Frequently Asked Questions

• When can a student begin work on the public service graduation requirement?
  Answer: After completing the first year of law school.
   
• How many hours of public service are required for graduation?
Answer:  A minimum of thirty hours is required, however, the Federal Public Defender placement requires a minimum commitment of forty hours and other placements may also require more than thirty hours. Students may work as many hours as time and interest permit. The average number of hours completed by prior students is 39.63.


• What kind of public service qualifies for the graduation requirement?
  Answer:
  • Work must be law-related. (Clerical work is appropriate only to the extent needed to carry out the overall legal task.)
  • Work must be uncompensated. (Students may not receive monetary compensation, academic credit or other tangible benefits for performing service.)
  • Work must be adequately supervised. Ultimately, an attorney must be responsible for the student's work, and the student must be directly supervised on a day-to-day basis by an attorney, or other lay person with expertise in the relevant subject matter area, who is responsible for:
    • assigning the particular task to the student;
    • taking steps to assure the task's successful completion, including training,
    • oversight, and provision of model forms or other documentation;
    • conducting an evaluative exit interview with the student; and
    • completing the Program's mandatory evaluation form about the student.
  • Examples of approved placements include work for legal service organizations, on behalf of nonprofit
    community groups, and for government offices responsible for protecting the right of individuals raising
    important public interest concerns. Work done for attorneys in private practice must be pro bono work on behalf
    of a person or group ordinarily unable to secure legal representation.

• Do judicial clerkships count toward meeting the requirement? Answer: NO.
   
• Does all work performed in a District Attorney's office count toward public service?  Answer:  No, only work on
  child abuse or family violence ceases count toward public service.
   
• Does work qualify for holders of or candidates for political office? Answer: NO.
   
• May students develop their own public service placement/s? Answer: Yes, BUT IT MUST BE PRE-APPROVED OR NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN.

Pre-approved public service placement information is available in the blue binders of the Public Services Resource Library, Carr Collins Hall, suite 320.