Responding to a question submitted by LSC grantee Utah Legal Services (ULS), LSC's Office of Legal Affairs has issued an External Opinion ruling
that time spent working with and supervising law student volunteers does not count towards the Private Attorney Involvement (PAI) requirement imposed by 45 C.F.R. Part 1614 on LSC grantees. LSC's regulation requires grantees to spend at least 12.5 percent of their LSC basic field award facilitating the involvement of private attorneys in delivering legal services to low-income people in civil cases. In the opinion, LSC states that law students do not meet the definition of "attorney" under the regulation. ULS had asked that time spent working with law student volunteers be treated as an investment in increasing future private attorney involvement because law student volunteers may "at some future point" become private attorney volunteers. In denying the request, LSC stated that the regulation applies only to support for increasing the involvement of "current" private attorneys providing legal assistance to LSC-eligible clients.