Check out this opportunity to be a Land Access and Tenure Security Attorney with Landesa Rural Development Institute.

Landesa works to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people—those 3 billion chiefly rural people who live on less than two dollars a day.  Landesa partners with developing countries to design and implement laws, policies, and programs concerning land that provide opportunity, further economic growth, and promote social justice.

Within a context of developing countries around the world, the Landesa Attorney provides legal, policy, and implementation expertise on rural land tenure security, access to land, land redistribution, land privatization, land market liberalization, and land administration (land titling and registration, land use planning and zoning, and dispute resolution). The Attorney conducts legal and social science research (both from the desk and in the field), and prepares and provides analytical reviews, research papers, draft legislation, regulations, surveys, policies, training programs, presentations, and other products.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

This week: pay for PA capital punishment counsel is peanuts; Sin City D.A. gambles on refusal to make budget cuts; a wrap-up of LSC funding news from Capitol Hill; speaking of, Idaho Legal Aid Services has a lot riding on a federal government shutdown; a great new transactional clinic at Wisconsin Law; update on state funding of legal services and indigent defense in Minnesota; legal services funding woes along the Iowa/Illinois state line; and legal services funding within the Texas state lines.

• 4.7.11 – Keystone State capital punishment news from the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The amount of public funding paid to Philadelphia court-appointed criminal-defense lawyers is so low that it violates the constitutional rights of indigent people facing the death penalty.  So argues a petition filed Wednesday by a group of Philadelphia court-appointed death-penalty lawyers who told a city judge that the commonwealth should pay them adequately or stop seeking capital punishment…. The gap between the fee schedule and reality has led some Philadelphia criminal-defense lawyers to refuse to accept capital-case appointments.”

• 4.7.11 – from the Las Vegas Sun: “The Clark County District Attorney is refusing to comply with a request from county managers to prepare 9 percent budget cuts for the department.  In a memo to county commissioners and staff dated last week, District Attorney David Roger informed county officials that his department has fewer attorneys than the Public Defenders Office, his staff is overworked and he made big cuts in previous years.”  It’s become a battle of statistics between D.A. Roger and county officials.  The county has cited statistics showing that both the D.A.’s budget and prosecutor compensation has grown recently, but the D.A. disputes that.

• 4.6.11 – there has been a good deal of recent news about how budget wrangling on Capitol Hill will affect the Legal Services Corporation.  There are two main uncertainties now.  The first deals with what will happen to LSC’s budget in the very near term as Congress and the president try to reach a funding agreement for the rest of the current fiscal cycle (FY 2011), or face a shutdown.  The second uncertainty deals with LSC funding for FY 2012, the fiscal cycle that is due to begin this October.  There was an appropriations hearing on the Hill this week about LSC’s FY 2012 funding.  Let’s look at news about current funding, then FY 2012 funding:
  • FY 2011 LSC Funding news:
    • 4.4.11 – a current and former LSC board member, who are now law school deans, submitted an op-ed in a Boston Globe blog sharply critical of possible LSC cuts: “Today as the House…calls for cutting $70 million from [LSC funding], many of the 900 [grantee organization field offices] will need to close — 370 staff attorneys will be let go and 162,000 fewer people will be served — just as the recession pushes the highest number of Americans into poverty in 51 years. Such cuts abandon some of the most vulnerable people in our nation.
    • Late last week the Blog of the Legal Times noted that this current week is “crunch time” for LSC funding: “The next week will likely determine whether the Legal Services Corp. is forced to make sharp midyear cuts in its budget, as lawmakers and Obama administration officials attempt to finish negotiations for federal spending through Sept. 30…. As part of a broad Republican plan to trim federal spending, the House in February approved a $70 million midyear cut to the Legal Services Corp., the nation’s largest funding source for civil legal aid to the poor. The proposal failed in the Senate, but a cut could still be part of any compromise.”
    • in late March the LSC board chairman and a former chairman co-authored an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed explaining what’s at stake for legal services providers and their clients if cuts go through: “For the last 36 years, Congress has appropriated funds for civil legal assistance, and the current level is $394.4 million. Now, in the middle of a fiscal year, the House has targeted LSC for a $70 million cut in these funds…. The timing could not be worse. The work of legal aid attorneys has become ever more important since the 2008 recession and the significant rise in poverty across the land. Fifty-seven million Americans qualify for civil legal assistance…”
  • FY 2012 LSC Funding news:
    • 4.5.11 – the Blog of the Legal Times covered a House hearing on LSC’s FY 2012 budget: “The chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee said today that private-sector lawyers aren’t doing enough to help the nation’s poor with legal problems, warning that they might need to make up for expected cuts in federal funding.  U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is a longtime supporter of funding for civil legal aid, but he said [LSC] still faces proposed cuts from the House’s new Republican majority. LSC and its local partners should turn to resources from large law firms, state bar dues and law schools.”  LSC president James Sandman and board member Robert Grey Jr. both noted that legal services providers already do leverage not only pro bono contributions from law-firm attorneys, but also financial resources.  On the issue of pro bono substituting for, rather than supplementing, legal services attorneys, the PSLawNet Blog is reminded of this recent op-ed from the Pro Bono Institute’s president, which argues that pro bono work can not be efficiently delivered without a well funded legal services infrastructure to guide that work.  (The PSLawNet Blog attended the hearing and we’ll put a larger blog post together in a couple of days.) 

