Penal Reform International on Vimeo.

This quarter, I’m interning with the Northwestern University Center on International Human Rights, a legal clinic in the law school. One of our projects is an access to justice project in Malawi, where we work to improve legal representation for prisoners - particularly those sentenced to death and without access to legal counsel - through a collaborative effort with local actors and organizations. I’m writing my final paper this quarter on our work in Malawi, and through this research I’ve discovered just how acute the crisis of representation really is. Malawi only has about 7-15 legal aid lawyers for the entire country, and these lawyers take on both civil and criminal cases. Thus, while there is technically a legal right to representation for the indigent accused, in practice it is very difficult for legal aid lawyers to spend sufficient time on each case.

Ultimately, the system is extremely overburdened, and most lawyers are only able to meet with their client at trial. Because of the lack of time and resources, it is extremely difficult for legal aid lawyers to conduct investigations; this involves traveling to distant villages to interview witnesses, and is simply not feasible considering the limited time and money that legal aid lawyers have. Malawi also has only one law school, which graduates about 30 lawyers a year; many of them go into private practice, and only a few become public defenders. Turn over is high, and many public defenders leave each year to go on to do different work. Prisons are overcrowded and conditions can be life-threatening, with malnutrition and infectious diseases.

Enter the Paralegal Advisory Service Institute (PASI), which is a project of the non-profit Penal Reform International. PASI is a model that has been SO highly effective in Malawi that it has been implemented in many other countries as well. It is essentially an organization that provides thorough and high-quality training for individuals who want to become paralegals. These paralegals then join forces with the legal aid lawyers to move prisoners through the criminal justice system more efficiently and more effectively. With a focus on alleviating overcrowding and getting remand prisoners out, PASI has proved to be extremely valuable. These highly trained paralegals are able to talk to clients, talk to witnesses, conduct a lot of investigative work on cases, and provide this information to public defenders. Paralegals also conduct trainings in prison where they involve the prisoners in skits that show them how to navigate the justice system, and to help them better understand legal proceedings. Prisoners who know their legal rights are better able to advocate for themselves in court.

Our partner in Malawi is PASI, and they have done an amazing job by implementing a cost-effective and innovative method of improving access to justice and legal services for all. The results are impressive: PASI’s prison clinics between Nov. 2002 and Jun. 2007 empowered about 150,000 prisoners to represent themselves in court, apply for bail, present a mitigation plea, or draft an appeal to the High Court. Even more incredible, PASI has reduced the overall remand population (those imprisoned while awaiting trial) from 40-45% of the overall prison population to only 17.3%.

Due to its success, the model has been replicated in Kenya, Benin, Uganda, and Niger; it is currently being piloted in Bangladesh. The organization is proving an absolutely incredible model for improving legal aid, and I look forward to seeing its worldwide implementation over the years!

Today, more and more young people are finding service-oriented careers attractive. Indeed, there is a seismic generational shift underway. Generation Y is breaking with the tradition of paying one’s dues and climbing the corporate ladder; instead, Millennials seek to find work that they are passionate about, that reflects their values, and that brings deep meaning to their lives. Our generation places a greater emphasis on public service.

Unfortunately, the majority of graduates from our nation’s top law schools aren’t jumping on this bandwagon. Many enter law school with the desire to contribute to social change. Bright-eyed and imbued with idealism, they hope to use their legal skills to advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in society. But research has indicated that two-thirds of those who enter law school with an interest in the public sector do not end up in that line of work. Instead, most law students are influenced by the competitive environment of law school, and tend to forget the reason they decided to become lawyers in the first place.

The statistics are depressing – but not surprising; the vast majority of law school graduates are not using their incredible talents for social change. In 2008, 74% of law graduates from Northwestern joined corporate law firms, while only 7% entered the field of public interest law. At Stanford, 61% joined law firms, and about 10% joined government and public interest organizations. Even worse, 82% of University of Chicago law graduates began working with private law firms, with only 2% entering the field of government and public interest law!

The reality is that tuition for one year of law school is generally over $40,000 – which is about the same as an entire year’s salary for public defenders or legal aid lawyers. While law schools do have loan repayment programs, they are often very strict in their terms and many public interest lawyers find themselves unable to benefit as much as they had hoped. On the flip side, the average starting salary for corporate lawyers is generally over $130,000. Law firms also recruit aggressively at law schools, and students find themselves with several job offers in hand by fall of their third year; public interest employers face a disadvantage because non-profits hire on an ad-hoc basis and many do not have a strong campus presence during recruitment time. By the end of law school, most students put their idealistic dreams on the backburner for the time being, and decide to take on a stable corporate job for a few years in order to pay off their loans.

