 Yeah, so thank you for coming. We're excited to have you here in the Providence space So we appreciate you coming here to learn more about this great organization that we have that has a very close relationship with the law school There are internship opportunities available Exchanges of opportunities available it was an alternative spring break site and then there are also fellowship opportunities available So you will hear from two of our alumni put currently in their fellowships with the Center for Justice to hear about the great Work that they're doing and what you can be doing to prepare yourself to apply for position So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over and thank you again for coming So I'm Rob McRainer. I'm the executive director and supervising attorney at the Rhode Island Center for Justice and With me here are my colleagues Curtis Puglia Alvarez and Marissa Janton who you're gonna actually you're gonna mostly hear from them tonight they're gonna talk to you about their fellowship experience and John Willison Friedman is an attorney who also works in our office as director of community partnerships and policy advocacy So What we'd like to do tonight is to give you First a brief overview and kind of introduction to the Center for Justice who we are. What do we do? How are we set up and I'm gonna try to do that sort of Succinctly and hit the the most important point so that I can then turn it over to Marissa and Curtis again to talk about their Experiences and I think that you might be interested in that particularly because as you may know The fellowship positions that Curtis and Marissa have are exclusively open to Roger Williams law school graduates So that means all of you once you graduate would be eligible to apply to work here in a full-time paid Staff attorney position at the Center for Justice. So I want you to hear what that what that's about Just interested by a show of hands. So 2 L's 3 L's 2 L's and 3 L's Okay, are there anyone else here? Okay, cool and I guess I should also say That apart from the Roger Williams fellowship program We also have lots of other opportunities for folks to get involved here as externs alternative spring break Volunteers and in fact, I'm really happy to see two either current or former such law student placements That folks have worked in our office or work in our office now work here, which is really great So One other question just to get a sense by a show of hands. How many of you have worked at either as An intern or volunteer at a civil legal aid organization? Okay, what just curious what organization where you work neighborhood legal services up in Lawrence, Mass I think they have a new name now, okay And what kind of program area were you is it housing or it was mostly doing intake then also represent people in housing mediation Okay, cool, and who else Okay Doing immigration work. Okay, great and other folks Great rills and someone else Okay, great excellent. Yeah, so that's that's kind of helpful right because that's sort of who we are broadly speaking right the Brown Center for Justice. We're an independent nonprofit public interest law Center and our our area of practice generally is Civil legal aid right so what we don't do is criminal Criminal law but other than that. So, you know, your typical civil legal matters that a public interest law Center would take on would be housing public benefits It could be environmental justice. I'm pretty broad range And we're gonna talk about within that That broad sort of sphere of potential work what we were actually working on now So one thing I just I do want to highlight at the beginning because it's really distinctive part of the of our organization Our model and I think it should be it should be really exciting if you're thinking about being a public interest lawyer That's what you think you might want to do is Doing that work in partnership with community-based organizations that are on the front lines of social justice work that Understand issues like the ones we just just mentioned But aren't lawyers, but they really want to work with lawyers, right? So they want people like you that have a social justice passion And come out of law school with skills and a desire to make an impact as an attorney So our organization gives you the opportunity to do this work in partnership with groups like this So for us a lot of morale the Community Action Partnerships the George Wiley Center, which is this really fantastic community organizing group in Kentucky Provolta Collaborative At Roger Williams problem student union Rhode Island jobs with justice committee for better banks in the House of Hope So these are all Generally, these are community-based organizations that we work with Okay, next alright, so our three program areas that we have been working in since we launched the Center for Justice Which was last year in the beginning of 2015 our housing rights workers rights and Utility justice next slide, please. Okay in housing. What do we do? So in our housing program we provide free legal assistance to low-income tenants and what we're primarily focused on our Substandard housing conditions and and displacement, right? So for low income Renters who are struggling to to keep their housing or to fix The conditions in their housing. There is really there are very few resources, right? There are very few attorneys because if you can't afford to hire an attorney The only other place that you could go in Rhode Island really would be Rhode Island legal services to get housing legal assistance And if those of those who work there might know there's you know only limited types of cases that rules can take on a very limited capacity So when we started doing this work really there's no shortage of folks coming, you know coming out saying yes I'd really like a lawyer to represent me and help bring my landlord to court to fix These horrible conditions that I'm living in next slide, please. Okay, the next Program area that we work in is workers rights, but specifically because that's a kind of a broad topic Well, we're what we're really