Sarah Stevenson will never forget her first day of work at the Honolulu law firm of Winer Meheula & Devens.

Stevenson, one of 13 displaced first-year law students from Louisiana who accepted internships sponsored by Hawai'i attorneys until classes reopen at their schools in January, received money and time off yesterday from her boss, attorney Andrew Winer, to shop for new clothes.

"It wasn't a surprise," the Tulane University law student said of her first-day assignment. "Packing (to come to Hawai'i) was easy. I left New Orleans with my school books and laundry." Winer knew that, Stevenson said, and arranged for her to buy some shoes, slacks and blouses.

"It was very considerate of him, knowing I really didn't have much that's right for a professional situation," said Stevenson, who was in her first week of classes at Tulane when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 29.

Most of her everyday clothing is still in a second-floor apartment in New Orleans, undamaged by the hurricane but inaccessible. Stevenson, the first of the students to arrive in Hawai'i, flew in Saturday night from her family home in Albuquerque, N.M.

Stevenson's immediate duties here will be to assist Winer in finding housing and stipends for the remaining Louisiana students he has been unable to place. But the experience of being at a law office is priceless, Stevenson said.

"Just to watch what lawyers do is learning law," she said.

Two others students from Louisiana arrived yesterday. Another is due in today and one tomorrow, Winer said. He hopes to have all 13 in Hawai'i by next week.

The airfare, housing and in some cases, stipends of about $5,000 for unpaid internships, are being paid for by local attorneys. Winer has made most of the arrangements.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, Winer began contacting lawyer friends in the South to ask them what his firm could do to help victims, in addition to donating money to the American Red Cross relief effort, which it had already done.

"I received a response from one lawyer who suggested checking a blog set up for Tulane and Loyola New Orleans law students," Winer said. "After reviewing the blog, it became clear that second- and third-year law students had opportunities to transfer to other law schools, but brand-new first-year students did not have similar opportunities."

At law school, "that's the year they shape you," Winer said of the first year. Students do an internship at the end of their first year but because of the disaster, Winer said those coming here will do internships first and do their course of studies from January through the summer months. By next fall, they should be caught up and back on schedule.

Winer posted a listing on the blog on Sept. 2, offering to hire a first-year law student at his firm. "I thought we wouldn't get much of a response," he said.

The first call came within three hours of the offer being posted, Winer recalled. He received 17 or 18 responses and talked to all the students.

Some took other offers, but Winer ended up with 13. "These students have incredible backgrounds and compelling stories," he said.

Stevenson, for example, spent 3 1/2 years with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. She served as HIV/AIDS program coordinator during her last year there.

"I think it's just amazing that hurricane aid is coming from places as far away as Uganda and Kenya," Stevenson said. "I've just been overwhelmed how willing people are here and elsewhere to help us get settled."

Robert Moore, 21, of Tulane, is looking forward to working with attorney Ian Mattoch.

"I'm really excited, and it's a blessing to get far away right now," said Moore, who rode out the hurricane at his mother's home east of New Orleans. "We expected the wind damage to be bad, but the one thing nobody expected was the flooding. Our neighborhood had never been flooded before, but the levees didn't hold and the water started rising at about 1 p.m., and in a half hour, it was in our house."

Moore and his family were rescued by boat the next day from the second story of their home.

Former Louisiana State University quarterback Adam Lair is among students arriving.