These Three Associates Find Trading Income for Experience Well Worth It

Serena Orloff
Photo by Thomas Broening

Last June, we wrote about three young associates who left their $160,000 salaries at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to spend a year working for nonprofits for stipends of $60,000. We recently checked in with them for a progress report.

David Edwards, Serena Orloff and Jonathan Taylor, recipients of the firm’s newly minted public interest fellowships, have no regrets. “It’s been an unbelievable experience,” declares Orloff, who took up her post in June at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and plunged into working for indigent and low-income clients.

“One of the things that is so different is that I’m in close contact with my clients,” she says. “What I do every day affects them immensely and of course when I do something that affects them in a positive way, I see it right away. But it is also a lot of pressure.”

With 50 clients it’s a heavy workload, but Orloff appreciates the opportunity to gain experience in all stages of litigation. She recently represented a woman charged with resisting arrest and battery against a police officer. Orloff presented evidence that the woman had been illegally stopped and subjected to excessive force by the arresting officer. “We got not guilty on all counts!” Orloff exults.

Follow the link to continue reading "Happy Fellowship" online in the March ABA Journal.