The University of Oregon School of Law has joined the ranks of law schools at the University of Chicago, the University of California at Los Angeles and others by becoming a Gideon’s Promise law school partner.

The goal of Gideon’s Promise is to recruit third-year law students and place them in positions at underserved public defender offices in the southern United States. Gideon’s Promise focuses on students with an interest in public service.

Oregon Law graduates who participate in the program will receive a post-graduate fellowship from the law school and the promise of a job within one year of graduation at the public defender offices where they are placed. Graduates in the program will also receive three years of training and education from Gideon’s Promise.

Gideon’s Promise was formed after the 1963 Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainright, when the court ruled that attorneys must be provided for those in court who were unable to afford their own. Their goal, according to their website, is “to inspire, mobilize and train legal professionals to provide the highest quality defense representation to people unable to afford an attorney.”

—By Nathan Stevens, Public Affairs Communications