Public Interest Law News Bulletin – February 4, 2011
In summary…there’s a lot of public interest news this week. Unfortunately, a lot of it’s not good. Funding shortages are affecting public interest programs literally from the Mexican to the Canadian borders. Featured: the “Last Resort Exoneration Project” is released at Seton Hall Law; a young lawyer weighs the virtues of Model Rule 6.1; apparent financial trouble at AppalReD leads to the ED’s firing; farewell to a titan among federal defenders; the North Carolina State Bar is trying to ramp up pro bono efforts; cuts in local funding for a Louisiana legal services provider; unbundling legal services to serve more low-income Mississippians; fighting against food stamp terminations in Washington State; potential staff layoffs at Rhode Island Legal Services ruffle union feathers; the Colorado criminal defense bar is fighting for easier access to public defenders; loan repayment for Illinois prosecutors and public defenders; an office closure by New Mexico Legal Aid; discontinuing the Homeless Rights Project in San Francisco; arguments for permitting easier public access to juvenile court records and proceedings; the fight continues over an indigent defense attorney assignment overhaul in the Big Apple (or in French: le Big Apple); will the planned closure of a Southern Arizona Legal Aid office be avoided?; the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services is running out of funds; financial support for legal services for artists; New York’s top jurist calls upon the bar to support pro bono and legal services funding; legal services funding woes in Texas; Washington State high court arguments about a foster child’s right to counsel. 
- 2.3.11 – a New Jersey Star-Ledger blog highlights the launch of the “Last Resort Exoneration Project” at Seton Hall Law School. The project will work to free innocent convicts, but unlike the high-profile Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project will focus on cases where DNA evidence is not in play – no meager feat. The new initiative is something of a family affair. Exoneration Project director Lesley Risinger first worked to free an innocent convict before attending law school; she enlisted the help of her mother, an attorney. Now a lawyer herself, Risinger will co-direct the project with her husband, a Seton Hall Law professor.
- 2.3.11 – on the Minnesota Lawyer’s JDs Rising Blog, a newly admitted attorney explores Model Rule of Professional Conduct 6.1 – the pro bono rule – wondering whether it’s ultimately beneficial or too restrictive that lawyers are called upon to provide legal services and to support legal services for the poor rather than being able to provide service/contributions outside of the legal arena.
- 2.2.11 – from the Lexington Herald-Leader: “The main provider of civil legal help for poor people in Eastern Kentucky has fired its director and cut several other staff positions after an internal investigation. The board of Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, a publicly funded legal aid agency, fired Cynthia Elliott on Saturday after finishing the internal review … AppalReD has total annual funding of $4.3 million, interim director Jonathan Picklesimer said Wednesday, and during the past four years it might have overspent its budget by nearly $1 million.” The story later notes that the “other staff positions” which were cut were done so for financial reasons, according to AppalReD’s board chairman, not reasons related directly to the investigation.
- 2.2.11 – the New York Times has a nice write-up on the retirement of New York City’s chief federal defender, who has earned the respect of judges and legal adversaries and whose office has handled myriad high- and low-profile matters in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “Leonard F. Joy, the lawyer who has led New York’s influential federal public defender’s office for the last two decades, is retiring this month, ending a tenure during which his office represented some of the most infamous defendants being prosecuted by the United States attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn.”
- 2.2.11 – a piece in the Raleigh News Observer highlights the North Carolina State Bar’s efforts to promote increased pro bono by 1) recommending in a new rule of conduct that attorneys complete 50 hours of pro bono annually, and 2) strengthening its ties with Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC). The piece further notes that LANC is facing possible funding cuts out of the $5 million it presently receives from the state. Even with things as they are now, LANC “can only take up [to] two cases for every 10 received.”
- 2.2.11 – the Louisiana-based Tri-Parish Times reports on local funding cuts to legal services: “Low-income individuals and families that have depended upon or might need legal assistance when dealing with civil matters in Louisiana could be left without representation as parishes cut back on their budgets in 2011. Capital Area Legal Services Corp., which has been funded by contributions from 12 parishes…is faced with a loss of financial support that could range from $24,530 to $47,330 this year. In turn, the legal aid agency could soon be faced with cutting some of its services.”
- 2.2.11 – the AP reports that, at the proposal of Mississippi’s Access to Justice Commission, the state’s high court has adopted a rule permitting limited scope representation so that attorneys may provide unbundled services to clients who can not afford full-scope representation. “Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. said the limited scope representation rule is to encourage lawyers to provide some services to clients who are limited in what they can afford. He said the revised rules also encourage lawyers to provide volunteer services to legal hotlines and clinics without fear of creating conflicts of interest.”
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