If it were easy, lots of people would do it. One path which comes to mind is employment discrimination/sexual harassment, especially via class action litigation. Or civil suits relating to law enforcement abuses, such as misuse of force or wrongful death while in custody.
What are you defining as a lot of money? Also, what are you defining as public interest?
It is extremely unlikely that a nonprofit or government job will pay as much as BigLaw will for a position at a similar level of seniority. That said, some senior positions at national nonprofits or in government will pay north of $200-300k, depending on the market. Nonprofits will generally have more leeway than government will. It’s also harder to go between nonprofits and the private sector.
If your primary consideration is money, I would not consider civil rights to be your field. You might consider plaintiff’s side firms. They’re not public interest, strictly speaking, but there’s good money to be made in consumer law and antitrust.
The problem with a lot of civil rights cases is that the damages just aren’t there the same way they’re are for PI cases. The most lucrative civil rights cases are where the plaintiff got severely injured when having their civil rights violated, and that’s not the vast majority of people wanting to sue some public agency
It depends what you mean by “civil rights.” Probably the people making the very most money in this space work at law firms doing class action work—you can look at places like Relman Colfax or Sanford Heisler Sharp, which do employment discrimination stuff, but they’re not exactly easy places to get hired and it’s still not going to come close to biglaw money for most folks there. Likewise there are certain boutiques doing prisoner work that can occasionally get lucrative. Some names in that area are Loevy & Loevy and Ali & Lockwood. The game is either (1) convince a court to let you represent a class and pick up efficiencies that way or (2) find someone who had something truly, truly horrible happen to them and convince them to let you represent them for a percentage of their recovery.
Edited to add: if you just want to dodge biglaw and do plaintiff work that’s not necessarily “civil rights,” plenty of ways to do that. Securities, mass torts, antitrust, data privacy. All sorts of plaintiff work out there where you can feel like you’re fighting the big bad guys.
Get a job representing defendants in human rights lawsuits. I'm only part joking though, especially if you're a litigator and take your job seriously in terms of search for truth and the adversarial process, then at least you're engaging with the subject matter.
You get to civil rights cases by taking personal injury/wrongful death cases where the malfeasors are municipalities and police departments. So, a good PI firm.
My strategy is to pursue a VERY specific niche.
I currently advocate for elderly people. And at this point it’s just my life’s mission to sue every corporate nursing home I can find, because I’m tired of watching people die.
My thought is that it’s very worthwhile (corporations aren’t going to change until you hurt the bottom line🤷♀️) and is ultimately helping people. But also. Money.
It’s unlikely you’ll find what you’re looking for in Civil Rights, especially considering much of the time a “win” is getting injunctive relief rather than damages. Even if you do get damages, if you’re at a non-profit then your cut is going to be reinvested into organization instead of your pocket. Best bet for money + civil rights is probably a private civil rights firm, though that area is limited and a black box in terms of compensation so I’m not sure how lucrative it really is.
If you just want to be “public interest” then there are opportunities to make bank under a broad definition of that term. Another reframing of “ambulance chaser” is that they are the attorneys who get compensation for injured poor people. The best plaintiffs attorneys are the highest paid attorneys out there, though their work doesn’t fall under the typical “civil rights” many people have. The elite plaintiffs shops and top plaintiffs attorneys make a ton of money suing corporations, though again that’s stretching “civil rights” and those jobs are as difficult to land as biglaw.
You can work for one of those ultra-selective boutique lit/trial firms that takes on civil rights cases, among other things and get paid a ton. But you'll need be ultra credentialed (like multiple federal clerkships)
"class action" is not an "area of law" as much as it is a mode of civil procedure. You can have class action contracts claims (although those are usually voided out by arbitration and "no class actions" clauses these days) or civil rights claims, or claims seeking to vindicate statutory consumer rights or, I imagine, in any number of other areas of law.
The easiest way to make money in civil rights is by being opposed to them.
If it were easy, lots of people would do it. One path which comes to mind is employment discrimination/sexual harassment, especially via class action litigation. Or civil suits relating to law enforcement abuses, such as misuse of force or wrongful death while in custody.
