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Equal Justice Works Publishes New Edition of Guide to Law Schools on Newsweek.Com

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 August 2007, 09:22 CDT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Finding a law school that offers the kind of practical training and public service orientation that many experts say are essential to a quality legal education just got easier with the publication of the second edition of The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools on Newsweek.com.

The E-Guide is a free interactive online resource of public service opportunities, curricula and financial programs at more than 150 law schools in the United States.

The result of a unique collaboration between Equal Justice Works and participating schools, The E-Guide fills a void in existing commercial law school rankings. It compiles extensive data on the availability of clinical and externship programs, financial aid and loan repayment assistance programs, the number of staff members dedicated to public service programs, and other criteria essential to students who plan to pursue public service careers or who want to gain lawyering skills before they graduate. The resource allows users to look at individual school profiles or compare schools based on the criteria most relevant to them.

"Many young people go to law school for the best of reasons: they want to right wrongs and serve their communities," Equal Justice Works Chief Executive David Stern says. "The E-guide helps these public-service-minded applicants find the best schools to launch their careers. For advisors, law students, faculty, practicing attorneys and others, The E-Guide highlights those programs that make for a quality legal education but are excluded from or get lost in existing rankings."

The first edition of The E-Guide was launched in August 2006 and was immediately welcomed by prospective law students, law school faculty and staff, and legal service providers as a unique reference for public interest law opportunities, financial aid and employment options.

"When I speak to pre-law students, The E-Guide is a resource I highly recommend," says Erwin Chemerinsky, Alston & Bird Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Duke University School of Law. "The E-Guide provides information students need to make intelligent decisions about their choices of schools and careers. I also find it helpful in exploring what other schools offer in their programs and financial aid packages."

The second edition features a 30 percent jump in the number of participating schools -- from 116 in 2006 to more than 150 in 2007 -- and many enhancements, including:

Multi-media content: Commemorating the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster and the response of public interest lawyers, educators and law students to the crisis in the Gulf Coast, the new site offers video clips of Equal Justice Works Lawyers and, on Aug. 29, a live talk with Professor Bill Quigley, director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans.

Intelligent search results: The E-Guide helps make users more sophisticated consumers of law school information. Rather than rankings, The E-Guide invites users to create their own set of criteria. Responses to user queries are provided with helpful context. For example, a user interested in loan repayment programs might also want to know overall tuition costs and average student debt.

Complete school profiles: The 2007 site allows users to view or print comprehensive profiles of participating schools that include clinical programs, courses devoted to public service, scholarships, loan repayment assistance programs and employment statistics.

"Equal Justice Works is built on the conviction that public interest experience for law students and new lawyers leads to lifelong commitments to the fundamental American value of equal justice under law," Stern says. "For years we searched for a resource like The E-Guide to help us in our campaign. In the end, we had to create it."

The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools, Second Edition, was launched on Aug. 27. It is updated annually with a new edition published each August.

The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools (http://ejw.newsweek.com/) is a partnership between Newsweek.com, which hosts the site, and Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1986 and dedicated to working for equal justice on behalf of underserved communities and causes. Today, Equal Justice Works is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers as well as in urging more public interest programming at law schools. For more information, visit http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/.

Equal Justice Works

CONTACT: Vicki Moeser of Equal Justice Works, +1-202-466-3686, ext. 137

Web site: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/http://www.newsweek.com/http://ejw.newsweek.com/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

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