Public Service Program

Mercer University’s Law and Public Service Program is a comprehensive program that cultivates and supports an ethic of public service in its students.

The heart of the program is learning through experience and service. In clinical courses and in the public interest practicum, law students work on real cases and receive academic credit as they reflect on their experiences and develop an understanding of law practice as public service. In addition to the curricular offerings, the program encourages and coordinates volunteer community service and pro bono legal work by students.

The Law and Public Service Program also supports public service employment. Through career counseling and mentoring, the program encourages students who plan careers in public service and engenders a commitment to pro bono service by all law graduates. The program helps students find public service employment in the summer and offers stipends for summer placements in public service legal offices. In addition, graduates who obtain full-time positions in public service are eligible for loan repayment assistance to ease the burden of debt repayment obligations. Each year, Mercer Law School also offers three full-tuition scholarships to incoming students who have demonstrated a commitment to public interest legal work.

The University-wide program is housed at the Law School. It offers opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation between law students and students in other schools and colleges of Mercer University. Mercer students work together to find creative and holistic solutions to client needs, focused on clients and communities whose legal and other needs would otherwise go unmet. In all its activities, the Law and Public Service Program builds upon Mercer’s emphasis on ethics, professionalism, vocation, and service.

Two members of the Law School faculty, Professor Tim Floyd and Professor Sarah Gerwig-Moore, work full-time in the Law and Public Service Program. Professor Floyd is Director of the Program. Courtney Dickey serves as Program Coordinator. The Law and Public Service Program is supported in part by a grant from the Georgia Bar Foundation.

Program Goals

The goals of the Program include:

• To provide experiential public service learning opportunities in practical lawyering skills to law students;
• To encourage a particular understanding of lawyers as public servants, including the obligation to engage in public service, of legal practice as a matter of character and ethics, and of legal representation as an act of service on behalf of clients and the greater community;
• To provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and to promote holistic solutions to client problems;
• To provide and coordinate volunteer public service activities by law students, and to encourage, recognize and honor pro bono activities;
• To educate students about public service work, to identify public service employment opportunities in the summer and after graduation, and to assist with financial support for students going into public service practices;
• To provide valuable legal services for under-represented persons and communities.