Public Interest Service Student Awards
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We are pleased to invite students to apply for the Public Interest Service Student Awards.  Public Interest work is an important professional responsibility for each member of the bar, and law school is an excellent time to begin addressing that responsibility.  The aim of these awards is to recognize student and student organizations who best exemplify the Law School’s vibrant tradition of extensive service to the community and the profession.  It will not be easy to select up to two awardees from among the very large number of our students who devote such remarkable energy, commitment and talent to public interest work, but making the awards will help bring much deserved recognition to the student body as a whole.  One award will be for Exemplary Service to the Poor and the other will be Innovative Service in Public Interest. 

Applications must be submitted to Dean Lennon’s Office B446 no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 14th.  They may be emailed to mlennon@law.miami.edu .  Nominations may come from students, faculty, supervising attorneys, or from the student nominee.  A student may nominate him-or herself.  A committee of faculty and administration members involved in our public interest programs will select the awardees.  We expect the award for Exemplary Service to the Poor to be annually; the award for Innovative Service in the Public Interest will be made in those years in which there is a particularly noteworthy instance of innovation.

Details on the awards and information on the application process are set out at the end of this email.  Once again, we are pleased to offer this celebration of our high esteem of the outstanding work that our students perform in the public interest.

The Awards:

Exemplary Service to the Poor

The first award will go to the graduating 3L student or students who has or have performed exemplary service benefiting poor persons. The work must have been accomplished through an existing school-based program or community organization. Qualifying work includes law-related as well as non law-related work and may be either directly beneficial to poor persons or to a charitable, religious or educational organization whose overall mission and activities are designated predominately to address the needs of poor persons. The term poor is not limited to those who meet federal poverty standards but also includes "working poor." A qualifying student may have received academic credit or financial compensation for the work.

Innovative Service in the Public Interest

This award will go to a graduating 3L student or students or to a student organization whose board membership consists significantly of graduating 3L students. Qualifying work includes the meaningful expansion of an existing school-based or community program, or creation of a new school-based or community program. The award seeks to recognize innovation in addressing public interest concerns and may include: (1) work for persons of limited means, (2) work that meaningfully expands the work of a charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental or educational organization that is designed to primarily address the needs of persons of limited means; (3) work that is designed to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties, public rights, or work for that meaningfully expands the work of charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental and educational organizations in matters in furtherance of their organizational purposes; (4) work that is designed to improve the law, the legal system or the legal profession. A qualifying student may have received academic credit or financial compensation for the work.

Application Process: