For our latest edition of “Five Questions for a Public Interest Leader” we spoke with Craig Raynsford of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (which has more than 1800 attorneys worldwide) Mr. Raynsford serves in the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where his responsibilities include developing and managing a new Honors Attorney Program and Summer Law Intern Program. Prior to transferring to DHS in 2003, Mr. Raynsford spent over twenty years as an attorney with the United States Department of Justice. While specializing in immigration and international law issues he additionally managed his division’s participation in the Attorney General’s Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program.  Mr. Raynsford is the recipient of the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Providing Legal Advice, the INS Commissioner’s Special Commendation Award for his work with the Government of Cuba resulting in the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the repatriation of Mariel Cuban criminals, and a Commendation from the DHS General Counsel for his work on the Katrina Task Force.

Read on for 5 Questions on Federal Legal Employment

Earlier this week, Todd Belcore, a 3L at Northwestern who will begin an Equal Justice Works Fellowship later this year, posted the final of three installments in our series on the importance of public-interest minded law students developing leadership skills.  The series also featured posts from Emily Benfer, who is teaching a class on public interest leadership at the Georgetown University Law Center, and Ericka Hines, a program manager at Equal Justice Works.

The idea for this series came about when I was speaking with a legal services organization about best practices in composing public-interest fellowship grant proposals with graduating law students.  One of the themes that recurred in our conversation is that the goal of fellowship programs like Skadden and Equal Justice Works is to cultivate the next generation of public interest leaders, not just the next generation of public interest lawyers.  But leadership development opportunities are not important just for the small cadre of grads who are awarded fellowship grants.  All law students on public interest career paths should cultivate a broad array of advocacy skills – knowing how to engage client communities, working with the media, and building advocacy coalitions, among others – in order to make themselves most marketable to employers and to succeed as lawyers. 

Here’s an article I contributed to the current NALP Bulletin magazine (the audience of which is primarily legal career professionals), which expands on this topic and links to a handful of resources that I hope may be helpful to those students and junior attorneys who are interested in developing leadership skills.   (The resources include tips on developing relationships with reporters, “messaging” through the media, and delivering effective legislative testimony.)

– Steve Grumm       

According to yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a lawyer appointed to represent an accused double murderer urged Georgia’s high court to either dismiss the charges or prohibit the prosecution from seeking the death penalty because the state’s indigent defense fund has “been unable to pay for attorneys fees, investigators, or expert witnesses.”  The Gwinnett County district attorney agreed that the state’s public defense system, which was created by the legislature in 2003, is broken, and went so far as to argue that “the indigent defense statute violates the separation of powers because it transfer[s] control of funding capital cases from trial judges to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.”  But, the prosecuting attorney contended that the matter should be sent back to trial as a capital case.

The Dover Post of Delaware has a brief-but-illuminating interview with Delaware’s Public Defender, Brendan O’Neill, in which he talks about the public perception of defenders “trying to get the bad guy off the hook” as opposed to being guardians of all citizens’ rights, the overwhelming caseloads which many defenders are carrying, and his motivation for the career path he’s chosen.

Jonathan Smith, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, and Peter Edelman, Georgetown Law professor and chair of the D.C. Access to Justice Commission, co-authored an article in this month’s Washington Lawyer on the impact falling funding and rising demand is having on legal aid providers. The article talks about the importance of legal aid in the lives of low-income clients, the shifts in government funding during the economic crisis, the importance of pro bono support, and more.

Also new on the Legal Aid Society blog is a link to a recent interview Smith gave with the Meyer Foundation after winning an award for non-profit leadership. In it he talks about some of the challenges his organization has faced in the economic downturn.

[Editor’s Note: this is the final installment in our three-part series on the importance of public-interest minded law students and junior attorneys developing leadership skills.  In parts one and two, we heard from public interest attorneys who work on a daily basis to help the next generation of advocates cultivate those skills.   Today, we hear from Todd Belcore,  a third-year law student at Northwestern who has worked tirelessly to become a well-rounded public interest advocate and who has already emerged as a humble and dedicated leader among his peers.] 

Todd Belcore is a third-year law student at the Northwestern University School of Law.  He is the president of the Student Bar Association, and was awarded the 2009 PSLawNet Pro Bono Publico Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to promoting public service in his law school community.  After graduation, Todd will serve as an Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.   

