By: Steve Grumm

Greetings, readers!  The big news this week is a House proposal to take a big chunk out of LSC funding in FY12.  Other news items will carry us from Vermont to Pennsylvania (home of the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise, presently the best team in the majors – FYI) to Mississippi to California to Hawaii, with stops at various points between. 

This week: Have Justice Will Travel up against the ropes financially; House proposes 25% cut in Legal Services Corporation funding (yikes!); IOLTA funds distributed in Mississippi; in PA, state funding for legal services cut; a new CO pro bono program for appellate-level cases; from multiple-time drug offender to assistant district attorney – that’s taking a new career path; is this man the “face of bad court-appointed lawyers”?; Aloha State legal services programs to benefit from filing fee bump-up; AmLaw’s pro bono report is out, numbers are down; foreclosure defense funding in the Bay Area.   

• 7.7.11 –Have Justice Will Travel, an organization that represents domestic violence victims in Vermont, is hurting for cash.  Vermont Public Radio has the story: “Wynona Ward of Vershire founded Have Justice Will Travel in 1998. Raised in a violent household herself, Ward eventually became a lawyer dedicated to helping others in that plight.  Her organization is the only one in Vermont that specializes in legal representation in divorce, child custody and similar cases. But now Ward has had to lay off five of her six employees. Ward hopes the situation is just temporary.”  What’s really hurt the group is the loss of DOJ grant funding.  (VAWA funding, probably.)  Props to John Lamson, an attorney who was laid off by HJWT, but who has taken the time to continue representing DV victims at no charge, hopeful that a new funding stream will put him back on salary.  (Faithful Bulletin readers – all six of you – will recall that HJWT got some similar press attention in early June.)

• 7.6.11 – a House of Representatives proposal would slash Legal Services Corporation funding by over 25% in FY2012.  From an LSC press release: “The [House Appropriations] Committee bill proposes a $300 million budget for LSC [which now stands at just over $400 million] —rolling back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999.  LSC’s preliminary estimates show that about 235,000 low-income Americans eligible for civil legal assistance at LSC-funded programs would be turned away if the Committee proposal were enacted.”  The House proposal is frightening, but is hardly the last word.  The Obama Administration had proposed a $450 million LSC budget, while LSC itself is shooting for $515 million.  And the Senate hasn’t weighed in with a figure yet, but it will undoubtedly not be as low as the House’s. 

• 7.5.11 – the Mississippi Center for Legal Services received 96,000 in IOLTA funds, according to the Sun Herald.  According to its website, MCLS receives 90% of its funding from LSC.  Given the potential for a considerable drop in LSC field grants whenever a federal budget gets passed for FY12, other funding streams, such as IOLTA, are going to become increasingly important.  With respect to IOLTA funding in the Magnolia State, you can view a list of 2011-12 funding recipients here.

• 7.5.11 – the Legal Intelligencer reports on state funding for Pennsylvania legal services programs.  The bad news: Due to some last-minute budget reshuffling, state funding will drop by 10%, down from $3.04 million to $2.7 million.  ” ‘Right now ranks up right there with one of the most challenging years we’ve experienced in the nearly 40 years of the statewide legal aid system,’ [Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network exec. director Samuel] Milkes said. ‘It’s not only the cuts that we’re experiencing here but cuts in federal funding for programs, too. It’s just occurring everywhere’.”  The silver lining: “Another source of funding for both legal services and for the judiciary was passed by both houses of the General Assembly: a bill that will continue temporary filing fee surcharges until Dec. 31, 2014. One dollar of the $11.25 surcharge goes to civil legal aid and $10.25 goes to the judiciary. Milkes said that the legal services community is hoping that Harrisburg lawmakers will also extend a $2 filing fee that goes toward civil legal aid and which is slated to sunset Nov. 1, 2012.”

• 7.5.11 -the Denver Post reports on a Colorado pro bono program focused on providing assistance to low-income litigants at the appellate level.  “The program started as the brainchild of appellate court Judges Daniel Taubman and David Richman, who saw litigants representing themselves struggle with complex legal issues….  Until last year, there was no assistance for low-income people trying complex cases before the state’s appellate and Supreme courts, said Christina Gomez, who is chairwoman of the committee that screens applications.   So far, 27 people have asked for help and volunteer attorneys have taken on 10 cases, Gomez said…. The program accepts applications from people who make 125 percent of the federal poverty level or less, and handles cases involving property rights, contract disputes, family law, employment and others topics. Cases involving prison discipline, election appeals, unemployment compensation and post-criminal-conviction relief are excluded.
   
• 7.4.11 – arrested on drug charges, shot five times, and now a prosecutor in the Philly D.A.’s office.  The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the remarkable story of A.D.A. Kevin Harden, Jr.  Harden grew up in very difficult circumstances, made some critical course-corrections after serious run-ins with the law, and now supports himself and two younger brothers since both of his parents have died.  As also noted in the story, Harden’s been the subject of some criticism regarding his hiring. Harden has the strong support of District Attorney Seth Williams, however, and also gets high marks from Dean JoAnne Epps at his alma mater (and mine!), Temple Law.

• 7.4.11 – the Detroit Free Press checks up on court-appointed defense counsel Robert Slameka, who was profiled in 2009 NPR story focused on how poorly resourced many indigent defense systems are, leading to attorneys acting with little client interaction, little funding, and little oversight.   The Free Press, characterizing Slameka as having been “the face bad court-appointed lawyers” in the NPR story, hones in on his long disciplinary record.  However, the story also quotes some defenders of the defender, who note that anyone who has spent decades doing indigent defense work will be subject to some criticism.

• 7.3.11 -Aloha State legal services advocates have reason to be mahalo-ful.  From the Honolulu Star Advertiser: “Starting Jan. 1, the cost of filing a state lawsuit will increase under a measure approved by lawmakers this year to help fund nonprofit groups providing assistance to Hawaii residents who can’t afford to pay for legal services.   The legislation could generate an additional $1 million or more a year and was one of the key initiatives by the Access to Justice Commission, created by the Hawaii Supreme Court in 2007 after a study found that four of five low-income residents don’t get the legal help they need.”

• 7.1.11 – AmLaw issued its annual pro bono report this week, showing a drop-off in pro bono by the 200 highest grossing law firms between 2009 and 2010.  From the report overview: “Average pro bono hours for lawyers at Am Law 200 firms plummeted 8 percent in 2010 to their lowest level in three years, reversing a decade of steady growth. The overall average percentage of lawyers who did more than 20 hours of pro bono work dipped 5.2 percent.”  Context is important here.  In 2009, law firms were still “right-sizing” their attorney workforces, meaning that there were still many associates doing a lot of pro bono because of a shortage of fee-paying work.  In 2010, there were fewer attorneys and fee-paying work began picking up, which meant less time for pro bono.  This doesn’t explain the pro bono drop-off entirely, but in my view it’s a significant factor.

• 7.1.11 – foreclosure defense funding in the Bay Area.  From the San Jose Mercury News: “South Bay and Peninsula residents at risk of losing their homes got a boost Friday when the Silicon Valley Community Foundation awarded $511,000 to organizations who work to prevent foreclosure.  The foundation says the award will allow seven nonprofits in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to retain employees who were hired with previous grants from the foundation. That should allow the groups to provide housing counseling or legal services to more than 1,000 people.  [Among the benefiting organizations,] Bay Area Legal Aid, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto each received $75,000 to provide legal assistance to those facing foreclosure.”