Volunteering allowed Van Etta to gain exposure to a variety of different practice areas.  In association with attorneys from Volunteer Lawyers Network, she worked on family law matters, criminal expungement cases, and pro se litigation questions.

She credits her volunteer experience as a significant factor in landing her current job as a judicial law clerk in Hennepin County Family Court, where she has been employed since September 2007. Volunteering gave her confidence and enabled her to make valuable connections that eventually led to employment.

Van Etta entered law school, she says, because she wanted to help people. She was not sure exactly how that would translate into a career—maybe she would be a prosecutor, a public defender, or a legal aid attorney. In the process of her pro bono assignments, she discovered that she loved family law because it was rewarding to help people work through the trauma and distress involved in those types of cases.

Van Etta’s enthusiasm for public service is shared by other law students and new lawyers. They often attribute their motivation to the fact that they were brought up to believe in the value of helping others and giving back to the community. In practicing this ingrained value, they encounter many associated benefits.

Building Practical Skills

Not surprisingly, many students characterize law school as a negative experience—especially during the first year with the emphasis on grading, ranking, and weeding out. They do not see the immediacy between the academic-centered curriculum and what they envision they will be doing as lawyers. These students, in particular, extol the benefits of volunteering because of the practical, real-world experience it provides. “I was seriously considering leaving law school after the first semester,” Imani Jaafar-Mohammad admits. “When I found MJF opportunities, I saw life outside a traditional legal career, and that kept me going. It really did.” Jaafar-Mohammad stayed in school, graduated in 2004, and went on to work as a judicial law clerk, a Minneapolis Legal Aid attorney, and a private practitioner. She also serves on MJF’s Board of Directors.

“Volunteering made my law school experience,” says Kate Van Etta. “You get out of the classroom and learn what this law stuff is all about.”  It is invaluable, she points out, to go from a civil procedure class and then actually serve process.

In connection with advising a GLBT client, University of St. Thomas law student Mike Boulette realized the importance of his concurrent classroom education: “It is important what kind of tenancy clients hold.” Furthermore, he says, “When I hated law school, going to Chrysalis and hearing the story of a client was revitalizing. It showed me ways in which the law is more than dry and formalistic rules. Real people have real problems that have to be solved through the law.”

Volunteers agree that the benefits are numerous. They gain confidence, acquire important skills in interviewing and relating to clients, and enhance their proficiency in legal research. They learn how to handle a caseload and how to manage files. An international law student from China, Zhu (June) Cheng, who recently started doing pro bono work after completing her first year at the University of Minnesota Law School, puts it this way: “You have a chance to get close to the real world and learn skills you need as a practitioner.”

The craving on the part of law students for development of practical skills is justified, according to research published in 2007 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. After conducting a two-year study of the legal education system, researchers concluded that the lack of emphasis on practical training constitutes a major inadequacy in the law school experience. The widely examined Carnegie Report summarizes its findings:

Unlike other professional education, most notably medical school, legal education typically pays relatively little attention to direct training in professional practice.  The result is to prolong and reinforce the habits of thinking like a student rather than an apprentice practitioner, conveying the impression that lawyers are more like competitive scholars than attorneys engaged with the problems of clients.  Neither understanding of the law is exhaustive, of course, but law school’s typically unbalanced emphasis on the one perspective can create problems as the students move into practice.

Exploring Different Areas of Law 

Sometimes students enter law school not knowing precisely what is involved in the practice of law and not knowing in what specific area they want to practice.  “Law is very different from what you think it is. I was trying to make sure law was what I really wanted to do,” says Jaafar-Mohammad. She used volunteer work as a test gauge.  When she took on an assignment volunteering for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) in the area of housing law, she found she really liked it. A few years later, when she was an attorney for Minneapolis Legal Aid, she supervised a volunteer law clerk. As a mentor, she was able to help her law clerk explore different legal avenues, but she also found that the student was much more than an apprentice—she was an asset. Acknowledging that it requires time to train a newcomer, Jaafar-Mohammad claims the investment is worthwhile. “My law clerk helped me stay energetic and enthusiastic. She helped me stay engaged. She was inspiring. I was able to handle twice as many cases because of her,” she says. 

Mike Boulette has surveyed several different possibilities in the process of volunteering at Chrysalis, for a Hennepin County Family Court judge, and for a former St. Thomas professor.  He has also traveled with MJF staff attorneys to Mankato and White Earth Tribal Court to assist clients with pro se dissolutions and child custody matters. As a result, he knows he likes family law. He also is really interested in women’s issues, and believes that as reproductive technology moves forward, more and more legal issues will emerge. He has not decided, however, what legal career path he will follow.

After numerous volunteer stints in different areas of law, Kate Van Etta found that family law was her niche. Now employed in Hennepin County Family Court, she is reflective about her rationale in selecting it.  “I enjoy helping the judge make decisions that will help families prosper rather than perish after a divorce or difficult custody battle.”  After all, she reasons, “Family court is not about winning or losing, but making the best of a difficult situation.”   

