Alternative Experience: Exploring Public Interest Law (6/15)

This is a reflection from 6/15

This week my “alternative summer experience” truly began. Since the end of the spring semester, I have been studying for the LSAT exam. However, this week I began a formal Kaplan LSAT course. While this experience is not comparable to an internship, my first week of a formal course and intensive studying has proven to be very challenging, rewarding, and thought-provoking. Additionally, I am proud that studying for the law school entrance exam constitutes concrete steps towards my career aspirations. Currently, I am primarily focused on studying for the LSAT in order to get the best possible score, and thus have the best possible law school admissions prospects. However, I have not only been studying for the LSAT exam, but I have begun to intensively research the legal career field. So far, I have conducted much of this research in an online capacity. I have read numerous articles, closely evaluated data reports, and listened to many podcasts about the legal field. A major outcome of this research is a newfound, strong interest in the field of public interest law. Public interest law is the practice of law intended to benefit marginalized, impoverished, and disadvantaged populations. A few examples of public interest legal careers are public defenders, non-profit organization lawyers, representing labor unions, and so much more. The more I learn about this area of law, the more parallels I draw between public interest law and my Jepson education.

Whenever I research prospective career interests, I typically ask myself “How will my knowledge of leadership studies apply to this?” In this particular case of public interest law, I know that numerous leadership theories will be not only applicable but unbelievably helpful. In order to illustrate this, I am going to use an example of a specific type of public interest lawyer, a civil rights lawyer. Being a civil rights lawyer, and thus representing those whose rights have been infringed upon, is on the shortlist of careers most interesting to me. In this role, two leadership theories stand out as especially important. First of all, in my theories and models course this past spring we extensively researched the role of emotional intelligence in leadership. Studies presented by Salovey and Goleman concluded that while traditional intelligence is necessary in leadership roles, emotional intelligence is an additional requirement that qualifies people as great leaders. In fact, the go even further to assert that a leader’s amount of emotional intelligence can predict the leader’s ultimate success or lack thereof. Secondly, I predict that establishing idiosyncrasy credit would be incredibly important in the role of a civil rights lawyer. Idiosyncrasy credit is a type of allowance granted to a leader from followers due to a leader’s past actions. This allowance allows the leader to stray from the norm or rules in some capacity because of their past strong adherence to such norms and rules. Collectively, I feel as though the theories of emotional intelligence and of idiosyncrasy credit would be very applicable to a civil rights lawyer, for establishing an emotional connection to and credit from clients would allow a civil rights lawyer to best serve them, and therefore protect their civil rights and liberties. This career is not only interesting to me because of the direct application of numerous leadership theories, but because I highly value using this knowledge in a virtuous and ethical manner to support positive societal change.

As I move forward this summer, I intend to continue studying for the LSAT, researching fields of interest, and interviewing professionals in these fields of interest.