I recently graduated in a big city market. I've specialized in public interest throughout school and have a decent transcript and resume with a number of internships.

There are a number of job postings in city and federal government agencies. I have a genuine interest in agency administration, and the pay is not that much less than entry level public interest, so I'm considering being a paper-pushing bureaucrat for something like SSA for a year. I'm going to be dealing with them on the phone and directing clients to them for my whole life so I wouldn't mind knowing the ins-and-outs.

My question is whether this would taint me for conflict purposes?

Other career advice is appreciated.

** Edit 6pm EST - we're here and we're ready to answer your Qs! Keep em coming! **

** Edit 7:15pm EST - we're back to our readings but might check again in an hour or so to answer any more last min Qs you have. Thanks everyone! **

Hello from Ann Arbor! We're three 1Ls at Michigan Law here to answer any questions you might have about public interest (PI)/government work. We know that choosing a law school can be an extremely stressful process, even during a normal year. We also know that nothing can make up for cancelled admitted students weekends and everything else making decisions more difficult than usual this year, but hopefully this AMA helps bring some clarity to the process.

This panel is meant to focus on what it's like be an MLaw student interested in PI/government work after graduation. There will hopefully be another panel specifically focused on firms/private practice soon. Also, a few other MLaw students held an AMA related to student life a little over a week ago. You can check out that thread here. That said, we're happy to answer any additional questions about student life/housing that you might have.

Our bios are below. We plan to start answering questions around 6pm EST and will continue taking questions for about an hour or so. Feel free to start posting, we are excited to hear from you!

Student: MichiganLawPI

• Year: 1L
• Hometown: Holmdel, NJ
• 1L Summer: Legal Services of Northern VA
• Post grad/post grad-market: DC
• Campus Involvement: Title IX advocacy pro bono project, National Lawyer's Guild (NLG), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Compost Michigan, Headnotes (a cappella group)
• Housing 1L year: Off campus

Student: goblueandmaize

• Year: 1L
• Hometown: Austin, TX
• 1L Summer: Dallas County Public Defender's Office
• Post grad/post grad-market: TX
• Campus Involvement: MDefenders (student group for aspiring public defenders), International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), Outlaws (LGBTQ affinity group), Workers' Rights Clinic
• Housing 1L year: Lawyers' Club (MLaw housing located directly on the Law Quad)

Student: michlaw1L

• Year: 1L
• Hometown: Albany, NY
• 1L Summer: Department of Justice - Antitrust Division (in DC)
• Post grad/post grad-market: Midwest
• Campus Involvement: Consumer Advocacy and Financial Regulation Organization, American Constitution Society (ACS), Women

::edit:: I've got to turn to some other stuff, but thanks for the great questions, all, and for your interest in the case!

Running red lights can get you a ticket. But in Oregon, you can be fined just for talking about it. Mats Järlström learned this first-hand last year when the state of Oregon fined him $500 for publicly suggesting that yellow lights should last for slightly longer to accommodate cars making right turns.

It all started when Mats’s wife received a red-light camera ticket, which sparked Mats’s interest in how exactly yellow lights are timed. He did a little Googling and found the formula used to set traffic-light times. The length of time a traffic light stays yellow is based on a relatively straightforward mathematical formula, originally drafted in 1959. Mats realized that the formula is incomplete. Mats’s work was generally met with interest and praise, but when Mats e-mailed the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying, things took an abrupt illegal U-turn. The Board told Mats they had no interest in hearing about his ideas. Fair enough. But the Board didn’t stop there. They launched a full-blown investigation, alleging that he’d engaged in the unlicensed “practice of engineering.”

But now, Mats is fighting back. No matter how technical the topic, the government cannot give state-licensed experts a monopoly on exchanging ideas. Mats isn’t claiming the right to single-handedly change traffic lights himself; he just wants to talk about them.

The government has also stopped people like Mats from truthfully calling themselves “engineers.” Just as the State of Oregon has no monopoly on engineering concepts, it has no monopoly on words. That is why Mats has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to ask the federal courts to protect the First Amendment rights of all Oregonians to speak freely about whatever they want. It’s time for Oregon to give free speech the green light.

Sam Gedge is a lawyer at the public-interest Institute for Justice, which is representing Mats in his First Amendment case.

edit: Proof!

