Public Interest Law Firms
Authors: Laura Beth Nielsen, Catherine R. Albiston
Using a multi-method research design, this project investigates how lawyers in public interest law organizations (PILOs) conceptualize and pursue their goals. At the organizational level of analysis, the project is identifying the form of public interest law firms and the organization of public interest practice within public interest law organizations. The research is exploring these organizations’ relationship to their organizational field, including sources of funding, opportunities for action, and existing successful models of public interest practice. Published findings so far include an analysis of the demographics of PILOs over the last thirty years which shows they have increased in size and specialty areas. A second paper demonstrates the ways in which changes in fee shifting provisions brought about by the Supreme Court’s definition of a prevailing party in Buckhannon v West Virginia limits the ability of public interest lawyers to act as private attorneys general.