University of Chicago Law School
University of Chicago
University of Chicago Law School
1111 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
www.law.uchicago.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Michele Baker RichardsonDean of Students
773-702-3955
mrichardson@uchicago.edu
Category Type
Independent Student Pro Bono Group Projects with no school-wide program.
Description of Program
Location of Program
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Funding
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Neighbors is the Law School's primary community service organization. Each year, approximately 100 law students spend two hours a week volunteering in the local community. These service programs include one-on-one tutoring at local elementary and high schools, career mentoring for teen-adults, participating at a soup kitchen, and visiting the elderly at the local YWCA center. In addition, Neighbors also conducts quarterly service drives, including a canned-food drive in the fall, a blood drive in the winter, and a clothing drive in the spring. Overall, Neighbors is a key way that University of Chicago law students can become involved in the local community. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/neighbors.htmlStreet Law is an outreach volunteer program to community high schools. Groups of approximately four or five students visit eleventh and twelfth grade classrooms once per week for fifty minutes. During each visit, the law students teach the class fundamental legal concepts and engage in policy discussion. Some classes break into small groups to encourage interaction and the free flow of ideas among high school and law students. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/streetlaw.html
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Awards/Recognition
The Public Interest Law Society annually presents awards to students who have made significant contributions in public interest law and to the community.At graduation the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic presents an award for graduates who have contributed the most to the Law School's clinical education program.
Community Service
Neighbors is the Law School's primary community service organization. Each year, approximately 100 law students spend two hours a week volunteering in the local community. These service programs include one-on-one tutoring at local elementary and high schools, career mentoring for teen-adults, participating at a soup kitchen, and visiting the elderly at the local YWCA center. In addition, Neighbors also conducts quarterly service drives, including a canned-food drive in the fall, a blood drive in the winter, and a clothing drive in the spring. Overall, Neighbors is a key way that University of Chicago law students can become involved in the local community. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/neighbors.htmlStreet Law is an outreach volunteer program to community high schools. Groups of approximately four or five students visit eleventh and twelfth grade classrooms once per week for fifty minutes. During each visit, the law students teach the class fundamental legal concepts and engage in policy discussion. Some classes break into small groups to encourage interaction and the free flow of ideas among high school and law students. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/streetlaw.html
Other Student Groups: Many other student groups engage in community service projects throughout the year. For example, the University of Chicago Black Law Students Association has invited area high school students for an introduction to law school and held a clothing drive, and the Law Women's Caucus initiated a toiletries drive, encouraging students traveling for interviews to donate unused hotel toiletries, which will be distributed to local shelters.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Lois CasaleggiSenior Director of Career Services
773-702-6705
lcasaleggi@law.uchicago.edu
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
None.
Public Interest Centers
None.
Public Interest Clinics
Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic: The Mandel Clinic is a legal aid office that renders assistance to indigent clients. Currently the Clinic has the following projects: Appellate Advocacy, Civil Rights and Police Accountability, Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Employment Discrimination, Housing Development, and Mental Health. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/mandel/The Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project: The Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project is a human service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interests of immigrant and refugee children who are alone in the United States. The Project is working to develop a national network of Child Advocates for unaccompanied and separated immigrant and refugee children and to promote consideration of best interests in all decisions affecting unaccompanied immigrant children in the United States. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/mandel/icap.html
Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship: The Institute for Justice, the nation's premier public interest advocate for economic liberty, and The University of Chicago Law School sponsor the IJ Clinic. The Clinic is a free public interest transactional law firm in which law students, supervised by licensed Illinois attorneys, help entry-level businesspersons in and around Chicago exercise their right to earn an honest living by providing the legal advice they need to get their businesses started or to stay in business. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/academics/justice_clinic_entrepreneurship.html
Externships/Internships
None.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Poverty and Housing Law Clinic (seminar with clinical component at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago)
Public Interest Journals
www.pils.uchicago.edu
Public Interest Career Assistance
The law school offers:
- Individual counseling with a designated public interest counselor
- Resource Center with a wide variety of public interest publications; in addition, all students receive an individual copy of Serving the Public: A Job Search Guide
- Membership in and access to on-line job postings and other information available by subscription in PSLawNet, the Government Honors & Internship Handbook, and Opportunities in Public Affairs
- Institutional membership in Equal Justice Works, providing access to information and programs such as the Equal Justice Works Fellowships, Equal Justice Works Summer Corps, and the Equal Justice Works Annual Conference and Career Fair
- Registration for and travel grants to the Equal Justice Works Annual Conference and Career Fair
- Coordination of the Midwest Public Interest Law Career Conference and the Public Interest Employers Reception in conjunction with the Chicago Area Law School Consortium
- Promotion of and participation in several other public service job fairs, including The National Black Prosecutors Association Job Fair, Cook County State's Attorney's Office Prosecutorial Opportunities Symposium, City of Chicago Legal Job Fair, and The Chicago Bar Association Young Lawyers Section Pro Bono and Community Service Volunteer Fair
- Alumni Public Interest Mentors Network
- Fellowship application assistance
- Various public interest programs during the academic year
- Assistance to and coordination with the Public Interest Law Society and the Chicago Law Foundation, including the annual PILS Public Service Employers Networking Reception
- Debt management and financial planning assistance
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
The Hormel Public Interest Program, or "HPIP," is not a traditional loan repayment assistance program. There is not a lengthy time requirement to receive benefits, and benefits are provided regardless of spousal income or potential family contributions. We like to think that the HPIP approach is the best way to support and encourage our graduates. For the most up-to-date information on HPIP, please see http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/hpip.pdf.
