Public interest jobs focus on fairness, public welfare, debates, policies, salaries, and justice. Public interest jobs can be found in the government sector, private or nonprofit organizations. Lawyers working for public interest handle many issues such as: civil rights and liberties, women and children’s rights, lesbian and gay rights, immigrants, animal welfare, election, poverty, international laws, criminal defense, household violence issues, health, economics and education.
There are many practice settings and problems included in public interest. Some firms focus on single issues, some work on multiple issues. Public interest practice settings have similarities. Some public interest lawyers are looking into providing services for civil rights, policy work or to develop law reforms. These categories being divided pose some risk because they tend to overlap. On the other hand, law students will be able to gain bearing by understanding the varied scope of public interest jobs such as working as a public defender or in the government.
Aside from the major categories of public interest jobs, there are also others including foundations, social policy, and alternative dispute resolution, or ADR. Another thing to consider also that within different practice settings there are many issues like for example the direct service providers perform on a complete and varied issues including housing laws, women and children rights and government issues.
Here is a list of some public interest jobs:
The government – legal matters on Federal government, local government, federal states, SEC, state agencies, and environmental issues.
City agencies – specializes in municipality legal issues. You can work as a legislative assistant in the legislative branch.
The United States Attorney’s office – county lawyers and offices focus on domestic violence, work issues, etc.
Public defenders – these lawyers are supported by the government and they serve the indigent individuals who committed criminal offences.
Direct Services offices – the focus of these offices is to offer civil legal services of the highest quality to anyone that has no means to pay an attorney. They are highly specialized in issues such as immigration, education, housing, benefits, family, labor and employment.
Policy Organization or Law reform organizations – these organizations specialize in law reforms whether it will be an advocate or representations for a group of people or organization. These offices can be found at national, regional, and state levels.
International public interest jobs – international public service vary greatly in practice settings and work for the state department or international non profit organizations. International aid effort workers should be proficient in at least one foreign language.
Law Firms (public interest) – these firms may focus on one or multiple public interest areas including family law, discrimination at work, labor, family issues, immigration, civil rights, children’s rights, employment benefits and other civil rights.
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