After Trump was elected president, there was a sudden flurry of political interest: yesterday’s apathetic suddenly discovered the (tiny) activist within themselves and started wondering how they can contribute and fight back against Trump and what he stands for.
The answer, for many, was to go into corporate law and help enrich and empower the forces that created Trumpism in the first place.
There are many reasons to go into corporate law. Some are understandable – for example, you need money to support your working-class family. Other reasons are more dubious – such as inertia. Whatever the reason, despite all the high-sounding anti-Trump rhetoric, most students at Harvard have decided not to make the sacrifice of going into public interest in an era of threatened liberties and injustice.[1] I will concede that forgoing corporate law is perhaps a pretty hefty sacrifice and one could understand, even if one does not respect, the reasons people choose to go down this path.
There is, however, a way for all these future corporate lawyers to help out in a manner that is fairly meaningful. Specifically, by sponsoring a public interest student – someone who is actually doing the difficult work of protecting and fighting for justice despite little pay and gratitude. Bar prep courses are very expensive and law students who are going into corporate law have the fortune of having these courses paid by their firms.
At no personal added expense, a corporate student can sponsor a public interest student. The only sacrifice required from the corporate student is to forgo using Barbri and instead use one of the other bar prep companies — a fairly small sacrifice to make so that all public interest students will be able to enroll in a bar prep course without making a major (potentially prohibitive) financial sacrifice.
I will not say that sponsoring a public interest student is something that deserves great praise or somehow equates corporate students to public interest students; it is the bare minimum, especially for all those outspoken liberal students who hate Trump. All that is being asked from them is to make a small sacrifice and to show some solidarity with their fellow classmates. How can you say that you stand for anything when you can’t even do this much?
For those who don’t know any public interest students who need a sponsor, the student government is running a matching program. All you need to do is fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/nxbR758JgnrKYfRd2. Please seriously consider not using Barbri and sponsoring a public interest student. We really need this.
[1] That is every era in American history – but here it is popularly acknowledged and had seeped into the student body rhetoric. For example, when Trump was elected many do-nothings were crying.