University of Southern California Law School Gould School of Law
University of Southern California
University of Southern California Law School Gould School of Law
Los Angeles, CA 90089
www.law.usc.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Lisa Mead Associate Dean, Office of Public Service
lmead@law.usc.edu
(213) 740-6314
Melissa Balaban
Assistant Dean, Office of Career Services
mbalaban@law.usc.edu
(213) 740-7397
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by a Referral System with Coordinator
Description of Program
The student-run Pro Bono Campaign, begun in 1992, encourages students to perform a minimum of 35 hours of pro bono during the school year. Two officers of the Public Interest Law Foundation are dedicated exclusively to the Pro Bono Campaign. The Associate Dean for the Office of Public Service and the Assistant Dean for the Career Services Office advise and support the students, as does the entire PILF Board which includes two deans, a faculty member and five graduates. Pro bono opportunities are promoted and facilitated through various means. Some programs are run through our in-house clinics or the Office of Public Service; others are coordinated with local legal services offices, many of which include student trainings offered in the Law School building; and additional opportunities are off-site. All programs are advertised in the Law School's weekly newsletter and through a pro bono listserv.
USC also requires an upper-division professional skills course which may be satisfied by taking a clinical course or externship.
Location of Program
A Stand Alone Program
Staffing/Management/Oversight
PILF is a student-run organization that sponsors as many as 23 pro bono clinics in the community. Several other student organizations such as Street Law and La Raza offer additional pro bono opportunities available to all law students. The Office of Public Service supports and advises PILF's pro bono clinic co-chairs and connects them with community organizations in need of pro bono law students.
Funding
Pro bono work at the Law School is supported through the Law School budget, foundations, donations from individuals and law firms.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Adoption Day - Administered and supervised by a clinical law professor, students in the Children's Legal Issues Clinic team up with student volunteers and the Los Angeles Children's Courty to represent families adopting children who were formerly wards of the court. La Raza Teen Court and Teen Mentoring - http://www.geocities.com/usclaraza/index2.html
Mariel Cuban Detainees - Administered and supervised by clinical law professors, the Post-Conviction Justice Project students team up with student volunteers to represent Mariel Cubans in immigration parole hearings.
National Lawyers Guild - NLG engages in a number of pro bono activities, including providing legal monitors for strikes and demonstrations.
PILF Pro Bono Clinics - http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~pilf/pages/Students-Clinics.html
Street Law Program - Utilizes 25-50 law student volunteers who teach about the law and serve as mentors to hundreds of public high school students.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
There is no formal faculty pro bono policy. However, public and community service activities are among the criteria used in annual faculty evaluations.
Some clinical faculty supervise pro bono projects.
Awards/Recognition
The PILF Spring Awards Luncheon honors summer grant and clinical fellowship recipients, outstanding alumni and students in public interest, post-graduate fellowship recipients, and students who fulfilled more than 20 hours of public interest service.Annual Law School Awards ceremony honors recipients of Shattuck Awards, Mason Brown Award and the Miller-Johnson Equal Justice Award -- all of which place an emphasis on service to the community.
Community Service
The Community Service Committee is a student group that coordinates community service projects and events at the law school and in the community throughout the academic year, including the orienation community service event.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Priya SridharanAssistant Director
psridhar@law.usc.edu
(213) 740-7397
Career Services Office
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Although the Law School does not award a separate certificate, the Law School's academic counseling manual, which provides advice on curricular emphases, course choices, and recommended chronology for course sequencing, includes a "public interest" section.
Public Interest Centers
Office of Public Service - The Law School's Office of Public Service expands opportunities for pro bono legal work, internships and service-learning programs. While USC Law has boasted public interest programs for decades - its first clinical program was established in 1929 and the USC Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) was one of the earliest such organizations in the country founded in 1987 - the recently launched office will centralize and strengthen programs and provide improved assistance to students who are interested in public service opportunities.
Public Interest Clinics
Advanced Immigration Clinic - Students who previously enrolled in Immigration Clinic can study the same type of cases developed in the lower level course.Advanced Post Conviction Justice Project - Students who previously enrolled in the Justice Project can further pursue studies in this field.
Children's Legal Issues - This yearlong clinical course develops child advocacy skills and examines children's rights. During an eight-week seminar, you learn advocacy techniques and substantive law in specific types of cases. Then, under faculty supervision, you represent a child and his or her interests in a variety of legal and administrative proceedings. Cases include guardianships for abused and neglected children or for children of single parents with AIDS, school disciplinary hearings, and special-education entitlements for children with physical or emotional disabilities.
Employment Legal Advice Clinic - This clinic gives you the opportunity to contribute to the local community while you deepen your knowledge of employment law and develop skills in client counseling, advice, and legal drafting. Students assist businesses, nonprofit organizations, and community-based entrepreneurial outreach programs seeking to promote economic development in low-income communities throughout greater Los Angeles. Legal projects cover a broad range of employment-related matters and involve advising clients of their obligations under federal, state, and local law, and assisting clients in revising or developing employment policies and practices in order to satisfy their legal obligations.