I'm one year away from getting my law degree and Public International Law is really the only thing that interests me. I, however, am rather clueless regarding its different fields and what universities stand out in them. It would be great to hear what field you are passionate about and why.

Also, I would really appreciate it if you could give me some tips about pursuing a career in Public International Law (I'm Colombian if that's relevant).

Thanks in advance!

Is there a masterpost or a compilation of resources for people interested in public interest law?

Yes, I understand public interest law is extremely broad, hence why I am seeking out information--it seems a lot easier to find info about biglaw than about public interest.

This is SUPER off topic from normal things on this thread, I just really need some advice. I am super public interest oriented, and I am applying to law school in the upcoming cycle. I am currently interning with a great non profit that I love, and my manager offered me an extension into the fall that I said yes to. The intern application period has passed, and a fellow intern just let me know that if I extend I will be unable to intern there again, even as a law student. I’m not sure if I want to intern there in law school, but having it taken off of the table is definitely worrying since it is a possible career interest. I thought I would ask from other law students or people applying what they thought about either prioritizing a possible law school internship over an undergrad internship with a team I love? (I also know I won’t be married to wherever I end up right after law school) My time to make this decision is really short and I’m just trying to get a variety of opinions.

Sorry, just beginning to look at law schools and I'm a bit confused! I definitely want to go into public interest law (especially environmental) and have little to no interest in Big Law. Are T14s bad/not the best for this goal? What is the difference between trying to go into public interest and Big Law in law school? Is there a big difference or am I confused for no reason?

Posting this because some people asked recently about what the PI culture at Cornell is like. This is from one of our best profs:

"I can tell you there is not a concerted, top-down plan to push you all into BigLaw firms. We are, to a great extent, passive participants in the employment market. We fully support public service careers, through career advising, clinical programs, pro bono scholars, externships, and specialized classes. I support students all the time in seeking public interest careers."

Hey everyone! So I’ve been watching a ton of videos on law school (aspiring students/graduates). And I always hear about big law vs public interest. It’s given me a pretty black and white view of fields. What other fields are there (if any) that don’t fall under either of these? Or perhaps is there more pluralism in both of these fields than people let on? Right now, I’m getting the picture of court room, a huge firm, or a nonprofit.

I Solved the Mystery of the Entire Gamestop Saga: My Definitive Explanation on (a) The (Minimum) True Short Interest / Public Float; (b) The Meaning of the Official SEC “Gamestop Report”; (c) How Computershare Was Always the Only Answer Without Catalyst!

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TL;DR: The public float of GME is a minimum of 759.37 million shares; short interest is a minimum of 106.16 million shares shorted (using 226.42% of float in 1/2021); and the official SEC "Gamestop Report" was an indirect way of stating that (a) the short sellers never closed the overwhelming majority of their short positions on GME and (b) the public float of GME is at least in the hundreds of millions of shares due to counterfeit / phantom / CEBE shares. Computershare was always the only answer without catalyst.

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Table of Contents

Prologue: Did It Ever Occur To You That the Yahoo! Finance Numbers on GME, as of Right Now, Are (Mostly) Correct?

Part I: We All Fail to Deliver Down Here

Part II: Dr. Jim Decosta Travels to the Future a Couple of Decades and Tells the World About Computershare

Part III: Dr. Jim Decosta Travels to the Future a Couple of Decades and Reveals the Direct Counter to Abusive Naked Short Selling

Epilogue: S3 Partners Was An Extremely Important "Authority" in Dictating the Narrative That Short Sellers "Closed Their Positions"

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Prologue: Did It Ever Occur To You That the Yahoo! Finance Numbers on GME, as of Right Now, Are (Mostly) Correct?

If I gave the hedge funds and market makers the benefit of the doubt, this is the absolute lowest I would calculate the short interest and public float of GME (I am 99% certain the short interest and public float are higher, and S3 Partners even said so):

GME public float earlier this year (1/2021): 46.89M

https://www.mass.gov/temporary-order-to-cease-and-desist/mortgage-america-home-loans-inc-and-lisa-m-cena-individually

I would like to do public interest law in a city. Would love to live in NYC but concerned about the high living expenses. Would also be happy with Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston and maybe Philly.

Choices so far are Duke with $30,000 a year scholarship, Vanderbilt with $40,000 a year and Georgetown-unknown if will get a scholarship. Waiting to hear decisions from Penn, NYU, Columbia, Northwestern, Chicago .

Thank you in advance for your consideration!