Due to skyrocketing tuition costs and the competitive recruitment atmosphere, law schools are practically forcing graduates to join law firms at a time when we need more public interest lawyers than ever. Domestically, we must dramatically reform malfunctioning criminal justice and immigration systems, and narrow the growing gap between rich and poor. A 2009 study by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) reports that about 50% of individuals seeking help are turned away due to lack of resources. Nationally, only one legal aid attorney is available for almost 6,500 low-income individuals. Abroad, we need international human rights lawyers to combat torture, lack of access to justice, poverty, war crimes, and gender-based violence.

Ultimately, graduates from America’s elite law schools come from the most privileged echelon of society and are equipped with the skills necessary to become leaders in the fight for social justice. Gen Y lawyers need to step up and play a larger role in solving some of the most critical social problems of our time. But in order to bring back the tradition of public interest lawyering, law schools must lead the front lines of the battle by ratcheting up the financial, intellectual, and practical support available for law students interested in public service careers.

Currently, it takes courage and willpower to resist societal norms and give up prestige, respect, wealth, and power to be a public interest lawyer. We need to work towards a world where a public interest legal career does not involve sacrifice – but instead, where serving our fellow citizens is considered the norm, rather than the anomaly.

As an undergraduate student thinking of going to law school to become a public interest/civil rights/human rights lawyer, I’ve been talking to a lot of attorneys in the recent months. Informational interviews galore. I literally scoured the Northwestern University alumni database and searched for attorneys, both in the corporate and public interest area. I then sent them emails asking if they were willing to chat, and most of them responded immediately and were more than happy to speak about their career paths. I highly recommend conducting as many informational interviews as possible - it gives you an excellent understanding of the field you’re getting into, and what types of career paths people follow.

It was no surprise that corporate lawyers didn’t seem to love their work. Those I spoke with seemed okay with their life, and generally resigned to it. They spoke about the great benefits, salaries, and cushy lifestyle - but none of them actually seemed enthusiastic about whatever they were doing. As I said, this is not surprising.

But what particularly interested me was when I spoke to public interest attorneys, they were highly fulfilled by their work, but they generally told me straight off the bat - “If you want to do public interest work, don’t even start working at a corporate law firm. Just start doing the work you want to ultimately be doing. Period.” I always wanted to find out whether corporate law experience can be helpful in other areas of the law, but apparently, it’s really not.

This is interesting to me because in the field of finance and consulting, for example, private sector experience seems to be valued even in the non-profit world. Organizations like Acumen Fund, various social enterprises, microfinance institutions, and international development organizations all highly value private sector experience. This seems to be the case because business practices can be really useful when it comes to management of non-profits, or even in areas such as marketing, operations, logistics, and so on. Social enterprises also really draw on business practices, so having private sector experience can be valuable in this arena. And of course, work in the financial services field can be parlayed to some extend to work in the microfinance arena.

However, I always thought the same thing about law. I had imagined that working in corporate law would give you a very strong legal training, because firms have so much money to train you well. I thought that working in such a fast-paced environment and getting exposure to corporate law work would equip you with some basic skills that would make you a better attorney. Apparently, though, that’s not at all the case. In the public interest legal field, it’s better to jump into public interest work from the get-go. Start interning, volunteering, taking classes in, and doing clinics in the area of public interest law you’re interested in - whether it’s provision of legal services to the poor, immigration and refugee law, criminal defense work, or international human rights law. Private sector experience is useless, and often it makes you less desirable because public interest employers will think you’re not committed to the sector. On the other hand, it’s possible to transition into the corporate law sector even if you started out in the public interest sector.

I didn’t know any of this before I spoke to people, and it’s definitely shaped my thinking. I always thought it would be fine to go work at a firm for a couple of years, pay off my loans, and then devote my time to public interest work. But, apparently, that’s not the best route to take, as the training provided by big law firms may take the form of an organized program — but it does not allow young associates to gain the level of responsibility that many public interest employers generally provide. Moreover, the skills developed in the corporate law arena (e.g. mergers and acquisitions, securities) aren’t necessarily transferable to the public interest area you might be most interested in.

A word of caution to other aspiring public interest lawyers, from a helpful guide from Yale Law School (I recommend anyone interested in this area of work to read this guide!):

If I work at law firms after I graduate, can I make a switch later to public interest work?

