I decided I wanted to be a lawyer far too young for the decision to have been well-reasoned. I had no lawyers in my family, an extremely limited perception of what “lawyering” entailed, and a working knowledge of the judicial system informed solely by daytime episodes of “Judge Judy.” But I did understand two important things: That the world unfurling itself before my young eyes was mired with structural inequities (though I might have articulated that differently) and that I wanted to contribute to effecting change. 

Given the number of young Americans applying to law school today, I appear to have been in great company in deciding to pursue a legal career all that time ago. 2025 saw the highest number of law school applications since 2011, rising 22% from 2024 to more than 520,000 applications, after overcoming a big COVID-related dip. While the defunding of government agencies and non-profit grants has limited the number of law school graduates starting public-interest careers in the past two years, a determined minority persists in seeking that field as well. 

To learn more about life on the ground as a public-interest lawyer, I spoke with civil rights attorney Debra Katz, described by the Washington Post as “the feared attorney of the #MeToo movement” thanks to work for clients like Christine Blasey Ford. Katz is a founding partner at Katz Banks Kumin, a D.C. firm focused on civil rights, protecting whistleblowers and employment law.

A Day in the Life

No day is routine, and the role isn’t 9-to-5, Katz said, since each day is reactive to the most salient issues arising from the policies of the current presidential administration. Because the firm is typically part of what Katz described as the first line of defense against these challenges, each member of her 35-person team has to remain abreast of the day’s subject matter and immerse themselves in the work that follows.

Katz’s typical day — if such a thing exists — often begins with early-morning staff meetings over coffee, discussing current work and brainstorming about what’s next. If there are new clients, then that means researching issues, interviewing witnesses, putting together an outline of a theory of claims and meeting with the partners to discuss next steps. 

Though staff at Katz Banks Kumin tend to be quite busy, when something new comes in, most people raise their hands. In the hustle and bustle of onboarding new clients and offering continued support to existing clients, the most consistent part of each day is the dedication each lawyer brings to client service.

Why Civil Rights Law Matters Today

As Katz describes it, Katz Banks Kumin and other civil rights firms’ essential task is “to try to protect as many people as possible from the indignities and assaults they experience daily.”

She said that work “could not be more important and urgent at this moment.” That’s because, she went on, there’s been a broad dismantling of federal civil rights protections, and a hollowing out of government agencies’ civil rights divisions that has rendered their enforcement powers toothless. 

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division lost about 75% of its attorneys, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights closed seven of its 12 regional offices, the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Fair Housing Office shrank dramatically and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached its lowest staffing levels in over 40 years. As a result, Katz said, the problems facing US residents, and the quantity of matters falling on desks like hers, are numerous. 

For those working within these firms, the office is more than just a place of employment — it is a place of community and a site from which to do political resistance work. It really helps “to be in an environment where you can go for an opportunity to take on work that you feel can make a difference” Katz said. “That is the only antidote to feeling powerless and not giving up the power that we have.”

What’s more, she’s confident in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Highs & Lows

The hardest part of the work, Katz argued, is what sometimes feels like the remoteness of victory. When the courts appear to be fighting directly against the goals of the individuals Katz serves and the struggle appears too grim, there are times when the pangs of emotional and physical exhaustion creep up. “The work of a civil rights lawyer is playing a long game,” Katz said. “If you don’t have a long view in sight, it would be very hard to keep doing this.”

Still, the reward of being part of a community that is “energized by doing work for a greater tomorrow,” more than compensates for that risk. Also, since advocacy work is rooted in empathy and the firm recruits for kindness and strong listening skills to better provide trauma-informed support, the Katz Banks Kumin office is also an “unusually lovely environment,” she said, characterized by low turnover and high commitment to care. 

Gen Z and the Future of Law and Technology

Katz said one of the strongest skills that Gen Z has brought to law, especially within smaller plaintiff firms, is ease with technology. 

Technological fluency, she noted, “is a huge equalizer when we litigate against big law.” Previously, smaller firms with lower technological capability used to be “dumped with boxes and boxes of meaningless data just to keep opposing attorneys really busy.” Now, Gen Z’s dexterity with E-discovery and ethical uses of AI has allowed firms like Katz Banks Kumin to go “toe to toe” with large firms. 

Gen Z’s tech skills are also improving the quality of legal research, which is now increasingly done through online platforms. When complemented with essential legal writing skills, tech proficiency has resulted in better outcomes for clients compared to teams that lack such capabilities. Aspiring Gen Z lawyers can lean into this edge.