• 4.6.11 – good news and bad news for Idaho Legal Aid Services.  First the bad: Boise’s KTVB television station explores what difficulties may befall the organization (and other LSC grantees) if Uncle Sam closes up shop today.  Idaho Legal Aid Services takes in two-thirds of its funding from federal sources.  “Money for the month of April is guaranteed, but after that they could see a delay, and it would lead to a considerable impact.  ‘If that cut was substantial then it may mean we wouldn’t be able to operate at all. If the cut is something less than that, then we have to look at how big the cut was and determine how many literally how many attorneys how many staff would have to be laid off,’ said [executive director Ritchie] Eppink.  Another noteworthy fact from the story: “Eppink says Idaho is the only state in the country that doesn’t provide state funding for legal assistance programs.”  Regarding state funding, Idaho Legal Aid Services may have a small reason to celebrate.  According to a Greenfield Daily Reporter article that ran earlier this week – and you better believe, cats and kittens, that the PSLawNet Blog reads the Greenfield Daily Reporter religiously – the state house narrowly approved a bill to “help provide free legal counsel to low-income residents in cases involving domestic violence, child abuse, and exploitation of the elderly.”  The bill would authorize revenue generation via a court filing fee.     

• 4.6.11 – the WisLaw Blog reports on Wisconsin Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, which matches low-income entrepreneurs with law students who provide help on transactional matters.  The clinic also enlists the help of pro bono attorneys to supervise the students’ work.  The PSLawNet Blog once had the privilege of helping to start a transactional pro bono program, and we’re big fans of pro bono projects that offer opportunities to advocates who are on business law career paths.  It greatly broadens the pool of pro bono advocates, and there are many nonprofit institutions and micro-entrepreneurs who are doing great work but are unable to afford counsel when needed.

• 4.6.11 – the Twin Cities Daily Planet reports on some Minnesota legislative proposals which could have a kryptonite-like effect on legal services providers: “State funding for civil legal services has fallen by 11 percent between 2008 and 2011 and is currently below 2006 levels. The Governor recommends flat funding for these services, the Senate cuts funding by six percent, and the House cuts funding by 17 percent in FY 2012-13 and 25 percent in FY 2014-15. The House proposal also limits the ability of legal aid and similar state-funded programs to lobby the legislature and pursue legal actions against the state and federal government on behalf of their clients.”  Public defenders, which have been victims of past budget cuts, stand to fare better; they may see funding increases.

• 4.4.11 – the Quad-City Times looks at funding troubles which confront Prairie State Legal Services in western Illinois as well as Iowa’s HELP Legal Assistance.  Both organizations have drawn considerably on reserves to make budgetary ends meet.  Prairie State’s reserves are gone, and its executive director reports that “Thirty-five percent of our budget…is at risk.”  The picture isn’t much better for HELP, which is bracing for funding news this spring that will affect the size of its staff going forward.

