Celebrating Public Interest

May 9, 2012 — From making sandwiches with Dean Treanor at the D.C. Central Kitchen to raising almost a million dollars to benefit the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, it was a stellar year for Georgetown Law’s public interest community.

These were just two of the events highlighted by Associate Dean Deborah Epstein at “Public Interest Proud,” Georgetown Law’s annual celebration of public interest work, on April 26. Epstein spoke about students’ participation in such community organizations as Habitat for Humanity or in Law Center clinics. She also mentioned some of the permanent jobs in public interest law that our graduates will be pursuing next year.

And then there was the 25th anniversary of Home Court. “We sat down at the beginning of the year and decided we were going to set a goal of a million dollars,” said Home Court executive chair Lauren Miyamoto (L’12) — explaining how students managed to raise more than $940,000 (double last year’s amount) with the help of the clinic.

The Equal Justice Foundation also had a strong year, raising more than $25,000 for summer public interest fellowships. “Thanks to the dean’s commitment and the hard work of EJF leaders and student recipients, Georgetown guaranteed summer funding for the more than 600 J.D. students who will be doing public interest work this summer,” Epstein said.