Attention 2Ls and 3Ls committed to doing public interest work: The relative size and the level of attention students seem to give to the OCIP can be anxiety-producing, and it may feel like there is a lot of pressure to participate. Despite the fact that each year we invite over 1000 public interest employers to participate — free of charge – most of them choose not to take part. While there will be some public interest/public sector employers at OCIP (and you ought to check out the list at Tab D of the OCIP Guide to see if you are interested in bidding on interviews with them), it is certainly not the way that most students find public interest jobs or that most public interest employers hire law students.
Rest assured – if you are interested in working for a public interest employer next summer or after graduation, there are many wonderful opportunities to do so. Unlike during your 1L year, when you were not permitted to contact employers until December 1, your 2L summer public interest/public sector job search should begin in the Fall. PSLawNet, b-Line, and the Government Honors and Internship Handbook (available on CDO website) are good starting points for researching organizations and opportunities. In addition, you will find links for useful practice area-specific online resources on the Public Interest and Public Sector jobs pages of the CDO website. Your classmates and fellow summer interns are also terrific sources of information; we encourage you to take the opportunity to talk with them about their experiences at organizations in which you may be interested. You can find out who worked where this past summer and for the prior three summers via the Summer Evaluations located on the b-Line.
To help you with your PIPS job search, we will be hosting a number of career programs through the Fall semester and into Spring. On the evening of Thursday, September 4, we will be holding our annual Public Interest/Public Sector Employer Reception at Boalt, which typically attracts 40-50 employers to campus. You should also call or make an appointment with Linda Maranzana (lmaranzana@law.berkeley.edu).