Law Students Lose Interest in ‘Public Interest’ after Law School

There is a great amount of literature that proves that while a substantial number of students entering law school show interest in careers in “public interest law” by the time they pass out, a majority of ‘interested' students avoid jobs in the sector. Just for example, a study by Granfield and Stover (1992) found that 70% of first-year students at Harvard Law School (1986) wanted to practice public interest law, but by the time Harvard Law School had done the magic on them, only a “few third-year students perceived … settings other than a large private law firm.” In fact, out of the initial 70% of interested students, only 2% still indicated an interest in legal aid jobs.

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In fact, by most law students who perceive that they would like to contribute to the system at the beginning, the interest fizzles out by third year and ‘public interest' is relegated to ‘alternative' career category. In a study done by Erlanger, Epp, Cahill, and Haines (1996) that the majority of students who opted for jobs in legal aid, did not make it to the Dean's list at law school. Out of those who regularly made it to the Dean's list, all took jobs in private law firms, though many of them had expressed severe concerns at the state of the system and individual wish to contribute in ‘public interest' law at the beginning of their student careers.

Research finds, that one of the greatest factors of influencing student decisions were the large amounts of student-debts on law students and their desperation to find relatively stable and higher paying jobs that would allow them to start repaying student debts comfortably. However, the study of Erlanger, Epp, Cahill, and Haines (1996) found that students coming either from low-income or high-income families had twice the chance of joining ‘public interest' than students coming from middle-income families.

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Politics also plays a major part. Students who do not take active part in politics or student demonstrations rarely go into public interest law, compared to more than 30% of students who show active participation in student demonstrations. This refutes the contention of the federal Office of Economic Opportunity which held legal aid recruitment to be moralistic and passive.

Law school culture is not found to communicate a sense of meaningful commitment to the norm of professional altruism. While not openly disparaged, helping the poor and disadvantaged is a concept that is limited at law school only to “ritualistic invocations at ceremonial occasions.” (Erlanger, Epp, Cahill, and Haines 861)

Ultimately the finding of Erlanger and Cahill was summed up in a few words: Many more law students talk about taking a nontraditional "public interest" type job than actually do so. Nonetheless, we are able to establish this fact more firmly than have prior studies … political commitments, combined with involvement in a supportive subculture during law school, are very important determinants of the "staying power" of a pre-law school interest in a nontraditional career. Of course, this staying power only lasted through the first job; nine years later only a very small proportion of the sample was employed in legal aid, as a public defender, or by a nonprofit organization.”

Reference:

Howard S. Erlanger, Charles R. Epp, Mia Cahill, and Kathleen M. Haines, "Law Student Idealism and Job Choice: Some New Data on an Old Question," Law & Society Review 30.4 (1996)

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