It is possible, but several facts conspire against you. First, you grow accustomed to the money. Just as you cannot imagine making $160,000 a year now, after you’ve made it for a few years you will not be able to imagine making $50,000. You will have expenses that seem necessary. Family and friends will tell you that you are insane. You’ll wonder if it’s fair to the spouse and kids (who, by the way, have been hanging out with other folks who made $160,000 to $2 million). Second, you will then have an uphill battle in actually getting a public interest job. Your resume does not demonstrate commitment to public interest; your experience from a corporate law firm may not demonstrate the needed skills or knowledge. Quite frankly, everyone is a little suspicious about whether you are serious about the cause and if you’ll stay. These can all be overcome by making sure you do lots of pro bono work during private practice, maintain
and cultivate contacts in the public interest community, and continue to live a simple life…but most people working in private practice find it difficult to do these things.

So, the lesson is: do the work you’re interested in now, not later. Don’t postpone it. You’ll get stuck in a life you aren’t passionate about, and you’ll never be able to accomplish your big dreams if you give them up for a high salary and cushy job. In some fields, it might be possible to get your private sector experience AND become a leader in a public interest organization. You might still be able to rise in prominence and affect people’s lives. But if you want to be an attorney, this isn’t the best way to go. So suck it up, get on a loan repayment program, and don’t postpone your dreams. Start living them now; otherwise, it may not even be possible.

I’m a graduating senior. June 2010. Those words hang ominously in the air, haunting me, frightening me, and at the same time, exhilarating me. Thankfully, I’ve managed to secure some exciting opportunities for post-graduation despite the lackluster economy, and I’m grateful to the universe for that. Yet, I’m finding - for the first time - the need to balance idealism and realism.

It’s difficult. I’m young, so I want to head off to Africa and pursue my lofty idealism, putting it into action somehow. But the realities are that I want to gain practical experience in litigation - which is where I’d like to end up after some time. The realities are that I have to study for the LSAT, because I want to be a lawyer. The realities are that going abroad for a long time now might not be the most practical option.

But just because something is a “reality” doesn’t mean it’s not exciting and full of passion. It is!

The field of “development” is extremely broad. You can work on education, health, microfinance, or human rights. But I can’t do all that. After taking a class this quarter on aid and development, I realize that most development projects don’t actually succeed. It’s muted my idealism quite a bit. Even if I do go abroad, most likely my work there wouldn’t leave behind much of an impact. I’d learn and gain a cross-cultural understanding, sure, but is that enough?

That’s why I’m choosing something more specific - human rights law. Law is still viewed as a monstrous creation, particularly in western countries where we are constantly drowning in the threat of lawsuits. Indeed, this dark cloud has prevented so many from living their lives. But I want my career to show that law can be transformative, positive, and empowering. That lawyers aren’t all greedy, but that the law can be used to advance social justice and truly help communities solve their problems. That the law can empower women to seek redress for gender based violence - and that it allows them to speak out where they would have been silent before. I want to use the law to bring justice to communities affected by torture, rights violations, environmental abuses, and discrimination. In particular, I want to focus on legal systems of developing countries - which are often in dire need of reform and capacity-building.

The good thing about being a senior is that it really forces you to distill. I have had to look at my diverse range of interests and really draw out what I ultimately want to do. The days are running out - and I have to make a decision. Through this process, I’ve found the idea of a career in impact litigation of some sort followed by broader reform of legal systems to be highly compelling. And far more so than “development” work, in which you can never be sure of success. It seems more fulfilling to look a client in the eye and say “We’ve done it!” than almost anything else. And after years of working on abstract things like communications or research, I want that badly. I want to work with individuals, hear their stories, and work on their cases. Change - but incremental, concrete, tangible change.

But there are more realities. The reality is that this field of human rights law - particularly justice reform and access to justice issues - does not have any clear career path, per se. The reality is that I’ll have to make it up as I go along. And maybe I’ll fail or falter. But perhaps, also, this reality will be the most fulfilling one.

(A quick note: Starting now, I’m challenging myself to write something every day that isn’t related to my thesis or my internship. This could be a blog post here, a blog post for another online outlet, a poem, or a personal journal entry. Regardless of what it is, I want to get back into writing! That also means that you’ll be seeing more posts here!

Another note: I’m sorry if this post is extremely cryptic. I’ll let you know what I’m up to as soon as I make a decision!)