Six Tips for Developing Leadership Skills in Law School  

1. Listen.  Leaders help others to solve problems.  As a leader you must be able to discern the needs and interest of your audience – whether it’s clients, coworkers, or others – as quickly as possible. The good news is that people usually tell you what their needs and interests are. The bad news is that we advocates are sometimes too busy to really hear them. Listening is a perennially underrated skill that informs or implicates nearly all others. In law school, just like any other setting, you have the opportunity to learn more about interests, personalities, opinions and perspectives of others. Listening does three invaluable things: 1) it will broaden your perspective; 2) make you communicate in a more responsive and responsible manner; and 3) help inform how to approach an issue in a way that addresses others’ needs rather than simply your perception of their needs.
2. Make ideas come to life.  Everyone has ideas. Fewer can turn ideas into real programs, events, classes or policies.  Leaders get those results. This phenomenon is actually a developable skill. If there is something your law school doesn’t offer, a program that hasn’t been implemented, an event that hasn’t been made available, an organization that hasn’t been formed, don’t be afraid to come up with some ideas and mobilize around changing that. This process alone will require you to plan, gather resources, build a base of contacts, and determine the audience you must convince to make that idea come to fruition. This process will essentially be mimicked no matter the level of the project you take on so the more experience you get with it, the better.
3. Make yourself uncomfortable.  A leader has to be in touch with his or her limitations. However, in order to learn precisely what those are, you must challenge any assumptions you have of yourself. What are you uncomfortable doing? Do you perceive that to be a weakness? Can it change? There is no better opportunity to answer those questions than in law school where there are a plethora of curricular and extracurricular opportunities. I have friends who came to school “knowing” they would never be oral advocates who are now on the trial team because they challenged their assumptions.
4. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.  Leaders know they may have done something well, but they can always do better. Don’t be afraid to admit and learn from mistakes. There is often no better way to grow and learn than to make a mistake and ask for constructive criticism. Fortunately, law school is typically a good place to receive feedback but in the event you are not getting any or enough feedback, seek it out. You can’t fix areas that could use improvement unless you know about them, so ask for feedback.
5. Learn to manage personalities.  All leaders need help, and good leaders know how to get it. As society becomes more diverse and complex, it becomes more vital than ever to be able to work with – and influence – people with varying personality types, backgrounds and power. (Even amongst people with similar backgrounds and personality types, differences in work style will emerge; you should learn to notice those and learn how to work with all people based on their individual characteristics.) Law school provides you with an opportunity to recognize personality traits and work styles of your peers and coworkers, and to learn how to work efficiently with them.  Take advantage of this opportunity as frequently as possible.
6. Find your voice.  Leaders are true to themselves. Law school is the ultimate place to not just learn about case law, but to learn more about yourself. However, it is also a place where you can lose yourself amidst the briefs, reading and argument. Therefore, it is critical to think about who you are, who you want to become and how law school will help you get there. Don’t just engage the law, but consider the law in light of your personal history and experiences. Don’t just take a side, but let that side be informed by loved ones and people you have met along the way. Finding your voice is not only personally fulfilling; it makes everything easier to communicate. It also reflects a level of comfort with oneself that makes a favorable impression on those around you. Every law school experience is a chance for you to find your voice, and to use it.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave a speech today in Selma, Alabama to announce and clarify the Department’s increased focus on civil rights efforts. The New York Times has a good summary both of some of the planned efforts as well as a variety of statistics Duncan planned to include in the speech highlighting the need for increased enforcement. The Office for Civil Rights will be focusing on cases implicating race, gender, and disability, as well as other important civil rights issues, in K-12 school systems, colleges, and universities across the country.

To help support these efforts, the Office for Civil Rights is currently hiring attorneys in field offices across the country – be sure to check PSLawNet postings as well as the EdHires link through USAJobs.

While there is no formal count out there, the Big Apple is very likely home to the most deferred associates engaged in public service placements during their deferral periods.   In a report issued last week, the City Bar and its public interest arm, the City Bar Justice Center, detailed progress made through their Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project, which took form in 2009 to connect deferred associates to the public interest community and to provide ongoing support to help ensure that their public-service placements were fruitful both for them and their host organizations.  This is the most robust infrastructure that has been built to promote success in deferral public-service placements (which is no surprise, given the relative size of the market).  Indeed, the Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project was funded in large part through a grant from the New York Community Trust, which allowed for the creation of a project director position.  Here are some interesting findings from the report:

• Among deferred associates who responded to survey efforts, “more than three-quarters of the respondents were in placements of more than nine months with 25% on deferrals of 12-24 months. Over 90% reported they were receiving a financial stipend, 50% had health insurance and over 60% received a bar exam stipend.”
• “[O]ur data shows that many of the deferred associates went to more well-known larger public interest legal organizations and to those that had long-standing relationships with the law firms. As a result, there were smaller organizations still seeking deferred associates at the start of the fall 2009 training program (and many continue to seek them today).”  [A chart in the report shows that the Legal Aid Society is hosting or did host 37 deferred associates, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office 35, and the NYC Law Department 13.   A piece in the New York Law Journal last year noted that the Brooklyn D.A.’s office was hosting 35 deferred associates.]
• “Almost 92% of those responding would recommend their placement to a future deferred associate; 89% thought the skills they had acquired in their placement would be helpful to them in their future career; and 73% responded that their interest in pro bono had increased as a result of their placement.”
• “Interestingly, when asked to rate satisfaction with placement, “Office Space and Resources,” “Training,” “Clients” and “Supervision” were the areas of greatest satisfaction [among deferred associates] while “Colleagues,” “Integration within the Office” and “Legal Work” received lower ratings.”

