If you’re interested in interviewing for a position as a public defender, it’s important to prepare for the different questions you might answer. It’s common for employers to ask interviewees why they’re interested in the open position. Understanding why employers ask this question can be helpful for developing a thorough, educated and relevant answer. In this article, we discuss why employers ask why you want to become a public defender, explain how to answer this question and provide sample responses to give you insight prior to your interview.
So You Want To Be A Public Defender?
How to answer “Why do you want to be a public defender?”
Here are some steps for successfully answering this question during a job interview:
Emphasize your skills
Public defenders have a wide skill set that makes them effective as both lawyers and public officials. Here are some of the skills you can mention when interviewing for a public defender position:
Emphasize the different ways you can bring these skills to the agency and the fair representation of all eligible individuals seeking your services.
Describe your goals
Employers want to hire goal-oriented individuals who are enthusiastic about their careers. As a public defender, youre choosing to forgo the typical prestige of owning or partnering with a law firm with the purpose of helping the disadvantaged. Describe what you are specifically looking to gain from this work and why. Prepare by outlining what goals you want to accomplish throughout your career as a public defender. Consider the reasons why you enjoy helping and defending disadvantaged people and apply them to your response.
Example 2
“I want to be a public defender because I am passionate about the U.S. legal and justice systems. As a public defender, I get to work with a diverse group of people from different cultures, economic statuses, ages and more. Building relationships with these individuals has given me a more informed perspective on how the legal system affects the everyday lives of people in our community. I work as a public defender because I want to give hope to those who have lost faith in our justice system. I want them to feel like they can trust us to consider their best interests.”
If you want to use the law to help others, you should consider a career in public defense
There are many reasons people decide to become lawyers. Many seek the excitement and challenge of trying cases in court. Some people want to help others. Some want to uphold our constitutional rights. Some want to make a difference.
There are some people who become lawyers for all these reasons and more. They are Georgia Public Defenders.
In the landmark 1963 case Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a fundamental and essential prerequisite to a fair criminal justice system is the constitutional right to be defended by competent and effective lawyers. The Court stated:
“Reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth.”
Georgia’s public defenders uphold the United States Constitution’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel by representing those charged with a crime who cannot afford an attorney. More than 400 assistant public defenders across 44 judicial circuits provide representation in criminal and juvenile delinquency cases.
Many choose a career as attorneys and as public defenders because they want to make a difference. Others choose this career for the extensive courtroom experience it offers.
Nearly all public defenders choose this path because they want to see the Constitution in action. They know that protecting the constitutional rights of each individual who comes into contact with the court system protects the rights of every American.
#1 Why do you want to be a public defender? The most obvious of all public defender interview questions.
This is the biggest of the common public defender interview questions. Why public defense? How about the ACLU? Or maybe do some policy work ending mandatory minimums? Prisoner rights advocacy? These are all worthy causes!
“Why do you want to be a public defender?” is an obvious question, so you need to have a solid answer.
Do you have a personal story? Did you witness something that inspired your passion? Maybe it was a book? (Check out my blog post on books to read before you interview.)
You should also be able to speak to the systemic need for public defenders. And to that point, if you haven’t read Gideon v. Wainwright, get on it!
Do you like interacting with and counseling clients?
As a public defender, your job is to represent the interests of your client. This means that you have to enjoy interacting with and speaking to your clients. You have to be willing to educate clients, listen to what they want, develop a rapport with them, and counsel them. This is sometimes harder than it sounds – not because public defender clients are dangerous psychopaths or socially maladjusted as popular media would sometimes have you believe – but because most public defender clients have grown up in environments that are foreign to the attorneys who are appointed to represent them. When you walk into a jail cell to talk to a client, his instinct is not to trust you, because in his experience most people are not trustworthy. You have to earn his trust by being a compassionate and empathetic listener, by showing him that you really are there to help, and by being on his side. Most public defender clients are kind, respectful people whose life circumstances led them down a different path. Understanding rather than judging your clients is an essential part of the job.
That said, public defenders who care too much about their clients often find it difficult to handle the job. Human suffering is a constant part of being a public defender. People go to jail regularly and it wreaks havoc on their lives and the lives of their loved ones. All public defenders have to find ways to cope with the human misery inherent in the criminal justice system. Some use humor; others channel their anger into a punching bag or an exercise regime; still others rely on faith, family, or friends. You have to ask yourself if you are able to handle the emotional toll that comes with being a public defender.
When you think about the answer to that question, however, it is important to remember that the toll that the work takes on you can vary a lot depending on the type of public defender work you do and the office where you work. If you work in a public defender office with a supportive culture, you might come back after a hard trial loss to find some ice cream or a beer on your desk and your colleagues waiting to cheer you up and share in your anger at the injustice. That makes it easier. If you work in an appellate or postconviction office, the emotional toll is a little different. You don’t deal with the human drama on a day-to-day basis in the same way. Some find that easier. Once again, a criminal-based clinic or an internship in a public defender office is a good way to expose you to the emotional highs and lows of the job so you can figure out if this work is right for you.
FAQ
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- New York. …
- Vermont. Total Public Defender Jobs: …
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- Minnesota. Total Public Defender Jobs:
