The Catholic University of America

GOALS OF THE PROGRAM

The American legal profession is larger and more prosperous than ever, but American lawyers provide service mainly to affluent organizations and individuals. Only a fraction of the resources of the legal profession is devoted to serving the public, and an even smaller fraction is devoted to helping those who cannot afford to pay. Most law school graduates go into private practice, where their work is defined by the needs of their clients. But some lawyers devote their careers to public service, working in government or in non-governmental organizations on a wide array of social problems.

The Law and Public Policy Program provides students interested in public service with advice and educational opportunities that assist them in developing careers in which they can participate in making or implementation of law and policy.

Curtis Randall, second-year student, legal extern, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Lawyers who want to help solve social problems need to use a wide range of advocacy tools. Some goals may be accomplished by engaging in legislative work, administrative advocacy, or by working with community groups. Others may be advanced by representing individuals in disputed matters. Students in the Law and Public Policy Program get exposure to and training in the wide range of skills they will need to be effective in public service.

Law students who aspire to public service careers need to study law from a policy perspective. Every law is a statement of policy. Those who will participate in the lawmaking process need to learn to discern and to consider the policy behind the law. They need to learn how to assemble and evaluate information needed to make policy decisions. They need to learn to work with experts in other fields so that the lawmaking process can be informed by careful research. They need to study the institutions in which lawyers work and the roles occupied by lawyers to make informed decisions about their own career paths. The Law and Public Policy Program offers a curriculum and a community in which this work takes place.


At least eighty percent of low-income people in the United States (the poor and the working poor) are unable to obtain legal representation when they need it. Talbot D'Alemberte, Racial Injustice and American Justice, ABA JOURNAL, Aug. 1992, 58, 59.