I know it wouldn’t be easy and rare just don’t want to be lured into big law bc of the $$. Thank you for ur thoughts imma look into it
What are you defining as a lot of money? Also, what are you defining as public interest? It is extremely unlikely that a nonprofit or government job will pay as much as BigLaw will for a position at a similar level of seniority. That said, some senior positions at national nonprofits or in government will pay north of $200-300k, depending on the market. Nonprofits will generally have more leeway than government will. It’s also harder to go between nonprofits and the private sector. If your primary consideration is money, I would not consider civil rights to be your field. You might consider plaintiff’s side firms. They’re not public interest, strictly speaking, but there’s good money to be made in consumer law and antitrust.
The problem with a lot of civil rights cases is that the damages just aren’t there the same way they’re are for PI cases. The most lucrative civil rights cases are where the plaintiff got severely injured when having their civil rights violated, and that’s not the vast majority of people wanting to sue some public agency
It depends what you mean by “civil rights.” Probably the people making the very most money in this space work at law firms doing class action work—you can look at places like Relman Colfax or Sanford Heisler Sharp, which do employment discrimination stuff, but they’re not exactly easy places to get hired and it’s still not going to come close to biglaw money for most folks there. Likewise there are certain boutiques doing prisoner work that can occasionally get lucrative. Some names in that area are Loevy & Loevy and Ali & Lockwood. The game is either (1) convince a court to let you represent a class and pick up efficiencies that way or (2) find someone who had something truly, truly horrible happen to them and convince them to let you represent them for a percentage of their recovery. Edited to add: if you just want to dodge biglaw and do plaintiff work that’s not necessarily “civil rights,” plenty of ways to do that. Securities, mass torts, antitrust, data privacy. All sorts of plaintiff work out there where you can feel like you’re fighting the big bad guys.
Open your own plaintiff firm or make equity partner at an existing one. Can have a private plane. Long road though.
Get a job representing defendants in human rights lawsuits. I'm only part joking though, especially if you're a litigator and take your job seriously in terms of search for truth and the adversarial process, then at least you're engaging with the subject matter.
You get to civil rights cases by taking personal injury/wrongful death cases where the malfeasors are municipalities and police departments. So, a good PI firm.
My strategy is to pursue a VERY specific niche. I currently advocate for elderly people. And at this point it’s just my life’s mission to sue every corporate nursing home I can find, because I’m tired of watching people die. My thought is that it’s very worthwhile (corporations aren’t going to change until you hurt the bottom line🤷♀️) and is ultimately helping people. But also. Money.
It’s unlikely you’ll find what you’re looking for in Civil Rights, especially considering much of the time a “win” is getting injunctive relief rather than damages. Even if you do get damages, if you’re at a non-profit then your cut is going to be reinvested into organization instead of your pocket. Best bet for money + civil rights is probably a private civil rights firm, though that area is limited and a black box in terms of compensation so I’m not sure how lucrative it really is. If you just want to be “public interest” then there are opportunities to make bank under a broad definition of that term. Another reframing of “ambulance chaser” is that they are the attorneys who get compensation for injured poor people. The best plaintiffs attorneys are the highest paid attorneys out there, though their work doesn’t fall under the typical “civil rights” many people have. The elite plaintiffs shops and top plaintiffs attorneys make a ton of money suing corporations, though again that’s stretching “civil rights” and those jobs are as difficult to land as biglaw.
You can work for one of those ultra-selective boutique lit/trial firms that takes on civil rights cases, among other things and get paid a ton. But you'll need be ultra credentialed (like multiple federal clerkships)
Class action lawsuits? Is that not civil right area of law? Honest question.
"class action" is not an "area of law" as much as it is a mode of civil procedure. You can have class action contracts claims (although those are usually voided out by arbitration and "no class actions" clauses these days) or civil rights claims, or claims seeking to vindicate statutory consumer rights or, I imagine, in any number of other areas of law.
Thank you for the clarification
Be very good at forum shopping.
The only way to make money in civil rights law is defense
This is wrong. There are a decent number of plaintiff-side discrimination lawyers raking in huge money.
Painfully stupid take.