• 4.3.11 – Two stories involving legal services in the Lone Star State:
  • The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal highlights funding troubles that confront the Legal Aid Society of Lubbock, which devotes a considerable amount of time helping domestic violence victims and others with family-law related problems.  “As officials at all levels of government have tightened the purse strings, Legal Aid has seen cuts in funding, Graham said. She expected total funding to be down 10 percent to 30 percent this year.  And the budget cuts come when the organization has seen a 22 percent increase in clients over last year….  Last year the organization served 1343 clients.  Of those clients, 1100 were women.”
  • And now for some bipartisanship.  Last week a Dallas Morning News editorial urged the state house to pass HB 2174, which would raise some public filing fees to support legal services providers.  “The Texas Access to Justice Commission wants the state to put a small fee on non-judicial documents filed with a county clerk, such as for mortgages. They also want a minor fee put on judicial documents filed with justices of the peace and in municipal courts, such as for misdemeanor cases.  The fees would be paid by users of the justice system, so the money wouldn’t come out of general revenues. And estimates show they could bring in $58 million over the next two years.  Interestingly, liberal lawyers aren’t the only ones advocating this solution. Supporters include Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, arguably the court’s most conservative jurist. Hecht recently told this newspaper, “This is about the rule of law. Access to the courthouse shouldn’t be dependent upon your ability to pay.”  Indeed, HR 2174, which is still in committee, is sponsored by a conservative Republican.

We’ll close by noting, with all due modesty, that the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise is 5-1, having absolutely thrashed the hapless New York Mutts last night.  Happy weekend!

In the wake of the recent economic recession and the lumbering recovery,  law students and recent grads attempting to forge public interest career paths have experienced an array of adversities. As is well-known, we as job seekers are all subject to the prevailing economic winds. We can’t control the macro-level economic realities that influence our job markets. However, in the context of the public interest job search, we can control the strength with which they present themselves–in both written and in-person presentation.

Here is an article I recently wrote for the NALP Bulletin that highlights tried-and-true tips and best practices for the postgraduate public interest job search.   The article includes wisdom gathered from Jennifer Thomas, Director of Recruiting at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, as well as Charlene Gomes, Senior Program Manager at Equal Justice Works, and Jarrod Shirk, American University Law’s Public Interest Coordinator.  The advice offered by Jennifer, Charlene, and Jarrod is extraordinarily valuable, and I encourage those who are setting out on public interest career paths to give the article a read.  (Frequent PSLawNet Blog readers will recognize some of these tips from a series of blog posts we did earlier this year for summer job seekers.  This time we’ve retooled the information for those seeking postgraduate jobs.)  The article includes tips on:

• Cover letter and resume drafting;
• Interviewing; and
• Networking.

I hope you find this useful, and good luck in the job search!  We’re doing our best to post as many jobs as we can find on PSLawNet, so that’s a great starting point.  (And note that you can find even more job application guidance on our Job Search Fundamentals page.)

– Steve Grumm

Those interested in working for detainee rights, this job may be right up your alley.

The Florence Project has an opening for a staff attorney on its Eloy team. The staff attorney provides pro bono legal services to detainees held in a 1,500 bed private contract facility near the town of Eloy, Arizona.

The staff attorney will work on a team of three (two staff attorneys and one legal assistant) providing group “know your rights” presentations, individual intakes, group and individual court counseling and prep sessions, and pro se services to immigrants facing removal proceedings before the Eloy Immigration Court. On a limited basis, the staff attorney will also fully represent detainees in merits proceedings before the Immigration Court and Board of Immigration Appeals.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

The Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC) is an exciting new organization hiring a Fair Food Program Attorney!  The FFSC is charged with overseeing all aspects of the historic Fair Food Program that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has established with the Florida tomato industry. The Fair Food Program is the result of almost twenty years of creative local and national organizing by the CIW that has resulted in a working partnership among tomato workers, tomato growers and large corporate purchasers of tomatoes.

