Each year, the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) holds an auction to raise money to fund students who take summer employment in the public sector. The student-run auction has become a main event at the law school, and is widely supported. In the spring of 2004, the Neisser Program launched a campaign to raise additional summer fellowship funds with the goal of guaranteeing summer funding to any student who does public sector work. In addition, the Neisser Public Interest Program assists interested students in researching other funding sources.

Thanks to PILF’s successful fundraising efforts, 21 students received grants for summer 2011 unpaid public interest/public service jobs. Students and their placements are:

Erin Phalon Alumni Association Grant	Sierra Club
Jeffrey Chang Vice Dean Greg Mark Grant	Lambda Legal
Diana Pasculli Professor Paul Tractenberg Grant	New Jersey Department of Education
Michelle Brown ABLS Grant	New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Fraud
Suzanne Hoyes ALALS Grant	Legal Aid Society
Xujie Wang APALSA Grant	Human Rights
Marc James Armas	New York Police Department
David Baumwoll	U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York
Judyann Bentick	New Jersey Office of the Public Defender
Innis Buggs	Minority Media Telecomm Council
Trevor Cooper	Kings County District Attorney’s Officer
Margo Goldberg	U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Shera Knight	New Jersey Office of the Public Defendeer
Awinna Martinez	San Francisco City Attorney’s Office
Mary Orsini	Documentation Center of Cambodia
Jordan Rubin	Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office
Jaime Segal	Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
Lauren Leigh Straub	Eastern Environmental Law Center
Sabrina Styza	Child Advocacy Clinic
Anna Sweeney	Eastern Environmental Law Center
Nicole Carol Thompson	New York Legal Assistance Group

The PSLawNet website (http://www.pslawnet.org/) and the Equal Justice Works website (http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/) provide information on other funding sources. One such source is the Charles H. Revson Law Student Public Interest Fellowship Program, which awards summer grants to students attending law school in New York and New Jersey. Many public interest organizations have their own funds for summer internship positions, and administer a competitive application process of their own. The Office of Career Services and the Neisser Program are available to assist students looking for those opportunities.