Has anyone worked at Legal Aid Society?

[Anonymous]

I'm talking about the one in New York, but assume there are similarities across so curious about other locations too. Did you like the work, colleagues, and were the hours ok?

[Anonymous]

I worked for Legal Services in NY doing landlord tenant and foreclosure matters. Hours were pretty good and you had a lot of flexibility regarding which cases you took on and how far you wanted to push them. Honestly, a lot of the cases were losing cases where you tried to negotiate a payment plan with the landlord. I mean, it's hard to argue why someone shouldn't have to pay their rent absent serious warranty of habitability issues. That said, things happen and sometimes people just need some time to get their affairs in order. So, getting back to the hours...you could give advice and counsel on some of those cases and not have to go to court if you didn't have the time. You'll have to do this because you can't be in two places at once.

The people I worked with were generally nice. Upper level management made decisions that others that had been around longer than me questioned.

The clients surprised me as I had previously interned at a legal services place in VA. For example, most of my clients up there had nicer cell phones than I did whereas the people I helped in VA were truly impoverished. Most of the clients are nice and just generally needed some help. There's a few that are totally crazy but you have to expect that working in legal services.

I think the subject matter covered at legal services is generally the same but varies slightly based upon grants. For example, we had an elder law attorney and someone that handled divorces but only in cases of domestic violence. We also had someone that handled social security disability cases although that person might have been a paralegal. There's some weird rule that allows paralegals to handle those cases.

Happy to answer any more specific questions you have.

[Anonymous]

Thanks pp. this is helpful. A few other questions. Did "burnout" seem at all a problem among the lawyers? Was the training good? And lastly, what did you or others go on to do? Did you stay in public interest law? I'm wondering what the path for growth is.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks pp. this is helpful. A few other questions. Did "burnout" seem at all a problem among the lawyers? Was the training good? And lastly, what did you or others go on to do? Did you stay in public interest law? I'm wondering what the path for growth is.

Thanks!

Burnout is going to be a highly individualized thing. I think you need a thick skin to be a lawyer in general but you really need a thick skin to work in legal services. There's some really sad stories but you have to be able to separate yourself from it and focus on the legal issues. Take the cases you can win even if you have to turn away some people with really compelling stories. While giving that advice I realize that the people generally drawn to legal services work are those who want to help people so maybe the advice is easier to give than in practice. In my office and throughout the organization it seemed like most people had been there a few years although I didn't see a lot of "lifers" there. I think the starting salary is around $40K so it's not much money and I think that's the reason a lot of people eventually move on.

The training was almost non-existent and even just getting CLE credits was hard. However, this may not be the case if you're working in NYC. Legal services is bigger and supposedly better organized down there. That said, my boss and co-workers were always willing to discuss strategy on a case with me. We had a few old practitioner's guides to use and I think we got a very basic version of Lexis Nexis to use for free.

I did it as part of a fellowship so I was there for a year. I went back to my firm so that won't be helpful for you but I can talk about a few of the others in the office. One guy had a split set up where he worked at his solo practice 3 days a week and 2 days a week with legal services. I think he did it primarily to get access to health insurance (he paid a pro-rated amount based upon his part-time status). He eventually left and went full-time with his own practice doing matrimonial work. Another girl that handled matrimonial matters also left to work at a small firm doing matrimonial matters. The managing attorney for my office left and accepted a position as an ALJ at the DOL.