Law School offers a lesson in public service

Kelly Darr chose to begin combatting homelessness. Craig Lehner decided to help solve family and community conflicts. But that's only half the story. In fact, during the 1994-95 school year alone, Penn Law students performed more than 19,800 hours of public service in over 140 organizations at approximately 200 project sites. For the past five years, the Law School has required public service as a fundamental part of its curriculum, according to Judith Bernstein-Baker, director of the service program. The program requires 35 hours of community service each year during students' second and third year of study. But students are not expected to find public service work on their own. Since the program was developed, the Law School has created an entire department dedicated to the program. Bernstein-Baker was careful to distinguish it from pro bono work. She believes the school's emphasis is on the public service, rather than the non-paying aspect of the experience. "The public service program is about helping people in need," Bernstein-Baker said. "Doing public service work is really a necessary part of being a lawyer. This program really gives students the opportunity to get a head start on getting involved." She admitted that the idea of mandatory public service work has been questioned, but argued that there is a good reason for the work. "We think that the students would not be getting a complete education without this program," she said. Berstein-Baker added that the program is extremely diverse, placing students in projects that run the gamut from AIDS law and death penalty issues to domestic violence and education. Lehner, a third-year Law student, is a big supporter of the program after finishing his first year of service work. "I was involved with a program called PULSE that stands for Philadelphia Urban Law Student Experience, and includes both Penn and Temple Law School," he said. "At first, I thought that it would be really overwhelming, but afterward the time and hard work were just a part of the good feelings I had about making a difference in a community." This year, Lehner decided to try mediation, helping two parties to reconcile problems. "This [service] program is really geared for the individual," he explained. "A special effort is made on the part of the program coordinators to make sure that people find a project or a case that will really interest and motivate them." In fact, after one year of the program, Darr is already convinced that she wants public service to be part of her law career. "If people take the right attitude about this program, they will see that it's a great opportunity to get out from behind the books and work with people on real issues," the second-year Law student said. 1993 Law School graduate Michelle Cabot, who was in the second class to take part in the public service program, called it "one of the most worthwhile things that I did in law school." Cabot recalled worrying about the added pressure of the program. But she said that once everyone got involved, they began to love what they were doing. She is currently on a committee designed to encourage Law School alumni to remain involved in the service program by offering job shadowing opportunities on pro bono cases. Associate Law Dean Heidi Hurd, who acts as a supervisor for the PULSE program, said that in a society where lawyers are constantly the butt of jokes, reaching out to people in need will allow them to be recognized as productive. "I also think that it's important for future lawyers to see the impacts law have on communities," Hurd said. "Many of the students who graduate from Penn Law go on to some of the most powerful firms in the world. They need to understand that there are tools in society with which they can use their power to implement social change." Acting Law School Dean Steven Burbank believes the program is "extraordinary" and has hopes it will "encourage Penn students to choose the public sector over the private sector."

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