The Marshall-Brennan Effect : The Benefits of Teaching Constitutional Literacy for Law Students

Although many new law students start their studies intending to work in public interest law upon graduation, few ultimately embark on such careers. This phenomenon has been labeled "public interest drift." Given concerns from the legal profession about this drift, researchers have sought to identify factors that lead to drift and may help to quell it. One promising finding is that drift is minimized in law school programs that provide "subcultural support" for students seeking to practice public interest law. The current study seeks to further explore this finding and examine whether participation in a non-traditional, public service-oriented law school program promotes practicing public interest law after graduation. To examine this issue, we surveyed alumni students (Alumni Fellows) who participated in the American University Washington College of Law’s Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. Our study revealed two important findings that should deepen and enrich the current public interest drift discussion. First, we observed a "reverse drift" phenomenon among the Alumni Fellows. Although the traditional public interest drift literature posits that law students drift from public interest career plans into private practice, over half of the Alumni Fellows who planned to work in private practice are currently working in government civil service or non-government public interest jobs. Second, we observed that many of the Alumni Fellows who "drifted" from initial public interest career plans drifted into government jobs rather than into private practice. Our research suggests that the traditional questions and definitions used when researching drift deserve reexamination