Why? Public interest careers are often viewed by many as undesirable, due to the disparity in compensation and educational debt. Per the law.com article, according to NALP, the average starting salary at law firms nationally is around $103,000, versus $42,000 for public interest jobs.

Factors contributing to the increased growth in public interest law careers are increased support for students interested in public interest, a growing number of clinics and internships, more programs designed to assist public interest lawyers with managing educational debt, and the establishment of organizations aimed at providing funding for public interest careers, according to the law.com article.

Equal Justice Works is one such organization. Founded by law students in 1986, the organization has been a highly successful advocate for loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs). Other initiatives include helping to foster public interest values in students by collaborating with law schools to expand public interest programs. In addition, the Equal Justice Works Fellowship programs provide funding to hundreds of public interest attorneys annually. The organization has grown from a dozen member law schools to nearly 200, and is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Equal Justice Works Executive Director David Stern, a 1985 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, was quoted as saying in the law.com article: ''The prestigious jobs, when I went to law school, were the big-firm jobs. Everybody coveted them. I'm not saying that has gone away completely, but I would absolutely say that the prestige of public interest work has gone way up.''

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's Skadden Fellowship Foundation is another organization helping lawyers to pursue a public interest career. The Foundation funds 25 two-year public interest law fellowships annually. To date, Skadden has funded over 600 lawyers through the program.

Skadden Fellowship Foundation Director Susan Butler Plum was quoted as saying in the law.com article that: ''We receive about 210 applications each year. During the last four or five years, that number has grown by about 5% annually. The culture is changing. Their résumés now show two or three pages of public interest experience.''

On the federal front, in 2007 Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which allows college graduates to make payments on their federal loans based on a sliding income based scale. Key to the legislation is the guarantee that, for those who remain in a public interest job for a decade, the remainder of their federal student debt will be forgiven.

However, even with the wealth of increased support over the years, financially, as well as culturally, Stern knows there's still a long way to go. He was quoted as saying in the law.com article: ''As much as I think we make a hell of a difference, compared to the justice gap, we are a drop in the bucket. My vision is that we're just getting started. We've got to come up with new and better ideas about how we're going to meet these challenges.''