Justice for all

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.

When everyone else is obsessing over “building the next generation of leaders” and encouraging Gen Yers to become social entrepreneurs and social change innovators, one organization out there is quietly redefining the careers and lives of the Boomers.

Civic Ventures, founded in 1998 by Marc Freedman, is working to engage our country’s millions of baby boomers as a vital workforce for social change. Boomers have the incredible wealth of experience needed to become leaders in solving our world’s most critical challenges - and Civic Ventures is making sure that this experience is put to good use.

Today, Americans who are retiring generally want to continue working; 4/5 of people over the age of 50 say they want to work or volunteer in some capacity after retirement. And even better, many people seek to focus on work that gives them meaning and contributes to society during their retirement year. Indeed, more than 75% of those who want to work in retirement want to do work that helps the poor, elderly, and others in need. On the other hand, 48% of Americans between the ages of 50 and 70 believe it will be difficult for them to find good and fulfilling jobs at that age.

Civic Ventures is working to address this gap. Here are a few of their programs:

• Encore.org — A network for people who want work that matters in the second half of life. Encore.org provides news, resources and connections for individuals and organizations establishing “encore careers” that combine meaning, financial security and social contribution.
• The Purpose Prize — $100,000 awards for social innovators over 60 creating new methods for solving the world´s biggest problems and contributing to social change,
• Experience Corps — A national service program engaging adults over 55 as tutors and mentors for elementary school students struggling to learn. Today there are more than 2,000 Experience Corps members helping 20,000 students. 
• Encore Career Community College Grants — Grants for innovative community colleges preparing people 50+ for careers in education, health care and social services

I think Civic Ventures has done a wonderful job in targeting a market that no one wants to focus on - the growing population of baby boomers who want a second chance at a more meaningful life and career.

Millennials might be the “next generation of leaders,” but in the meantime, engaging the Boomers who have the right balance of education and passion might be just as effective when it comes to fostering social change.

I recently ran across an excellent post by Rosetta Thurman, in which she writes about the importance of developing a personal mission statement. I absolutely loved the idea; organizations and companies all have mission statements - why can’t individuals? A mission statement is intended to ensure that non-profits always stay true to their original goals and values - and the same effect can apply to people. She quotes Dumb Little Man, who defines a personal mission statement as:

Your personal mission statement should be a concise representation of what’s most important to you, what you desire to focus on, what you want to achieve, and, ultimately, who you want to become. In its purest form, it’s an approach to your life, one that allows you to identify a focus of energy, creativity, and vision in living a life in support of your inner-most beliefs and values. Also remember that your mission will change over time as you and your life change.

Rosetta writes that your personal mission statement should include both your values and your goals - personal and professional. After all, it’s the combination of both that will lead to a fulfilling work-life balance and career. Particularly if you tend to be confused or unclear about what you seek in your career (as I sometimes am), creating a concise personal mission statement can provide clarity and help you distill your broad ideas and hopes into a more concrete statement. A mission statement can help guide you towards a job or opportunity that is a better fit, or help you keep in mind who you truly are when choosing between confusing options for the future. It can also provide motivation to keep trying until your personal and professional life aligns perfectly with your individual “mission.”

Here’s my mission statement:

I value achievement, education, challenges, and thinking big. I love being surrounded by people every day; I love being part of a team of dedicated, motivated, passionate, hardworking, and creative individuals. I value spending time with my loved ones, and having a healthy work-life balance - with personal time to read, learn, and smell the roses. I seek a life as a learner, but more importantly a do-er who puts ideas into practice. I am most fulfilled when I feel that I’ve made a tangible and direct positive impact on people’s lives. I love work that involves writing, working in teams, speaking with people, and creative thinking. I seek the perfect mixture of adventure and stability. Professionally, my goals are to combine innovation and law, and to show that law can be a tool for empowering people and creating positive social change. Before I die, I hope to have made a significant and measurable impact on the lives of the poor and marginalized in the U.S. and abroad, to have served as an advocate and public interest lawyer, to successfully lead and expand an organization with an innovative and effective approach to increasing access to justice, to play a role in policymaking, and to contribute to scholarly work through writing and speaking. I seek success and want to find a calling, not just a job. I want to help inspire and build the next generation of public interest lawyers. At the same time, I refuse to give up on my values and dreams of family and stability.

What’s yours? Post your personal mission statement in the comments!

Recently, I met up with an old friend and we were swapping stories about our current career interests. Of course I started talking about my hopes of becoming a public interest attorney, and she responded by saying “Wow…that is so cliche!” She felt like this whole idea of wanting to “save the world” or “help people” sounded extremely cliche. (Note: saying you want to “save the world” is derogatory. Skeptics often use this statement in order to belittle those who actually want to make a difference).

