Services provided by the government like education, health, police and armed Forces and other related services are called Public services.
Although there is a huge gap between private sector and public interest salaries, public interest jobs offer a number of key advantages over private practice. Below are six advantages of public service work.
Furthering the Public Good
A primary reason lawyers and others undertake public interest or pro bono work is to further the public good. Helping underserved people, groups, and causes can provide a feeling of personal satisfaction and achievement that you might not gain defending large corporations in private practice.
Public interest work can allow you to achieve greater goals beyond earning a paycheck, such as working to effect societal change, supporting an important public cause, or providing equal access to justice for needy individuals and organizations. In fact, the lowest-paid lawyers (typically those doing public interest work) report the highest levels of happiness.
Public interest and pro bono work also provide the opportunity to become involved in your local community by performing public service activities of a legal and non-legal nature. For students, it is sometimes easier to find internships with public interest employers than with law firms and for-profit organizations, who tend to hire on a very limited basis for summer jobs. And it’s sometimes possible to get funding for your public interest summer job from your law school or from a nationwide public interest organization, such as Equal Justice Works.