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PILF celebrates 20th anniversary

USC Gould School of Law • November 14, 2008
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Student-run nonprofit encourages service to greater community

—By Rizza Barnes

USC Law’s commitment to public service took center stage Nov. 11 during a downtown Los Angeles gathering that celebrated the 20th anniversary of USC’s Public Interest Law Foundation, honored Professor Scott Bice ’68 and his wife, Barbara, for their tireless support of PILF, and bid farewell to Associate Dean Lisa Mead ’89, who leaves USC Law this fall after 15 years of service to the school. 

PILF past and present
 PILF founder Lisa Mead, in red shirt, with
 Office of Public Service staff and PILF
 members past and present.

Co-founded by Mead and Karen Lash ’87 while Bice was dean of USC Law, PILF is a student-run, nonprofit organization dedicated to developing a service ethic among law students and to facilitating careers in public interest.

Through PILF, students have obtained legal relief for the homeless, children who were abused, low-income working families, undocumented immigrants and refugees, and many other vulnerable populations.

“PILF is a central part of who we are as a law school,” Dean Robert K. Rasmussen told the crowd of about 120 students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of USC Law. “It reminds us on a daily basis that we have an obligation to the greater community. Without PILF, we wouldn’t be the law school that we are today.”

Rasmussen also thanked Mead for her dedication to USC Law and its students, first as director of career services, then dean of students, and most recently as the inaugural dean of the USC Law Office of Public Service. In recognizing the Bices, he noted that PILF’s many accomplishments were made possible by the couple’s “public and behind-the-scenes assistance.”

Barbara and Scott Bice
 Barbara and Scott Bice

Audrey M. Irmas and her husband, the late Sydney M. Irmas ’55, who established the USC Law Public Interest Endowment in 1990, also were recognized as unofficial co-founders of PILF. The law school’s prestigious yearlong post-graduate fellowship for alumni working at public interest agencies is named in honor of the couple’s dedication to serving the community and USC Law.

PILF President Laura Riley ’10 offered a glimpse of the student organization’s growth over two decades. What began in 1988 with three board members, eight summer grants and three pro bono clinics, she said, now is considered one of the oldest and most active public interest student groups in the nation, with 16 board members, 25 grants and 30 clinics.

“Student organizations come and go, but PILF is a steady, steady presence,” Bice said. “Year after year, the growth in the money it has raised and the internships it has provided – there’s nothing like it at the law school. Tonight is a salute not only to the founders but to all of [PILF’s supporters]. The future is very, very bright.”

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