Public Interest Law

Hastings is committed to providing opportunities for students to serve the community and prepare themselves for a career in public interest practice. Here are some of the ways Hastings students can work in public interest while in law school:

Student-Initiated Activities

Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation (HPILF)
HPILF is a student organization that raises money for grants that fund student public interest work, sponsors public interest events, and works to create a community of students dedicated to public interest law.

General Assistance and Advocacy Project (GAAP)
GAAP was founded in 1985 by a group of Hastings students interested in helping those in need to navigate the maze of public assistance. Now an independent organization, GAAP has helped many Hastings students realize the need for good and effective advocacy. Thanks to Hastings students, GAAP remains an independent force in the neighborhood surrounding the Law School.

Through GAAP, students provide public benefits assistance to homeless and marginally-housed San Franciscans. GAAP provides education, empowerment, and advocacy to clients through the involvement of law students, undergraduates, and community volunteers. Civil Justice Clinic faculty and other Hastings faculty have served on the GAAP Board.

Hastings Tenderloin Tutoring Program (HTTP)
Each semester, 16 to 18 Hastings students tutor children between the ages of 5 and 17 years in the nearby Tenderloin neighborhood. HTTP helps support the many services of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) After-School Program.

College-Sponsored Programs

Public Interest Law Concentration
Students interested in deeply exploring social justice work may earn a certificate of concentration in public interest law. The concentration's core shared experience is a year-long seminar that students take in the second year of law school. The seminar builds community between like-minded students and faculty, introduces students to the life of a public interest lawyer, and helps students plan how to optimally take advantage of Hastings' offerings and the Bay Area's opportunities in the field.

ACCESS Program
In partnership with the San Francisco Superior Court's ACCESS (Assisting Court Customers with Educational and Self-Help Services) Center, students provide free walk-in legal assistance. Under the supervision of court staff attorneys, students work directly with unrepresented litigants with real legal issues.

Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership
The Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership is an annual delegation in which Hastings law students visit a sister law school in Haiti to help strengthen the Rule of Law in Haiti through supporting legal education.

Public Interest/Public Sector (PI/PS) Day
Hastings is one of nine sponsoring schools of one of the largest public interest and public sector job fairs in the country. More than 100 employers representing local, state, and federal agencies, as well as public interest organizations doing class action work, direct legal services, legislative, and community work come to interview and meet with students.

• Stephen Cone Fellowship. A monetary stipend awarded each year to a first-year student doing summer research for a public interest organization or organizing a program for Hastings students for whom English is a second language.
• The Abascal Fellowship, a $40,000 annual grant to a recent Hastings graduate who is working on a project that includes legal advocacy, community education, and policy change in areas affecting people who are denied access to the legal system.

Public Interest Ceremony
Every year, Hastings hosts a Public Interest Ceremony for students, faculty, staff, and family, bringing together and honoring the many ways that students contribute to public interest on campus. The event features a keynote address from a prominent public interest attorney. The event has grown over the last several years to include several student-run public interest organizations, school clinics, and other public interest programs.

Loan Repayment Assistance (PICAP)
PICAP provides loan-repayment assistance to Hastings graduates working full-time in public interest positions with private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations or government agencies.