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
The Law School offers a Clinical Teaching Fellowship.
Graduate Student Funded:
The Chicago Law Foundation (CLF) is a student-directed, not-for-profit group that awards grants to law students who devote their summers to working in the public interest (see below). In addition, CLF awards bar grants to graduating 3Ls who will be entering the public sector to assist with their expenses connected to the bar exam.
Other Funding Sources:
Post-graduate funding also comes from various fellowship and grant sources. In recent years our graduates have obtained fellowships for post-graduate public interest work, including Equal Justice Works, the International Justice Mission, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI).
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
None.
Graduate Student Funded:
None.
Other Funding Sources:
None.
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Summer Public Interest Loan Program: The University of Chicago is committed to supporting a range of summer employment opportunities. To meet this commitment, the loan program provides short-term, interest-free loans of up to $5,000 to students working for the public interest during their first-year summer. In addition, students who work in eligible public interest positions for at least four weeks of their first-year summer may have a portion of the loan forgiven.
For more information on the Summer Public Interest Loan Program, please see http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/2007_summer_loan.pdf.
The Honorable Diane P. Wood Summer Fellowship in International Law: This fellowship supports an international public service internship for a Law School student each summer.
The Norval Morris Public Interest Fellowship: This fellowship supports a criminal justice or mental health internship for a Law School student each summer.
Graduate Student Funded:
The Chicago Law Foundation (CLF) is a student-directed, not-for-profit group that awards grants to law students who devote their summers to working in the public interest. Because few public interest organizations and government agencies have the money to pay law students for summer employment, CLF assists law students who would not otherwise be able to work for such organizations.
CLF is non-partisan and funds projects that fall anywhere on the political spectrum. Past CLF grantees have worked for a wide variety of organizations including: the American Civil Liberties Union; the AIDS Legal Council; the Institute for Justice; Public Citizen Litigation Group; Brooklyn Legal Services; the Illinois Migrant Legal Assistance Project; the Center for Individual Rights; the Authors' Guild, and the National Wildlife Federation. CLF also funds students who work for government agencies.
CLF raises most of the money for its summer grant programs from law students, many of whom donate a portion of their summer earnings; some law firms also match their summer associates' contributions to CLF. In addition, CLF conducts an annual Charity Auction to raise grant funds. The Law School and its faculty also contribute to CLF.
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/clf.html
Other Funding Sources:
Students also receive summer funding from other sources such as the Equal Justice Works Summer Corps program, Equal Justice America, and other grant programs.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Chicago Policy Initiatives: The Chicago Policy Initiatives combine the collective work and experience of faculty and students to address specific social problems with the intent of providing potential solutions. Several of these initiatives have public interest and community-oriented goals. The Chicago Policy Initiative on Foster Care is a project that unites former foster children, scholars, policy makers, judges, and lawyers in an effort to understand the special problems facing foster youth aging out of the child welfare system and to identify opportunities for legal reform that help make a successful transition to independent adulthood.
The Chicago Project on Animal Treatment Principles is an interdisciplinary initiative in animal rights law that is intended to generate information about animal treatment standards, and disclosure of varying levels of adherence to those standards, which in turn will help inform and educate consumers and investors in making choices in the market. The Project involves faculty and students examining best practices and developing disclosure guidelines for the treatment of animals in various industries.
The Parental Leave Project will examine parental leave disparities across professions, industries, and nations in order to make policy recommendations and to determine economic incentives appropriate for a more responsive system.
Regular Panels and Other Programs:
- 1L Options Series: Public Interest & Government Service Positions
- 1L Options Series: International Opportunities, including International Human Rights
- Working for the Federal Government Program
- Department of Justice Informational Session
- Public Interest Employers Networking Reception
- Post-Graduate Fellowship Information Sessions
- Various practitioners from the public sector also speak to students
throughout the academic year
Student Public Interest Groups
PILS: The Public Interest Law Society (PILS) is a student-led organization that promotes the study and practice of public interest law at the University of Chicago Law School. PILS works to promote career development and academic scholarship in public interest law, as well as to make the practice of public interest law a reality after graduation. CLF: The Chicago Law Foundation (CLF) is a student-directed, not-for-profit group that awards grants to law students who devote their summers to working in the public interest and bar grants to graduating students entering the public sector. http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Life/clf.html
