What is public interest law? How effective is it? What are the limits to litigation as a mechanism for conflict resolution? In this study, economists, lawyers, and sociologists evaluate an institutional form that is new to American society and, indeed, to the world--the public interest law (PIL) organization. The book introduces the reader to the structure, resources, and activities of this "nonprofit industry," and also to the factors that affect PIL firms in their choices of cases and methods of handling them. The authors examine PIL's vast range of contemporary public policy concerns. These incude such general topics as the environment, consumerism, housing, employment discrimination, medical care, occupational health and safety, education finance, and taxation. A number of base studies are presented, and a method for economic analysis and evaluation is introduced and applied. The study points to PIL's success in advocating under-represented interests, in winning courtroom decisions, and in translating legal victories into reallocations of resources. At the same time, it notes the bias of PIL towards test-case litigation, a propensity to focus on judicial victories rather than on real social change, and a tendency to use lawyers even when other types of professionals might be more effective. Many of these problems stem from uncertainty of funding and legal restrictions on "nonprofit" organizations. The result is a set of hurdles that distracts PIL firms from their principal goals. The authors do not limit themselves to PIL, but comment on the effectiveness of legal instruments as devices for social change, and on the behavior of the voluntary nonprofit sector, a little-studied portion of the economy. The book presents a fresh approach to the study of both collective-type economic problems and institutional setting in which public interest law works. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

Public Interest Lawyering is the first comprehensive analysis of public interest lawyering that is suitable as a law school elective text and/or advanced legal profession courses and seminars. Drawing upon a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives, this timely textbook examines the lives of public interest lawyers, the clients and causes they serve, the contexts within which they work, the strategies they deploy, and the challenges they face today. Features: The first comprehensive overview of the broad range of contemporary issues faced by public interest lawyers in any American law school text. Thorough discussion of important theoretical issues about the scope and definition of public interest lawyering. Addresses American public interest law from a historical perspective with focus on current issues. Expansive examination of the settings in which public interest practice occurs, including nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and private law firms. Presents the advantages and limits of different legal strategies in public interest practice, including lobbying, public education, community organizing, and community economic development. Addresses contemporary challenges of public interest law in context, including economics and financing, legal ethics, the role of legal education, and the globalization of public interest practice. Discusses critiques of public interest law, including a reflection about the role of lawyers in social movements that addresses contemporary critiques. Ethical obligations of public interest lawyers. Explores special issues related to lawyer-client relations in social change contexts. Extensive coverage of: Models of law reform organizations. Conservative cause lawyering. Government lawyers. The economics of social change lawyering. Global social change lawyering.

Public Interest Law Groups focuses on a special segment of the profession, namely groups `that provide cost-free legal care to willing clients' including `legal aid and legal services groups, interest groups that litigate, and public-interest law firms.' . . . It ought to be an automatic purchase for law school libraries and it will fulfull needs for information about these organizations in large public and academic libraries. Wilson Library Bulletin In recent years, public interest law has shifted from an exclusive interest in the expansion of rights in such areas as consumer protection, environmental law, and discrimination to a parallel concern with seeking limits to freedoms and rights in both the public and private sector. In addition, public interest law firms have introduced diversified litigation strategies that were uncommon even a decade ago. This volume is the only comprehensive work to reflect these recent changes in the complexion and strategies of public interest litigation. Following an introduction describing the major shifts that have occurred in public advocacy, the authors present over 300 profiles of firms, groups, and organizations that litigate in behalf of the public interest and/or use the courts to achieve policy ends. Organizations surveyed include groups that focus on the protection of special interests, rights, or resources and those that offer legal aid in diverse areas, as well as legal organizations such as the American Bar Association. Among the areas of concern are the advancement of science in the public interest, conservation, consumer interests, abortion, constitutional and civil rights, and the rights of groups ranging from the elderly, women, children, and the handicapped to American Indians and other minorities. Additional groups and significant public interest cases are listed at the end of the book. An important source of information for those wishing more data on a particular group or the scope of today's public interest litigation, this book is recommended for legal, public, and academic library reference collections.

This edited volume is a timely and insightful contribution to the growing discourses on public law in Asia. Surveying many important jurisdictions in Asia including mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the book addresses recent developments and experiences in the field of public interest litigation. The book offers a comparative perspective on public law, asking crucial questions about the role of the state and how private citizens around Asia have increasingly used the forms, procedures and substance of public law to advance public and political aims. In addition to addressing specific jurisdictions in Asia, the book includes a helpful and introduction that highlights regional trends in Asia. In the jurisdictions profiled, transnational public interest litigation trends have commingled with local dynamics. This volume sheds light on how that commingling has produced both legal developments that cut across Asian jurisdictions as well as developments that are unique to each of the jurisdictions studied.

The intention of this book is to provide a better understanding of the mission of public interest lawyers and stimulate thought about ways to energize and build a movement that advances social justice. I could not have succeeded in this effort without the help and support of many individuals and institutions. I wish to express my appreciation for their assistance. I am very grateful to the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Justice for its wisdom in establishing the Alliance and for its continuing support for this book and other important projects. I profited from discussion with many public interest lawyers, activists and foundation officers. These individuals, who are listed in Appendix D, gave generously of their time. A few merit special attention. Charles Halpern and the staff at the Council for Public Interest Law, who wrote Balancing the Scales of Justice: Financing Public Interest Law in America, provided a wonderful model for me to follow.

This volume convincingly lays to rest two held beliefs that have long impeded scholarly analysis of the role of courts and litigation in American politics: 1) that group resort to the courts is a rather recent phenomenon resulting from actions of the Warren Court and the Civil Rights Movement; and 2) that unique and distinctive features of the judiciary somehow place it beyond or outside analytic frameworks used to study and analyze the role, nature and functioning of other governing institutions such as the Congress and the presidency. The title of the volume ~ Public Interest Law Sourcebook -- accurately describes its central purpose and method as descriptive and informative.

The foundation of public interest law is social action in which legal professionals work in service to society (Davis, 2007). Previous research has examined the current state of legal education but has not yet identified or defined what preparedness entails or looks like for public interest lawyering. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe characteristics of preparedness needed to educate law students for the practice of social action. This qualitative multicase study addressed the problem of preparedness for public interest lawyers framed by the theories of learning from experience, social action, and reflection in action. The study was conducted with seven public interest lawyers working full-time for a non-profit public interest organization. Data from interviews, observations, and documents were analyzed using the constant comparative method. A detailed description of each case, the public interest lawyer, was provided in the case study report. In response to the first goal of the study to identify and define the characteristics for public interest lawyers, three findings emerged: 1) a predisposition to social action, 2) the relationship between the public interest lawyer and the client, and 3) the skillful representation of the client. The second goal of the study was to identify how these characteristics are integrated in legal education and intentionally enacted in the legal pedagogy for public interest law, which was found to be through the fostering of preparedness in legal education. Two conclusions emerged from the study: 1) preparedness is a multilayered process involving continuous learning fostered through real-life practice and legal pedagogy that includes the development of both analytic and reflective capacities; and 2) legal education best prepares public interest law students when there is a fit between a mission-oriented public interest law school and a social action-oriented law student. This study presents the best means for legal education to foster preparedness in public interest lawyers practicing for social action within the current structure of legal education.