For Public Interest Alumni

PIRC Support 

PIRC shares job postings with our alumni every week and we work closely with CPC who maintains an online database, Symplicity. 

• Sign up for the PIRC alumni jobs listserv to get job postings and related announcements from PIRC direct to your inbox! 
• PIRC & CPC use Symplicity to organize job postings shared with us by employers. 
• If you already have login credentials for Symplicity you can login HERE.
• To create a new Symplicity account, please follow these steps: 
•  Send an email to [email protected] with the following information:

Your First and Last Name

Your Graduation Date

Your FIDN (optional)

Your preferred telephone number

Your preferred email address

Your old FLS email address

Your AccessIT ID

• You will be sent an email (to the preferred email address you supplied) that will confirm the creation of your account. Once your account has been created, you will have Single Sign-On access to the account via the "Go To Symplicity" link below.
• That email will also contain a separate Symplicity Username that you can use as a backup in the event that Single Sign-On does not work, as well as a link you can use to create a separate Symplicity Password.

Additional Search Resources

PSJD.org 

PSJD.org is a collection of job postings from a wide variety of public interest and government employers run by the National Association of Law Placement Professionals (NALP). A login is required to search. 

• Create a login and search for jobs: http://www.psjd.org/. As a Fordham alum, you can register for free.
• PSJD also maintains a collection of state and local public service job search resources by state: https://www.psjd.org/resource?ResourceID=66
• You can also sign-up for email alerts for new job postings that fit your inputted criteria.

GoInhouse

GoInhouse.com maintains a robust list of job postings of in-house legal opportunities including general counsel/assistant general counsel, legal advisor, supervisory, and compliance roles. To find public interest opportunities you can filter your search by keyword, by practice area, or by selecting “non-profit” under the category filter.

Idealist.org

Idealist.org is a nonprofit job searching site that focuses exclusively on jobs with organizations focused on doing good in the world. In years past, many nonprofit organizations would post opportunities exclusively on Idealist.org; however, that trend has decreased with a wider variety of online sites available. If in your research you notice that an organization is not sharing any hiring or employment information on LinkedIn, it could be a good idea to check out Idealist.org as well. 

LinkedIn

Linkedin.com is an active online resource for finding job postings, applying directly with employers, and researching potential employers. Users also frequently share job postings from their employer with their connections. Be sure to add your friends and colleagues as connections. 

LinkedIn Engagement for Public Interest Professionals

In addition to being an active recruitment tool with many active job listings, LinkedIn can be a great tool for connecting with former colleagues and classmates, other Fordham Law students and alums, as well as aspirational colleagues and leaders in your areas of interest. 

It is common and appropriate practice on LinkedIn to send connection requests to your personally known contacts, classmates, and colleagues. Including a brief greeting, or context for your connection if it has been a while, is good practice.  

• Follow PIRC on LinkedIn! Stay in touch, hear all about the public interest happenings on campus, be in the know about ways to connect with students.
• Add people. 
• You may also have the option of following a LinkedIn account, rather than sending an individual message to connect. This presents an opportunity to learn about areas of interest and see what the professionals in your network are talking, writing, and speaking about. 
• Consider posting your own writing or activities! You can use LinkedIn to post about your participation in an event or conference, publicly celebrate a milestone or share congratulations to a colleague, or even share brief writing or reflections on a professional topic. You have expertise! 
• LinkedIn can be a useful space to re-share content from others that you find thoughtful or insightful — an article, resource, or observation — to begin adding your voice in this digital space for professional discussions.

Download the PIRC LinkedIn Guide for additional advice on crafting a LinkedIn profile that highlights your expertise, values, and gives you the confidence to connect with others online.

Summer 2025 LinkedIn Guide

Updating Your Legal Resume

Legal resumes in public interest resumes follow a relatively traditional format. You will want to update your legal resume with your most recent experiences and review section-by-section to make sure all of your information is updated, accurate, and consistently formatted.

Length, formatting, and general structure

• As a general rule, your resume should be one page until you are several years out of law school. Unless you have …
• Extensive volunteer and community engagement experience to share,
• Long, relevant pre-law school work experience, or
• Extensive publications, presentations, or other thought leadership activities.
• Use a traditional font. Do not use a font smaller than 11 points or margins smaller than 0.05" to try to fit your resume onto one page.

Anatomy of the resume by section

• Heading
• Heading should appear at the top of the resume; subsequent 
• Must include your name, an active phone number with professional voicemail message, email address (preferably gmail or mac, some version of your name/initials. No words.)
• Does not have to include your full physical address, however it is a good idea to indicate that you are local to the location of jobs your applying to. 

• Education 
  • List all of your higher education with your most recent degree first, even if your law degree is not your most recent degree. Do not include your high school on your resume. It is appropriate to include sub categories “honors” and “activities” under your law school and undergraduate sections. Honors might include academic honors, scholarships, awards, or fellowships. Activities should include student organizations, moot court or other competitions, journals, and other extracurricular activities that do not involve legal work. Do not include clinics, internships, pro bono engagement, and volunteer work that involve legal work; these should be reflected under experiences. 
  • Recent grads should leave education at the top of the resume, immediately after the heading. Lawyers with more experience may choose to move education to after the work experience section.  
    