The Program offers an unprecedented, worker-centered approach to socially responsible supply chains and the agricultural work environment; one in which participating corporate tomato buyers have committed to paying a Fair Food Premium for Florida tomatoes, with the premium passed through the payroll systems of participating growers as increased wages to tomato workers. The Program commits the industry to abide by a detailed Fair Food Code of Conduct that contains a worker-triggered complaint resolution mechanism, worker participation in health and safety protocols, and worker to worker education at the work site (and on the clock) on the rights and responsibilities associated with the Fair Food Program. The program further commits corporate purchasers to help enforce the Code through their purchasing decisions.

The Fair Food Standards Council seeks an attorney for its Sarasota office to help develop and monitor compliance with the Fair Food Program.

Responsibilities of this position include:

• Investigating complaints, both independently and with a team of investigators
• Developing and overseeing implementation of corrective action plans as necessary,
• Keeping current on applicable laws and regulations, and
• Helping to oversee the binding agreements with buyers and growers that are the foundation of the Fair Food Program.
• Developing working relationships at all levels of the industry to facilitate the day-to-day operations of the Fair Food Program.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

No matter how you feel about the word “lawyerpreneur,”–we did hesitate to even type if out–the clinic at UW Law is operating in innovative ways.  It’s bound to get your attention and approval.

Today, the State Bar of Wisconsin  posted an article about US’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, which operates like a law firm and provides free legal services to entrepreneurs in the start-up phase.

The new law clinic, developed by U.W. law school professors Eric Englund and Anne Smith (co-directors), serves the school’s “law-in-action” philosophy, helps students gain practical experience, and assists entrepreneurs in bringing their ideas to the marketplace.

“The clinic started in 2009 with eight students, no clients, and no space,” Englund said. “But we hit the deck running, and today we have 16 students, a backlog of clients, and extremely active participation from the private bar.”

Englund says partnership with private bar members is instrumental, and stresses that the clinic does not compete with law firms or private attorneys.

“It’s critical to our operation that we not compete with lawyers,” Englund said. “We tend to serve clients that do not otherwise have access to the private bar because of financial reasons but will have access once they can move into the mainstream of business.”

As CBS News reported last week, Sen. Scott Brown (D-Mass.), Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the White House’s Reggie Love led “Hill’s Angels,” a team of a dozen lawmakers and others, in a charity basketball game against Georgetown University law school professors on Wednesday. The 24th annual Home Court Game benefitted the Washington Legal Clinic for the homeless. The clinic provides free legal services to the D.C. homeless on issues ranging from unfair evictions to acquiring food stamps.“Obviously, legal services for people who need it, especially in these tough economic times it’s serious,” Brown told CBS News. “You know you have to commend the school for doing this for what 25 years now, that’s great.”

The “Home Court Game” has raised over $4 million in the past 24 years and this year’s event netted a record $414,000.

“Obviously, legal services for people who need it, especially in these tough economic times it’s serious,” Brown told CBS News. “You know you have to commend the school for doing this for what 25 years now, that’s great.”

The “Home Court Game” has raised over $4 million in the past 24 years and this year’s event netted a record $414,000.

Georgetown University’s newspaper, The Hoya, also covered the exhibition game, pointing out that it is an event primarily orchestrated by students.

About 350 people filled the bleachers at the Trinity-Washington University basketball center, many of them students who came to cheer on the Law Center team. A new addition to the Hoya Lawyas was William Treanor, the Law Center’s dean.

“We won last year, and I have to say this year they’ve gone all-out,” Treanor said at halftime. “They’ve got one former pro player and at least three former college players, but we’re pretty pleased with what we’re doing. We have the most heart.”

Sen. Brown, known in his playing days as “Downtown Scotty Brown” at Tufts University, led the Hill’s Angels in scoring with 15 points. Thune, who also played in college and whom Brown calls “the fastest man in Congress,” added nine points and eight rebounds.

Duncan, a co-captain in his days with the Harvard Crimson, also had a brief professional stint in Australia. The secretary of education also played in this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend celebrity basketball game in Los Angeles. He scored nine points Wednesday and led his team in assists.

“This is the least I could do to come out and support this extraordinary cause,” Duncan said after the game. “The students are doing such great work and making a huge difference in the community, so I was happy to be a small, small part of this.”

