Law Student Testifies to the Rewards of Doing Good

Each summer, the nation’s top law students go to work at major law firms, where they can earn up to $2,500 a week and enjoy spacious offices, gourmet meals and prime seats at such venues as the Hollywood Bowl.

But the money and plush surroundings aren’t for everyone.

Eli Palomares, for one, has volunteered to help the indigent resolve their most basic legal problems.

Palomares, 23, of Van Nuys, is one of more than 1,500 law students across the United States who have spent their summer working at public interest law firms for small stipends paid through donations by their classmates.

Last year, students at 161 law schools raised more than $3 million to underwrite grants, ranging from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,500, for classmates who want to work in public interest law but cannot afford to do so for free, said David Stern, executive director of National Assn. of Public Interest Law Foundations in Washington.

The legal profession has debated for years how to encourage--or even possibly require--all lawyers to donate a few hours a year to pro bono causes. Stern and others believe that working with students prepares them to make a lifelong commitment to volunteerism.

“What you really want to do is focus on those formative years,” Stern said. “You want to instill the value and get the experience at law school.”

Program organizers predict that this early introduction to public interest law will make law students more apt to continue helping the less fortunate once they have passed the bar.

“I really believe that this generation of lawyers will be much more likely to find time for public interest in their practice, and donate money” to public interest law causes, said Karen A. Lash, an associate dean at USC Law School.

As a law student, Lash was instrumental in establishing USC’s Public Interest Law Foundation in 1987. The foundation was one of the nation’s first--and is still one of the largest--on-campus efforts offering financial support to students working in public interest law.

This summer, Palomares was one of 25 USC law students to receive a grant from the foundation--$4,500 for first-time recipients and $5,500 for those in their second summer of service.

Like many of the grantees, Palomares doesn’t plan to become a public interest lawyer when he graduates. Yet he was drawn to the idea of working for 10 weeks at Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ office in the San Fernando Valley, just a few miles from his family’s home. And in his short time there, he knows he has made a difference.

Palomares has helped a woman overwhelmed by an eviction notice who broke down and cried because she didn’t understand her rights when a landlord tried to raise her rent illegally. He was able to explain city rent control laws to her in Spanish.

“They feel a connection because you are speaking their language,” said Palomares, who is the first member of his Mexican American family to attend college.

He has also helped the mother of a 1-year-old child with cerebral palsy apply for government disability benefits.

Those are just the kind of work experiences that Lash envisioned when she helped establish the foundation more than a decade ago. “You never forget your first client,” she said.

For now, Palomares is more concerned about his experiences than about the money he passed up.

“I’m not saying that money is not important,” he said. “But I choose Bet Tzedek because it was the most interesting” summer law job that was offered to students.

Public interest law advocates say low salaries and high student loan debts are a deterrent for young lawyers interested in serving the poor. They hope that offering students the small stipend for summer work makes the difference.

Palomares, like most law students, has gone into debt to pay for law school. He has borrowed $38,000 so far and still faces one more year of tuition.

He plans to use his $4,500 grant from this summer to pay his tuition. He doesn’t worry about living expenses yet; he lives with his parents and 9-year-old brother.

Grant recipients at USC must secure summer jobs on their own, then apply for the money.

Applicants must also volunteer at least 12 hours during the school year at a nonprofit agency, said Matthew Ferguson, past president of the foundation.

Last year, USC law students raised more than $35,000 for the program at an auction, where guests bid on everything from dinner at a popular professor’s home to a simulated skydiving adventure in Las Vegas.

An additional $18,000 came in when nearly all of the school’s 600 students voluntarily added $30 to their annual tuition bill, Lash said, noting that “the students are basically taxing themselves.”

As part of the fund-raising drive, USC law students, faculty and staff also are asked to donate a day’s salary--from $50 for students in public interest jobs to as much as $500 for those in top law firms.

This summer, Ferguson, a third-year USC law student, worked in the downtown Los Angeles office of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, earning $2,400 a week. He pledged one day’s salary to help underwrite the summer work of classmates like Palomares.

Ferguson said he and other students are trying to do their part. As president of the foundation, he said, he has tried “to get students to realize there are multiple ways they can do public interest law--and that includes giving money.”