focused on are the rights of low-wage immigrant workers, right? So the folks that clean the buildings that we're in the folks that serve us food in restaurants that do landscaping that do domestic work and Sadly in our country that that workforce suffers a wildly Disproportionate incident or rate of wage theft wage theft means when you don't get paid Well, you're supposed to get paid under the law, so you're not paid minimum wage or overtime Or you're not paid at all and the way that we assist those workers is that we partner again with a community group I'll first allow Raul, which is this really great worker center in Central Falls Rhode Island So Curtis and Marissa go to force a lot of Raul twice a month They meet with workers who are mainly presenting these kinds of issues of wage that matters And then we sue their employers are their former employers to get the money that they're Which makes you feel really good when you get that money Okay, and the last program area that I want to mention is I was also the one that's kind of featured in this poster and out that we distributed because it's going to be an event That I hope all of you can come to it's going to be really fantastic here in this building on October 25th It's about utility justice this third area that we work in utility justice is about access to really basic things like heat hot water Electricity and our our approach to do this work is getting again been to a department with a community organization It's the one that one of them that I mentioned at the beginning the George Wiley Center in the Tuckett so we go to the George Wiley Center and we meet with low-income Households that are at risk of or experiencing shutoff or their utility service of their electricity or their gas But what we're specifically focused on are those households that have medical issues So what we found out when we started doing this work last year and this you know It's shocking a lot of people but in Rhode Island every year There are thousands of utility shutoffs to low-income households Including shutoffs that put people in the hospital that cause people to be evicted that cause children to miss school People to lose their jobs, right and this hospitalization consequence rate is pretty significant So people on respirators on oxygen machines who need electricity to survive have their electricity shutoff And what we sort of found out is that that's actually against the law But it's happening anyway And so this has been a really big project for us not just because we represented or provided legal assistance to lots of Households on this area, but also because we filed a class action lawsuit against national grid and the regulatory agency in Rhode Island For violating those laws and so that that also is kind of a distinctive part of the Center for Justice Which makes us a little bit different from other civil legal aid organizations So we work really closely with community based organizations That's that's a big part of our model, but we're also able to bring impact litigation Which many other organizations aren't either because of their funding or capacity And so that's a really exciting part of the Center for Justice's work This is just a slide from a magazine article that featured this lawsuit This work around utilities access and the fellowship programs I'm just going to say a few things about sort of overall parameters of this Then I'm going to hand it off to Marissa So the fellowship program is open to recent Roger Williams graduates That means that you need to have graduated within the previous five years So the next fellow staff attorney position will begin in January of 2017 We will very shortly begin the process of advertising this fellowship and accepting applications and interviewing folks And so if you are so you would have to have graduated within the previous five years Of this January 2017 start date in order to be eligible for this fellowship And this coming fellowship and that's the cycle that we're on So every January a new fellow will be hired So I talked about and Curtis and Marissa are going to talk about what you do as a staff attorney Really important that if you're interested in this what we want to know is that you want to do community-based lawyer You want to work closely with community groups and it's a two-year full-time position as well I'll ask now if you have any questions kind of about the overall parameters If you want to hold your question to that's fine because I think there's probably a lot of information that Curtis and Marissa Provided to be responsive to that and then take questions and answers at the end But any questions you want to ask about any of that so far? Okay great Marissa Thank you My name is Marissa Janton I graduated from Roger Williams School of Law in 2011 I actually was one of the first fellows that started here at the center I clerked for Justice Flaherty right after I graduated from law school During law school I externed for Judge Smith and federal court And I was a role 9 to the Attorney General's Office So I actually didn't have any direct line contact before I started here So I was a little nervous coming in I think that a lot of my friends that I clerked with you know went to big firms And I never had an interest in that But I always knew in high school even before that that I wanted to work in a community To face something trying to make the world a better place I'm a little bit older I was a teacher in Providence Spanish teacher in Providence before I went to law school But I really wanted to try to make a difference in this world Before I ever even went to law school I applied for this position because it was the right decision for me The place I was in my life I remember being in a medical legal collaborative class And learning about the type of work community warriors basically could do And thinking that's the kind of job I wanted Unfortunately at that time that job didn't exist And luckily for me all of a sudden the center came along And the job did exist So I applied for it and was lucky enough to get a position here So I started here