ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the problem of training lawyers for the diverse practice settings that comprise 'public interest' practice. It describes the issues scholars confronted and the present state of their resolution, not because of any great intrinsic interest in the short history of a small program, but because any group of legal educators taking on a similar task might expect to face similar challenges and uncertainties. The chapter explains how scholars got to that point, beginning with an accounting of available resources and constraints scholars faced at the beginning. The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law is not among those law schools with a mandatory pro bono program for students or faculty. The attacks on diversity are all the more troubling because UCLA School of Law is situated in the most diverse megalopolis on the continent. The Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, like every institutional innovation, began as an idea in an informal discussion.