    
• Experience
  • The work experience section of your resume will be the most important and take up the most space. This is your opportunity to describe all of your legal, non-legal, volunteer, and community engagement experiences that helped develop your skills and expertise. Experiences should be listed in reverse chronological order with your most recent experience listed first. Be sure that all of your dates of employment are accurately reflected, and that your employers' names and locations are included at the start of each work experience entry. Include all job titles if you experienced a promotion during your employment at a single employer and indicate when that promotion took place. 
  • The body of text under each experience can use bullet points or a brief paragraph made up of short, direct sentences. In either format, be sure to use active, precise language to describe your tasks and experiences, be specific. Your goal is short impactful statements. 
  • And don’t forget, if you need assistance reviewing or editing your resume, PIRC is here for you with individualized support! Reach out to us via email to [email protected].

• Bar Admission
  • Include active bar admissions, including details on federal and specialty courts if applicable. 
  • Applicants pending admission after passing the bar exam can indicate. 

• Language Skills
  • If you speak additional languages, include that information in a section after experiences. 
  • Accurately describe your language skills as beginner, basic, conversational, proficient, fluent or native speaker. 
  • Do not embellish and be aware that public interest interviews may switch languages to test your skills.

• Interests
  • It is not necessary to include interests, and usually not beneficial or a good use of your limited space. 
  • If you feel strongly that you want to include interests, be specific and consider your reasons. What is the goal of this section and how does your listed interest accomplish that? Are your possible inclusions uniquely impressive or relevant to the work of the organization? If not, better to leave this off. 

Dos & Don’ts

Do

• Focus on impact and leadership, not just tasks. Highlight supervision, reform efforts, or in-office innovations.
• If you’re pivoting or returning to work after a break, include major trainings, CLEs, or volunteer projects since your last full-time role.

Don’t

• Include photos, images, or personal information such as marital status. 
• State “objective” or goals in your resume. Your cover letter should address your professional goals and objective in applying for the position.
• Offer references “on request”. 
• Include basic computer skills. 

Preparing a Public Interest Cover Letter

The cover letter is an important part of your public interest application package–frequently it is the most important element. Consider the cover letter a persuasive piece of writing where you are advocating for yourself in an effort to convince your readers that you are the best candidate for the role, one who is capable and motivated to do the job well.

In many public interest offices, the people participating in the hiring process and reviewing your materials are the very same lawyers that you will be working with if you are successful and get the job. They are busy public interest lawyers who care deeply about the mission of the organization. Not only should your letter address your skills and experience and why you are a qualified, capable candidate, it should also address why you care and why they can trust you with the clients, cases, and issues that they are working so hard for.

Tips for getting started

• Start fresh. If you are working on your first cover letter in a while, or even since law school, your best bet is to start fresh. Do not try to reuse or rework an old letter. 
• Write, edit, and finalize one over letter for a real job posting. Avoid drafting multiple letters at once, and try to get one good, solid letter.
• If you’re having a hard time getting started, try writing out answers to some why questions. 
• Why did this job appeal to you? 
• Why do you care about this issue? 
• Why are you a good fit for the mission of this organization? 
• Personalize each cover letter. Every cover letter, every time should specifically address why this organization, why this job, and why you. 

Anatomy 

Your cover letter should include all the elements of a formal business letter. 

• Heading
• Heading should include your full name and contact information (can be the same header on your resume)
• Date 
• Team or individual recipient
• Organization name
• Physical address 
• Salutation
• Following the instructions from job posting, greet the reader by name and standard honorific (Ms./Mr./Hon. etc.) 
• Avoid “To whom it may concern,”. If the posting does not give clear instruction on who to direct your letter to, you might address the team name or hiring team
• Do not guess at titles or genders. Mx. is a gender neutral honorific that is gaining traction, but is not very widely used. Use Mx. only when you are aware from the job posting or other direct source that this is the honorific used and preferred by the recipient. Otherwise, err towards the recipient’s name and title or a standard honorific. 
• Body: 
• Introduce yourself immediately, identify the job you are applying for by the specific name in the job posting, and express why you are interested. Be direct and specific. 
• Describe your skills and experiences that are most relevant to the role

Length, formatting, and structure

• Your cover letter should match your resume and other application documents in font and style. You want them to look as though they are part of the same application package, which of course they are! 
• The top of your cover letter page should include the same heading that is at the top of your resume, and should use the same font as the body of your resume in an easily readable size, not smaller than 11. 
• Typically, a cover letter should be one page. 
• As an experienced lawyer with more years in the workforce and expertise than you had as a student, you may find that you have to go on to a second page to include your full message. Unless the directions for the application specifically request a one-page cover letter, you can go onto a second page or adjust your margins or font size slightly downward (though not smaller than .5 margins or 11pt. font) to make it fit. 

Tips:

• Lead with your values and driving motivations, not just your lawyering skills. 
• Don’t restate language from your resume, expand.
• Remember your “soft” skills. Mentorship, engagement with interns, leadership, contributing to community and office support are relevant considerations. 
• Avoid an “I just want to help” frame — be specific about how your experience aligns with the organization’s mission.
• Acknowledge your reentry or pivot if it’s likely noticeable — then move confidently into why this role is a great fit and good next step.

A Note About Technology

Do not submit a cover letter written by AI. Public interest employers want to hear from you, with your voice. As discussed in the cover letter section above, your cover letter (and other written materials and communications) should authentically communicate your values, motivations, and goals.  

Application materials should be submitted as PDF files unless the submission directions in the job posting give contrary advice. To avoid technology related errors or rejections, be sure to follow submission instructions from the employer closely. 

Most employers use Microsoft Office, Google Suite, and additional specific technologies. Be familiar with Microsoft Word and Outlook,  and Google Docs and Gmail.