In response to my post earlier today, Carolyn Elefant remarked, "I haven't read the NY Times article, but I'd be shocked to find that public interest groups have trouble finding attorneys." After all, she explains, there's a lot of competition for those jobs.
She's right that many people compete for public interest jobs, and they're hard to get. The New York Times article focuses on lawyers who have managed to get into those jobs, only to have to leave for higher-paying work because they can't afford to stay in a public interest field. The problem may not be finding lawyers, but keeping them.
I notice that the kinds of salaries the article seemed to be talking about were substantially less than one can usually get for comparable work around here, so I'm sure there are regional differences, too.
A friend of mine works for a legal aid agency in eastern Minnesota. She has to wait tables so that she can pay the bills. It's unfortunate that she may have to leave her legal aid job, because she had a impressive touch with the clients (and a good success rate, too) when we were both in the clinical program at school, and she worked very hard to get that job upon graduation.
As for myself and what I want to do, well, that's a mystery I'm working to solve. You can bet, though, that every time I think about different sorts of paths I might take, those loan bills elbow their way into my thoughts.
I wanted you to know that I discussed this posting today at ethicalEsq? -- at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/discuss/msgReader$283?mode=day
Since my perspective is quite a bit different than yours (and not particularly sympathetic), I thought you might want to respond.