and I just remember thinking kind of to loop back to where I started I don't have a lot of contact with clients You know I didn't have that experience where a lot of my other friends did clinics And I recommend if you can do a clinic Because I was really nervous to come in here and not know what I was necessarily doing I knew I had the legal skills, the writing skills, those kind of skills But I was really nervous about the day to day type of things And you know I'm good with people but the interviewing and all of that stuff You can only learn so much from a book So I guess we were asked to talk about some of the best parts of the fellowship And what we've learned so far And I'm coming up on two years and I think I've learned a lot And have just had a really great experience I've been really lucky in so many ways to have been put in this position I think one of them has been basically just your whole, the whole idea of client contact So to go back to the other clerks that I was with Most of them are in big firms And they're still doing document reviews and depositions And they're holed up in an office somewhere And they haven't had the opportunity to do And somebody's lucky about this To do real, I don't want to say they are real lawyers They probably get paid a lot more than you will in this position But they're doing paperwork and they're not on the ground Their feet aren't on the ground and they're not in court And they're not meeting people every day And some of them might like that Some people are made for that But if you're in public interest or you're even here today You probably aren't So all of a sudden I'm meeting people I'm at a clinic So we do clinics We don't meet people here We go to actual out to the community And we meet with people and address their concerns And decide whether or not they have a legal claim And so that's one thing that you It's great You do three legal areas And you become an expert in those legal areas really quickly It becomes intimidating at first And you think utility law, administrative law I slept through admin law But you become an expert because you have to To help your client You have to learn that And you have to know what you're doing And then you do wage theft And you need to know FLISA, the Fair Labor Standards Act You need to know it inside and out If you're going to do a good job And you need to know RIMWA And all of these types of laws That you didn't even know the name of before you started You become an expert in Because that is how you win And this is the type of environment where You're not a general civil litigation You'll hear people say that I'm a civil litigation general lawyer We don't do that We do specify very specific law And that's all you do all day But it gives you a chance to be really good At what you do And we also do things like The interviewing We draft complaints We draft motions Normally when you start out as a lawyer You don't get to do that You don't just do that Your second, your third week And of course, Rob reviews it Or I would review it when Curtis started working here Of course, someone is looking at your work at all times But normally at that stage in the game You're not doing that kind of work And here you get to do that Secondly, I think you get this Amazing hands-on experience And that's why I talked about Not being in a clinic I think that was a bit of One of my That's the best word I can't think of Something that I could have done more In law school Because here, I didn't know how to e-file A lot of you did Hannah knew how to do it When she was here with us And that was great I was really impressed Because I didn't know how to e-file I didn't even know what e-file was But the federal and the state courts Use an e-filing system And you can't do it by hand anymore That is just a basic skill That I didn't have coming in Now, of course, you learn it really quickly But it's a hands-on thing That you have to do And of course, you do something Three or four times You learn how to do it Basically, going into court Call the calendar You do it You have to do it here That was like from I'll see you later Have a nice day Good luck with that It came with me But I had to figure it out for myself You argue motions in court He was there with me He sat behind me If I was struggling in any way But I argue motions in superior court Within the first six months You don't normally have an opportunity To do that in another position I would say that I did depositions That was amazing I got to do a deposition Within my first six months It was a bad bug case But it was deposition And I will always remember that And it was just a wonderful opportunity To be there To learn how I should have done it To learn things I could improve on But also realize things that I did well You do it I did interrogatories Requests for production And you're drafting all of this stuff at once That normally You wouldn't be doing Right out of law school Also, like Rob was mentioning We do a class action We're involved in a class action That started before I finished my first year And I was able to be involved In something that made a huge difference In a huge number of people's lives And not just with my research But just also with my writing Hi, welcome And with a lot of different Just a lot of different ways That I could be part of a bigger team So it's not just that you're an individual attorney For a small number of people But you also get to play a role In a bigger picture And so you play a role As part of a team And as a team member And you do what you need to do To fill in as part of that team And it kind of allows you to use Different skills that you might have And for me, it was more My writing and research skills From when I had been at the spring court That was my strength And other people had other strengths And we just all got together as a team And we've done really good work And helped a lot of people because of that And then basically I think also Like I had been saying before You are making a direct impact In people's lives You know, for us and for many of us And now I know that during law