Finding Paid Work

A welcome byproduct of volunteering is the connections it provides with regard to paid work.  Megan Bell, working during the summer of 2008 as a paid community clerk for the State Public Defender declares, “I would definitely not have had a job if it weren’t for MJF.”  Bell, a William Mitchell student who will graduate next spring, served the previous summer as an MJF volunteer law clerk for both the Washington County Public Defender and SMRLS.  “Volunteering all summer was the best experience ever,” she says. 

Andrea Palumbo, another MJF volunteer and student at William Mitchell, has donated hundreds of hours to the Minnesota Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.  She does legal research on prisoners’ rights. She knows volunteer service can lead to a job, she says, because she found jobs at the Minnesota AIDS Project and the Red Cross after volunteering for both of those organizations.

Experts concur that if a law student is aiming for a public interest job, volunteer work is essential.  “If you want to begin your legal career in public service, volunteer work is critical to your credibility as a candidate,” Susan Gainen advises.  Gainen is the director of career and professional development at the University of Minnesota Law School, a position she has held since 1992.  If you enter private practice after law school and decide after a few years that you want to switch to public practice, your law school pro bono experience will again be critical.  Says Gainen, “With public service as part of your portfolio beginning in law school and continuing with pro bono activity, you are able to show a connection to your commitment which will make your transition much smoother.”  

As for securing a job in a law firm or corporate law department, volunteer service can be an important factor.  “Students who volunteer demonstrate a commitment to their professional development that all employers seek,” emphasizes Janine Laird, executive director of MJF.  “Employers want to hire someone who knows where the courthouse is,” she explains.

Although public service may not be the paramount reason for a law firm or corporation to hire a graduate, it may be the tipping point, especially in the case of employers who have public service as part of their DNA, according to Gainen.  Laird also points out that many Minnesota law firms, large, midsize, and small, have responded to the MSBA “Call to Honor” to increase their pro bono goals.  “The Minnesota legal community has nurtured a climate that not only endorses, but expects attorneys to give back to the community.  New graduates should expect to perform pro bono wherever they are hired,” she counsels.

The Maslon law firm in Minneapolis is an employer that has pro bono as part of its DNA, to use Gainen’s metaphor.  Martin Rosenbaum, a partner and chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, describes how highly the practice regards public service:  “Pro bono work is important to every firm; ours puts a great deal of emphasis on it.”  Their goal is to have every attorney in the firm involved.  Their summer associates always receive assignments to work on pro bono matters.  If a candidate’s résumé shows a lot of volunteer work, Rosenbaum says, it makes a big difference in the decision to hire because it indicates leadership.  Rosenbaum cites two major advantages that result from having lawyers engaged in pro bono service.  Attorneys acquire more experience, which benefits the firm as a whole.  Further, he believes it is tremendously helpful in retention of attorneys.

Experiencing Satisfaction

All who volunteer have stories to tell about experiences that impacted them.  Those rewarding occasions account for their intentions to continue pro bono work in the longterm.  Megan Bell recounts a story about working as a volunteer for SMRLS.  She and her colleagues expunged the court records of a client and then worked on getting the client a pardon for a felony. They were successful.  Bell attended the hearing before the Board of Pardons.  “We were almost all crying.  It was really emotional and exciting,” she recalls. 

Admittedly, it is not always a positive experience.  For example, Van Etta acknowledges that one sometimes sees an entitlement mentality on the part of clients.  But, that is overshadowed by the times a little kid draws a picture for her while she is working with one of the child’s parents on a dissolution or custody matter.  She plans on continuing volunteer work when she moves into law practice after her judicial clerkship position.  “Programs like Volunteer Lawyers Network make it so accessible for lawyers to do it,” she says. 

June Cheng, who got her first taste of volunteering while completing her psychology degree in Shanghai, enjoyed contributing to the welfare of disadvantaged children of migrant workers.  “I saw where I was actually helpful to people,” she says.  Furthermore, she confides, “I like to be among people who are willing to help others.  It makes me feel like that’s where I belong.”

In order to ensure that all students gain this positive exposure, the faculty of Hamline University School of Law overwhelming approved a requirement that their students perform 25 hours of pro bono service over their law school careers.  Professor Edwin Butterfoss, who chairs a supervisory committee, says that details still have to be designed.  He anticipates that the plan will be installed for students entering in fall 2009.  He ascribes impetus for the initiative to Hamline’s strong reputation and mission for public service over many years.  He expects the requirement to promote learning.  Another bonus he foresees is that once students get a taste, the likelihood they will continue is very strong.

In Susan Gainen’s observation, the value of public service in Minnesota, where the ethic is so strong, boils down to this:  Service is a badge of honor.