Dear Friends,

"Public Interest" is an expression that means many things, and of course most of the academic work we do can be described as aiming at the public interest. But to most students and prospective students the phrase refers to careers outside of the private sector. Two years ago we unveiled our splendid post-graduate Hormel Public Interest Program of support for recent graduates who take qualifying "public interest" jobs. You can learn much more about this program on our website. At about that time we also introduced our Chicago Policy Initiatives, which should be thought of as another branch of our commitment to public interest law, as should our clinical programs, our community-outreach plans, and much more. These initiatives represent two-year projects at the Law School, in which students and faculty work together on pressing social problems. One such project has been completed and two are underway. We will soon announce and embark on a new area of interest.

The most recent addition to our public interest programs is a summer program aimed at students who have completed their first year. A description of this program is found on the next page of this Record, and some reports from

student-participants follow, but these reports do not quite capture the value of this new program. In the first place, the availability of the program attracts students to our Law School. We should not underestimate this benefit of all our public interest investments. But public interest programs are, of course, much more than means of attracting excellent and idealistic students. They are educational; they provide important information about career choices; they serve the needs of underrepresented citizens; they teach our students about the impact of law, especially on citizens who are less fortunate than they are; and they enrich the atmosphere of the Law School because a substantial fraction of each class has had mind-broadening experiences. As you will see, we have defined public interest work to include work not only for 501(c)(3) organizations, but also for governmental entities. In this way, some of our students gain information about careers in public serviceâ "and some return to the Law School with experience in how governments operate. That itself is an important, if often unstated, subject in the study of law.

I hope that as you read about our various public interest programs you will join with me in thanking those graduates and friends who have helped to make these programs possible. Most of what we do costs money of course, but it is no secret that support for public interest work can be especially costly. I think our new investments are already paying dividends, and I know that more of us will find these activities worth supporting.