Contact: Lynn Schultz-Writsel202-466-3686 [email protected]
In Pursuit of Equal JusticeHow Public Interest-Minded Law Students Spent Their Summer Vacations
"This summer I found poverty in rural America, and it grabbed me by the shoulders and shouted at me." Those are the words Ian H. Thomson, now a second-year law student at Brigham Young University, used to describe his summer public interest law internship with the Migrant Farmworker Law Unit of Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. Thomson is one of 217 first- and second-year law students who spent nine to eleven weeks this summer protecting the rights of migrant farm workers, ensuring access to public benefits, preventing domestic violence, combating homelessness and housing discrimination or addressing a host of other legal issues that confront low-income persons, families and communities.
Through innovative summer internship programs organized by the National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL) and funded through the Corporation for National Service, thousands of underrepresented individuals and hundreds of low-income communities in 33 states and the District of Columbia received direct legal services or help in expanding legal services. In return, the students gained hands-on training and experience in legal representation or the opportunity to develop projects that met compelling community needs, plus a $1,000 educational award to be applied to qualified student loans or current tuition bills.
David Stern, NAPIL Executive Director, noted that the summer programs' participants "¥are representative of a new generation of lawyers who are committed to social justice. They give lawyers a good name!" He added, "These programs offer an extraordinary experience for law students nationwide and are invaluable to launching a career in public interest law."
"I have drastically changed my career goals," said Mary Rose Geimer on the completion of her Minneapolis, MN summer internship with HOME Line, a local tenants' hotline. Geimer, who is beginning her third year at Hamline University School of Law, developed, in collaboration with police departments in the Greater Twin Cities area, a program to improve police understanding of landlord/tenant law. Like most of her NAPIL summer colleagues, Geimer also noted that the $1,000 education award helped make it possible for her to explore public interest law this summer.
Dimple Abichindani, interned at the National Employment Law Project's South Asian Worker's Rights Project in New York City. "This summer I've been able to bring my law school experience to my own community, the South Asian community in New York City." Abichindani, a third-year student at Northeastern University School of Law, added, "It's so important to be able to provide assistance in the languages that the people speak. It has been affirming to be able to help my community in this way."
Selection of students for the 2001 NAPIL summer programs was conducted through a competitive application process that linked candidates with non-profit host sites or allowed candidates to plan their own internship or summer project.
The National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL) leads the country in organizing, training and supporting public service-minded law students and in creating summer and postgraduate public interest jobs aimed a bringing equal justice to millions of low-income persons, families and communities.
Created in 1993, the Corporation for National Service gives more than a million Americans opportunities to improve communities through service. The Corporation supports service at the national, state and local levels, overseeing three main initiatives: AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America and National Senior Service Corps.
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(NOTE TO MEDIA: Contact NAPIL to learn more about students who worked in your area.)
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