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K&LNG does not require that law students—most of whom are rising third-years—work as summer associates at the firm for the reminder of the summer, says Pitts. Some do apply and get both a summer-associate position and the fellowship, and some only apply for the fellowship, preferring to split their summers between doing public interest work and working at other law firms.
Another opportunity opened up by the fellowship is that it allows some law students to stretch out the stipend and devote their whole summers to doing public interest work, says Scott Hollander, Executive Director of KidsVoice, one of the four groups designated by K&LNG for the fellowship. The other designated organizations are Neighborhood Legal Services Association, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and the Education Law Center.
KidsVoice, formerly Legal Aid for Children, provides representation for children who are caught up in abuse and neglect cases in Allegheny County, which includes the city of Pittsburgh. The group represents all ages of kids, aiding 5,000 individual children in the last year. KidsVoice has grown over the past five years, going from a staff of 10 to a staff of 60. The group has had a K&LNG fellow ever since the start of the program, says Hollander.
Hollander, who was on the Advisory Committee this year, helping to select the K&LNG fellows, says he is pleased to see an increase in the number of highly qualified applicants, as well as an increasing interest overall in public service legal work.
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As for the other groups included in the fellowship, the Neighborhood Legal Services Association provides pro bono legal services to low-income people involved in financial, housing, or family legal issues. The Allegheny Conference on Community Development seeks to improve the economy and quality of life in the region through research, planning, and policy proposals. The Education Law Center provides legal assistance and information on issues in public education.
When granted a fellowship, each law student may choose a group from among the four. The law student works out with the group when to spend his/her four weeks there; if the student fellow is also a K&LNG summer associate, the "students may also choose when to work with the organization" and when to work with the firm, says Pitts.
If law students apply for both the fellowship and a summer-associate position with K&LNG, they are not assessed by the same people. The K&LNG hiring committee chooses summer associates. There is a separate Advisory Committee that chooses the K&LNG fellows. The Advisory Committee is comprised of one K&LNG partner, a director from one of the benefiting nonprofits, and an in-house attorney from a business in Pittsburgh. Each of the committee positions rotates, so the committee is not the same group from year to year.
The fellowship is "a completely separate program" from the firm's summer-associate program, says Pitts; the fellowship is meant to "benefit the community and not the firm."
And it is not just the nonprofits that benefit from law students' doing public interest legal work, says Hollander. Interns at KidsVoice, including K&LNG fellows, get the chance to stand in front of a judge and make an argument, which is not something many summer associates have the opportunity to do.
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Above and beyond the practical experience, law students get "an understanding of how difficult this work can be emotionally," says Hollander. They learn to respect the power and impact that one simple recommendation may have in the life of a child, and they also see that these cases are not necessarily cut and dried. Another important thing that KidsVoice interns learn is that "this work is not for everybody," he says. Doing pubic interest law for abused kids, says Hollander, "takes passion, dedication, and humility."
