Discover What Public Service Law Is Meant To Be.
The Public Service Center Law Center at Mississippi College exposes students to a wide range of public service opportunities that not only enhance their legal education experience, but also encourages a interest in helping underserved people and communities.
MC Law School emphasizes the importance of public interest lawyering on a continuum, beginning with a student’s matriculation and continuing through graduation and beyond. This emphasis on the delivery of pro bono services takes root in the law school’s mission statement, which includes our belief that “human beings are God’s creations, equally entitled to dignity and respect. In every setting, we seek to training lawyers of high intellectual and practical ability, who are committed to ethical practice; to assisting the disadvantaged; and to free and open discussion of issues of law, policy, and values.
Funding for Your Public Interest Work
Equal Justice Works Summer Corps is an AmeriCorps-funded program that provides 350 law students with the opportunity to earn an $1,000 education award voucher for spending the summer in a qualifying internship at a non-profit, public interest organization. Students must complete 300 service hours to receive the education award voucher, which can be used to pay current educational expenses or qualified student loans. Additionally, county, state, and nonprofit public defenders offices now qualify for Summer Corps funding.
Equal Justice Works provides paid public interest fellowships to law school graduates to provide legal assistance to underserved populations and causes. Fellowships are offered on a rolling basis.
Prepare You For Work With A public interest law group
Law has a vibrant public service community and there are many ways to become involved, including student organizations, clinics, externships, Law Centers, and courses. The Public Service Law Center can help you learn about ways attorneys make a positive difference in the legal community and in the greater community at large.
Activities of the Public Service Law Center include:
- Promoting and celebrating public interest lawyering
- A Public Interest Law Speakers Series showcasing renowned attorneys and scholars with public interest expertise
- A Public Interest Career Advising Series
- Coordinating the MC Law externship program, which matches law school students with government entities and non-profit organizations
- Overseeing the MC Law Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which provides financial assistance to MC Law graduates who pursue full time careers in public interest law
- Coordinating law student public service opportunities, including regular Habitat for Humanity builds
- Coordinating activities and events with the student-run Public Interest Law Group