school It's a little different But growing up, you know A paycheck of, you know For some of us, four hundred dollars Or three hundred dollars Or five hundred dollars Might not seem like life altering Or life changing For some of my clients, it is It's food on their table It's diapers on their child It's rent for a month And if somebody doesn't pay them After they have worked For over a week, for two weeks That is life changing So if you can get that person to pay Because you've sent a lawyer's letter Because you have them come in Because you've threatened That you're going to go to court Or to file a DLT complaint It makes a difference And you're making a direct impact In their lives And it makes you feel good About going to law school And deciding to become a lawyer And that goes for all the areas Of our law Curtis will probably talk about housing Because he's just brilliant When he does housing cases And I can't think of anything That is more important Helping somebody to have a roof over there A safe, healthy roof over their head But making a difference in people's lives Every day Because you went to law school And you've made a decision To do this type of law I can't think of something That's more important I come here every day happy I leave to go home happy Because I feel like I've made a difference in somebody's life Or I'm in the process Of making a difference in someone's life It's not about a paycheck It's not about power It's not about prestige Of what I do It's because I know I'm doing the right thing And I went to school Because I chose this school Because I believe in those things Basically, and I can tell you today I'm interviewing for a new job Because at the end of January When the new fellow comes I'm out So I have a two-year role But I can tell you They ask me why you Why shouldn't you be the one? And I was able to sit there and say Because with only a few years out Or two years' experience on the ground And then my one-year clerkship I've been in federal court I've been in state superior court State district court State family court State probate court And administrative DLT And the DPU And I don't know how many Anybody else that can honestly say that That is in my place Or that graduated with me Even the people that graduated with me I don't think they could say that If they've been practicing this long And if they've been practicing continuously After I left Judge Flaherty I had twin boys and stayed home for two years And that was the break I took And I still don't think anybody else Could have the same experience I've had in these short two years So that's all I want to say I want to give Curtis enough time But I've been really, really lucky To have been given this opportunity And I loved every one of my clients They're amazing people They just needed some help And they haven't been given the same opportunities As special legal representation As other people have been given Because they have more money Or the means to have to do it So thank you for listening The high buddy She was right in one thing I am brilliant So my name is Curtis Poolyard Alvarez I am a 2015 graduate of Roger Williams I've been with the center For about nine, ten months now Nine months Who's counting? For about nine months And so I've had a really good time And so there's four main things I'd like to talk to you guys About my experience here And I think it's true generally For legal services It's true for legal services in general So the first one is that It's really tough work And not that the education That you're getting Doesn't adequately prepare you for it But it's tough because You're operating within a legal system That isn't designed to accommodate The problems of poor people The courts aren't used to Poor people having legal representation In civil cases And so when they do come with a lawyer It's our job And it's an uphill battle But it's our job to educate The other attorneys and the courts About the laws that are on the books To protect your client But that they've probably never read Or encountered or seldom do And as far as the agencies You're also dealing with A bureaucracy of a slow-moving government Underfunded services The DLT is underfunded When it comes to investigating Worker complaints They just don't have the resources to do it So it's challenging in that You can't always get the outcome That the law prescribes You can't always get it As soon as your client needs it And so it's tough work That's the bad news That's all I'll say You've had that as number four I told them to start off with it So really the second thing That I want to talk to you about Or mention is With the Rhode Island Center For Justice You're going to get your You're going to get the opportunity To get your hands really dirty To dig into these three areas of law To really learn the area of law You're going to have You're going to have a client from day one You're going to have clients Probably from day one You're going to learn how to interview clients You're going to learn how to counsel clients Which is a skill that can't It just takes practice And a lot of practice I'm still learning You're going to be Marissa mentioned it But you're going to be doing a lot of We don't have legal assistance So you're doing a lot of your own drafting Of letters, motions, pleadings All types of different filings You're going to get a lot of time in court You'll have the opportunity To be in front of judges Often sometimes it gets Sometimes it gets to be a lot Because court time takes away From time that you could be doing other things And you're not When you're in court Sometimes you're sitting there For a period of time You're also going to get the opportunity To practice administrative law Which is a really good skill To have being in front of administrative agencies And the process of appealing those decisions It's, I think, a really valuable skill to have No matter where you go after your two years I've been able to go to clients' homes Interview in there I do, as Marissa mentioned A lot of landlord tenants stuff So I go to their homes, I take pictures I accompany code