Check out the whole report to learn about the professional development curriculum and networking opportunities made available to deferred associates through the project, as well as recommendations and lessons learned from the project’s first few months of operation in dealing with an unprecedented employment phenomenon.

UPDATE: the New York Law Journal is running an article about the report today.  Also, for those following deferred-associates-in-public-service-placements news and developments over the longer term, 1) a previous post of ours had collected news accounts from last fall, and 2) like us, you need to find some hobbies.

The WDSU television station reports:

The chief public defender said in the next two months half his staff will have to refuse new felony cases because the New Orleans office is saddled with more than it can handle. Lawyers are handling an average of 300 felony cases a year. That’s twice the amount for state and national standards. The reason: the public defender’s office needs more money.

In addition to underfunding, another strain on the defender’s office is the district attorney’s practice of accepting a high percentage (90%) of cases for prosecution.

Related:

• The New Orleans Times-Picayune had reported on previous funding shortfalls at the defender’s office last December.
• The PSLawNet Blog interviewed Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton earlier this year, and asked him about funding issues in the long-term.  Mr. Bunton expressed cautious optimism, but of course the bar is pretty low because indigent defense funding in Louisiana has historically been weak.

 We begin this week’s Bulletin with a whole lot of news from Minnesota…

• 3.4.10 – MinnPost Website (Minnesota) – Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance is seeking an order to restrain the state government from terminating the General Assistance Medical Care program, which provides healthcare for low-income adults without children.  The GAMC program’s termination was taken as an austerity measure as the state government tried to cut spending.  The legislature had attempted to restore the program, but that effort was vetoed by Gov. Pawlenty and an override attempt came up short.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the GAMC program had been scheduled for termination on March 1, but was extended through the month after another legal services organization  had threatened legal action.  Previous coverage of those developments is available here.]     

• 3.3.10 – Mankato Free Press (Minnesota) – the public defense system in Minnesota is facing serious cuts in state funding.  “Statewide, the Board of Public Defense [could lose, under a current funding proposal,] $3.3 million in funding in 2010-11 and another $4.8 million in 2012-13.”  The chief public defender for the state’s 5th Judicial Circuit worries that additional cuts to an already strained system would be “drastic” and would effectively prohibit defenders from giving their clients the time needed to properly defend a case.  “A study completed by Minnesota’s legislative auditor supports [this] argument.  The study found the state’s public defenders are handling too many cases.  Many have double the caseload recommended by state and national guidelines.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the report referenced in the article was issued on 2/16/10 by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor.  It is available here.]

• 3.2.10 – MinnPost Website – with fewer than three months left in the Minnesota state legislature’s session, both the state bar association and the legal services community are pushing their agendas.  The Minnesota State Bar Association is seeking funding to shore up a strained court system, while Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance’s legislative arm is pushing for borrower/consumer protection legislation.  Link to article.

 And now, let’s turn to news from places that are not Minnesota:

• 3.2.10 – San Jose Mercury News (California) – Santa Clary County officials have authorized $1 million to flow to the county public defender’s office in order to staff misdemeanor arraignment hearings.  “The lawyers’ presence in thousands of misdemeanor arraignments a year will end an unusual system that has for decades barred many indigent defendants from easy access to legal advice … Public Defender Mary Greenwood said she will immediately hire three additional lawyers and support staff to represent jailed misdemeanor suspects and those first facing misdemeanor domestic violence charges. The new lawyers would staff the county’s busiest misdemeanor arraignment sessions.”  Link to article. 

• 3.2.10 – Philadelphia Inquirer  – among local nonprofits sharing in $331,000 in grant money from the Philadelphia Foundation are Community Legal Services and Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, both of which received funding to support their foreclosure prevention programs.  Link to article. 

• 3.1.10 – Herald News (Massachusetts) – Richard McMahon, a longtime legal services attorney and manager in Massachusetts, has been appointed executive director of South Coastal Counties Legal Services.  Link to article.

• 3.1.10 – Detroit News – while divorce rates in the Detroit metro region have slightly declined during the recession, among those that are filed the number of parties going pro se has risen notably.  “These do-it-yourself divorces are crowding legal aid offices and court dockets and slowing proceedings with incomplete paperwork and tutorials judges must deliver from the bench. And as more couples represent themselves, many are losing out on property and custody claims that are legally theirs, judges and attorneys say.”  Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Family Law Legal Aid Clinic saw requests for help from low-income clients jump from 57 in 2008 to 104 in 2009.  Family law advocates are exploring solutions, which range from making filing forms more accessible to allowing limited scope representation in order to lower legal fees.  Link to article.

