1 L.A. PUB. INT. L.J. 329

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LETTER TO A YOUNG PUBLIC INTEREST ATTORNEY*
Dan Stormer

          Writing this letter is very much of an honor for me. I vividly remember this comparable time in my life when I was graduating from law school and exploring what my future would be. Of course, the landscape in the early 1970’s was much different than today. The idea of a career as a “public interest lawyer” had not been developed. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected the idea of the private Attorney General legal fee award; the Legal Services Corporation had not yet been formed. There were, to be sure, many legal services programs scattered about the country, many receiving their funding from the Office of Equal Opportunity or local public agencies. But a national support system of legal services for the poor was a dream yet to be implemented. We could do good work, but getting paid for it was not the norm. On the day of my graduation, I could not look forward and say, this will be my career.

* For complete letter, please download the PDF.