35th annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair draws record numbers

The Public Interest Law Center’s 35th annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair brought more than 2,500 students from 21 law schools around the country to NYU Law on February 9 and 10 to interact with more than 230 public interest and government employers from 18 states. It was the biggest year so far for the largest event of its kind in the nation, where employers host information tables and conduct more than 3,500 interviews with student attendees. Through the fair, many NYU Law 1Ls and 2Ls find summer employment, and 3Ls land postgraduate jobs. The employer representatives included a number of NYU Law alumni who have pursued public interest careers, and some of whom got their starts at previous fairs.

During the two-day event, students could attend a lunchtime panel on Thursday about working for justice in the South, as well as one of two options on Friday: a screening of the film A Question of Integrity: Politics, Ethics, and the Supreme Court, produced by the Alliance for Justice, with commentary by the AFJ’s Debra Mayfield, or a reception hosted by California-based employers.

Among the diverse organizations in the wide array of employers were the American Civil Liberties Union, the Alaska Department of Law, the Bronx Defenders, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Children’s Law Center, Disability Rights Advocates, Georgia Legal Services—Farmworker Division, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the HIV Law Project, Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, the New York City Police Department, the New York State Department of Labor, Orleans Public Defenders, the U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Federal Mine Safety and  Health Review Commission, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Posted on February 9, 2012