Tuesday, October 27, 1998
Future lawyers learn idealism
PROGRAM: Curriculum draws students attracted to career in public
interest, advocacy
By Brian Fishman
Daily Bruin Contributor
A select group of law students are proving that not all lawyers
are sharks.
The Public Interest Law Program, now in its second year, is one
of several programs around the country designed to prepare lawyers
for public service or advocacy work, rather than a position in a
large legal firm.
UCLA’s public interest law program, also called PILP, attempts
to imbue it’s students with idealism as much as anything else, said
Alison Anderson, Faculty Program Coordinator for PILP.
The program with 27 second year and 25 first year students, is
one of the most advanced, said Catherine Mayorkas, PILP organizer.
She explained that the program incorporates concepts such as
volunteerism, and a respect for underrepresented groups.
For Lee Crawford, a first year PILP student, it was the nature
of the public interest curriculum that enticed her into the
program.
"Even at other schools where the programs are good, they are
limited," said Crawford. "This program offered a uniquely focused
opportunity."
The program is special because it has specific curriculum
requirements, Mayorkas said.
PILP allows a broad range of activities that qualify as
public-interest.
"Public interest is broadly defined to encompass any and all
interests underrepresented by the private market," according to the
programs online brochure.
The PILP curriculum differs from normal law school curriculum in
several distinct ways.
First year students are required to take a weekly workshop that
acquaints them with public interest issues.
This year, students have worked with the homeless in welfare
offices, said Gary Blasi, UCLA law professor and housing expert
"They both learn good things and also do good work," Blasi
said.
Also, all first year law students must take a lawyering skills
class that specifically uses public interest cases as examples.
These students are taught the same skills as other upcoming
lawyers, but the substance is different, Anderson said.
"Instead of talking about property rights, we might talk about
homelessness," Anderson said, giving an example.
The Public Interest Law Program requires special classes for
more than just first year students.
Second and third year students must take public interest
seminars and participate in public interest research projects.
This year, one of the research seminars will be taught by
Richard Abel, law professor and expert on the modification of law
over time.
Abel plans to center his class around the so-called "Concrete
Mountain Study."
This case, about a unwanted concrete recycling center located in
a disenfranchised section of Huntington Park, will give students
the opportunity to investigate what residents did to expel the
recycling center from their neighborhood.
Abel says this exercise will teach students how to use courts,
community activism, and the media to affect change.
These skills are not taught in the normal law school curriculum,
Abel noted because often they are not applicable except in public
interest cases.
However, the difference between normal law school curriculum and
that offered by PILP is relatively minor, Anderson said, adding
that PILP’s curriculum relies heavily on existing classes with a
public interest slant.
"The goal of this program overall is to take the stuff that
everyone is learning,and cranking it around to view it from a
public interest perspective," Anderson said.
These classes are intended to form a knowledge base for public
interest minded lawyers so that they will be able to promote their
causes with maximum efficiency.
"There should be this core of knowledge that all public interest
servers have," Mayorkas said.
Blasi used a more direct definition.
"Basically that means a practice other than that based on
fee-paying client."
This includes groups from across the political spectrum.
"We even have Republicans in the program," Anderson said.
One thing student’s do have in common is an open mind, noted
Daniel McQueen, a first year PILP student.
"They’re all liberal in the sense that they are open-minded,"
McQueen said.
"Law school can pretty much tear you down, it’s nice to have a
support group around with similar views that you can talk to,"
McQueen said.
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