One thing I am not as open about as I really ought to be: I came to law school knowing I wanted to do public interest law for sure. But it just wouldn’t have been a possibility for me without financial support from others. This summer drove that home HARD.

I left law school in May. I didn’t have a job lined up, because as everyone reminded me, the public interest hiring cycle is late. “You probably won’t get a job until you pass the bar.” I’d tried to stretch my loans as far as they’d go, but I didn’t have much extra.

I got a bridge grant to support my volunteering for a PD’s office for a few months post-bar. I’m extremely grateful for that grant, but it was only $3,000. I got an unexpected stimulus check, so $1,200. So in theory, I had $4200 to last from June to mid-October.

I say “in theory” because out of that $4200, I had to pay for my $1600 bar prep course and around $1500 for various exam fees. So really, I had $1100 to last from June to mid October.

I was able to make it financially through the last several months because my partner and my mom have helped me. Otherwise, I truly do not know what I would have done.

I probably would have tried to find a way to work— but if you haven’t noticed, unemployment is super high right now. I’m not sure I would have figured it out.

I have so many thoughts about hiring in public interest that I hesitated to share for a long time because I was worried they would impact whether I would ever be hired in public interest.

But the way things are set up right now makes it takes significant privilege to pursue most public interest jobs. It’s nearly impossible for people who best reflect the communities public interest employers serve to actually work in public interest.

Things are on track for me now, but to be honest... I think if I had fully understood the financial reality of this period, I might have made a choice not to go into public interest law right away. And working in public interest was the ONLY reason I went to law school.

I don’t say that to discourage others from doing it— if you can manage it and working in public interest is important to you, you absolutely should. But I say it to illustrate that these financial realities keep can even those completely committed to this work out of it.