Immigration Clinic - In a city shaped by immigrants, gain first-hand legal experience with the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS), the Immigration Court, and law enforcement agencies involved in immigration matters. Cases range from asylum claims by people who fear persecution if returned to their homes, to claims for relief from deportation filed by people held at regional INS detention centers. You also have the opportunity to represent clients seeking relief under the Violence Against Women Act, which enables male and female immigrants to file their own claims for permanent immigration status if they are being abused by a spouse or parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Clients may be referred by the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, the Program for Torture Victims, Public Counsel, and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.
Intellectual Property Clinic - Opportunities to learn about intellectual property law abound in Los Angeles, one of the world's leading centers for media, entertainment, and technology. This clinic represents clients in cases that may involve technology, copyright, trademark, privacy, and First Amendment issues. Law students engage in patent evaluation and application; the review of technology contracts; litigation involving intellectual property; and film clearance work. Students gain practical experience through such projects as helping "starving artists" register copyrights, working on open source licenses, and thinking through the complex public policy questions surrounding intellectual property in the digital age.
Post-Conviction Justice Project - Through this yearlong program, students, supervised by full-time faculty, represent actual clients in traditional post-conviction situations, such as parole hearings and habeas corpus petitions, and also advise clients on civil issues, such as immigration, civil rights, criminal detainer, and return-of-property matters. As a participant, you attend seminars covering substantive law relevant to your case, discussing such subjects as the laws of sentencing and parole, prisoners' constitutional rights, the use of evidence of battering in criminal cases, gender and racial bias in the criminal justice system, and immigration law. Participants travel regularly to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island and the California Institution for Women at Frontera to interview clients. Many students have also argued their cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - an exciting preview of the work they can do as attorneys.
Externships/Internships
Externships are placements in pre-approved public interest or government offices and placements with judges or justices. These placements provide a wide variety of opportunities for students to have direct experience with clients and legal problems in attorney-supervised settings as part of their second and third year curriculum. Externships are designed to be different from paid legal work available to law students because of the nature of the academic learning and supervision provided; as well as the breadth of assignments and a level of responsibility that are typically not available to paid student clerks. USC's program offers more than 100 public interest nonprofit, government and judicial placements throughout the country as well as internationally.Some examples of field placements in recent years include:
- CA Dept. of Justice-Office of the Attorney General;
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;
- Los Angeles City Attorney's Office-Gang Unit;
- U.S. Dept. of Justice; Environment & Natural Resources Division;
- International Criminal Court Tribunal, Rwanda;
- National Health Law Program;
- Alliance for Children's Rights;
- California Women's Law Center;
- Ventura County District Attorney's Office;
- L.A. County Sheriff's Legal Advisory Unit;
- National Health Law Program;
- Riverside County District Attorney's Office;
- L.A. County Public Defender's Office;
- Children's Law Center of L.A.;
- U.S. Attorney's Office;
- California Rural Legal Assistance;
- Connecticut Legal Services;
- United States District Court,Portland, OR;
- Los Angeles Superior Court;
- US District Court - NY;
- CA Court of Appeal;
- US District Court, Hawaii;
- US Bankrupty Court;
- San Francisco Superior Court;
- California Public Utilities Commission;
- ACLU Foundation of Southern California;
- Public Counsel;
- District Attorney's Office, LA County;
http://lawweb.usc.edu/carserv/students/public-service/index.html
Classes with a Public Service Component
Family Violence Seminar - Professor Thomas Lyon offers an additional one to two units for students who provide direct services to victims of domestic violence with one of several local legal services nonprofits.
Public Interest Journals
Review of Law and Women's Studies, Vol 14, Nos. 1 and 2 (fall 2004 and spring 2005)
Public Interest Career Assistance
Career Services provides workshops, handbooks and extensive information and counseling on public service careers, including summer jobs, fellowships, government jobs, career paths, financing of a public interest career,etc.The Office also publishes a biannual USC Law School's Guide to Public Service Law and a biannual USC Law School's Guide to State and Local Government Hiring.
The Office also co-sponsored Public Interest Career Day & Government Career Information Day with the other southern California law schools. See: http://lawweb.usc.edu/carserv/students/public-service/careerday.html
For more information and resources see: http://lawweb.usc.edu/carserv/students/public-service/index.html
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
For a description see: http://law.usc.edu/students/financial/repayment.cfm
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
The Law School's full-time, one-year public interest fellowship is called the Irmas Fellowship and is funded in part by a Law School-created endowment, student fundraising and graduate donations made through the School's Annual Fund.
Graduate Student Funded:
The Law School's full-time, one-year public interest fellowship is called the Irmas Fellowship and is funded in part by a Law School-created endowment, student fundraising and graduate donations made through the School's Annual Fund.
Other Funding Sources:
Sydney M. and Audrey Irmas Fellowship provides a year's salary to a graduate working full-time in public interest.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Public Interest Summer Fellowship - Scholarship offered to incoming first-year student with demonstrated interest in public interest service; includes scholarship funds of varying levels and a summer position with a public interest agency after the first year of law school.