enforcement on inspections I work with, I try to work with landlords If they're not represented And so you have the opportunity I mean, not really the opportunity You'll have to get your hands dirty Really dig into this law And you're going to get a lot of valuable skills That will follow you the rest of your career The third thing is that And it kind of goes off of number two Is that you're going to learn how to be a lawyer You're going to learn how to practice law To be a well-rounded litigator You're going to learn your rules of civil procedure Because you're going to have trials And you're going to need to know that You're going to practice in front of District court, Superior court You might have the opportunity To be in front of the Supreme Court You're going to be in front of administrative agencies Federal court, I have two cases now in Federal court So you're going to really be a well-rounded litigator At the end of the two years Not only that, but you're going to learn how To communicate with other attorneys How to negotiate settlements How to position yourself in those negotiations So that you get the best outcome for your client And the last one I think, and probably the most important For me anyways, is you're really going to get the opportunity To get to know the community that you're working in And by community I don't mean the legal community I mean the community of people that you're serving Where for a lot of the time this summer We were in the George Wiley Center For about a month we were there five days a week Switching off, really just working one-on-one With individuals facing utility emergencies Where they're in crisis But you're really going to get to know your community The people you're working You're going to get to know their needs And how you can meet those needs You'll have the opportunity to do clinics We do a lot of outreach We take opportunities to train people in the community Who have direct contact with people who are our clients So like the United Way, CAP agencies We take the opportunity to let them know The kind of work we're doing and update them on For example, the utility litigation That we're working on And what clients right now under this framework Yeah, so that's it It's a lot But that's kind of in a nutshell What you can expect Based on my nine months here Why is it human? I was just going to ask Curtis to quickly Describe the public interest things that you've been When you were a law student Yeah, actually one of them Not that I know So I began I went to law school interested in public interest law And I began as a 1L rep enabled And I was a member of the Board of Able Throughout all three years of law school I also planned ASB my second year And I think the year that we put ASB on the map It's the year that we got really good funding stream For ASB and was able to expand I did a lot of time I did a lot of hours of time with the federal public defenders Here at Providence Representing indigent clients A lot of them were immigrants Who are charged with illegal re-entry I did some time with CPCS at a fall river Which is a public defender agency there I did the immigration clinic with Professor Gonzalez Please do a clinic I just can't stress how important it is to get that experience Doing internships and externships are also excellent Make sure you're getting client interaction And you get that with the clinics Just make sure you're getting client interaction I don't think that can be stressed enough Learning how to speak, talk to people Is like the most important Learning how to listen and talk to people Is the most important One of the most important skills you could learn as an attorney And I participated in an alternative spring break too I went to New Orleans And worked for a civil legal service organization Down in New Orleans Even 10 years after Katrina Was still helping people recover from that disaster I was really active in the law In the public interest area The community So there's no excuse for you guys not to be Do you guys ever feel that You're almost disrespected by the court Because of the type of clients you represent And how do you kind of Especially being kind of a baby lawyer Important term If you get past that point of no I got this And can kind of stand up to the judges on the bench I prefer a baby lawyer I'm sure I'll prefer it 10 years from now I think maybe disrespected by the court Is a strong term I think I would say maybe misunderstood a little bit I can speak to you From my landlord's tenant experience In that For a year And this is still the case But probably forever As long as there's been District court has heard these cases The outcomes are just always the same The tenant goes in there Without a lawyer The lawyer for the landlord talks to him They come up with this agreement that You move out by a certain date And you don't have to pay the rent That happens in 95% of cases Most of the time Regardless of whether or not this tenant Has been living in horrible conditions And so it's a challenge in trying to Assert defenses To their claim for rent And getting the court to understand that Yes, this person has lived in these conditions And no, they couldn't have just moved Because They're poor and they can't The landlord has a security deposit So It's a process of It'll take a while but educating The court And getting them to see What we're really trying to do is Isn't They're interested in closing cases out The interest is Getting people in and out And fighting against that is difficult I don't know if Jeff other Insighted about it I think you Marissa maybe Hearing the question, your experience Appearing on behalf Of consumers at The division of public utilities Where there had never been legal representation And sort of What that experience Was like as a new lawyer But also as part of a new program For the first time having a presence there And then how that's changed over the last year That's true So at the public utilities They were never used to a lawyer Being there I would say Or maybe one percent of the time there was a lawyer there And They have both informal