Just a reminder to law school career services professionals, pro bono program administrators, and other interested parties that the Consortium for the Advancement of Public Service in Law Schools (CAPSILS) makes its Law School Public Service Resource Handbook freely available for downloading.  The Handbook is geared specifically as a resource for those who are new to public interest career counseling and pro bono administration.  It offers useful tips from more experienced professionals and points newer professionals to the many resources that are available to them through the ABA, AALS, Equal Justice Works, NALP, PSLawNet, and elsewhere.

CAPSILS’ members are:

• The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and the ABA Center for Pro Bono
• The Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
• Equal Justice Works, and
• NALP (National Association for Law Placement) and NALP’s PSLawNet website.

CAPSILS has been formed to foster dialogue and collaboration among national participants in the law school pro bono and public interest arenas. Its members, individually and through joint undertakings, encourage law school-related pro bono policy and program development and provide services to law schools and students seeking pro bono and public interest opportunities, resources and support. We are dedicated to effectively promoting opportunities for public-interest minded law students and lawyers, and to efficiently supporting the work of law schools and public interest law organizations.  We hope you find the Handbook useful!

We know that women outnumber men substantially in public interest law, particularly civil legal services. We also know that public interest legal careers are some of the lowest-paying attorney jobs out there. And yet when the topic of gender diversity in the legal profession comes up it tends to focus on firm partnership inequity and the lack of women judges. Check out this new NALP Bulletin article by PSLawNet Fellow Katie Dilks (pdf) on the topic. Then chime in below with your thoughts on both the current inequitable gender distribution in public interest law and the lack of a coherent national conversation – we’d love to start one here!

The PSLawNet Blog recently participated in a conference program exploring innovative pro bono models that involve collaboration between civil legal services providers and law students.  We were joined on the panel by Randi Burnett, the Southern Arizona Legal Aid (SALA) staff attorney who coordinates law student pro bono work via SALA’s Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP).  Randi and her colleagues have had extraordinary success in partnering with the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law to provide a variety of pro bono opportunities to law students on clinic projects ranging from bankruptcy to guardianship to domestic relations.  We asked Randi if she would provide some background on how the collaboration works, and she has kindly offered us a lot of detail which we’re happy to share with our readers.  Maybe this model – which provides experiential learning for law students and serves the increasing numbers of low-income clients in need – could take root elsewhere.  Here is our exchange with Randi:

Randi, tell us generally about how you engage law students with pro bono opportunities, and what specific options are available to them?

The VLP’s Student Advocate Program was designed to involve local law students in our community.  The use of law student volunteers allows the VLP to provide legal assistance to a greater number of residents in need of legal assistance.  In addition, one of the primary goals of the student program is to instill a deep commitment to pro bono work in the next generation of lawyers.  With this goal in mind, the VLP provides several unique volunteer opportunities to students through the Minor Guardianship Clinic, Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Clinic, Domestic Relations Clinic, and Service Center Clinic.  Each of these clinics offers face-to-face contact with clients, the chance to work closely with different attorneys, and provide a great deal of practical experience.  In addition, two of the clinics provide law student volunteers with the opportunity to obtain courtroom experience as described below.

• Minor Guardianship Clinic: under the supervision of an attorney, law students meet with unrepresented clients prior to the client’s guardianship appointment hearing.  The law student explains the proceedings and checks to ensure that the client has complied with legal notice requirements to the parents.  The law student then appears as a “friend of the Court” during the client’s appointment hearing.  This Clinic is the only collaborative court project of its kind in Arizona that provides actual courtroom experience to first year law students.
• Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Clinic: Volunteer attorneys and law students meet with unrepresented clients who are in the process of obtaining a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  Our volunteers meet with the client before the client’s reaffirmation hearing and review the reaffirmation agreement presented to the client by their creditor.  The purpose is to make sure that the client understands the pros and cons of reaffirming any debt during the bankruptcy process.  Again, the law student has an opportunity to appear in court as a “friend of the Court.”
• Domestic Relations Clinic: This clinic provides law students with an opportunity to meet with self-represented litigants involved in a family law matter while supervised by an attorney.  Volunteers assist clients in completing basic divorce and paternity forms, help clients prepare to represent themselves at trial, explain disclosure and discovery rule compliance, and draft motions for clients.  Approximately 45% of the clients seen in this clinic are victims of domestic violence.
• Service Center Clinic:  This clinic takes place within the law library about the Pima County Superior Court and is very similar to our Domestic Relations Clinic.  Law students are supervised by attorneys and assist unrepresented litigants with their family law issues.  In addition to all the issues seen in the Domestic Relations Clinic, volunteers also assist with custody and parenting time modifications, relocation issues, child support issues, and grandparent visitation issues.  This program provides a wonderful, hands-on experience for law students and an opportunity to apply concepts learned in the classroom to a real world setting.

Click through to learn about how the program is administered, and about the benefits that law students receive from working directly with clients in need