Le Beouf Lamb/Constitutional Rights Scholars Program funds law students to teach legal issues to inner-city high school students.
Graduate Student Funded:
None.
Other Funding Sources:
None.
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
The Law School administers two endowments that produce two summer grants annually: The Adam Scott Memorial Grant, and the Harriet Buhai/Trope & Trope Family Law Summer Fellowship. In addition, Sidley & Austin and Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal provide funding for and sponsor PILF summer grants.
Graduate Student Funded:
PILF, a student-run public interest organization, awards about 25 summer grants each year. Students working their first summer in the public interest are awarded a $4500 grant and students in their second summer receive a $5,500 grant. Funding comes from a Law School-created endowment, student fundraising, and graduate donations made through our Annual Fund drive.
Other Funding Sources:
PILF, a student-run public interest organization, awards about 25 summer grants each year. Students working their first summer in the public interest are awarded a $4500 grant and students in their second summer receive a $5,500 grant. Funding comes from a Law School-created endowment, student fundraising, and graduate donations made through our Annual Fund drive.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Conference on direct democracy - Sponsored by the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics, the Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC, the Center for the Study of Democracy at UC-Irvine, and the Southern California Law Review, the conference examined themes ranging from political institutions and state governance to money in politics and election reform law.Lessons for Civil Rights: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education- USC Law commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education with a lecture by one of the country's leading constitutional historians, Michael J. Klarman - a distinguished professor of law and history at the University of Virginia and author of the acclaimed book From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality.
"Law for the People" Convention - Law students from the USC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) attended the Guild's "Law for the People" convention on in Birmingham, Ala., a city that played a central role in the civil rights movement.
USC Law hold presidential election conference - A day-long event explored how presidential race will shape politics into the next decades Sen. Bob Graham, former Florida governor, author and longtime public servant, delivered the keynote address.
Voter Disenfranchisement and the Right to Vote - Human Rights Watch Young Advocates, BALSA, La Raza and PILF presented the Rev. James Lawson Jr. at the Law School. Often referred to as "the teacher of the Civil Rights Movement" and a principal architect of the American civil rights struggle, he remains at the forefront of civil rights and human rights activism today.
Volunteer training for 2004 election - Election Protection, a national non-partisan coalition, trained volunteer election monitors at USC Law School.
La Raza law students head to Denver for coalition building - Student leaders from around the country gathered in Denver to take part in the 8th Annual National Latina/o Law Students Conference.
Panel discussed war in Iraq - Adjunct Professor Berj Boyajian, who teaches Islamic Law, spoke as part of a panel discussion of Iraqi issues and the role of the U.S. in Iraq.
Street Law sponsored Mentor Day - USC Law students interacted with local high school students and speak spoke about experiences in college and law school.
Mural community service project - USC Law students participated in a schoolwide mural community service project at Walgrove Elementary School.
Ambassador Dennis Ross speaks - The Jewish Law Students Association hosted Ambassador Dennis Ross. He discussed "The Prospects for Peace and the Role of U.S. Diplomacy in the New Middle East."
Public Interest Law and Libertarianism - Manuel Klausner, an L.A. attorney and founder of the Reason Foundation, talked about libertarian ideology and the practice of law - with a particular emphasis on public interest law.
Career Services Public Interest Careers Workshop Series - Series included workshops on public service interviewing, public service resumes, applying for fellowships, etc. A public interest career fair also was held each semester.
Public Interest Career Fair - Dozens of public interest agencies participated in career fair.
Jewish Law Students Association Symposium - Included multiple sessions on public interest subjects, including a lunch seminar on practicing law while doing good.
Annual SBA-Student Organization Open House - The Designed to expose newcomers to a variety of student groups within the Law School. Representatives from organizations ranging from La Raza to the Public Interest Law Foundation were on hand to answer questions and recruit new student members.
Students invited to Public Counsel open house - Law students at all levels were invited to visit the Public Counsel Law Center. They learned about volunteering as an intern or extern, to offer legal services to some of L.A.'s most needy residents. They had an opportunity to meet staff members and learn about the critical legal services offered by all six law projects: Child Care Law, Children's Rights, Consumer Law, Community Development, Homelessness Prevention, and Immigrants' Rights Projects.
Annual spring faculty panel series - Professors recalled how they picked their area of expertise - a helpful event for students exploring their own legal paths.
15th Annual PILF Auction - The Public Interest Law Foundation's annual auction attracted hundreds of people and raised more than $33,000 for the organization's summer grants and scholarships.
Teen Court - La Raza Law Students Association welcomed 30 teen jurors from Manual Arts High School for Teen Court - a juvenile diversion program for first-time juvenile offenders. The event marked the third Teen Court to be held at USC since La Raza first became involved with the program.
2005 Pro Bono Awards Luncheon - More than 50 students were recognized at the 2005 Pro Bono Awards Luncheon.
Student Public Interest Groups
Criminal Law SocietyLa Raza Law Students Association
USC Asian-Pacific American Law Student Association
USC Gay and Lesbian Law Union
USC National Lawyers Guild
USC Public Interest Law Foundation
