new blawg

Thanks to Technorati, I see there is a new blawg entitled “Defending the Public“. In his own words, he is “a third-year law student heading for a career in public defense”. The first post is an interesting examination of how pd agencies should improve their hiring decisions.

Just like the military, large legal firms may have high turnover rates and unhappy associates, but one thing they do well is recruitment. They know the types of students they want to recruit and they make an effort to go out and get them. Sadly, this is something that public defense agencies are failing at miserably..

Given the well-deserved reputation for low salary and wholly undeserved reputation for being the last bastion of inept attorneys, public defender offices are already at a disadvantage when it comes to recruitment of law students. Nevertheless, there are still three student demographics that public defense offices appeal to: “true believers,” students looking for quick trial experience, and students who just want to be involved in criminal law in some capacity.

Go and say hello!