The John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School provides a rich resource for students who are interested in exploring or already committed to advancing the public good and achieving social justice through the law.
Stanford Law School offers an array of classes and clinics that provide students with a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge and practical skills to support the pursuit of careers in public interest. It also supports students pursuing careers in the public interest and public sector, through its pro bono program, externships, mentorships, career services, speaker series, and opportunities for financial assistance.
The Center houses public service and career services programs, and coordinates events ranging from skills training to public interest symposia to career panels. It also oversees a variety of public interest funding programs that tangibly support public interest and public sector students and alumni.
The groundwork provided through classes and clinics, and the opportunities created by the Center enable our graduates to achieve the careers and advance the causes that first inspired them to earn a law degree.
Each year, a number of conferences are held at the Law School. In the fall, the student-run Shaking the Foundations: The West Coast Conference on Progressive Lawyering is held at Stanford. The conference brings together law students, practitioners, and academics from around the country who share a commitment to use the law for positive, progressive social change. Through panels, workshops and speakers, it is designed to provide a forum for advocates and law students to discuss innovative strategies and solutions to the world's most pressing social justice issues.
Among the many Stanford student organizations, the following organizations are generally regarded as invaluable resources for public interest law students.
The Public Interest Law Students Association is a group of Stanford Law Students engaged in improving public interest opportunities and promoting a culture of public service work at Stanford Law School. PILSA works to bring students together to share information, experiences and ideas about pursuing study and work in public interest law.
PILSA also works to increase communication between public interest students and the faculty and administration, and throughout the year PILSA members advocate public interest issues in meetings with the faculty and administration.
Shaking the Foundations is an annual student-organized conference convened at Stanford that brings together law students, practitioners, and academics from around the country who share a commitment to use the law for positive social change. Through panels, workshops, and speakers, the conference provides a forum for advocates and law students to discuss innovative strategies and solutions to the world's most pressing social justice issues.
Founded in 1978, the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation (SPILF) is a non-profit organization of Stanford law students and alumni/ae. SPILF was formed to fund public interest law projects providing services to groups that traditionally have not had adequate access to legal representation. SPILF hosts an annual student-organized auction to raise funds to support Stanford law students doing public interest summer law internships and to provide direct grants to legal public interest projects.
Street Law's mission is to empower Bay Area incarcerated and at-risk youth by teaching classes about the law, focusing on criminal procedure and a juvenile's legal rights.
Street Law participants volunteer their time to team-teach youth once a week for 10 weeks.
Many other student organizations engage in activities to support public interest at the law school.
Anna Wang is the Deputy Director of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law. She directs four of the Center's five programs, which support law students interested in pursuing public interest careers through mentoring, financial support, co-curricular programs, and career counseling. Wang also oversees general operations and advises law students and alumni on public interest career strategies. She joined Stanford in 2004 after three years as the first Executive Director of Vision New America, a nonprofit civic leadership development organization in Silicon Valley. In addition to guiding the organization's development, she instituted new voter outreach efforts, launched leadership training programs, and developed a highly successful public policy internship program targeting high school and college students. Wang received her BA with honors from UCLA and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 2001. She is a member of the California Bar.
As the Center's Pro Bono Coordinator, Danielle Cover provides training and support to student-run pro bono projects; assists in the cultivation of new pro bono partnerships; and develops programs to promote a culture of service at the law school and in the larger legal community. Danielle joins the Levin Center with nine years of public interest legal practice experience including work as a staff attorney for the House of Ruth Domestic Violence Legal Clinic, a senior staff attorney for YWCA Legal Services, and as an associate at Weinberg and Schwartz. Most recently, she served as the Justice in Divorce Project Director for the Women’s Law Center of Maryland. As the Project Director, Danielle trained, supervised, and mobilized statewide family law attorneys, private bar attorneys, and law students to work on various pro bono matters. Cover, a 1997 graduate of Tulane Law School, has also served as an adjunct professor for the Community College of Baltimore County’s Department of Women’s Studies and a participant in the Maryland Association of Non-Profits.