Public Service

The Accidental Advocate

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / Leave a comment

This guest post was written by Margie Palladino ’85, Executive Director of Mass Family Advocacy Coalition (MFAC) and candidate to serve on the Governor’s Council for Massachusetts.

Boston College Law School teaches the practice of law in the Jesuit tradition of service to others. Of all the lessons I learned there, one has stayed with me throughout my life: our legal system does not affect everyone equally.

As a law student, I was taught that people who are marginalized or lack resources can experience our justice system very differently. When you don’t have the money, the support, or even the “right-color” skin, justice can be much harder to reach.

That lesson planted a seed. I just didn’t pay much attention to it at the time.

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From Imposter Syndrome to Winning a Jury Trial: My First Semester in the BC Defenders Clinic

/ BC Law Impact Guest Posts / 1 Comment

This guest post was written by Natalie Reysa, a third-year student at BC Law.

“Oh boy, am I glad to see you!” This reaction was the opposite of what I expected from the first client I met in lockup, on my first duty day in the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court.

I had imagined this day repeatedly, convinced that my future clients would take one look at me and immediately doubt my abilities to represent them. The potential reasons floated in my head: young female law student, intimidated by public speaking and thinking on my feet, no background in public defense trial work…the list went on.

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My Summer at Legal Aid: Issue Spotting and Research

/ Samantha Torre / Leave a comment

This summer, I’m interning at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that seeks to assist San Diego County residents and provide free legal representation, advice, and information. As the right to an attorney does not exist in legal cases, many litigants have to navigate complicated processes and forms, which can make it much more difficult for them to achieve their desired result in a case than parties with an attorney. The LASSD seeks to bridge that gap. The goal of the self-help clinics is not to provide representation, but to make the civil legal system more accessible for litigants.

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No Post-Grad Job Offer? No Problem!

/ Haley Cole / Leave a comment

The journey of getting a J.D. is fraught with uncertainty, but there is a particular lasting uncertainty that many public-interest law students feel as they navigate their way through school. Specifically, public-interest students can find themselves at the end of a three-year J.D. program unclear on where their next journey lies.

One may find it unfortunate that the public interest sector does not have a defined linear track like the big-law business lays out for law students. It can feel daunting to constantly search for your next summer experience each school year without the certainty that you will be offered long-term employment.

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Four Things to Know for Those Considering Clerking

/ Alex Mostaghimi / Leave a comment

A judicial law clerk assists a judge in their most important duties: preparing to supervise an oral argument, drafting opinions, and preparing jury instructions. With direct contact from the arbiters of the law, the value of a judicial clerkship cannot be matched. Not only will a judicial clerk’s writing, reading, and analytical skills vastly improve, their network among members of the Bar, other clerks, and judges will also expand.

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Law School in Action: Amicus Brief Clinic

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

Boston College Law School gives its students a wide range of classes to take that are taught by some of the best scholars in the field. Yet, while learning about the law in a classroom is crucial to becoming a successful attorney, nothing prepares you for day-to-day practice more than getting hands-on experience before graduating. That’s where BC Law’s clinics come in.

Law students in their second and third years of study can apply for coveted spots in any of the school’s fifteen clinics. No matter what someone’s legal interest is, there’s a clinic for them! To help students better understand the opportunities available to them, the BC Law Impact Blog is highlighting each of these clinics this semester. Here is our interview with the director of the Amicus Brief Clinic, Tom Carey.

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One Genuinely Good Thing: The PILF Auction

/ Michael Deere / Leave a comment

If you’ve ever watched The Good Place, you know how hard it is to do a genuinely good thing. And for those of you who haven’t seen the show…it’s hard. Really, really hard. Because the world just doesn’t work that way. Neither does goodness. A genuinely good thing is like the perfect seating chart at a wedding; it doesn’t exist. Or if it does, only in theory, and never in practice. 

But…

I have a genuinely good thing for you. A top-to-bottom, high-quality, solid gold good thing. No strings, caveats, codicils, amendments, addendums, or restrictions. Just a good thing; and a good time. A Night Of Jazz. Why? Because A Night Of Jazz is the theme for the 36th annual Public Interest Law Foundation auction in support of PILF’s summer stipends program, and that is a genuinely good thing.

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Get to Know the CSO: Michelle Grossfield

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

A career services advisor can be an amazing resource in law school as you navigate OCI, externships, clerkship applications, and more. However, it’s important that you find the advisor who can best help you reach your personal goals! To do so, follow along with this new series to learn about each CSO advisor at Boston College Law School. Here is our interview with Michelle Grossfield.

What was your path to the CSO, and why did you choose to go into career advising?

After law school, I practiced child welfare law at the public defender’s office in Massachusetts. It was an incredibly rewarding and challenging experience to represent children, families, and legal guardians in the Juvenile and Probate and Family courts in Plymouth and Worcester counties. The stakes in care and protection matters are incredibly high for families, given the fact that parental rights can be terminated, and parents may have no ability for future contact during a child’s upbringing. I was fortunate to have excellent mentors, colleagues, and training early on in my career, and was honored to advocate for the children, mothers, fathers, and parental figures appointed to me as they navigated incredible societal barriers and multiple complex systems.

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A Note to Public Interest-Minded Students

/ Haley Cole / Leave a comment

Entering law school with a focus on public interest can be a daunting process, especially at a school where the majority of students end up going into Big Law. You may have started school with the conviction that public interest was your calling – but what does it mean to engage in that kind of work? 

The diversity of paths within the public interest field can provide some comfort, but it can be overwhelming to navigate law school without a clear understanding of what this work really entails. It’s challenging to stay steadfast in your public interest passions when the first year of law school emphasizes concrete doctrinal teachings and does not elaborate on the abstract idea of what it is to be a lawyer. If you’ve found yourself questioning your goals or feeling lost on how to explore the broad field of public interest work, I want to offer some advice. 

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Crossing the Street: the Long Walk to BC Law

/ Michael Deere / Leave a comment

I grew up in Techwood, a housing project of inner-city Atlanta. Until it was razed in preparation for the ’96 Summer Olympics, Techwood was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous projects of any city in the country. Bodies in gutters and on gurneys, overdoses, gang violence, drive-bys. I saw it all. I still do, from time to time. So I escaped. Left it all behind. And I didn’t need a Wardrobe or a Tardis or a tricked-out DeLorean. All I had to do was press the ‘walk’ button, wait for the light to change, and walk across the street. It was just that easy. And when I stepped on the far sidewalk, as if by magic, the world changed from the pitted, blood-stained sidewalks of Techwood to the manicured lawns of Georgia Tech. That was my Narnia, my middle-Earth, my galaxy far far away. Use whatever metaphors and similes you can find. But the campus of Georgia Tech was as magical and mystical as any of those fantasy lands, except that this one was real. And it was mine.

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