and formal hearings So we showed up the informal hearings And they would say you don't need a lawyer here You don't need and we would say but they have a right To one so we're here And then we would Try to present evidence because you have the right To do that under the administrative Procedures act and under Their actual regulations and They didn't know what to do with it And they were like no we don't want it No that's okay and you would say No I would like to present this For you to consider in your decision That you're supposed to make Because they already have written their decision They already had things done And you would ask them to You know we now have Going forward we're really glad we did that Because we actually have tapes of them Saying no we don't want it No and you could hear it in the background Printing out their decision That was great So that was Really interesting and then even in the Formal hearings National Court was Always represented by an attorney That's basically his job and then The consumers if they showed up Would be by themselves and it was Just completely David versus Goliath And all of a sudden there's an attorney There and they didn't really know How to deal with us they would have Half of the time there was an attorney That would be the you know the Attorney and then half of the time it was an engineer So we would stand up and Object and they would not know What that meant so That would also be a challenge And then you know just They also would be sending us letters Telling us what we couldn't do As attorneys as an office Which was really interesting Yeah interesting and challenging So they are just not used to Like Curtis said people Not of power they were used to National great having an attorney they were buddy buddies They would they would be talking to One another as though they were friends How are you doing how are you doing Cause that's what they did all the time So for the consumer to then have a Representative they didn't even know What to do with the third person in the room Because they had just always operated that way And a lot of it has to do with money That's just the way it was and So you know we're kind of trying to Interrupt that cycle And even us utilizing The minimum wage act which is what You can use Rhode Island just enacted that and I think 2012 It's a private right of action If you have separate wage that Because Rhode Island has a higher minimum wage The federal government does And so I actually try To take a case in district court And the judge had to look up the Statute because she didn't believe that I was taking a case under a real Statute she thought it was fake But it's the first time that someone Like tried to use their Their power and tried to use Their private action because no one is using it No one is doing that because people Are understanding their rights because usually Poor people don't have representation It's just another example of like Curtis is saying Like shaking up and just having them Reconsider who should be in front of them Not the same old, same old So it's a challenge I think like Curtis said it's more of a misunderstanding Of us being there but it's kind of fun Any other questions? Since nobody's asking I think it might be helpful For people to hear You mentioned Impact litigation Just so that there's an understanding In this group of what the difference is Between individual representation And impact litigation So the cases that Marissa and Curtis Have been talking about You get the sense that Their clients are individuals Or individual households And The relief That results from their The legal assistance that Curtis and Marissa Provided is really specific to that one household That one client And impact litigation The idea is to have a much broader Impact, right? So if it's A class action which doesn't necessarily Have to be but that's the sort Of one example we've mentioned here tonight Is our class action lawsuit There are upwards Of 6,000 households in the state of Rhode Island That have received a benefit From that lawsuit So obviously it touches a lot more A lot more people Also, you know, one thing That you might want to know And I think it kind of makes this exciting as well Is that that lawsuit came out Of the individual work That we were doing in our First year and the cases That Marissa described and in fact The way that the division of public utilities Was kind of violating Its own laws and not Allowing people to exercise the rights In their hearings, that's why we sued them, right? So by taking on these cases It sort of gives you insight Into systemic violations of rights And that, you know, sort of what Gives us the opportunity to bring these larger Larger cases. So now that we have our room We're most of the 3Ls of last year That's a 3L class I'm going to go and Talk to the 1Ls in 2Ls About what they might be able to do In the summer when they don't know much And how you might use them And those kinds of opportunities So summer internships The Rhode Island Center for Justice Are fantastic, Hannah will tell you that But I think Hannah's You know, experience this past summer As a summer intern is really a great one A great, great example Because one of the things that Hannah did Was to focus on A utility justice matter It's a little complicated But basically the Regulatory agency Had opened up a docket or kind of Some ways like an investigation And our office was representing Certain stakeholders Particularly the George Wiley Center In relation to the rights Or the interest of low income utility consumers So all that, you know, kind of sounds Pretty complicated and that's why we needed Some research to be done Which is something that, you know, you get to do Generally in a summer internship Is legal research, but I think the cool Really cool part about it was that That research was applied In a presentation That Hannah made to about 15 Or 20 people that were Members of the George Wiley Center Board members, folks from other organizations From around the state that came To hear her Talk about this administrative docket And what their