Our students combine their legal knowledge with policy skills to develop, advocate for, and implement policy that shapes lives and promotes the public interest.
Many students come in to law school with a passion for a particular issue or set of issues, such as education or civil rights. Others develop a strong interest for a substantive area during law school. Public interest work covers a huge range of issue areas from human rights to environmental protection. If you want to help people when you graduate from law school, public interest law is the right career choice for you. As international advocates, general counsels to environmental nonprofits or state lawmakers, Suffolk Law graduates are making a difference in the US and around the world.
Here are a few of the ways we define public interest law:
- Promote and protect the public’s interest
- Assert and defend human rights, civil rights and civil liberties in the US and around the world
- Preserve and protect the world’s health and environmental resources for the public good
- Provide pro bono representation to individuals and communities who otherwise might not have access to justice
Public service practice takes place in legal services, law reform organizations and government agencies for charities, educational and public international organizations, private public interest law firms and private law firms performing pro bono work.
If public interest law appeals to you, then Suffolk Law is the right place for you. We’ve been preparing lawyers to work for social justice and the greater good since our founding more than 100 years ago.
Further Study in Public Interest
For more information about how to prepare for a career in Public Service, visit these Suffolk Law web pages.