Public Defenders — Paid Research Study

What you would do

• Detail your primary responsibilities and the specific tasks within your role
• Explain how different tasks depend on and relate to each other
• Describe how your work varies across case types and jurisdictions
• Articulate where you had discretion and where external factors constrained your options
• Document how you allocated time and resources across your caseload

Who they want

• Current or former public defender with hands-on representation experience
• Ability to describe specific work you personally performed
• Experience in a particular jurisdiction and timeframe you can clearly identify
• Willingness to describe actual practice, including constraints and limitations
• Prior project experience welcome but not required

What the interview asks about

1. 1.Task decomposition and workflow

   Research value comes from understanding the actual structure of defender work, not a job description; this tests whether you can articulate your real workflow.

   For example: “Walk me through how you handle a single felony case from initial client meeting through trial or plea, calling out each task, decision point, and dependency on other actors.”

2. 2.Case-specific variation

   Defender work varies dramatically by case; this probes whether you understand your own adaptability and can explain what drives those variations.

   For example: “How would you approach a drug case, a property crime case, and a violent felony case differently? What about representing a client without language proficiency or serious mental illness?”

3. 3.Discretion and constraint

   Accurate research requires distinguishing where defenders choose versus where external rules force outcomes; this tests that understanding.

   For example: “Describe a point in your practice where you made a meaningful choice (plea negotiation angle, investigation strategy, witness interview approach). Where did you have real discretion, and what constrained your options?”

4. 4.Resource allocation under scarcity

   Public defense operates under severe resource constraints; this evaluates whether you can articulate how you prioritize across a caseload.

   For example: “You had 80 active misdemeanor cases and 15 felony cases. How did you allocate your time across them? What rules or practices governed that allocation?”

5. 5.Honest reflection on limitations

   Research integrity requires candid acknowledgment of where your practice fell short of ideal; this tests whether you distinguish aspiration from reality.

   For example: “What aspects of your representation were you proud of? What parts of your practice would you do differently with more time or resources?”

How to prepare

• Write out a timeline of your public defense career, noting major changes in jurisdiction, case types, or practice structure
• Select 2-3 specific cases (anonymized) that represent different aspects of your work and be ready to walk through them in detail
• Prepare honest reflection on your caseload, time allocation, and resource management in actual practice

The facts

Pay

$100/hr

Hours

Hourly

Where

Remote

Field

Law

Posted

9/14/2026

Places left

100

We wrote this page from the public Mercor listing. It may be out of date, so read the full posting before you apply.