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New generation
of public interest lawyers gets a boost from WCL
BY SALLY ACHARYA
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Photo
courtesy of WCL
WCL’s Public Interest Public Service scholars pledge to
work in public service after graduation. |
Money weighed heavily on the mind of Stephanie Richards when she
thought about law school, because she wanted it to be the last thing
on her mind when she looked for a job.
Richards’s goal is to return to Eastern Europe, where she served
in the Peace Corps, and participate as a lawyer in the region’s
effort to create a just, civil society. “The average person
makes $20 a month, so obviously, my salary there would not be anything
much,” she says.
But if she couldn’t serve the poor, she wasn’t sure if
she wanted to be a lawyer at all. “I didn’t want to go
to law school and then not be able to pursue what I wanted to do,”
she says.
Law students across the United States typically graduate over $100,000
in debt, which often forces them to make choices at odds with the
dreams that brought them to law school, says Claudio Grossman, dean
of the Washington College of Law (WCL).
Richards is one of 11 incoming law students who will be free to
follow her original goals, without the burden of tuition debt.
The Washington College of Law is one of the few law schools in the
country with a full-tuition scholarship based on merit and a commitment
to public service. And it’s the only one where the scholars
sign a binding agreement to pay back the community after graduation
with service as a public interest lawyer.
In a time capsule the group created in its first days at WCL to
remind themselves of why they are preparing to be public interest
lawyers, Richards placed a book of poems. Kelly Barrett added the
Japanese calligraphic character for truth. Nejib Mohammed had perhaps
the most unusual addition: an eyeglass case.
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| Photo
by Jeff Watts |
In three years,
they will open their time capsule and reflect on how they’ve
changed, and how they haven’t. Then they’ll be off to
fulfill one of the most unique demands of the program: an obligatory
three years of service as a public interest attorney.
The scholars agree to spend three out of their first five years
after law school practicing public interest law. While medical students
can sometimes pay back loans through public service, nowhere in
the nation do law students make such a commitment.
The Public Interest Public Service (PIPS) Scholarship was pilot-tested
last year with a cohort of four students. This is the first year
that the scholarships were offered to admitted but as-yet-undecided
students. The scholars are assigned faculty mentors to guide them
during their studies as they pursue seminars, clinics, and externships
to train them in public interest law.
And without debt, they’ll be able to do it.
For many law students, “There is such a high rate of debt,
their choices are reduced or compromised,” says Claudio Grossman,
dean of WCL. “Upon graduation, they may want to pursue public
interest law, but they don’t have the option because they have
to pay loans.”
Law student debt can be as high as $140,000, meaning $2,000-a-month
payments for 30 years, notes Curt Crossley, public interest coordinator
at WCL. That’s hard to do on the salary of a public interest
lawyer.
Fifteen schools offer significant public interest scholarships,
but only the University of Denver offers such a large scholarship
to such a large group of students, Crossley said. And only New York
University offers a scholarship with a verbal obligation to pursue
public interest law after graduation, although the obligation isn’t
legally binding like AU’s.
WCL graduates can already apply to make use of a fund to pay the
interest on debt for graduates who enter public interest law and
accept salaries under $55,000 a year, the longstanding Public Interest
Law Repayment Fund. But the PIPS scholarship is also a recruitment
tool.
“The quality of the students—and the word ‘quality’
means both commitment to public interest and academic quality—is
truly spectacular. We’re very proud of who we have attracted
to the law school,” Grossman says.
Such as Mohammed, who comes with a background of volunteering in
domestic violence work and experience at the United Nations Foundation.
In his native Ethiopia, Crossley says, “He lived in this environment
of chaos and torture . . . and would tell his mother, ‘One
day I’m going to be a lawyer and make everything right.’”
But the family expectations pulled him towards becoming a pilot,
like his father, until he was diagnosed as nearsighted. That’s
why, at the recent retreat for the cohort, he put the eyeglass case
into the time capsule.
David Baluarte added his employee card from the American Civil Liberties
Union, where he worked as a paralegal. “To be honest, I wouldn’t
have come to law school if I wasn’t 100 percent sure I’d
be able to work in public interest law,” he says.
Michael Waller is interested in international human right laws,
but confesses that, without the scholarship, he’d have been
limited to a state school that doesn’t have WCL’s strength
in the field. “I owe a ton of money from undergraduate,”
agrees Michael Waller. “If I had to pay full price, I’m
just not sure I could have done it.”
Kelly Barrett graduated from Yale with an oppressive debt that made
her leery of applying to costly law schools. But having won the
WCL scholarship, she’s already living out her commitment in
public service by mentoring middle-school students in southeast
Washington several times a week.
While WCL is unique in having a legal obligation attached to the
scholarship, “the key thing is not legal obligation, but the
fact that we are selecting a very impressive group of people with
a demonstrated commitment. We hope this will also create space for
students who have not gotten this to preserve [their passions],”
Grossman says.
It’s true that there is a financial cost to the school of giving
so many full-ride scholarships, Grossman says. “But it’s
a cost we assume, because you have to prove your commitment to values
by putting valuables behind it. If your commitment to values does
not have economic consequences, that relegates it to a very second-place
position.”
Above the entrance to the Supreme Court, Grossman notes, are carved
some moving words: Equal Justice Under Law. “As a law school,”
he says, “you have to do something in that line that’s
not just talk, it’s action.”
Adds Abby Richardson, an aspiring human rights lawyer, “Of
course it was a great financial incentive. But it also shows the
law school is sincere in its dedication to this type of work. And
that’s the kind of school I wanted.”
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