• 3.1.10 – The Hill’s “Congress Blog” (Op-ed) – Low-income tenants across the country face evictions and harassment from landlords and developers.  This is partly the result of the recession’s effect on the housing market.  “Too often, when landlords find themselves in foreclosure, their tenants are forced onto the street with little or no notice.”  A key to protecting tenants’ housing rights is for Congress to reauthorize the Legal Services Corporation by passing the Civil Access to Justice Act.  The bill, which has the support of many social justice advocates, would 1) increase LSC’s annual budget appropriation to $750 million from the current $420 million (at present, 1 in every 2 people who seek help from LSC grantees are turned away due to lack of program resources), 2) do away with a restriction on LSC grantees from filing class action lawsuits on behalf of their clients, and 3) eliminate restrictions on how grantees use non-LSC funds to carry out their missions.  Link to op-ed written by Emily Savner of the Brennan Center for Justice.  [Ed. Note: the op-ed references a Brennan Center report called Foreclosures: A Crisis in Legal Representation and, while not explicitly naming it, appears also to reference LSC’s Documenting the Justice Gap in America report, which was updated in 2009.]

• 2.28.10 – Florida Times-Union (Editorial) – the Florida Bar has launched a “One Client, One Attorney, One Promise” campaign in order to bolster pro bono by encouraging lawyers to take at least one pro bono case this year.   “There’s no shortage of people who need legal help in this age of high unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies. Clients who need legal help of some kind are first screened by legal aid agencies before being referred to attorneys who agree to take on the cases without charge….Lawyers take a lot of flak on the joke circuit, but they also do a lot of charity work that goes unrecognized.  The Bar’s campaign is a good way for more lawyers to cast their profession in a positive light.”  Link to editorial.

• 2.27.10 – North Platte Telegraph (Nebraska) – Lincoln County Public Defender Robert Lindemeier joined, at the invitation of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Department of Justice Symposium aimed at addressing resource gaps in indigent defense programs across the country.  Lindemeier noted that poor clients not having access to effective counsel is a problem in Nebraska and nationally.  He was “impressed with Holder’s goals, saying that the U.S. Attorney General appears to believe that if the justice system is going to have a strong law enforcement and prosecution system in place, then to ensure justice is served means to make sure that the indigent criminal defense system is equally strong.”  Link to article.  Ed. Note: additional coverage on the DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative from National Public Radio is available here. 

• 2.27.10 – Billings Gazette – the new Billings Adult Mental Health Court, a diversionary program intended to help defendants with mental disabilities or disorders, makes a priority of helping participants to “creat[e] new bonds to the community through education, employment or volunteer service and treatment programs…”  For court officers who facilitate the program, some of the traditional adversarial edges are dulled as prosecutors, public defenders, judges and others review cases and review participants’ treatment options.  Link to story.  [Ed. Note: not explicitly mentioned in the article is that, aside from providing participants with the best resources to remain integrated with society and avoid the criminal justice system, the mental health court could promote financial efficiencies for courts and detention facilities.  According to a chart accompanying the story, “[b]etween 50 and 70 percent of the [Yellowstone County Detention Facility’s] population suffers from a mental illness or co-occuring disorder, such as addiction.  Further, “[a]s much as 40 percent of the general housing costs at the jail are spent on mentally ill people incarcerated on misdemeanors.”]

• 2.26.10 – New Orleans Times-Picayune – New Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton agree on a proposal to change the way that cases are assigned to courtrooms in the parish’s criminal court system.  During a City Council hearing, both the top prosecutor and defender spoke in favor of making the change, but noted that the courthouse’s judges, who retain ultimate authority for the case assignemnt system, have been cool to the proposal.  Cannizzaro and Bunton believe that changes would increase efficiency by allowing attorneys to stay with cases from beginning to end, rather than having to pass them off to colleagues and jump from courtroom to courtroom to keep up with their dockets.  One reason they support a change: It may open doors to federal dollars.  Some federal grants require that “the same defense attorney or prosecutor stay on [a] case from beginning to end.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: late-January Times-Picayune coverage of the issue is found here.  Also, the PSLawNet Blog conducted a short interview with Mr. Bunton (on unrelated matters) in January.]

• 2.26.10 – Boston Globe – in Massachusetts, a group of legal immigrants is suing the entity that administers the state’s healthcare program, charging that the state’s decision to deny health coverage on account of their immigrant status violates state and federal equal protection principles.  The move to exclude or limit coverage options for legal immigrants under the Massachusetts landmark Commonwealth Care health plan was a budget-cutting measure.  The executive director of Health Law Advocates, which sued the state on behalf of legal immigrant clients, contends that, “You can’t violate people’s constitutional rights just because you don’t have the funds.”  Link to article.