• 4.8.10 – Casper Star-Tribune (Wyoming) – the Wyoming legislature just passed a bill to create a statewide legal services program.   Before this became a reality, though, Legal Aid of Wyoming had been leveraging its limited resources to provide access to justice for low-income Wyomingites.  The organization can help only about 10% of those who apply for services.  Link to article.

• 4.8.10 – The Town Talk (Central Louisiana) – Louisiana State Bar Association members are advocating that the legislature restore state funding to civil legal services programs that operate throughout the state.  Attorneys in the legal services community point out that while demand for services is rising, resource cuts are limiting the amount of help they can offer.  Link to article.

• 4.7.10 – Legal Services Corporation Press Release – “Six presidential appointees to the Legal Services Corporation’s Board of Directors were sworn in to office this morning and at their inaugural Board meeting elected John G. Levi, a partner in the Chicago office of Sidley Austin, as Board chairman and Martha Minow, dean of the Harvard Law School, as vice chair.”  Link to press release.

• 4.7.10 – Baltimore Sun – “Annapolis lawmakers will not withhold any funds from the University of Maryland’s law clinic for pursuing an unpopular environmental lawsuit, quieting a debate about academic freedom that raged in the state legislature last week.  The decision reverses an earlier position taken by senators and House Appropriations members who initially were outraged that the law students named a small Eastern Shore farmer in an environmental lawsuit that targeted poultry giant Perdue.”  Lawmakers, who must reconcile the final language in the state’s budget bill, are still requesting that the clinical program turn over some information about its activities, but this disclosure will likely no longer be tied to a threat to withhold funding.  The PSLawNet Blog has covered this story extensively, with links to additional media coverage from the Sun and other outlets.

• 4.7.10 – University of Virginia School of Law Website – “Law School graduates who choose careers in public service will soon be able to take advantage of a more generous loan forgiveness program, the Law School announced Wednesday.  Under the new Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program (VLFP II), graduates who take public service jobs that pay less than $75,000 per year will be eligible for loan assistance. The new program will cover the entire annual loan payments for graduates who make $55,000 or less.”    Link to announcement on website.  [Ed. Note: the loan forgiveness program has essentially been redesigned so that it works in tandem with the Income Based Repayment provision of the federal College Cost Reduction and Access Act.  The University of Virginia joins the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of California Berkeley School of Law in “dovetailing” their loan repayment/forgiveness program with the CCRAA.]

• 4.5.10 – San Jose Mercury News (California) – in Santa Clara County, public defenders have just begun staffing misdemeanor arraignment proceedings to “help defendants deal with…potentially serious criminal charges.”  Up until now, “neither public defenders [n]or prosecutors have regularly staffed misdemeanor arraignments, a defendant’s first court appearance. Defendants charged with misdemeanors were arraigned before a judge who often offered a plea deal to quickly resolve the case. Many legal experts consider that a potential violation of the defendants’ constitutional right to counsel. Some believe that defendants plead guilty simply to get out of jail.”    Link to article.   

• 4.5.10 – New Jersey Law Journal – The Seton Hall University School of Law’s loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) is not currently available to prosecutors.  Two alumni, both of whom work as county prosecutors in New Jersey, are spearheading an initiative to change that.  They have garnered support from other alumni and attorneys via an online petition and a Facebook group page.  The law school is “not unreceptive” to the idea of expanding the program to include prosecutors.  One school official noted that, at the time the LRAP was created in 2002, there was a sense that low salaries were not as much an impediment to law grads choosing careers as prosecutors relative to some other, low-paying public service jobs.  Link to article.

• 4.4.10 – Chicago Tribune – about 60 Class-of-2009 law graduates whose start dates were deferred by big law firms have joined Chicago’s  legal services community during their deferral periods.  Despite some initial skepticism about how effective these temporary placements would be, they have worked out remarkably well so far, with the deferred associates getting valuable hands-on practice experience while helping organizations to maintain service capacity.  Link to PSLawNet Blog post and Tribune article. 

• 4.4.10 – Toledo Blade (Ohio) – in Lucas County, Ohio, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) is among a group of nonprofit organizations administering the “Mobile Benefit Bank,” which seeks to engage clients who need help applying for government benefits by making house-calls and attending community events rather than requiring clients to come to the organizations’ offices or to navigate government application processes on their own.  Five AmeriCorps volunteers, armed with laptops and portable printers, staff the project by meeting clients at locales throughout the county.  Link to article. 

• 4.2.10 – National Law Journal – on the heels of a huge staff layoff at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the court’s presiding judge is locking horns with the Administrative Office of the Courts, which funds state courts, about how severe the Superior Court’s financial problems are.  “A recent report playing down the fiscal crisis at Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court was based on ‘unfounded optimism’ and ‘erroneous’ calculations, Presiding Judge Charles ‘Tim’ McCoy wrote in a March 31 letter to the Judicial Council of California, which oversees the state’s courts.  The letter came two days after the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the Judicial Council funding arm for the state’s courts, released a report contending that an anticipated layoff of 500 employees later this year at the Los Angeles Superior Court was based on ‘overly pessimistic’ assumptions about the court’s budget scenario.”  Link to article.

