By Kristen Pavón

So, there’s only a few more hours until the weekend commences (unless you’re working for the weekend) and I’d like to send you off with a few words of caution. If you’re planning on grabbing some wings at Hooters this weekend, you may want to bring along your handy-dandy vampire-slaying stake.

Thanks to Findlaw’s Legally Weird blog, we can take necessary precautions.  Here’s what happened in St. Petersburg earlier this month:

Florida vampire Josephine Smith, 22, was arrested on charges of felony aggravated battery on an elderly person late last week, accused of attacking 69-year-old Milton Ellis while outside a vacant Hooters in St. Petersburg.

After inviting her to hang out with him at the vacant Hooters, [wheelchair-bound and homeless] Ellis fell asleep, but woke up when Smith yelled, “I’m a vampire, I am going to eat you!”

Thought I was joking?!

As bizarre as this sounds, there are a couple of serious points to make here.

Smith now faces a minimum term of imprisonment of 3 years, mandatory restitution, and up to 500 hours of community service.She’s also probably going to have a psych evaluation and a drug test, as government officials will want to learn as much about this Florida vampire while they have the chance.

Schwerin Campbell Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt LLP, the Pacific Northwest’s largest union-side labor and employment law firm, is looking for an attorney to join their dynamic litigation practice that includes wage & hour and class action work.

Since the 1920s, Schwerin Campbell Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt has been committed to serving working people. Their clients range from hotel, hospital, and homecare workers, to educators, machinists, teamsters, longshore and building trades.

If you’re passionate about representing working people and labor organizations, check out the listing on PSLawNet to find out how to apply!

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  This week’s Bulletin comes to you from a small beach cabin on Cape Cod, where the Internets are spotty but the ocean is gleaming beautifully in the morning sun.  Seemingly overnight, summer has given way to a brisk, lovely autumn morning.  Please pardon typos as I’m laboring with an intermittent Web connection and will call it a victory just to get this blog post published.  

This week: law students aiding a New York federal court in handling an influx of mediation cases; also in the Empire State, chief judge Jonathan Lippman is again on the warpath for more legal services funding; what a Legal Services Corporation funding cut would mean in Maryland, and why taxpayer $ should support legal services; big LSC news – Senate appropriators are contemplating a 2% dip in FY12 LSC funding; to narrow the justice gap, pro bono guru Esther Lardent calls for mandatory law school pro bono (among other measures); the Census Bureau’s release of alarming poverty data, and what it means for the legal services community; the state of legal services funding in the Glorious Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; a big medical-legal partnership conference is about to get underway in the Bay Area. 

• 9.16.11 – there has been much coverage lately in legal and national media about resource shortages confronting court systems throughout the U.S. The Southern District of New York is bringing on law students to help handle its caseload.  From the New York Law Journal: “The Southern District has enlisted three area law schools in a new program that will give participating students a practical exercise in client advocacy and managing expectations and help the court cope with an expected upsurge in mediations. Under the supervision of their professors, approximately 30 students at New York Law School, Seton Hall Law School and Brooklyn Law School will represent about 20 employment discrimination plaintiffs in court-referred mediations. They will meet with clients to ascertain their goals, prepare mediation statements and conduct negotiations before volunteer mediators. If a resolution is reached, the students will also help draft the settlement agreement. However, students will not represent plaintiffs in litigation if the mediation is unsuccessful.”

• 9.15.11 – more New York.  The state’s top jurist is once again leading the charge for state legal services funding.  More New York Law Journal: “With grim economic realities persisting in New York, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman will renew his efforts beginning next week to drive home to the governor and the Legislature the need for greater state funding for civil legal services for the poor. The chief judge will preside over the first of four planned hearings Tuesday in White Plains along with Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau, New York State Bar President Vincent E. Doyle III of Connors & Villardo in Buffalo and A. Gail Prudenti, presiding justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department. Presiding justices of the other three departments will appear at later hearings in Manhattan, Albany and Buffalo.”

