Starting in Spring 2026, Emory Law will offer an innovative new course designed to help students navigate and succeed in public interest careers. The course, Public Interest Pathways, will be co-taught by Associate Dean of Faculty Matthew Lawrence and Corey Hirokawa, assistant director of the Center for Public Service. “In the long run, public interest careers are forged, not found,” said Lawrence. “All law careers require creativity, persistence, and strategic planning, but this is especially true for public interest careers, where hiring and promotion practices are less standardized than they are in the private sector. And it is particularly true right now, as technological and economic developments are shifting the ground under lawyers’ feet. This course will give students the knowledge, perspective, and creativity to pioneer public interest pathways in the twenty-first century.”

From Criminal Defense to Impact Litigation

The course follows a deliberate arc, beginning with direct client service work, moving through broader advocacy and impact settings, and concluding with professional identity and career building strategies. Class sessions will blend discussion of leading legal scholarship, skills-focused lectures, and presentations by guest speakers offering real-world perspectives across diverse practice settings. A semester-long legal need and opportunity assessment will require students to analyze unmet legal needs in a specific area—from chronic health issues in rural Georgia to climate change impacts on coastal communities—and identify opportunities for individual attorneys or institutional development to address those needs.  

“We want students to understand how different forms of public service connect,” Hirokawa explained. “A career might start with direct client work, move through government service, and later include impact litigation. Understanding these pathways helps students make strategic choices from day one.”

“We sometimes divide ‘scholarly’ or ’theoretical’ questions about the nature of law and its role in society from ’practical’ or ’skills’ questions about how lawyers do their work. That division is illusory.” Lawrence added. “To lead public interest practice in the decades to come, students need the knowledge to identify the legal problems of tomorrow and the creativity to pioneer real-world, effective solutions to those problems.”

A Team Effort

Conversations among Director of Student Engagement Paula Ramos, Hirokawa, Lawrence, Assistant Dean for Career Development Natasha Patel, and Associate Dean for Academic Excellence Kamina Pinder revealed this opportunity to help students flourish throughout their careers. Ultimately, Dean and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law Rich Freer charged a team with developing and implementing the course to catalyze the law school’s existing public interest programming. Complementing the law school’s robust public interest infrastructure, which includes clinics; externship opportunities; pro bono opportunities on-campus, remotely, and around Atlanta; frequent speakers and co-curricular opportunities; the Center for Public Service; and other specialized courses, the course aims to serve as a hub and a catalyst.

“This course is an important addition to our academic and career supports,” Patel noted. “Emory Law students are encouraged to think strategically about career opportunities, from entry-level positions through their later careers, and this course will offer students considering public service valuable insight into possible career arcs. We are most excited to see how it impacts student careers in the years to come.”