Pro Bono Work

Pro bono work is very important to me and I am proud to say that I’ve participated in Loyola’s clinics since my 2L year. For me, clinical work was one of the main things that excited me about the prospect of going to law school. I remember reading through Loyola’s brochures before I had decided to enroll and seeing excerpts about the Project for the Innocent, Immigrant Justice Clinic and various others and thinking “I cannot wait to get involved with this.”

I think that the benefit of participating in clinical work cannot be overstated. First, it gives students an opportunity to do real, necessary work on behalf of people who have few other options. We all know that it is extremely expensive to hire a lawyer, and it is vitally important that law students help ease this burden where they’re able. This help not only gives much-needed assistance to people in the community, it also binds the student to the community in a meaningful way and sets them on a more civic-minded path even if they choose not to pursue public interest work in their career. Second, the work is great for students’ resumes and can help them identify fields of practice that will interest them in their ensuing careers. Through the clinic work you may discover that you love all aspects of litigation, or appellate writing, or client counseling – or, you may discover what you don’t like so much. Either way, Loyola’s clinics are designed to give students a wide breadth of experiences which can only be beneficial to students in the short and long term.