• 4.1.10 – Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Op-Ed) – more and more low-income Texans are representing themselves in civil matters for which they can not afford counsel, which runs the risk of clogging up the court system.  While the longer-term solution to this problem is to adequately fund civil legal services programs, in the short term courts, public interest organizations, and other stakeholders should implement programs and resources to help pro se litigants navigate the justice system.   Link to op-ed. 

Over at Law.com, Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass just wrapped up a 13-part series on interview tips and advice. While the advice is generally geared towards private-sector interviews, some of the tips are pretty universal. This last entry (on thank you notes) has links at the bottom to the previous 12 entries as well.

Law Students: Save the date!  On Wednesday, April 14^th at 3:00pm EDT, NALP and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) are presenting “Top Ten Tips for a Successful Summer Internship in a Public Interest Office…and What to Avoid.”  This free webinar will help law students make the most of their summer experiences in civil legal services organizations and public defenders’ offices by offering concrete tips from both public interest attorneys with extensive experience in supervising law students and law school public interest advisors who counsel students on maximizing professional development opportunities.  The webinar will be led by Jennifer Thomas, Director of Legal Recruiting for the D.C. Public Defender Service, and Phyllis Holmen, Executive Director of the Georgia Legal Services Program.   

The webinar will be offered live on April 14th and archived for later viewing.  All students and law school career professionals who are interested in participating on April 14th should e-mail Kevin Mills, Director of Membership at NLADA at membership@nlada.org, and provide your full name, e-mail address, and a phone number.  Please type “Student Webinar” in the email’s subject line.

We covered the appointment of Harvard Law School professor and constitutional scholar extraordinaire Laurence Tribe to the U.S. Department of Justice as “Senior Counselor for Access to Justice” in an earlier news bulletin. The New York Times had a brief article yesterday discussing his role and its potential, as well as its possible limitations. DOJ is currently restricting Mr. Tribe from giving interviews, but the article features quotes from many of his friends and colleagues. This position will be an interesting one to follow in the months and years to come.

The Baltimore Sun reported today that the University of Maryland legal clinics showdown with the state legislature (read all about it!) may finally be settled and out of the news. The budget bills passed by both houses were reconciled yesterday, and the House-passed version that does not threaten to withhold funding from the University (but still requires disclosure of client information for the past two years) has made it through to the final version of the bill, which must be re-approved by both chambers before being sent to the Governor. So barring any last minute changes or future drama, this should be the last you read of this story here!

The end of the semester is approaching, but we know that many law students are in the thick of the job search – for both summer and postgraduate positions.  Needless to say, strong interviewing is a key to landing a job.  We figured now is a good time to remind our readers about two resources which offer concrete public-interest interviewing tips:

1. PSLawNet’s “Interviewing Tips for Postgraduate Public Interest Jobs” offers a list of 9 concise tips to ensure that you become the best job candidate that you can be at the all-important time when you meet a prospective employer face to face.  We can not emphasize enough the value of doing mock interviews, which your career services office should be able to arrange.  Even for those of you who consider yourselves to be strong interviewers, there is simply no downside to doing mock interviews.  You work out the kinks, and you’re likely to be asked a question in a mock interview that will come up again in a real interview.  Having to think that question through in the mock interview will allow you to hit a home run when it actually matters.
2. Harvard Law School’s Office of Public Interest Advising offers some terrific advice on interviewing on this web page, including suggestions about questions for you to ask interviewers.  This is much more important than you may think.  Most interviewers want to have a conversation, not to conduct an interrogation.  And conversations, of course, are two-way streets.  So you have to be prepared to engage.

We’ve been posting about the ongoing controversy between the University of Maryland legal clinical program and the state legislature (we have more to read here, here, and here, in reverse chronological order). Just to recap, the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland School of Law was involved in a lawsuit against Perdue Farms and a supplier farmer regarding alleged pollution in the Pocomoke River. Perdue Farms is a major employer in the state and an all around important-presence, and turned to the state legislature to go after the clinic. About two weeks ago, the Senate approved a budget resolution that would cut $250,000 in funding for the University if the clinic did not disclose its clients and expenses for the past two years. The House of Delegates was considering even harsher measures, that could have cut three-quarters of a million dollars if the clinic did not comply with the demands for information.

Well the National Law Journal reported yesterday afternoon that the House on Friday approved an amendment that requires the clinic to disclose information for the past two years, but does not threaten any funding cuts. Additionally, it only requires the disclosure of documents in the public record, such as court filings. Observers of the controversy were concerned that the Legislature would demand confidential case files.

The two versions of the resolution must be resolved, but School of Law Dean Phoebe Haddon is hopeful the Senate will accept the less harsh version passed by the House, though she is still upset by the reporting requirements.

“I remain convinced that the obligation to report on cases in active litigation interferes with the judicial process, I recognize the hard work that has led to this point and hope the Conference Committee will agree to the amendment that unanimously passed the House [Friday],” Haddon wrote.

