By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers!  To begin with shameless self-promotion: if you’re inclined to use the Twitters, please follow us at @PSLawNet.  We tweet all of our blog posts along with pieces of timely public interest career and funding news.  And we don’t tweet immodest photos of ourselves.

Also, I apologize for publishing the Bulletin a few minutes late this morning.  The Philadelphia Phillies kept me up until 12:30am last night, only to fall apart on defense, surrendering to the lowly Cubs of Chicago in extra innings.  And now I’ll have to hear about it from the Chicago Bar Foundation folks, which is even worse.

This week we present a Bulletin rich with funding news, although certainly not all of this news speaks to the riches of public interest funding: good news for Lone Star State legal services and indigent defense advocates; but in the Bay State, elected officials may still need some prodding; Have Justice Will Travel urgently needs money to keep moving; in Jacksonville, FL, the city council may boost legal services funding in the wake of state gov’t. stinginess; Legal Services of New Jersey sure could use a funding boost, too; the DOJ’s AtJ program has a new chief; and speaking of DOJ, some advice on becoming an AUSA.

• 6.9.11 – some terrific news out of Texas.  After a legislative roller coaster ride, the state house and senate are in agreement on funding both civil legal services and indigent defense.   From the Tex Parte blog: “Representatives approved an amendment on a general appropriations bill that would add $17.6 million over the biennium for indigent civil legal aid, as well as $7.6 million for indigent criminal defense.”  There had been some back-and-forth on the senate side, too, but that chamber ultimately came through with funding.  “[Now], the House and Senate versions include the same language about indigent legal aid funding. If the bill moves to conference committee, lawmakers would only focus on smoothing out differences.”

• 6.7.11 – in the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Massachusetts, corporate counsel heavy-hitter and Greater Boston Legal Services board member Thomas Gunning pens an op-ed highlighting the importance of adequately funding civil legal services.   After noting some of GBLS’s most important, recent work in helping low-income clients, Gunning looks at the precarious state of funding:  “The need for services is way up in our tough economy and funding is way down.  While private lawyers give millions in support each year, a large portion of budgets come from state funding and interest earned on money held in short-term escrow accounts… For fiscal year 2010, the state cut the legal aid budget by $1.5 million from $11 million to $9.5 million.  At the same time, [IOLTA funding is down].  So with need at record levels, legal aid organizations have been forced to lay off lawyers and staff. They must turn away many more eligible clients than they can represent resulting in denied justice and avoidable social service costs…. After the painful 2010 cuts, the governor and Legislature ‘level funded’ legal aid in 2011 at the reduced amount. The governor’s fiscal year 2012 submitted budget also proposes level funding and the Legislature has shown signs of doing the same. We should certainly hope the final 2012 state budget level funds legal aid so that those in need have access to justice, and we can protect our social service spending from avoidable additional costs.”

• 6.7.11 – a piece in Vermont’s Bennington Banner looks at the work, and financial woes, of Have Justice Will Travel, a thinly staffed organization that provides legal services to domestic violence victims.  Times are very tough indeed on the finance front.  A reduction in a DOJ grant forced the closure of an office, and this summer most of HJWT’s staff are being asked to take a (hopefully) temporary layoff.  The organization is presently scrambling to cobble together more grant funding.

• 6.7.11 – the Daily Record reports that some of the funding cuts that Jacksonville Area Legal Aid will suffer as a result of the Florida governor’s civil legal services funding veto may be offset by Jacksonville City Council: “City Council member Kevin Hyde introduced bill 2010-766 to establish a $40 court fee on felonies, misdemeanors and criminal traffic infractions to provide assistance for foreclosure programs for the disadvantaged through JALA.  An amendment to the original ordinance requested the fee be increased to $50 because of recent budget cuts for JALA at the state level.”

• 6.7.11 – a piece on MyCentralJersey.com looks closely at the dire funding situation of Legal Services of New Jersey: “[LSNJ President Melville D. Miller, Jr.] said that during the past three years, Legal Services of New Jersey has lost a third of its staff and a third of its funding — going from $72 million to $46 million in operating revenue as its staff fell from 720 to 490 attorneys with another 75 advocate set to be lost this year.  Meanwhile, Miller said, poverty in New Jersey has spiked by 8.4 percent over the last year.”  The article also looks at the efforts of Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes, III and other to restore some state funding, and to shore it up in both the shorter and longer term.

• 6.2.11 – there’s a new sheriff in town at the DOJ’s access to justice office.  Main Justice reports: “About six months after the departure of Laurence Tribe as Senior Counselor of the Justice Department Access to Justice Initiative, his successor is in place.  Mark Childress on Thursday was sworn in as the leader of the program that focuses on access to legal services for the poor.  He most recently was the acting General Counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services.”  Childress has a fairly varied resume, including a stint as a partner at Foley Hoag, some high-level staff work in the White House and on the Hill, and even some work with an aboriginal business development entity in Australia.

• June, 2011 – a former Assistant U.S. Attorney contributes a piece to this month’s edition of the ABA’s Young Lawyer, explaining how one may land one of these coveted, federal positions: “Assistant U.S. Attorneys…are experienced trial attorneys who come from a variety of backgrounds, including both the public and private sectors, as well as the military. Generally, the attorneys have five to seven years of litigation experience before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While many aspects of a particular applicant are considered, trial experience is the most significant requirement. A strong working knowledge of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is important.”