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| Third-year law student Angela
Caldwell worked for the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. |
Posted
Oct. 1, 2003
PILA Grantees Report Rewarding Summer
Job Experiences
Where PILA Grantees Worked, Summer 2003
Nine of the students who spent their
summers working in public service law, supported by grants
from the Law School’s
Public Interest
Law Association, recounted their experiences
at a lunch meeting Sept. 23 designed to spark others’ interest
in emulating them next summer.
“It was just awesome," said Katie
Bagley, who spent her summer with the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where she worked on
cases with the FBI and ATF and assisted in an appeal before
the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Angela Caldwell described working
for the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, where
she worked on children’s
Medicaid issues. “We’re considering a lawsuit
over children’s access to dentistry,” she said.
She enrolled in the Housing Clinic this fall in order to “stay
up with” the clients she began helping over the summer.
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| Katie Bagley |
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| Pat Lavelle |
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| Miles Roberts |
Miles Roberts worked for the Department
of Justice in Washington in its computer crimes division.
He wrote reports trying
to forecast new crimes people might use computers for.
Pat Lavelle worked with the garment
workers union in New York City, ghostwriting a paper due
for presentation to the
American Bar Association and on a case being brought in Japan
against Levi’s clothing. He said he got his job through
persistence.
David Thomas worked for the Albemarle
County Commonwealth’s
Attorney’s office, which has only five prosecutors
on staff. “They’re so swamped they rely on you,” Thomas
said, “The only downside was I had to wear a suit.
I spent half my time in court. I wrote all the appellate
briefs. I enjoyed it so much I’m working there part-time
now.”
Kieran Brenner was in Dacca, Bangladesh,
experiencing the monsoons and associated power shortages
while working for
the Asia Foundation. “I wrote an assessment of the
transparency, efficiency, and accountability of the Bangladesh
government,” he said. “I had incredible access
to people in the government to interview. I worked seven
days a week. There was less law to it—except that they
need to repeal about five articles in their constitution.” Brenner
said he found the job through the Conference
on Public Service and the Law last spring.
Rachel Doughty worked on forest management
plans for five national forests across the Southeast for
the Southern Environmental
Law Center in Charlottesville. “I worked with activists
from across the Southeast. I put together fact sheets for
use by congressmen, wrote an administrative law brief, and
I met a whole lot of people,” she said.
Jim Hicks worked for the District
Attorney of San Francisco. “I
recommend that you just go get what you want,” he said. “You’re
free help to them. That brings a lot to the table.” He
called the San Francisco office “huge, and it feels
disorganized.” He wrote briefs, worked in the parole
program and saw “horrendous cases, more horrible than
fiction.” Hickson, who has also worked for the Charlottesville
District Attorney’s office, advised students to “take
charge and take responsibility for your education. It’s
up to you to make it what you can.”
Karen Pogonowski worked for the New
York State Attorney General’s office on lawsuits
brought against its state parks. “I was involved
with the ones we wanted to settle because the state was
wrong,” she said. “One
thing I had to find out is how much a broken nose is worth."
She called the job “a great experience and I’m
really glad I did it.”
Bagley suggested that students interested in public service
jobs for next summer write letters to prospective employers
in early December and offer to be available for interviews
over the winter break.
PILA President Carmen Elliott said the organization awarded
$143,000 in summer grants last year, 19 to second-year students
and 16 to first-years. Second-years are awarded $5,000 and
are allowed to earn another $3,000 from their jobs before
being required to return part of the grant. Awards to first-years
are for $3,000 with a $2,000 earning limit.
“How much we can grant is dependent
on how well fund-raising goes,” said Elliott. The PILA
auction generates the largest share of the budget, with additional
support from
a pledge drive and the Law School Foundation, which matches
every dollar raised by students with another 50 cents. Elliott
said that in selecting grantees, PILA considers whether the
applicant seems to want a public service career and has a
history of volunteering. A second factor is financial need.
PILA does not give grants to students intending to work on
political campaigns, on clerkships, or to volunteer at for-profit
organizations. In a typical year about 25 percent of applicants
receive awards.
WHERE PILA GRANTEES WORKED, SUMMER 2003
| FEDERAL |
|
FDA Office of Chief Counsel
|
Rockville, MD |
| Office of Senator Joseph Biden, Senate Judiciary Committee |
Washington, D.C. |
| Office of the Legislative Counsel |
Washington, D.C. |
| U.S. Attorney's Office |
Boise, ID |
| U.S. Attorney's Office |
Portland, ME |
| U.S. Attorney's Office |
Washington, D.C. |
| U.S. Department of Justice, Computer Crime Section |
Washington, D.C. |
| U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division |
Washington, D.C. |
U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division,
Office
of International Affairs |
Washington, D.C. |
| STATE |
| Attorney General's Office |
Utica, NY |
| California Attorney General's Office, Criminal Division |
CA |
| Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, Albemarle County |
Charlottesville, VA |
| Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, Arlington County |
Arlington, VA |
| District Attorney's Office |
Texas |
| District Attorney's Office, Denver |
Denver, CO |
| District Attorney's Office, Los Angeles |
Los Angeles, CA |
| District Attorney's Office, San Francisco |
San Francisco, CA |
| Office of the General Counsel, U.Va. |
Charlottesville, VA |
| Public Defender Service, District of Columbia |
Washington, D.C. |
| Public Defender, Charlottesville |
Charlottesville, VA |
| Public Defender, Ft. Myers |
Ft. Myers, FL |
| Public Defender, Miami |
Miami, FL |
| INTERNATIONAL |
| Asia Foundation |
Bangladesh |
| Center for Economic Development and Human Rights |
India |
| Human Rights Centre, University of Pretoria |
South Africa |
| NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS |
| Appalachian Research & Defense Fund, Inc. |
Prestonsburg, KY |
| Elder Law Center, Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups |
Madison, WI |
| Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area |
San Francisco, CA |
| Legal Aid Justice Center |
VA |
| Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago |
Chicago, IL |
| Legal Services of New Jersey |
NJ |
| New York City Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Division |
New York, NY |
| Prairie State Legal Services |
IL |
| Rappahannock Legal Services, Inc. |
Culpeper, VA |
| Rutherford Institute |
Charlottesville, VA |
| Southern Center for Human Rights |
Atlanta, GA |
| Southern Environmental Law Center |
Charlottesville, VA |
| Trial Lawyers for Public Justice |
Oakland, CA |
| UNITE (a union-side labor organization) |
New York, NY |
• Reported by M. Marshall