For those of you utilizing these resources as you consider whether or where to go for law school, this post is primarily for you.
There are several key factors to consider when determining whether a law school will help you further a career in civil rights. Let’s get right to them.
Clinical Programs
Landing a civil rights job almost always requires experience. Civil rights firm and organizations – unlike BigLaw – are typically not large enough to have the resources to train someone up. We want someone who can jump right in and get going.
Yet, that leads us to the famous conundrum: how do you get experience without first getting the job? That’s actually an easy answer for law students: clinicals.
Clinical programs provide hands-on training to law students through a variety of substantive legal areas: housing, domestic violence, employment discrimination, prisoner representation, unemployment appeals hearings, criminal defense, criminal prosecution, and so on. Clinicals range from providing assistance with informal advocacy to county court representation all the way through federal court litigation.
If you are hoping to become a civil rights attorney, it is key that you choose a law school with a robust clinical program. You want one that includes clinicals that are both incredibly hands-on and which substantively interest you.
Law schools typically boast their clinic programs, so you should be able to find out about the programs through their website. It’s also worthwhile to talk to current and former students about their experience in the clinical programs, since a website can only go so far in telling you how the experience actually was.
For example, maybe the clinicals aren’t as hands on as you would like. Or perhaps the school is too short staffed to have more than 30 students per semester enroll in the clinicals, meaning many students miss out. These are important pieces of information, and students are more likely to be honest with you about any flaws than folks who work for the institution.
Career Office or Career Counselors Dedicated to Civil Rights
The next big thing you should look for is whether your law school has a career office or career counselors who are specifically dedicated to civil rights careers. Trust me, this is not a given.
When I went to law school, most law schools did not have a delineation between career counselors, and I was incredibly lucky that Harvard was different. They have an entire office – the Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) – devoted to civil rights and public service careers.
In practice in Colorado, I am aware that some local law schools have more resources dedicated to helping students pursue a career in civil rights than others. Friends of mine who went to the law schools that are not as committed to civil rights lament the difficulty they had learning about the civil rights community, networking, finding job opportunities, and so on.
I’ve personally worked to open up the ability for those students – as well as anyone else who is interested – to learn about our community and network with civil rights lawyers. However, that can only do so much. Without law schools providing the support needed for students to learn about the profession and stay committed from the get go, many students will feel they have little choice but to enter corporate defense-side practice.
Attending a School in the Community You Wish to Serve
Getting your foot in the door in the civil rights world oftentimes comes down to networking. This is especially true when compared to the conveyor-belt system of on-campus interviews by BigLaw, which is far less about networking – I mean, they come to you.
Since that’s the case, it can be incredibly important to choose a law school in the community you wish to serve. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule: if you get into a top 5 or top 10 law school, it may make more sense to attend that school and apply to work in the community later. This usually works out best for people who have some connection for the community – perhaps they were raised in the city or state – than for folks who have little connection but wish to relocate after law school.
I have witnessed many people consider taking an offer based solely on law school rank. Do not make this mistake. For example (this is entirely made up), imagine someone who wants to serve the community in Colorado who ends up accepting an offer from the University of Minnesota because it is ranked #20, whereas CU Boulder is ranked #45. I can almost undoubtedly assure you that the student will have a much harder time finding a position in Colorado as compared to their counterparts attending CU.
While I’m positive the University of Minnesota is a fantastic school, it does not have the same clout as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and so on. For those institutions, not having been in the community during the three years of law school may be overlooked by a future employer. For an institution simply ranked higher but without the name recognition, that is rarely the case.
Unless you’re facing a decision between accepting an offer from a highly regarded law school versus a more local choice, I would say it makes sense to defer to the local options. Of course, this may not be true in every market. As you consider which offer to accept, talk to attorneys practicing in the community you wish to serve to get their insight.
Loan Forgiveness Programs
Finally, the last big hitter: does your law school provide a loan forgiveness program? And if so, what are its terms?
This one is huge. A lot of people will attend a law school based on its strong scholarship offer only to find out that the school may have rigged the system so that it becomes nearly impossible to keep the scholarship past the first year. Don’t make this mistake! Instead, look to see whether your law school offers a strong loan forgiveness program.
I personally know that many of the top 10 law schools provide a strong loan forgiveness program. This includes Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Berkeley. However, every program is different with respect to how it works, what terms may apply, and what jobs may qualify.
Since I don’t personally have experience with the other programs, I will speak to Harvard’s Low Income Protection Plan (“LIPP”). LIPP is a loan assistance program based on a combination of having a low income and working in a LIPP-eligible job, such as in the public sector.
Luckily for me, Harvard considers private civil rights firms LIPP-eligible. Not all law schools do – some require they be either a non-profit or a government position. It’s important you look into this distinction if deciding between several law schools offering loan forgiveness. Personally, I think having more options at the end of your law school career is better than fewer, and I would want the program that recognizes private civil rights firms as eligible for loan forgiveness.
During LIPP, Harvard will look at your salary (including bonuses) over the course of a six-month period to determine how much you can afford to pay against your loans per month. Harvard will then pay the rest.
That’s right: whether you owe $1000 per month, $1500 per month, or $2000 per month on your loans, Harvard will pay any amount over the monthly amount it has calculated you can afford. Which is amazing. It means you won’t get stuck having to pay based off a percentage and that the size of your loans will not be held against you.
Of course, there are some catches. If you join the program, you cannot attempt to pay down your loans faster than the 10-year repayment term. And if you have any loans on a different repayment term (let’s say 20 years), you will need to get them refinanced or else pay the remaining years after the first ten on your own.
And you can only save $10,000 in assets per year (though retirement savings are only counted against you as half their value, so if you put $10,000 in retirement accounts in a year, you can save an additional $5,000 in cash).
But here’s another plus: you can leave the program at any time without penalty (except immediately following a clerkship). Meaning that if after five years you choose to go to a higher-paying position that would render you LIPP ineligible, you can leave without repercussion.
Trust me, you don’t know where you will be in ten years after you graduate, so be wary of programs that require a full ten-year commitment for loan forgiveness to actually be made.
Overall, I know that loan forgiveness is a luxury afforded by the top law schools with very large endowments, but if you’re considering a school that is offering you a scholarship compared to one offering real loan forgiveness options, I would opt for the latter.