I’ve heard the same thing in the past from admissions officers, blogs, friends, and family. If you write in your law school application that you want to use your law degree for good, that you’re going to law school in order to make this world a better place….well, let’s just say that you’re not looked upon very favorably, but are thought to be some idealistic, cliche young person who is stereotypically trying to BS his or her way into law school but has NO idea what the real world actually entails. I can just imagine admissions officers out there glancing skeptically at the essay of yet ANOTHER 21 year old who wants to “save the world” or “make the world a better place,” and rolling their eyes, knowing that this 21 year old in reality would most likely quickly switch over to corporate law once they actually get an offer.

The thing is, everyone expects young people to eventually “grow out” of this idealistic phase in our lives. The idea is that we are idealistic now but soon we’ll enter the “real world” and then realize that trying to make a difference is futile. That it’s pointless, and that we’ll succumb to cynicism instead. Then we’ll join the rest of society in getting a job just to advance, get promotions, and make tons of money.

Well, maybe it’s “cliche” to care or want to do something about the injustices around us. But the only way to take it beyond a cliche phase in a teenager’s life is to actually dedicate one’s career to this work, and never lose this idealism - even as you enter the ‘real world’ and have to face challenges such as buying a house, settling down with a family, or paying for your kids’ tuition. Only by making your passion your work can you show all the critics that making a difference isn’t a cliche, but that it’s actually a career, a life’s calling, and most of all - a possibility. It is possible to better the world, no matter how small. I’m not saying we can “save the world,” but we can contribute in a tiny way to improving the lives of others.

My best friend told me recently: “It’s only cliche when you’re young.” If you’re 40 and you stick to public interest work, you’re no longer going to be considered cliche - but instead, others will see you as someone with a meaningful career, impressive in your lifelong pursuit of social change and justice. You’ll be seen as a true advocate, not a teenager going through yet another “save the world” phase. Your 21-year old idealism doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you refuse to let it go.

I recently read Half the Sky, by Nick Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. To be quite honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. But I think that the organizations he highlighted were impressive and innovative, and were able to tackle big challenges through their own innovative approaches. He was able to highlight some effective organizations and thus provide some hope that age-old problems affecting women such as sexism, FGM/FGC, sexual violence, and honor killings can actually be ended.

One of the organizations he mentioned is Tostan, a community based organization with a mission to empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. Since 1991, Tostan has brought its holistic 30-month education program to thousands of communities in ten African countries: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan.

Tostan’s innovative “Community Empowerment Program” (CEP) has been able to empower some communities to together agree to abandon the practice of female genital cutting, which is still considered a rite of passage for women in many African and Middle Eastern countries, despite the health risks and incredible pain that the process entails. Dealing with an issue like FGC is incredibly tricky because it is so deeply tied to culture and social relations. Western approaches don’t necessarily work in such a context; going into a community and telling them that an ubiquitous practice is “bad” or “against human rights” simply wouldn’t make sense. The women would respond stating that they need to get their girls married — and a man would never marry a woman who has not been cut.

Tostan instead focuses on community-led development to eradicate this practice. Tostan enrolls about 30 adults and 30 adolescents in two different classes. The program educates community members on democracy, human rights, problem solving, health, hygiene, literacy, and management skills. The teaching includes interactive exercises, such as small-group work, case studies, and action research projects. These methods draw on African oral techniques, including theater, storytelling, dance, artwork, song, debate, and the sharing of personal experience.

Tostan does not explicitly call on communities to abandon FGC; instead, as communities become better educated about health and human rights, they are empowered with knowledge that helps them make better decisions for the lives of their children. By encouraging dialogue and openness about important issues, Tostan empowers communities to create positive change.

Tostan has also implemented a similar model for prisoners in Senegal, which is incredibly important as most prisoners lack rehabilitation or any concrete skills that help them re-enter society; this leads to a high rate of recidivism. The Prison Project provides prisoners with training in income-generating activities, microcredit loans, as well as the educational component.

Tostan’s model shows that community-based empowerment is the best way to tackle big challenges, and that if individuals are better educated, they will be able to make better decisions. It’s a very impressive outcome from a seemingly simple idea.

I also want to point out the concept of cultural relativism here. To be quite honest, when I first heard about FGC, I was certainly horrified - but then, I was afraid to look at the issue through the lens of Western culture. I was confused: perhaps there is legitimacy to this practice, as viewed through a different culture? Am I right to pass a value judgment on this practice? I wasn’t sure until I watched this incredible TED video:

In the video, Sam Harris argues that there are concrete answers to moral questions. That we do know clearly what is right and wrong — and that pretending to ignore a problem because of cultural relativism is wrong. Indeed, it is foolish to ignore what we know is right and wrong simply because of the fear of overstepping boundaries or offending others. We underestimate ourselves. And there are answers to these questions.

Therefore, I can now say that there is nothing right about FGC. It is incredibly painful to girls, reflects sexist beliefs in these communities, and creates lifelong health problems. No practice that endangers the health of an individual can be a beneficial one — even if viewed through the lens of culture.

That’s what I believe. And I encourage you to find your own answer.