Careers
Laid Off? Work for Us for No Pay, Legal Job Ad Suggests
Posted Feb 5, 2009, 06:10 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Taking advantage of a tough job market, an Illinois nonprofit is advertising for volunteer lawyers.
"CARPLS Legal Aid is looking to put unemployed attorneys to work counseling the growing number of low-income families who are urgently in need of help during these difficult economic times," the agency reports in a Jan. 26 press release (a similar posting can be found on its website). "The new project, named CARPLS Works, asks licensed Illinois attorneys to volunteer on the CARPLS hotline for four hours each week on a morning or afternoon shift."
Recent ads on Craiglist and other Internet sites on a recent Thursday resulted in some 35 responses by the next day, according to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (sub. req.). The first was from a lawyer complaining about the request for free work; however, the others were interested in volunteering.
Although there is no pay, malpractice coverage is provided, and the volunteer work offers valuable training, experience and networking opportunities, CARPLS says.
Hat tip: Above the Law.
Comments not appearing after a few seconds? Try emptying your cache ("Temporary Internet files"), making sure Javascript is activated, and refresh this page.