Public Interest Career Fairs

Students should also consider attending one or more of the public interest career fairs held throughout the country. BYU students have attended three major public interest career fairs in the past. These include the Equal Justice Works Career Fair held in Washington, D.C. during October of each year, the Rocky Mountain Government/Public Interest Career Fair held in varying locations in February of each year, and the Northwest Consortium's Public Service Career Fair held in Washington and/or Oregon during February of each year.

The Equal Justice Works Career Fair and Conference is held each year in late October in Washington, D.C. The fair is sponsored and hosted by Equal Justice Works, and the location is usually a hotel equipped for large conferences. Well over a hundred employers attend each year; usually a few are government employers, but nearly all are public interest organizations. It is the largest public interest career fair in the nation, and students from all over the country attend. More information (including a searchable list of employers that have attended in the past or are planning to attend this year) is available online at www.equaljusticeworks.org/careerfair/dsp_start.php.

The Northwest Public Service Career Fair is sponsored by the law schools at the following universities: BYU, Gonzaga University, Lewis & Clark, Seattle University, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Idaho, University of Oregon, University of Utah, University of Washington, and Willamette University. The fair will be held one day in Washington and the next day in Oregon. This fair offers numerous opportunities for students to learn about, make contact with, and interview with a mix of government agencies, public interest employers, and public service employers. More information is available online at www.lclark.edu/org/pifair/.

There are also non-profit and public interest career fairs that are not limited to traditional legal work. Idealist.org is an organization that hosts this type of career fair in different places across the United States. (Public Interest Handbook, p. 35).