This Friday’s annual Government & Public Interest Interview Program (GPIIP) marks the second straight year of a record-breaking number of employers recruiting students for summer internships and post-graduate positions. A total of 113 employers registered, most of whom will interview selected students virtually on February 10th. The number of employers recruiting at GPIIP is, in fact, up significantly from pre-pandemic years – in February 2020, 86 employers participated, and 10 years ago in 2013 there were only 46 GPIIP employers.
GPIIP is hosted annually by the Virginia Commonwealth Law School Consortium (VACLSC), consisting of the law schools from Richmond, William & Mary and Washington & Lee. So while the number of employers is significant, Richmond Law students are theoretically competing against over 1000 students from all three schools. A total of 3529 bids were submitted by 383 students to GPIIP employers, and 1047 interviews will be conducted on Friday. Good luck to the 110 Richmond Law students who will be interviewing!
Another pleasant surprise from GPIIP is the number of employers recruiting 3Ls for post-graduate positions. This year 31 employers sought applications from 3Ls, including many Commonwealth’s Attorneys and Public Defenders Offices in Virginia, the AARP Foundation in D.C., Community Legal Aid in Massachusetts; Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate; and prosecutors’ offices in Nassau County and Westchester County, New York and West Palm Beach, Florida.
VACLSC collaborates every year on GPIIP (*) to send hundreds of invitations, process employer registrations and student applications, and manage student interview selections and scheduling. Here at the Richmond Law Career Development Office (CDO), we take extra steps to reach out to public sector employers who have hired our students for summer internships or post-graduate positions within the last three years. This year, an additional 100 employers were personally contacted, thanked for their previous hiring, and encouraged to register for GPIIP.
Employers often report how impressed they were with the professionalism, research and writing skills, and personality of their summer interns from Richmond Law. Thus, they want to hire more! A number of employers (examples below) are participating in GPIIP for the first time this year thanks to extra outreach efforts by the CDO and the excellent job done by previous Richmond Law interns.
- Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee
- Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project in DC
- New Jersey Attorney General’s Office
- New York County Public Defender’s Office
- Virginia Office of the Children’s Ombudsman
- Hanover Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
- Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
- Petersburg Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office (first time since 2018)
Some employers elected to hire Richmond Law students directly, not through the Consortium. They registered for Spring OCI.
- Legal Aid Society of San Diego
- University of Richmond Athletics Department
- Virginia Department of Corrections
- American Society of Interior Designers (coming soon)
- Virginia ABC (coming soon)
Some employers wanted to recruit before GPIIP and sent postings for Symplicity.
- Committee for Public Counsel (Massachusetts)
- New York City Department of Social Services Office of Legal Affairs
- U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Good luck on Friday, and stay tuned for more information next week about the VACLSC’s next recruitment program: Spring Interview Program (SIP) on Friday, March 24, 2023. Student application deadline will be Monday, February 27th.
(*) Most of the work by the VACLSC in planning, coordinating and executing GPIIP is done by our own Kym Osterbind. Please stop by the CDO or send Kym an email to congratulate her on her 21st successful GPIIP!