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Crowell & Moring Summer Associates Past and Present Find Great Opportunity in Public Interest Program [by Erica Winter] Whether they are now practicing law or are law students just getting started with the summer’s work, both past and present participants of Crowell & Moring’s Summer Associate Public Service Program greatly value the experiences it gave, and is giving, them.
When he was in law school, Dan Sasse, like
While with the group for more than six weeks
er renewing some provisions in the Voting
many law students then and now, was trying
that summer, Sasse researched whether
Rights Act of 1965 would be constitutional.
to figure out whether he wanted a future
Maryland was enforcing its “motor-voter” law
Some provisions of that law are set to expire
working at a firm or wanted to go into public
properly, with the group working on several
in 2007. Also, Nelson is researching the path
interest law as he assessed his summer
motor-voter issues that year. Also, he did re-
taken by the reauthorization legislation in
options.
search on Hopwood v. University of Texas Law
1982 for the law. There are many issues to examine, she says, “I am writing a very, very
Now a counselor in antitrust with Crowell &
School, in which the ruling ended an affirmative-action program, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the ruling.
Moring’s Irvine, CA, office, Sasse remembers wanting firm experience during the summer
long memo.” Khalid Jones wanted to steer away from
after his second year at Emory Law School,
At Crowell that summer, Sasse worked on
policy making and towards helping people in
to help him make a more informed career
white-collar-crime matters and worked on
the local community through direct services
decision. Sasse interviewed with Crowell &
antitrust and general litigation projects. He
when he participated in the public service
Moring and heard about its Summer Associ-
was not concerned about missing out on any
program in the summer of 2001. Jones—now
ate Public Service Program, which allows
in-firm networking while away at the LDF. “I
an Associate in Crowell’s Washington, DC,
summer associates to spend five weeks of the
didn’t want all my eggs in one basket, either,”
office—worked with the Legal Aid Society
summer interning at a nonprofit organization,
he says. Still, when a law student divides up a
that summer, looking for “a robust pro bono
while still being paid by the firm.
summer among different offices, “you need to
experience,” he says.
make the most of your seven weeks” with the law firm, he advises.
Jones felt the program gives summer associ-
“caught my attention,” he says; and it was
It was “a great thing to find a firm” that had
in a firm and in public interest, with law firm
“really one of the things that drew me to this
the public interest summer program and one
backing. The program “shows a commitment”
firm.”
that encourages pro bono work from its at-
to the community and to pro bono service that
torneys, says Sasse.
he says “absolutely did” make Crowell a more
It was 1996, and Crowell’s program was
ates “the best of both worlds,” working both
one of the very few of its kind. The program
That summer in Washington, DC, Sasse
attractive place in the job search.
interned with the NAACP’s Legal Defense
April Nelson is also glad she found a summer
and Education Fund (LDF). In 1951, the group,
associate position that allows her to combine
Jones, a Stanford Law alumnus, is one of the
headed by Thurgood Marshall, organized
public interest and firm work in one sum-
few (possibly the only) program participants
the filing of five different lawsuits against
mer. Nelson, who is participating in Crowell’s
who had just finished his first year of law
segregated schooling. Three years later, the
program this summer, will be a third-year
school. He wanted an “in-your-face experi-
Supreme court issued the landmark ruling on
student at Duke Law in the fall.
ence,” he says; and he got it, with a very “fast
all five lawsuits in Brown v. Board of Educa-
tion.
paced, frenetic” scene at legal aid. He soon So far this summer, Nelson has spent two
got used to it and assisted on landlord-ten-
weeks at Crowell’s office and is in her third
ant issues with the group for six weeks. He
Sasse was fascinated by desegregation cases
week working at the ACLU. She will return to
worked in the group’s offices and also went
while at Emory Law School and was drawn
Crowell for the last four weeks of the sum-
out into the city, once taking photos of an
to the idea of using the courts as an “imple-
mer. Being able to work with that group was
apartment to substantiate a claim for a cli-
ment of change,” he says. He was inspired by
“a big part of the appeal of the program,”
ent who was facing eviction. It was “the type
Thurgood Marshall as well and saw that sum-
says Nelson, who is serving as the legal
of work that made immediate changes in
mer as “a great opportunity” to get involved
intern to the group’s Legislative Counsel.
people’s lives.”
with a group that was an integral part of the Supreme Court Justice’s early career. PAGE 1
Right now, she is doing an analysis of wheth-