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1 L. A. Pub. Int. L.J. 333 (2008-2009)
Letter to a Young Public Interest Attorney

handle is hein.journals/lapubinl1 and id is 337 raw text is: LETTER TO A YOUNG PUBLIC INTEREST ATTORNEY Herntn D. Vera* Welcome to a community of advocates! I commend you for choosing to answer the call of the marginalized and oppressed, and for stepping up during a period of such intense need. Because I know most of you have thought deeply about the many structural and political reasons why civil rights work is so needed, I do not presume to lecture you about why you should pursue a career in the public interest. But, given my background in both the private sector and public interest, I believe I can offer some insights and practical advice on how these two sectors interact. I began my career as a business litigator at O'Melveny & Myers in 1994. Like so many colleagues committed to public interest, I joined a firm with the intention of obtaining valuable litigation experience - skills that I knew I would later need in representing the poor. My many years at O'Melveny & Myers provided me with an intensive and world-class education into complex litigation at all levels. The mentors I had during that period were among the best * President & CEO, Public Counsel, Los Angeles. After graduating from the UCLA School of Law, Mr. Vera clerked for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He received his B.A. with Distinction from Stanford University in 1991. Prior to joining Public Counsel, he worked for O'Melveny & Myers LLP and the Mexican American Legal and Educational Defense Fund. He joined Public Counsel in May 2002 as Directing Attorney of its Consumer Law Project. Mr. Vera has risen to become one of the nation's leading consumer rights' advocates and has supervised hundreds of individual client litigation matters involving consumer fraud. Currently, he is overseeing dozens of cases involving alleged fraud by home loan brokers and lenders, which threaten families and senior citizens with the loss of their homes. © 2009 Hemdn D. Vera. The copyright in each article is owned by the respective author. Except as otherwise provided, the author of each article grants permission for copies of that article to be made for classroom use, provided that each copy is distributed at or below cost, the author and the Los Angeles Public Interest Law Journal are identified on each copy, proper notice of copyright is affixed to each copy, and the author and the Journal are notified of the use.

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