Rooting for both squads were cheerleaders from Georgetown and Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School in Southeast D.C. Jack the Bulldog also made an appearance to devour a box topped by a miniature Capitol dome replica.

The competitive contest was filled with memorable moments. In the first half, Brown blocked the shot of Associate Professor Laura Donohue, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd. On the first possession of the second half, Reggie Love, a former national champion with Duke University’s Blue Devils, threw down a powerful two-handed dunk.

…

The congressional team was led by Thune and Sen. Robert Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.) and coached by Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.). The team featured three senators, two Senate aides and five members of the House of Representatives along with Duncan and Love. In 24 years, Home Court has raised nearly $4 million for the legal clinic, mostly through donations from attendees. The annual game provides over one-third of the charity’s budget.

“I was stunned at over $400,000 — it’s amazing,” Duncan said. “To see all the time and effort that the students put in, this what it’s all about. These are the future leaders. They are making a huge impact in the community. I’m just so proud of what they’re doing.”

Sanctuary for Families’ Immigration Intervention Project is hiring a Staff Attorney.

Sanctuary for Families’ Immigration Intervention Project is a legal services project that represents over 1,000 victims of domestic violence each year in immigration matters. Representation is provided in-house, as well as through the mentoring of volunteer attorneys.

Additionally, through trainings and participating in the immigration and domestic violence advocacy communities of New York, the Staff Attorney educates the public, the social service and law enforcement communities, and politicians about issues pertinent to immigrant victims of domestic violence.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required). 

 The Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) is hiring an Assistant Director of Diversity Initiatives. Reporting to LSAC’s Executive Director for Diversity Initiatives, the assistant director will collaborate in the development of new and the administration of existing educational programs and activities initiated by LSAC. These activities are designed to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of law schools and the legal profession.

Candidates must be committed to encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to pursue college and graduate school degrees. Those applying must also possess some knowledge and understanding of issues affecting the educational attainment by students from diverse backgrounds, as well as diplomacy, self-motivation, resourcefulness, flexibility, and the ability to exercise discretion in handling sensitive and confidential information. And, for the globe-trotters out there, frequent travel is required!

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Late last week the Blog of the Legal Times noted that, amid all the political fuss related to the federal budget/shutdown debate, LSC is silently twisting in the wind and could wind up facing millions in cuts:

The next week will likely determine whether the Legal Services Corp. is forced to make sharp midyear cuts in its budget, as lawmakers and Obama administration officials attempt to finish negotiations for federal spending through Sept. 30.

…

As part of a broad Republican plan to trim federal spending, the House in February approved a $70 million midyear cut to the Legal Services Corp., the nation’s largest funding source for civil legal aid to the poor. The proposal failed in the Senate, but a cut could still be part of any compromise. The agency’s leadership says the cuts would devastate local grantees nationwide, even as those programs see increases in demand related to foreclosures and the stagnant economy. The agency’s budget is $420 million.

…

Neither Reid nor other Senate Democratic leaders mentioned the agency as among their top priorities…

Substantial cuts in discretionary spending are a certainty in the current negotiations.  Democrats in particular are going to have to pick and choose which programs they defend from cuts.  And while folks are going to bat for popular programs like NPR, we’ve not recently heard elected officials issuing any staunch, public defenses of legal services funding.  A memo last week from Don Saunders, Vice President for Civil Legal Services at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, to legal services executive directors highlights the uncertainty about which federal programs are likely to see cuts:

At this point, there is no public information available on what cuts the Democratic leadership is considering offering to reach a level of $33 billion or what the priorities for cuts are within the Republican House leadership.  We, and our allies, remain very active on the Hill and continue to hear strong statements of support from a variety of Senators and House members for LSC funding.  Unfortunately…we will have to continue to wait for specific information as this how this process will finally be resolved.

As an interesting aside, Senators Brown of Massachusetts and Thune of South Dakota, both Republicans, recently joined executive branch officials and others in helping to raise over $400K for the DC-based Legal Clinic for the Homeless at a charity basketball event.  But the Legal Clinic is not an LSC grantee, and we doubt that either of these senators will stand up to preserve LSC funding at current levels (although Sen. Brown has voiced concern about broad-based cuts to social safety net programs).