From Former UN Ambassadors to Dinosaurs: Why IRAP’s Student-led Model Gets it Right

  The IRAP-tor with one of the winning school chapters “Sarah, you have to let it go.” My supervisor slowly took the file I was holding out of my hand as I gave her a sheepish smile. It was the last day of my 1L summer internship at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and…

Getting Radical in the South

This fall I flew to Austin, Texas to attend the GRITS Conference hosted by the University of Texas School of Law.   GRITS stands for Getting Radical in the South, which is both a brilliant acronym and an important mantra that, I feel, is equally relevant and necessary here in Virginia.  The conference featured practitioners across…

An Adventurous Summer in Alaska: In and Out of the Courtroom

Interested in public defense? Intern in Alaska. Not interested in public defense? Visit Alaska. Applying for jobs for my 2L summer, I wanted to get the most experience I could in the courtroom. I had no idea where I would want to end up post-graduation (and still don’t), so I knew it would be best…

A Common Quest for Justice: The Value of the LPS Community for a Student with Niche Public-Interest Goals

Admittedly, my public interest career aspirations are niche. So niche, that when I tell people I aim to eventually work in the Jewish communal advocacy sector they often have no idea what I am referring to. Thus, before I share the genesis of my career goals, I must elaborate on the sector itself. While the…

Exploring Career Paths in the “and more” Category

For better or worse, an inherent part of the aspiring public interest lawyer’s path is to go against the grain of the typical law school experience and be at least a bit off-kilter from the vast majority of your peers. But as “public interest” is certainly not a one-size-fits-all career path, I have found myself…

A Letter to Our Fellows

Below is a letter addressed to the Fellows of our Program from our outgoing student Co-Presidents, Maya Iyyani ‘18 and Jeremy Bennie ‘18 For the last year the two of us have had the privilege and pleasure of serving as Co-Presidents of the Program in Law and Public Service. With graduation approaching quickly, we are filled…

Child Advocacy in Action

I love law school, but at times it’s easy to feel isolated from the real world amid all of the studying. By the time March of my first year rolled around, more hands-on experience was exactly what I needed so I participated in Alternative Spring Break this year at the Council for Children’s Rights in…

Do UVA Law’s Alternative Spring Break, Just Not for the Reason I Did

I will admit it. I was not excited for UVA Law’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB). I had signed up for less than altruistic reasons. Namely, I had registered because it seemed like an efficient way to knock out the forty hours of pro bono needed to receive a Public Interest Law Association grant for the…

A Week at Public Defender Service in DC

I came into law school completely certain that I was going to be a public service lawyer. I had absolutely zero exposure or experience to public service lawyering, however. Though I had a large collection of community service hours, mostly centered around working with kids in impoverished, inner city communities (my motivation for attending law…

From “Serial” to Law School: A 1L’s Exploration of Innocence Work at UVA

One of my first introductions to UVA Law was in Fall 2014. I had gotten hooked on the popular podcast "Serial" during my commute to work. On episode seven, the Virginia Innocence Project Clinic at UVA Law partnered with the host, Sarah Koenig, to work on Adnan Syed's case. By the seventh episode I was…