James L. Petigru

Tennis Pictures!

2010-03-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

TNT 2010 Pictures

2010-02-22T07:14:00.001-08:00

Here are just a few of the pictures from this year's TNT. Also, the music video is now available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HksB-pOhp7E. Thanks so much for a great event!

Give a Buck!

2009-11-09T19:39:00.001-08:00

GENERAL PUBLIC INTEREST CAREER RESOURCES

2009-11-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

PSLAWNET
www.pslawnet.org

NALP’s PSLawNet site is an online public service job clearinghouse and career center
for public-service minded law students and attorneys. The site includes an extensive
database of job opportunity listings - including internships, fellowships, and
postgraduate listings – and public service employer profiles.

This database is made freely available to alumni of PSLawNet’s 200+ subscribing
laws schools. The website also includes a host of freely accessible content, including
a public interest fellowship application deadline calendar, a list of summer funding
resources, and numerous career-building materials for students/attorneys interested
in public service opportunities.

CAREERLINK
http://www.wcl.american.edu/career/, or
https://law-american-csm.symplicity.com/students/
Positions on American University’s CareerLink are updated daily. The listings
include student positions, alumni positions, volunteer opportunities, judicial
clerkships, and fellowships. New users must first register with CareerLink to access
these postings.

IDEALIST (ACTION WITHOUT BORDERS)
http://www.idealist.org
Comprehensive listing of public service positions, both legal and non-legal, in over
140 countries. This is an especially good site for post-graduate job listings.
Searchable by subject matter, country, type of position, and other categories.

NATIONAL LEGAL AID & DEFENDER ASSOCIATION
http://www.nlada.org/jobop.htm
This is the best site for post-graduate jobs in civil legal services organizations and
defender organizations. Other public interest organizations are also listed.
Searchable by state.

FOUNDATION CENTER
http://www.foundationcenter.org
Provides information about every foundation in the country. Much of this
information is free, but some of it is for paying subscribers only. Job corner contains
a database of job openings in foundations, corporate grant makers, and other
nonprofit organizations. Searchable by type of employer and region.

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION RULE OF LAW PROGRAMS
http://www.abanet.org/ceeli/program/staffpositions.html

Brief Guide to Landing your Job

2009-11-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Normal 0 0 1 171 874 13 2 1199 11.1282

What Jobs?

Even though hiring has slowed (a lot), some employers are still hiring. The government, especially federal, hires fairly consistently compared to traditional law firms.

Look to:

Federal Government:

Lobbying Office
International Offices
Civil Rights Office (within FEMA)

State Government:

Solicitor’s Office, AG Office (Fairly consistently hiring)

Find your Job.

First stop should be Career Services. Megan Seiner can be a tremendous help to you in find a public interest law job. Also Check out.

USA Jobs - Main Federal site outside of DOJ
DOJ – Honors Program for 1^st, 2^nd and after graduation. Government’s huge Law firm
Equal Justice Works – Job fair: Recommendation to monitor their website. Deadlines of varies agencies that are hiring, etc.
General search for Public Interest Law Jobs
Idealist.org
If your interested in working for a Non-Profit
http://www.opportunityknocks.org/
If your interested in working on the Hill
www.Thehill.com

Also, check out individual websites of organizations you are interested in such as the AARP, ACLU, the Society for Human Resource Management, etc.

Survival Skills.

If you are a first or second year working in a public interest law summer internship, then you can apply for a PILS Summer Grant, apply for Federal Work Study, or the Peggy Browning Fund.

South Carolina Legal Services Opportunity!

2009-10-21T10:34:00.001-07:00

About the Program

Law Students will volunteer at SC Legal Services for a designated period of time one day a week to conduct intake interviews, serve as a witness on documents and research discrete issues. PILS is currently committed, starting November 5th, to work from 10-12 on Thursdays. If you are available during that time period, or you would like to work at a different time or day, please let us know! We can have up to two law students per time slot, but one student is also great. Times are for a minimum of one hour and you are not required to volunteer each week - once a month would be fantastic! We would work at the SC Legal Services office on Bull Street and research issues may be assigned and done remotely. SC Legal Services will provide any necessary training and supervision.

Shadowing SC Legal Services attorneys.

