A Bid for Justice
LAW auction funds public-service practice
The summer after her first year in Boston University’s School of Law, Deitzah Woll (LAW’07) helped Miami public housing residents fight a city redevelopment plan that would have kicked them out of their homes.
Like many public-interest and government legal internships, Woll’s position with Florida Legal Services paid nothing. She could afford to take the job because she had a grant from LAW’s Public Interest Project (PIP), a program that supports first- and second-year law students who forgo the big paychecks of summer jobs in big firms to do unpaid public-interest legal work. Woll is now a copresident of PIP, which will hold its annual fundraising auction tomorrow evening, March 28, in the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall.
“Public interest work is the most direct way to build on a student’s commitment to help others and to have a real impact on people’s lives,” says Woll. But many students, weighed down by debt, can’t afford it, especially when high-paying private-sector jobs beckon.
“Our students come to us often with a considerable debt load from their undergraduate education,” says Maureen O’Rourke, dean of LAW. “Law school tuition only adds to that debt burden, and of course Boston is an expensive place to live.”
PIP awards grants of $4,000 to students taking unpaid public-service summer internships. Previous recipients have worked for the Boston City Council, the Office for Civil Rights, and the Conservation Law Foundation. They have spent their summers helping refugees seek political asylum in the United States, representing juvenile defendants in court, and defending the legal rights of people from other underrepresented groups.
Last year, PIP awarded 50 grants to students, and nearly half of the funding came from the auction. The group also raises money through a phonathon, mailings, and the fall semester Beantown Shootout basketball game between BU and Boston College law students.
Among the many items attendees at this year’s auction can bid on are a Caribbean vacation, dinners with LAW professors, and a football signed by New England Patriots running back Laurence Maroney. And several LAW professors will give the Socratic method a twist by serving as the evening’s auctioneers and blackjack dealers.
This year, in addition to funding internships, PIP will award three grants to cover the cost of bar exam preparation courses, which run about $2,600, for graduating students going into public service work.
Admission to the auction, which starts at 6 p.m. and includes dinner and an open bar, costs $10 and is open to anyone over 21.
“Serving the public is a part of the legal profession’s mission,” says O’Rourke. “The grants that PIP provides are critical to supporting this mission.”
Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.