Career Strategy

Employers Prefer

All employers-whether public interest or private sector--look for the key traits that indicate future success as an attorney. These key traits include: intelligence, communication skills, work ethic, interpersonal abilities, teamwork, and ability to inspire confidence and trust.

However, public interest employers pay particular attention to the following attributes when hiring candidates.

Demonstrated Commitment to Public Service

Employers carefully consider candidates for public service positions. Employers want to hire people who have a realistic understanding of the work they will be doing and who have demonstrated their commitment to it. Therefore, employers look for previous experience, volunteer or paid, in the public service sector. You should highlight volunteer and community work, even if it was in a non-legal setting or capacity.

A good work ethic, the ability to show initiative and assume responsibility quickly, and an ability to work well with others are important factors for most public interest employers. The challenge for you is to convey these qualities through your paper credentials and at interviews. Work experience, legal and otherwise, is an important consideration by many public interest employers

Course selection can also be important. Public interest employers want to see challenging coursework that also demonstrates commitment to the issues and populations that will surround you. For more information, see "Recommended Coursework" at this website.

Clinical coursework is a great way to build your resume for public interest employment-and any legal work. Clinics offer students the opportunity to represent underprivileged clients in real legal settings while in law school. Many public interest organizations have noted that they look for clinical experience when making hiring decisions. Clinical programs expose students to public interest work with a combination of classroom experience, tutorial meetings with the faculty member, and practical work experience on assigned cases. Villanova offers five clinical courses. For more information, consult the Clinical Program website.

Externships offer another way to gain first-hand experience in the public interest sector and to be exposed to different types of public interest work with different agencies. Villanova offers judicial externships in the chambers of state and federal judges in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Villanova also offers externships in a variety of governmental offices, such as the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Appellate Court Mediation Program; the Internal Revenue Service's District Counsel's Office; the National Labor Relations Board; the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Attorney's Offices in Pennsylvania and Delaware. There are also externships in public interest agencies, such as the SeniorLaw Center and Women Against Abuse Legal Center. For more information, see the website for Villanova's Externship programs.

Along with your academic performance, public interest offices focus on interpersonal skills, a demonstrated commitment to public interest, as well as work experience in making hiring decisions. Dedication to public interest can be demonstrated by activities you are involved in at law school. By becoming involved in student groups that address public interest issues and by volunteering time in a public interest office during the academic term, you can also place yourself in a stronger position for landing a summer or permanent public interest job.

Villanova Law Students can join the Pro Bono Society or the Public Interest Fellowship Program. The Pro Bono Society provides students the opportunity to volunteer their time and skills as law students to assist people in our community who have traditionally lacked access to the legal system. The Pro Bono Society is involved with legal projects with organizations such as The Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP), as well as programs such as Philadelphia Cares, the AIDS Walk, Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity, and helped create the Lawyering Together program.

The Public Interest Fellowship Program, founded in 1998, provides financial support to students who commit their summers to public service work. Money is raised by selling items and services, solicited by students, at an auction held annually at VLS.

Volunteer Legal Work/Pro Bono

Public interest groups often hire from within. That means they consider volunteers for summer, part-time and full-time positions before interviewing outside candidates. It is important to spend some time volunteering in the public service sector. This experience not only looks good on your resume and provides valuable services to our community, but volunteer work with a public interest organization can often lead directly to summer and permanent positions in the same organization. Furthermore, volunteer work shows commitment to public interest, which is helpful with any other potential employer. To volunteer your legal services, you may either serve an organization directly or perform pro bono legal work with an attorney who is representing disadvantaged clients for free. "Lawyering Together," Villanova's flagship pro bono program, is a great way to volunteer. Speak with the Director of Public Service Careers & Pro Bono Programs for more information.

Public interest employers generally pay serious attention to writing samples. They also rely heavily on references and recommendations in making hiring decisions. Therefore, building a group of references that can speak on behalf of your commitment to public interest work as well as your legal skills is important. References from people familiar with your work as a volunteer while you are in school are also valuable to your career. References should also come from your professors. Get to know your professors. Talk to them after classes or during their office hours. Work as a research assistant for a professor either during the summer or the academic year. These are all valuable ways to get to know your professors and for them to get to know you and your interests better. Then when they are called as a reference, they can talk about you with sincerity. The clinical faculty are also excellent references because when you participate in a clinic you develop a personal relationship with your professor and they know your work intimately and see how you are in practice.

For more information about developing writing samples, references, and recommendations, consult the Career Strategy website.

Taking the Initiative with Employers

Most public interest organizations are both extremely busy and understaffed. They are also often flooded with resumes and cover letters from people interested in working with them. Therefore, you need to be proactive in your job search. Rather than simply sending a resume and waiting for a call, follow up on all communications with telephone calls and provide employers with additional materials or information they may have requested.

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