The BU Public Interest Project, who funded my work at Bay Area Legal Aid during my 2L summer, is growing impressively. In an email sent to PIP alums yesterday came news that they were able to fund a record 50 grantees for summer work - and every student who had applied.
Furthermore, 3Ls intending to go work in public interest are now eligible for bar study grants.
But what I thought was most interesting from the email was the description of the L-STAR program, a joint effort by public interest projects at several law schools. Standing for "Law Student Travel and Accommodation Reimbursement" the program is designed to encourage firms to donate to the public interest grant funds of the law schools what they otherwise would have reimbursed their interviewee for a taxi ride or hotel room, if the interviewee turns it down.
It strikes me as an interesting idea because there's so much largess endemic to Big Law. The big law firms are prepared to shell out cash to get the candidates they want, and the candidates are probably largely thrilled to be treated accordingly. So it seems like a good thing if before blithely spending money everyone involved stops to think whether that particular money might be better spent.
(I don't mean that interviewees have any sort of moral duty to foot the bill themselves, or to incur great inconvenience in traveling to their interviews. But if a bus will do instead of a taxi, or if there's a couch you can crash on instead of a business-class hotel room, it's nice that there's an incentive to make these concessions.)