interests were And how to think strategically about it She did a fantastic job People were engaged I was so impressed because there were a lot of questions And she had an answer to every question That was really great And so I think that was Like a really cool summer internship project Because it gave her an opportunity To dive into what I think was a new area Of law, but also do more Than just write a memo, right? It was actually, because it really drew on This community partnership That's it of our Of our organization And so if any of you are interested In a summer internship or An academic year externship Please let me know Or talk to folks at the Fine Science Center Because we would love to have you In our office Question What was the question? New York We're wondering if you guys Had any openings for volunteers For pro bono people for this semester In particular And whether you have any programs That will satisfy the 50 hour We're always interested in taking volunteers The 50 hour So that's a little complicated Because it doesn't match exactly With Roger Williams 50 hour requirement But assuming the supervisor Will sign off On it complying with the New York pro bono Requirement Those hours will count As long as you're doing Work For a non profit legal services Organization That represents low income people You'll be fine Not a guarantee, but And you have internships open For this semester If you're interested, just contact me Yeah, thank you So they're running off the ALR The other thing I would just add In terms of The work you can do with us For internships Particularly what Hannah did But what a lot of the folks That have spent a semester with us That work has an ongoing value I'm still quoting Hannah's research In that document And it's true for other people It has a real practical Real world impact Which I think is One thing to have is a sort of 1L 2L internship You'll leave a legacy behind Yeah, that's no way Rob, will you talk a little bit about What you're looking for when you're deciding Which interns to hire, which externs to hire Fellowships, what kinds of experiences Do you want students to have? Sure, yeah, and we are I'm interested in talking to anybody Who has an interest in the center But we do have to be selective Because we have limited resources And for me Every volunteer Placement Every internship Requires and deserves Some thought and planning And supervision, right? Because I want it to be meaningful for you And I want it to be productive For us as well And so that means Up-front sort of thought And planning And sort of coming up With a solid work plan So since that's required We have limited ability To do that So for those limited spots I'm looking for folks who have Ideally a demonstrated Commitment to public interest work Sort of given where you're at In law school, it'd be great to see That you've done some other kind Of public interest work Either in law school or before Language, foreign language skills Particularly Spanish but other language skills Are very valuable to us as well And I would say an interest In an understanding of And an interest in this model Of community Lawyering, right? So it's really helpful if you are interested In effecting social change As a lawyer by working with Working With collective efforts, right? In groups of people that want to Effect social change, that gets us Really motivated and psyched And on that topic To learn more about that Come to the October 25th Yes Because you'll learn a lot about This model as it applies In the utility justice area And bring other people To that Lots of people We have one bonus point Thanks everybody for coming One thing I did want to mention earlier And I regret that the theory also We always get a lot of questions about Students who want to know how to Work in a public interest career Because as you mentioned, there are Big firms that are making a lot more money But there are a lot of programs That exist right now to facilitate To support those who choose Public interest careers Law school has a public interest For loan repayment assistance program Clones from I've taken it I've taken it Got my loan paid for the next year And that can happen for three years If he stays in a public interest position There's also the college cost reduction After America, so if he stays in a public Interest position for ten years The remainder of your loan is forgiven So there are programs out there That can base repayments So your loan payments are based on What you earn So your repayments can be significantly reduced As a result of your unqualified Position which something like this Would absolutely qualify you for So there are programs out there Because we need public interest lawyers We need more of them and there can't be The reason you're not doing it is because I can't afford to live off of the salary So hopefully more will be done But there are a lot of programs Legal Justice Works has a lot of webinars On their websites to let you know What the options are So spread the word, okay This is not an excuse to not be a public interest lawyer Right? Veronica, just mention the summer stipend Of course, yes and Curtis was on the stipend But that's nothing you did while you were in law school He helped determine who received the stipend So for students who are in a public Interest position over the summer If it's in working Typically in a public defender Direct people services or other Public interest setting You can qualify for a public interest stipend That can give you funding over the summer You have to work for 300 hours over the summer To get the award There's a competitive process Not everybody will have enough money to fund everybody But usually about 30 or so students Each year receive funding for that Because Linda got it this year again So that's another program Especially for the first reason you may not have heard of But just keep your ears open to it The application process will start in the spring Another thing That Didn't come up was Alternative spring break project Usually there's a place At the center for justice Yeah Thank you Please have yourselves