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Josh Mukhopadhyay, a second-year law student, checks in with Hannah Cannom, a third-year law stud

Walking into the law school Saturday morning, one could have mistakenly believed it was a weekday.

The typical din of students and crowded hallways continued on into the weekend as students from all over Southern California convened at UCLA for the 21st Annual Southern California Public Interest Career Day.

It was a day for networking, informal discussions and internship interviews as law students sought out employment at nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies.

With over 110 organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Federal Public Defender and the National Immigration Law Center, law students had many opportunities to find their place in public interest.

Public interest law is a field of legal practice that seeks to advocate on behalf of the disenfranchised and less-represented citizens of the population. Encompassing numerous types of law, public interest lawyers can practice anything from civil rights law to environmental law.

There were many reasons students showed up at the UCLA School of Law on Saturday, but the hope of a lucrative career was not one of them.

UCLA’s law school employment statistics for 2004 reveal that students who entered large private firms made, on average, $125,000 per year.

Students who entered public interest practices, on the other hand, made just under $40,000 annually.

“Obviously, it’s not like I’m in it to get rich,” said Marc Newman, a first-year law student from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

Newman came to the event because he was interested in labor law and tenant advocacy.

Having worked with a real estate firm after graduating from college, he said he had really learned to despise the way the firm had treated its clients.

Jennifer Leong, a first-year law student from the USC Law School, said that for her, public interest was “just more satisfying” because one got the chance to give help to people “who wouldn’t get it otherwise.”

Looking for a summer internship, Leong said she wanted to work at an organization where she could actually talk to the people for whom she would be fighting.

“When you interview with big law firms, they act really nice. But they’re just judging you. They’ll take you out to lunch, but if you use the wrong fork they’ll say, ‘Look, she’s not right for our firm,’” Leong said.

Interviewing with the Children’s Legal Fund on Saturday, Leong was excited that she might get the opportunity to work with the organization over the summer and meet the children she would be aiding.

“Instead of sitting in some corporate office and drawing up a merger, public interest is about actually helping people. ... It’s a lot more interesting,” she added.

For some of the students at the event, past experiences in advocacy work inspired them to pursue public interest law.

Angela Moi, a first-year UCLA law student, had worked with CALPRIG when she was an undergraduate student at UCLA.

On Saturday, she interviewed with the Federal Trade Commission – her interest in environmental law had spread to other fields.

“You have to have a heart to do this. ... You’ll see most of the people here are also people people,” said Andrea Adelman, a third-year law UCLA law student.

Fifteen minutes before her interview with the Federal Public Defender, Adelman said she was both nervous and excited.

Having previously worked with public defenders, she said defending people’s civil liberties is very important to her and was the reason she had come to the career day.