Lisa Mead
Associate Dean
Office of Public Service
University of Southern California Gould School of Law  

We all hoped against hope we wouldn’t be needed to go back a second time when we returned from the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in the spring of 2006. But there we were—32 USC Law students and me—returning to the region in the spring of 2007to a region and people still suffering greatly and still with tremendous unmet needs—legal and otherwise.

It’s amazing how much work there is still to do,” said Andy Miller, ’08, who worked with the Center for Racial Justice and helped organize the trip. “It has been a full year and people are still grappling with the same issues and difficulties that they were a year ago.”

When our plane touched down in New Orleans we were struck by how little had changed since our last visit.  True, most of the debris was gone and the crumbling houses demolished, yet so many residents were still in despair and lacked even the most basic of necessities, not to mention legal help. It also seemed that a heavy blanket of depression had covered the residents as well as the full-time aid workers who had all seemed so energetic just 12 months before.

 “I know that many people have lost hope and are frustrated — including the lawyers and other volunteers in the region,” said student Paula Mayeda, ’09, who worked with the Student Hurricane Network on a FEMA trailer and survey mapping project. “I’m hoping that our group will help publicize the needs that the region still has.”

On our second trip to New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi , students helped with class-action lawsuits, examined housing claims, and sifted through criminal cases at the Department of Justice. They assisted lawyers at myriad agencies, including the Mississippi Center for Justice, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana , FEMA and the NAACP.

After working with the USC students and law students from across the nation, I’m struck by how fortunate our country is to have so many thoughtful, articulate and motivated students with a passion for justice.  Some will chose public service as a career. Many will go on to private law firms. All have found experiences like the service trips to the Gulf Coast to be incredibly moving, even life-changing.

As one student said at the end of our second trip to New Orleans, “These trips have provided me with a lens through which I am able to more clearly see the poverty and injustice that is all around me in my own community.”

I hope that all of us at law schools will redouble our efforts to provide every student with: a lens through which they can see the consequences of inequality, the skills to solve the most challenging societal problems, the motivation to stand up for what is right, and the willingness to work hard to improve life for everyone.