[Updated] We wanted to share a few other links that are discussing the current state of legal clinics, and the Maryland situation in particular. The Chairman of the Board of Visitors for University of Maryland wrote a letter to the editor in the Washington Post this weekend defending the clinic. The editorial board at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch weighed in on the importance of strong legal clinical programs, and vowed to defend the local ones vehemently if they should ever come under attack. Finally, the New York Times published an article Saturday discussing the Maryland case as well as several other similar situations, including showdowns at Rutgers University in New Jersey and Tulane Law School in Louisiana.

The mustache is not the PSLawNet Blog’s favorite look.  In spite of that – or perhaps because of it – we tip our caps  (which sit atop clean-shaven faces) to the small group of students and professors at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law who participated in Mustache March to raise funds for the school’s Public Interest Law Fund (PILF).

Reports the Carlisle Sentinel of Central Pennsylvania:

Throughout March, students and faculty at the Carlisle law school donned mustaches in an effort to raise money for the Cherie M. Millage Summer Fellowship program, said Kate MacKenzie, a third-year student and president of the Public Interest Law Fund (PILF).

The program awards fellowships to first- and second-year students, which allows them to accept summer employment with public interest firms and organizations, she added, and PILF is a student organization that helps raise funds for the program.

Dubbed Mustache March, the facial hair growing fundraiser raised roughly $1,500, MacKenzie said.

About 30 or 31 people, who included two professors and two female students, who wore fake mustaches, took part, said Ely Ross, a second-year student and one of the masterminds behind the event. 

In the first Five Questions for  Public Interest Leader of April, we learned more about prosecutorial and defense work with Matthew Galluzzo. After graduating from Northwestern University School of Law, Mr. Galluzzo spent seven years in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, in both the Trial and Appellate divisions. For part of his tenure, he was responsible for training more junior prosecutors and supervising their misdemeanor domestic violence cases.  He then spent a year in a boutique commercial litigation firm before opening his own defense practice with a colleague from his Manhattan DA’s office days. His current practice is a blend of privately retained clients and court-appointed indigent defendants.

Keep Reading to learn more about prosecution and defense work!

Yesterday, the Tribune ran a piece on the ~60 deferred associates who have taken placements of varying lengths in the Chicago public-interest community.  This phenomenon has played out in Chicago quite the same way that it’s played out in other large legal markets throughout the country.  Biglaw was “sitting with an oversupply and were forced to lay off hundreds and postpone the starting dates of law school graduates they had hired to begin in the fall of 2009.”  At the same time, the nonprofit, public-interest law offices were weathering their own financial storms, with caseloads swelling as funding depleted.

The opposite ends of Chicago’s legal profession found a way to come together out of economic necessity to partially consume the supply of highly educated young lawyers looking for work. Despite several challenges, the unusual experiment has paid dividends. It also has sparked discussions of whether a more permanent model of apprenticeships can be developed that would train law-school graduates at a lower cost and benefit public-interest legal organizations that are suffering from funding constraints while attending to a greater need because of the recession.

The piece, which looks specifically at how the placements have played out at Cabrini Green Legal Aid, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, and Equip for Equality, notes that there was initial skepticism in the public interest community about how effective these placements would be.  Nonetheless, they have worked out remarkably well so far, with the deferred associates getting valuable hands-on practice experience while helping organizations to maintain service capacity. 

Sarah Song, an associate whose start date was deferred by Latham and Watkins, has made the most of her experience:

Song is working in the housing law division, which helps tenants, many of whom live in public housing or receive government subsidies, who are being evicted. She sent her resume to several groups and was hired by CGLA because she had prior experience in housing through summer internships and clinical work in law school, Acton said.

When asked what she has learned, Song said, “Where do I start? I’ve learned about courtroom etiquette and professionalism. I’m also working with clients on a daily basis. You learn to navigate relationships with different personalities and needs. I’ve also learned a lot about housing law.”

Most first-year associates never see the inside of a courtroom, let alone have daily client interaction.

Song added: “The experience has prepared me for my future.”

***

The situation as reported in this story is in keeping with the picture painted during a focus-group meeting of Chicago-based deferred associates that NALP had convened in late January, in partnership with the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Public Interest Law Initiative.  The tone of that discussion was quite positive, with several focus-group participants highlighting the opportunities they had to immediately use their advocacy skills in court, to cultivate problem-solving skills, and to interact with clients.  And in conversations with directors at public interest host organizations which were hosting the associates, we learned that their contributions to serving clients during a lean fiscal time were invaluable.

It is good to see that this very strange set of circumstances, which would have been inconceivable two years ago, has resulted in more clients being served and in a bond forming between the deferred associates and their public-interest host organizations which may lead to continued collaborations for years to come.  The PSLawNet Blog still has some concerns about how the deferral phenomenon may affect students who are pursuing careers in public interest work.  These students are emerging from law school at a time when many of the employers they’d like to work for don’t have funding to hire them.  And in some sense, it seems unfair that they are now also competing with deferred associates who do not need salaries from their public interest host organizations.  Notwithstanding, having extra advocates to serve low-income clients – who have been hit harder than anybody during the recession – is, in the short term, a very positive development for the public interest community as a whole.