PILS and Pro Bono Board members would be invited to sign up to shadow a SC Legal Service attorney when they go to trial for a case. Each week SC Legal Services would send the Pro Bono Program a list of upcoming hearings. Information would include date, time, Ct. location, type of case and attorney contact information. The information would be distributed to the PILS/Pro Bono volunteers via email. 1-2 students would be allowed to sign up on first come, first served basis. There is a possibility that some of these cases would comply with the Rule 403 requirements.

Pro Bono Program will serve as the central recruiting and scheduling location. They could also distribute research requests to a designated listserv.

Career Workshop

2009-10-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

On October 21^st, this Wednesday, Megan Seiner from the Career Services Office will conduct a workshop to help students

1. Figure out where to look for public interest law jobs and the resources available to USC Law Students in the job search;

2. Find ways to get paid for public interest law summer internships; and

3. Discern which public interest jobs will qualify you for the various loan forgiveness programs available to you.

Please let us know if you will be attending this workshop. If you are unable to make it, please email Brendan Geraghty if you would like the information from the workshop emailed to you.

Thank you so much!

Job/Career Resources

2009-10-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking about your summer job or career after graduation, check out a few of these public interest career resources:

University of Virginia Public Service Job Search Resource Guide

Pace Law School Guide to Legal Careers in Government

Harvard University: How to Make the Most of your Summer Job

Yale: Working on Capitol Hill

NAPL: Finding and Funding International Public Interest Opportunities

Need some help with that student loan debt??

2009-10-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

There are so many ways to reduce or eliminate your student loan debt. Here are a few of the loan forgiveness and repayment assistance programs out there and available to you!

1) Ness-Blatt Loan Repayment Assistance Program
The SCBar Foundation’s Loan Repayment Assistance program provides awards to lawyers who work for civil legal aid grantees of the Bar Foundation. Find out more about the Ness-Blatt Loan Repayment Assistance Program .

2) College Cost Reduction and Access Act – Public Service Loan Forgiveness*

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is great for public interest lawyers! Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a program established by the College Cost Reduction & Access Act that offers loan forgiveness after 10 years of working in public service. Qualifying public service employment is full-time paid work in the federal government; a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; an AmeriCorps position; the Peace Corps; or for a private “public service organization.”

3) College Cost Reduction and Access Act – Income-Based Repayment*

The College Cost Reduction & Access Act also established the Income-Based Repayment option. Normally, borrowers who earn less than they owe in federal student loans will be eligible to choose Income-Based Repayment.

4) Loan Repayment Assistance for Employees of Federal Agencies*

Federal agencies are authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5379 to create loan repayment programs so that they can recruit and retain highly qualified employees. In the past, 582 attorneys working in 20 different federal agencies received loan repayment assistance benefits (the Department of Justice provided benefits to 193 attorneys and the Securities and Exchange Commission provided benefits to 188 attorneys).

Federal Agencies Providing Loan Repayment Assistance To Attorneys In Fiscal Year 2007

5) The Higher Education Reauthorization and College Opportunity Act of 2008

The Higher Education Reauthorization and College Opportunity Act of 2008 establishes four new loan forgiveness and repayment programs that benefit public interest lawyers including the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act, Loan Repayment for Civil Legal Assistance Attorneys, Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need and Perkins Loan Cancellation for Public Service. Rules will be established by the federal agencies responsible for administering these programs and Equal Justice Works will post updates as this process moves forward.

For further information...

On October 21^th, PILS will conduct a workshop on many topics central to your future in a public interest law career. One of the issues we’ll work with you on is getting some help repaying those loans. We will discuss the pros and cons of each program including what jobs qualify as “public interest” under a specific program’s definition.
Here is a great resource from Equal Justice Works: Public Interest Loan Forgiveness Checklist
On November 4^th, Heather Jarvis from Equal Justice Works will be here presenting federal loan forgiveness options. Heather is a national expert on educational debt and the financial barriers facing law graduates.

*This information was obtained from Equal Justice Works at www.equaljusticeworks.com. Further information is available on their website.

Summer Grant Program Application

2009-09-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

The Summer Grant Program application is now available at http://www.law.sc.edu/organizations/pils/summer_grant_program.shtml. Note that applications are due April 2, 2010.

Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair

2009-09-05T05:32:00.001-07:00

The Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair brings students from across the country to meet with public interest employers, to learn about developments in public interest law, and to share their experiences about public interest programs and projects on their law school campuses. The Conference and Career Fair is the largest national public interest law career fair today. Over 100 public interest employers, including law firms, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, attend each year. This year, the Conference and Career Fair will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 24th and 25th, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Conference consists of interviews, workshops, and an awards luncheon honoring students and legal professionals who have given their time and commitment to public interest work. To find out more about the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair visit http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/events/ccf/general. If you would like to check out the employers that will be there and submit your resume, you can find the directions to do so at http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/events/ccf/student. There, you will find the link to register for the Conference on Symplicity so that you can upload your resumes and bid for interviews. Student registration began on August 31st. Even after you have submitted your initial bids, it is important to check Symplicity often because new employers are added daily. This is a great opportunity for law students who have dedicated their time and efforts to practicing in the public sector to land summer clerkships and permanent employment, especially if you want to practice outside of South Carolina. Remember, registration is currently open so act now. Good Luck!

Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge, Study Finds

2009-09-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for "mission-critical" jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.

The numbers also reflect the Obama administration's intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change.

"It has to win the war for talent in order to win the multiple wars it's fighting for the American people," said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, the think tank that conducted the survey of 35 federal agencies, representing nearly 99 percent of the federal workforce.

Despite its comprehensive scope, the survey is necessarily imprecise about certain questions in looking so far into the future. The number of hires would be affected, for example, by federal workers deciding to delay their retirement, the government continuing to rely on private contractors to handle some of these jobs, and Congress balking at the price tag of adding new workers to the federal payroll.
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Nevertheless, the survey makes clear that the majority of new hires will be needed in five broad fields -- medical, security, law enforcement, legal and administrative.

Mission-critical jobs are those positions identified by the agencies as being essential for carrying out their services. The study estimates that the federal government will need to hire nearly 600,000 people for all positions over President Obama's four years -- increasing the current workforce by nearly one-third.

The medical and public health area is most in need of hires, according to the study. Stier described the Department of Veterans Affairs as a "dramatic example" of an agency with pressing needs, as a result of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. VA, according to the report, will need more than 48,000 hires over the next three years, including 19,000 nurses and 8,500 physicians.

Intelligence agencies expect to hire 5,500 people in the next year and "in the same order of magnitude" over the following two years, according to Ronald P. Sanders, chief human capital officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Such agencies include the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

"It's a combination of how much turnover we expect and how much growth we expect in our budget," Sanders said.

The nation's unsettled economy and high unemployment rate may ease the government's task, as workers turn to the federal sector for job security and good benefits. But Stier said many federal agencies will have to fight to attract top talent, particularly in fields in which government cannot compete with private-sector salaries.

"Most are going to see extreme competition with the private sector," Stier said. This could be especially true in fields such as medical, legal and information technology, he said.

Yet federal hiring remains a cumbersome process for many agencies. "Fixing the hiring process is a key component in making it work," Stier said.

"Most government agencies have been historically passive, announcing jobs and waiting for people to line up," said Sanders, who served as associate director for policy for the Office of Personnel and Management before joining the national intelligence office.

But Sanders said Obama's vow to make government service "cool" and federal efforts to streamline the hiring process should leave the government in good stead to make the hires.

The Department of Homeland Security expects to hire for 65,730 positions by 2012, an increase of more than 48,000 from the previous three-year period.

The Justice Department is expecting 4,000 new positions among law enforcement personnel, correctional officers and attorneys in the 2010 budget, said Mari Barr Santangelo, chief human capital officer for the department.

But, federal officials said, the ultimate accuracy of the hiring projections will depend on whether current employees retire as predicted.

Despite the projected growth in federal jobs, the size of the government would be no larger than at most other times in the country's post-World War II history, both in relative and absolute terms.

In 1970, for example, the number of civilians on the federal payroll numbered 2,095,100, a figure that represented a little more than 1 percent of the U.S. population. In 2008, the comparable figure was 2,020,200, or 0.66 percent.
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However, the figures do not reflect the enormous growth of the government contractor force as the result of privatization efforts pursued by previous administrations.

The Obama administration has signaled in its budget its intention to replace many contractors with government workers, particularly in the field of defense acquisition. This is another reason for the predicted surge in government hiring.

OPM Director John Berry was unavailable to comment on the report, according to a spokesperson.

The survey results are to be posted Thursday at http://www.wherethejobsare.org, according to the partnership.

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 3, 2009

Staff writers Joe Davidson and Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090203571.html