UVa law school to debut public service program

A select group of students at the University of Virginia School of Law will have a chance to focus their attention more on public service this spring thanks to a new program.

The first course of the new Program in Law and Public Service will be held in the spring. Up to 20 first-year students and five second-year students will be admitted each year for the program, which includes courses, independent study and faculty mentoring.
Jim Ryan, a law professor who proposed the program, said he believes this is the first time there is a program dedicated to public service at the law school.
“It is one of the few programs that is specifically focused on public service among top law schools,” Ryan said. “Our hope and goal for the program is that people can begin a career with public service on their first day.”

Yared Getachew, the assistant dean for public service and director of the Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center, said public service jobs are competitive and employers tend to hire experienced lawyers. Getachew said the new program would feed students’ interests, as well as increasing their job prospects.
Right now, Ryan said, the program includes the initial Law and Public Service class that will be offered in the spring semesters and a colloquium during students’ final year that will feature speakers with public service law experience. Students also will complete an independent study and work with a faculty mentor to choose courses that mesh well with the students’ interests.

Ryan said students in the public service program also are guaranteed to receive grants to do public service work during the summer. The grants, which are administered by the Public Interest Law Association, will be jointly funded between PILA and the law school. Students in the program still must meet PILA’s requirements to receive the grants.
Susan Edwards, a third-year law student and PILA’s president, said she believes public service law and top law schools go hand in hand.
“There are a lot of law students at the University of Virginia who are incredibly dedicated to public service, and who, if they could, would turn their career into serving the public in some way — through government service, human rights work, or a public defender or legal aid attorney serving indigent clients,” Edwards said. “I believe this program will help to foster Virginia law students turning public service into a career.”

In 2009, PILA gave 84 grants worth $378,000 to first-year and second-year law students. Ryan said the students in the public service program would have been competitive applicants for the summer grants anyway.
Additional courses may be added to the program as it expands. Ryan said about 90 students attended an informational meeting about the program last month, but the program will stay small at first.