Sai Kulkarni '23
Production Editor
A few weeks ago, the student body of the Law School were able to take part in a time-honored tradition: the PILA silent auction. For many of us, it was a chance to dress up in our fanciest outfits and take some much-needed respite from the impending doom of finals. We got to dance the night away at next-door Darden and take advantage of their fancy facilities that we get to peek at with envy throughout the year. The night was a ton of fun and the dance was followed up by an after-party at Rapture that last as long as it took for people to get hungry, tired, and realize that they had responsibilities. While a fun night is usually enough to get a feature in this paper,[1] that is not the main focus of the night. The PILA Silent Auction is, along with the regular auction during the week preceding the dance, a fundraising opportunity (through ticket sales and winning auction bids) for the eponymous organization: The Public Interest Law Association.
During the week, students and faculty get the opportunity to bid on such fun items like getting one’s name featured in the Libel Show or getting to play poker with professors. While the Silent Auction is home to some of the most extravagant items like box seats at a basketball game. The winning bids on these items are donated to PILA to aid in scholarships and summer stipends for students who work public interest jobs. It makes sense that professors bid on these items during the audible auction; they are fulfilling their obligation of giving back to the students and the Law School community after long, prestigious, and often lucrative careers. But it seems even more important that so many students, most often those pursuing private sector careers, are also bidding on these items.
Entering public service is daunting on its face. Lawyers in that space are working jobs that are just as—an arguably more—intense than law firm jobs. Despite this, there is a monumental difference in pay. None of that is news to anyone in the Law School. But more than being dauting, the idea of paying back loans over time and, for many students, additional familial obligations can make the choice of entering the public sector not even a choice. These auctions and the efforts of PILA generally play a major role in easing that burden for the students who need it most. When students who are going to law firms, and especially students who come from more privileged backgrounds, give back through these auctions, it helps out public interest students in a way that feels social. UVA Law is absolutely a party school so having so many students come together in a large party where even the act of buying a ticket helps out is a great collaborative effort. Props to the PILA board for using this opportunity to raise over $40,000 for public interest law students. One might say that the event was even a demonstration of our favorite word here at the Law School: collegiality.
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omk6cg@virginia.edu
[1] I point you to 90% of my ramblings in the Law Weekly last year.