Alumni of the program have had dramatic successes. Scholars often serve in leadership positions in the Law Center before becoming leaders in the community, nationally and internationally. An initiative by one PILS led to the founding of the Law Center’s Office of Public Interest and Community Service. Another was instrumental in founding the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a charter high school in a poor neighborhood of the District of Columbia that graduated its first class in 2005 — and every one of its graduates went off to a four-year college.

Many of the scholars have held prestigious federal court clerkships, and one has served as the clerk to a U.S. Supreme Court justice; a few scholars have gone on to become judges themselves. In 2000-01, two served as special assistants to U.S. cabinet members (one of them as a White House Fellow). Several alumni have returned to the Program as mentors and to speak to law students at annual events. At least six have taught courses to succeeding groups of Public Interest Law Scholars.

In recent years, PILS graduates have obtained employment in Congressional staffs, federal and state government agencies like the U.S. Department of Justice, policy and legislative advocacy centers, public interest law firms, legal aid and public defenders’ offices, and prosecutors’ offices over a dozen have become professors and clinical directors at law schools across the country. Several have won prestigious post-graduate fellowships in public interest law.

Some Blume/PILS alumni of note include:

• Aparna Krishnaswamy Patrie, L’14, DOJ Civil Rights Division, Trial Attorney
• Asha Mathew L ‘98, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Chief Counsel for Regulation
• Elizabeth Keyes L ‘04, University of Baltimore Law School, Director of Immigrant’s Rights Clinic
• Elizabeth Matos, L’07, Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, Executive Director
• Erica Hashimoto L ‘97, Georgetown Law, Director of Appellate Litigation Clinic
• Eumi Lee L ‘99, Alameda County Superior Court, Judge
• Genevieve Grabman, L’ 03, World Health Organization, Office of Legal Counsel
• Gretchen Rohr L ’03,Open Society, Program Officer (former DC Superior Court Magistrate Judge)
• Jennessa Calvo-Friedman, L ’14, ACLU Racial Justice Project, Karpatkin Fellow
• Kee Tobar, L’15, Community Legal Services, Director of Race, Equity and Inclusion
• Mary Price L’96, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, General Counsel
• Monique Luse, L’10, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Assistant Counsel
• Peter Isbister, L ’04, Southern Poverty Law Center, Senior Lead Attorney
• Sharita Gruberg, L ’12, Center for American Progress, Vice President, LGBTQ Research and Communications Project
• Sochie Nnameka, L‘17, Director of Emerging Organizing, Center for Popular Democracy
• Tahir Duckett, L ’17, Relman Dane, Associate