By Jamie Bence

From Wisconsin, more bad news for public defenders facing budget cuts, and the possible impact on defender services. According the report, just 25% of Wisconsin’s public defender offices have enough attorneys. WTAQ explains:

The constitution requires all criminal defendants to have attorneys, regardless of income. And counties must arrange to have private lawyers represent those that the public defender’s office cannot handle.

The report also called on states to consider more of a defendant’s needs when representing the poor.

Thompson says her agency is working on that. It’s working with non-profit service agencies to offer poor defendants help with finding jobs, housing, and mental health care. She says the goal is to reduce the possibility that criminals will offend again – thus keeping them out of the criminal justice system.

The findings come from a report from the Justice Policy Institute, which we blogged about last week.

By Lauren Forbes

We are looking for people who want to contribute their skills and talents to help preserve our Nation’s freedoms and secure our homeland. The mission of the US Dept of Homeland Security is carried out every day by the dedicated men and women who answer the noble calling of public service with courage and enthusiasm. With a diverse and critical mission, we lead the unified effort to secure America.  DHS fosters a culture that values and promotes diversity, teamwork, flexibility and innovation.

In Headquarters, we coordinate, plan, and guide the Department’s work across all DHS components. You could enjoy a career that includes research, administration and management, legal work, budget and finance, cyber security, infrastructure protection and intelligence analysis. Our services touch every U.S. citizen, and our goal is to secure our country across land and sea. Come join the team that is “Proud to Protect.”

This position is for an Attorney Advisor for  the General Law Division located in the Office of the General Counsel.

The Attorney-Advisor (Acquisition and Procurement) serves as the primary day-to-day legal advisor to the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer. Specifically, the incumbent provides procurement legal advice and drafting assistance to policy analysts in the creation of rules for the agency’s Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) supplement, acquisition manual, acquisition alerts and regulatory advisories, as well as topically relevant agency directives and delegations. The incumbent offers legal advice with respect to the agency’s position on FAR cases and pending acquisition and procurement legislation and Executive Branch policies. The incumbent provides legal and strategic advice to the Chief Procurement Officer and staff on legal developments of a precedent-setting character that have agency-wide or Government-wide implications. The incumbent may be requested to serve on interagency or intra-agency panels addressing these matters.

• Research and analyze applicable laws, regulations and policies and provide interpretations and analyses to the DHS General Counsel and other DHS officials.
• Provide legal and strategic advice of small business, acquisition workforce, and acquisition information management system issues.
• Provide legal review, advice and counsel on interagency agreements, contracts and other transactions to the Chief Procurement Officer and staff.
• Provides advice on strategic sourcing matters for the Department.

By Lauren Forbes

Heather Jarvis’ Blog features a breakdown of  how the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011  affects student loans.

The Act provides for:

• Elimination of the in-school loan interest subsidy for graduate and professional students beginning July 1, 2012.
• Elimination of Direct Loan “repayment incentives” (reduction in interest rates for on time payments) for new loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012.
• Additional funding for the Pell Grant program for the next two fiscal years.

The elimination of the graduate and professional in-school interest subsidy and the direct loan repayment incentives are estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to produce a savings of $21.6 billion.   $17 billion of that savings will go to shore up the Pell Grant program, and $4.6 billion will be used to reduce the deficit.

Funding for student aid could be subject to cuts again when the joint congressional committee seeks additional savings.

Farewell in-school interest subsidy on federal loans.  We’ll miss you.

The National District Attorneys Association has a new president: Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully! Public CEO notes that her appointment is significant for several reasons:

As the first woman president of NDAA since it was founded in 1950, Scully continues a long history of breaking new ground for women in her field.  In 1994, Scully became the first woman to be elected Sacramento County District Attorney.  In 2005, she became the first woman to serve as president of the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA).  That same year, Scully started serving on NDAA’s Board of Directors as vice president and was elected president at NDAA’s 2010 annual conference.

Congratulations to Ms. Scully!

By Jamie Bence

While most public interest internships have always been unpaid, the recent downturn in the economy and budget cuts across the private sector and government have forced a growing number of students to take on unpaid summer jobs. PilotOnline explains:

Legal interns in government jobs this summer are learning a painful message: The law doesn’t always pay. Once a fallback for underemployed liberal arts majors, law school has become an expensive path to a profession with no guarantee of a high-paying job.

According to the article, even unpaid opportunities have become increasingly competitive:

Shrinking opportunities in the private sector have also made it tough for young lawyers to land lower-paying public sector jobs, industry experts said. “It’s even more competitive than it was before,” said Kevin Donovan, senior assistant dean for career services at the University of Virginia School of Law. “Even at a top school like Virginia, they have to work hard.”

The problem with the expectation that students can take on unpaid work is twofold:

(1) students are divided up into those who can afford to complete an unpaid internship through support from family or school and those who cannot, and

(2) schools are divided into those that can (or will) allot a significant amount of money to support students during their unpaid summer jobs (while conversely collecting tuitions in student loans from those students during the year).

While the internships can provide invaluable experience and may seem like a surefire way to gain experience, they are almost always limited to a select group of students from certain types of schools.