Thirty years after its inception at USC Gould, PILF still thrives, as each new class makes its own mark on the program.
During their 3L year at the USC Gould School of Law, Karen Lash JD 1987 and fellow student Stan Glickman JD 1987 faced a dilemma like many before them; as future lawyers wishing to pursue a career in public interest law they found it hard to gain paid experience in the field. At the same time, the agencies that serve vulnerable populations were desperate to find legal support but lacked the funding to pay for it.
Lash and friends set out to bring the interests of the students and the agencies together. In 1987, they co-founded the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) at USC Gould. One year later, PILF, which is dedicated to the promotion of social justice lawyering, began providing pro bono clinic opportunities and summer grants for students in public interest work. The financing came, initially, from a voluntary $10 assessment that the Student Bar Association collected. When Sydney M. Irmas JD 1955 and his wife, Audrey, heard that more than 90 percent of students were taxing themselves to create public interest jobs, they provided matching funds.
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| (from left) PILF Big Law Pro Bono Panelists (left to right): Nicole Howell (Skadden), Ashley Kim (Latham & Watkins) and Elvira Razzano (Gould JD 2019) |
Thirty years on, PILF is still going strong at USC, with each class putting its own mark on the program and new causes benefitting from its work. Looking back on the beginnings of PILF, Lash says: "We couldn't have foreseen in 1986, when we began organizing as law students to create PILF, that legions of law students would have these meaningful service opportunities." Especially for graduates pursuing careers in public interest law — at USC Gould, about 15 percent choose this path — the program has become invaluable. For others, it has helped instill a commitment to pro bono work.
PILF's community partners — there are currently about 20 — work with immigrants, the elderly, victims of domestic violence, people with disabilities, veterans, low income families and children. The organizations range from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) to Los Angeles Waterkeeper in Santa Monica to the Inner City Law Center on skid row.
"Laws on the books are useless if they are not enforced, and most of the time that requires legal help," Lash says. "PILF turns those laws into action in service of low-income and other underserved people who need and deserve justice."
Another alumna who worked tirelessly on getting PILF started is Lisa Mead JD 1989. She and Lash both had the opportunity to watch the program grow when they were associate deans at USC Gould.
Mead says: "Thirty years ago, much of the work was still about "How do we get the bylaws written? How do we hold a board meeting? How do we fund the first year of summer grants?" The students who have followed have grown the program beyond what we could have imagined it could become. PILF now offers more summer grants and increased volunteer opportunities as well as providing extraordinary service to the law school and to the community."
One recent addition to the roster of organizations working with PILF is the Veterans Legal Institute (VLI) in Santa Ana, where alumnus Dwight Stirling JD 2000 is the co-founder and CEO. The partnership includes monthly clinics at the law school — the first was held in October — where students conduct intake interviews with low income veterans looking for support with family law issues, landlord-tenant issues and discharge upgrades. The collaboration allows VLI to reach clients beyond the Santa Ana area, while students wishing to volunteer with veterans can do so after class and without having to travel.
"I am really excited about this partnership," says the current PILF president, 2L student Matthew Saria. "It serves a population that has already done so much, and veterans are very needy of legal support." Paying respect to the PILF founders and other PILF officers before him, Saria adds: "One of the great things about PILF is that it is student run and therefore very flexible. The new board can make their mark and add to the legacy of PILF without reinventing the wheel. The list of partnerships keeps getting longer and longer, and USC's footprint in the public interest community gets larger and larger."
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| (from left) PILF Bake Sale judges/Gould faculty: Professors Rich, Pastore and Chasalow. Proceeds benefitted PILF. |
The law school endorsed PILF from the beginning. "Dean Scott Bice and his wife, Barbara, went out of their way to support our efforts," Mead says. Lash agrees. "Scott Bice was an early champion of the program among deans," she says, "and Audrey Irmas is PILF's angel."
Lash points out that PILF is a key way for making law real to students. "In the classroom, you learn what the law is," she says. "But in a legal aid office you see how the law too often fails those who need its protections most. PILF motivates our students to work to fix that gap."
The annual PILF auction, which is the main fundraiser for the program, will be held on Thursday, February 1, 2018, at the USC Tutor Campus Center. For more information, email PILF@lawmail.usc.edu.
