In each edition of the PILI Alumni Program's quarterly e-newsletter, the PILI Alumni Connection, a former Intern and a former Fellow will be spotlighted.  Below are interviews with the former Intern and former Fellow spotlighted in the inaugural January 2008 edition of the PILI Alumni Connection.

CATHY YU, 2006 PILI Intern

PILI: Which agency hosted your PILI Internship? Please briefly describe the legal work you performed during your Internship?

CY: I worked with the Environmental Law and Policy Center as a PILI Intern. I performed legal research on a variety of topics that summer including, interpretations of the Clean Water Act, whether or not property rights are attached to pollution permits, eminent domain issues related to the Peotone Airport, and even some research on migratory bird law. I then wrote memos on all these interesting and currently relevant issues.

PILI: What have you been doing since your PILI Internship?

CY: Since my 1L summer as PILI Intern, I’ve been finishing up law school (I’m currently in the middle of my 3L year) and last summer, I worked as a summer associate at DLA Piper in Chicago. I’ve also started volunteering with the Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing after getting my 711 license.

PILI: How have your experiences as a PILI Intern enhanced your career as an attorney?

CY: I think the opportunity to work in a small public interest office gave me a good sense of what an attorney’s days is like. Seeing the attorneys engaged in litigation also helped me decide that I want to be a litigator.

PILI: What career skills did you develop as a PILI Intern that you could not have obtained otherwise?

CY: I really developed my legal research and writing skills as a summer intern. My legal research and writing teacher my 1L year was not a very involved instructor, and I started my PILI internship not feeling very confident of my legal writing ability. With the amount of legal research and writing I did that summer and the detailed feedback I received from my assigning attorneys, my writing greatly improved as the summer progressed. By the end of the summer, I was very confident in my legal writing abilities, which proved to be very helpful my 2L year and for my 2L summer job. I also ended up with a good writing sample from my PILI internship that I used when interviewing for my summer associate position my 2L summer. While I would have improved my legal writing skills eventually, if I hadn’t had the opportunity to get so much practice and feedback from my PILI internship, I would have continued to struggle for a while and not have been as prepared for my 2L summer job.

PILI: What is your fondest memory (thus far) from participation in the PILI program?

CY: I really enjoyed all the lunch programs where we had practicing attorneys come in to talk about their jobs but there was a particular one that I remember well. DePaul Professor Andrea Lyon came in to talk about her practice of defending death row inmates, and she was clearly very dedicated to her work. She was a very engaging speaker, and she spoke so well about why she thinks public interest work is so important that it was a very memorable talk.

PILI: How has your commitment to the public interest manifested itself thus far in your legal career? How do you anticipate it will influence your career in the future?

CY: I do much work in the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at school and try to volunteer to do other public interest work when I can, such as working with the Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing when I have free mornings to go into court. This past summer, because I expressed a strong interest in public interest work, I was also able to participate in many exciting and important pro bono projects as a summer associate at DLA Piper. I plan on continuing to do as much public interest work as I can in the future regardless of what path my legal career takes. I’ve discovered that as long as I take the initiative to seek out public interest opportunities and make my commitment to public interest work known to others, there is always much support from people who are willing to help me make my public interest goals possible.

JUSTIN HEATHER, 2001 PILI Fellow

PILI: Which agency hosted your PILI Fellowship? Please briefly describe the legal work you performed during your Fellowship?

JH: I performed my PILI Fellowship with the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University School of Law. There, I was able to continue my work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted in both federal habeas and state post-conviction proceedings, including preparing for successful oral argument before the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of a mother wrongfully convicted in the death of her child.

PILI: What have you been doing since your PILI Fellowship?

JH: Since my PILI Fellowship, I have been an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in its general litigation department. As a litigation associate, I have represented numerous clients in litigation, arbitral and bankruptcy proceedings covering a wide range of topics, including breach of contract and related corporate matters, consumer fraud actions, regulatory investigations and franchise matters. I have also worked on a number of pro bono cases, with the full support of the firm, including representing clients in federal habeas and state post-conviction proceedings, asylum proceedings and discrimination lawsuits.

PILI: How have your experiences as a PILI Fellow enhanced your career as an attorney?

JH: While law school prepares you to think like a lawyer, my work with the Bluhm Legal Clinic, both as a student and a PILI Fellow, helped develop my legal writing and analytical skills. Further, it fostered an enduring sense that, as a lawyer, I have a moral responsibility to provide legal services to those whom cannot otherwise afford such representation. In short, my PILI Fellowship not only helped develop my lawyering skills, but it also instilled a sense of commitment and advocacy on behalf of my clients, both corporate and pro bono.

PILI: What career skills did you develop as a PILI Fellow that you could not have obtained otherwise?

JH: I learned much about the practice of law during my PILI Fellowship, but it is quite difficult to identify any particular skill that was developed during that Fellowship. Rather, I like to think of my PILI Fellowship as providing a seamless transition from law school to the practice of law. As a PILI Fellow, I assisted the lawyers managing the cases, while also learning first-hand the role of a junior lawyer in maintaining a case load. In other words, my PILI Fellowship provided me with a sense of what my first few years of practice might entail.

PILI: What is your fondest memory (thus far) from participation in the PILI program?

JH: My fondest memory from my work as a PILI Fellow is obtaining reversal for a mother wrongfully convicted in the death of her child. On a more personal note, however, the friendships that developed as a result of my association with PILI have continued to grow over the years.

PILI: How has your commitment to the public interest manifested itself thus far in your legal career? How do you anticipate it will influence your career in the future?

JH: In addition to my workload as a litigation associate, I have been actively involved in numerous pro bono cases. Along with several other colleagues at the firm, I currently represent a Mississippi death row prisoner in his federal habeas proceedings. My commitment to public interest will likely result in my continued representation of pro bono clients and support of organizations such as PILI and the CBF that seek to ensure access to the justice system for those who might otherwise not be able to afford such representation.

Is there a  former PILI Inter or Fellow you think should be recognized?  If so, you can send information about that alum to us at alumni@pili-law.org  for consideration for a future Alumni Spotlight.

For more information: Contact PILI by e-mail or at 312-832-5127.