Making Public Interest Lawyers in a Time of Crisis: an Evidence-based Approach

ARTICLES
Making Public Interest Lawyers in a Time of Crisis:
An Evidence-Based Approach
CATHERINE ALBISTON,* SCOTT L. CUMMINGS,† AND RICHARD L. ABEL
ABSTRACT
Now is a critical time to consider the role that lawyers—and the law schools
that produce them—can play in movements for social transformation. Over the
past half-century, public interest lawyers who represent subordinated commun-
ities in the pursuit of equal justice have contributed signif‌icantly to such move-
ments: mobilizing law to f‌ight discrimination, expand access to social benef‌its,
promote the inclusion of immigrants and others branded outsiders, and protect
the rights of low-wage workers and the unhoused. Although some law schools
have invested resources to train students seeking public interest careers, more
continue to focus on placing students in lucrative law f‌irm jobs. In part to
attract students in a competitive environment, law schools project a neoliberal
conception of legal education that seeks to maximize return on investment,
rather than promoting the professional role of lawyers in democratic society.
Even those law schools dedicated to helping students enter public interest
careers lack basic information about which interventions are most likely to
* Jackson H. Ralston Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), University of California,
Berkeley.
† Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics and Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law.
‡ Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor,
UCLA School of Law. This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, Award Number 1250827,
and the Law School Admissions Council, Fund Number 59934. We would like to thank Scott Barclay,
Christopher Edley, Ann Gallagher, Bryant Garth, Andrew Guzman, Gillian Hadf‌ield, Lisa Kloppenberg,
Elizabeth Magill, Jennifer Mnookin, Rachel Moran, Susan Prager, Deborah Rhode, Susan Sterrett, and
Stephanie Wildman for encouraging us to pursue this study and supporting us throughout the process. We
would also like to thank Michael Fisher, Catherine Fisk, Rachel Stern, and David Wilkins for their insightful
comments on this paper. The survey itself would not have been possible without the incredible work of Neelum
Arya, who served as the study’s project director and was essential to its success, and Mark Leinauer, who pro-
vided invaluable research assistance. We are also particularly indebted to John Stevenson and Nathan Jones at
the Wisconsin Survey Center for running our Survey of California Legal Careers and collecting the data.
Finally, we are deeply grateful to Ben Nyblade and Henry Kim of the UCLA Empirical Research Program,
who provided critical data analysis support, and Vidaur Durazo, Amber Feng, and Sof‌ia Pedroza for their excel-
lent research support. We dedicate this article to the memory of our dear friend, Deborah Rhode. © 2021,
Catherine Albiston, Scott L. Cummings & Richard L. Abel.
223
work. This Article provides the f‌irst systematic empirical evidence about what
law schools can do to help students build long-term public interest careers.
Based on original data collected through a National Science Foundation-
funded survey of a decade of graduates from six California law schools, this
Article looks beyond the drift away from public interest work during law school
to analyze the factors that promote what we call “public interest persistence,”
or dedication to public interest work throughout one’s career. Using statistical
techniques to evaluate endowment effects—what students bring to law school—
and educational effects—what they experience there—we reveal the underap-
preciated ways that law schools do, in fact, matter in shaping public interest
careers. In particular, we f‌ind that law schools play a crucial facilitative role:
guiding students toward public interest careers through externships, summer
jobs, and extracurricular activities that equip students with the tools they need
to navigate the public interest job market and pursue social justice over the
course of their professional lives. Based on these new f‌indings, the Article offers
policy recommendations for how law schools can build on current programs in
support of public interest careers. We also call for law schools to reconceptual-
ize public interest practice, broadly def‌ined, as an element of professional iden-
tity in light of current threats to marginalized communities and the rule of law.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
I. THE PUZZLE OF PUBLIC INTEREST PERSISTENCE . . . . . . . . . . . 232
A. THE DRIFT THESIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
B. THE PERSISTENCE HYPOTHESIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
C. THE CONTRADICTIONS OF CAREER RESEARCH . . . . . . . . 239
1. ENDOWMENT: BEFORE THE J.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
a. Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
b. Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
c. LGBTQ and Gender Nonconformity . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
d. Class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
e. Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
f. Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
g. Political Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
224 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 34:223
h. Foreign Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
i. Pre-Law School Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
2. EDUCATION: THE LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
3. ENVIRONMENT: AFTER LAW SCHOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
D. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LEGAL EDUCATION. . . . . . . . 249
II. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF CALIFORNIA LAW SCHOOL
GRADUATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
A. THE PROJECT ON CALIFORNIA LEGAL EDUCATION AND
CAREERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
B. INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT MEASURES . . . . . . . . . . 254
C. MODELING PUBLIC INTEREST CAREER PATTERNS. . . . . . 255
III. WHY DO PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS PERSIST?. . . . . . . . . . . 256
A. AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC INTEREST CAREERS . . . . . . . . 256
B. PUBLIC INTEREST JOBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
1. ENDOWMENT FACTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
a. Demographic and Social Characteristics . . . . . . . . . 264
b. Experience before Law School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
2. EDUCATIONAL FACTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
a. Coursework and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
b. Culture and Mentorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
C. PRIVATE PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FIRMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
D. PRO BONO AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
E. CAREER PATTERNS OUT OF AND INTO PUBLIC INTEREST
LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
IV. MAKING PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS AND REMAKING PUBLIC
INTEREST LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A. ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
1. IN IT FOR GOOD: BECOMING PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS IN THE
CONTEMPORARY PROFESSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
2021] MAKING PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS IN A TIME OF CRISIS 225

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