• 9.14.11 – in a Baltimore Sun op-ed, Legal Services Corporation board chair John Levi explains what’s at stake if LSC funding sees a significant cut in FY12, lays out the growing need for legal services among Terrapin Staters and Americans generally, and makes the case for supporting federal funding of legal services: “Across the country, civil legal assistance supports the orderly functioning of the civil justice system and access to administrative agencies throughout government. Large numbers of unrepresented parties in courts slow dockets and reduce efficiency in the administration of justice for everyone who needs to use the court system. Individuals unable to obtain advice may later be faced with far greater consequences than if they had been able to have their matters sorted out at an early stage.”

• 9.14.11 – the National Legal Aid & Defender Association is keeping us looped in about LSC appropriation  news on the Senate side.  Recall that a House FY12 proposal would slash LSC funding by over 25% (from just over $400m to $300).  Things are looking a little better in the Senate.  From NLADA: “The Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations subcommittee marked up its FY 2012 funding bill today. The bill includes $396 million for LSC, which is a 2 percent decrease from the FY 2011 level of $404 million. Full committee markup is scheduled for tomorrow, September 15. The House full committee recommended a FY 2012 level of $300 million. No appropriations bills have been cleared and appropriators are preparing a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government running after the end of the fiscal year (September 30).”  Here’s an LSC press release about the subcommittee’s markup.  (Unfortunately, being out of DC and with limited Internets I’m not sure what’s happening with the full Approps. Committee.  I’ll tweet word as soon as I have it.) 

• 9.13.11 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent pens an opinion piece asking, “Is It Time for Mandatory Pro Bono?” in light of the ever-widening justice gap.  Her answer: not yet.  “For both philosophical and highly pragmatic reasons, I believe that mandatory pro bono should be the last possible resort.”  But Lardent does offer some options for increasing pro bono service, one of which is mandatory pro bono in law school.  “Including a substantial pro bono contribution to the American Bar Association law school accreditation standards — e.g., 150 hours during the course of law school as a condition of graduation — would create additional pro bono resources while promoting an appetite for pro bono and teaching tomorrow’s lawyers how to integrate pro bono into a busy schedule.”  Interesting stuff. 

• 9.13.11 – as has been well documented in the media, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2010 poverty data.  The data are – I won the Latin Scholar award in high school so you’re darned right I only use “data” in the plural – less than encouraging.  (Some findings below.)  John Levi, the aforementioned Legal Services Corporation board chair, issued a statement reacting to the data: “The U.S. Census Bureau released its official 2010 statistics on poverty this morning, and the data show that nearly one in five Americans qualifies for civil legal assistance at the legal aid offices funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC).  The number of Americans now eligible for legal services is staggering: more than 60.4 million, up 3.6 million from the prior year.  These 60 million Americans had incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line—$13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.”  Here’s some data from the Census Bureau’s report:
• “The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest since 1993….  Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points.
• 15.1% of the population in 2010 was living in poverty.  That’s almost one in six people.
• “In 2010, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 11.7 percent and 9.2 million, respectively, up from 11.1 percent and 8.8 million in 2009.”
• Over 1 in 5 children lives in poverty.

• 9.11.11 – the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review uses remarks from former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh about pro bono as a launching pad for a review of the legal services infrastructure  in the Keystone State.  Thornburgh “believes pro bono work should be included among the continuing education requirements Pennsylvania lawyers complete every year. It’s a suggestion he made in Boston last month at the first meeting of the 50-member pro bono task force created by the Legal Services Corp….”  The article goes on to look at recent legal services developments, including a letter from the state’s chief justice, imploring lawyers to do more pro bono work, and a 9% cut in state funding of legal services. 

• 9.9.11 – just a few hours from this blog post’s publication, a bigtime medical-legal partnership conference is taking place in one of our nation’s most beautiful locales.  From a press release: “The Bay Area’s most progressive healthcare and legal professionals, students and educators will gather at UC Hastings on Friday, Sept. 16 (8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.) to mark the first Medical-Legal Partnership conference on the West Coast. Their goal: to transform medicine and law practices to improve community health.  The all-day summit is part of the Medical-Legal partnership movement, a healthcare and legal services delivery model that improves health and well-being of vulnerable populations by integrating health and legal systems. The event has been planned by the Medical-Legal Bay Area Regional Coalition (M-BARC), a partnership that includes 10 Medical-Legal Partnerships with 18 medical sites.”

By Kristen Pavón

In a big win for New York housing law and disability advocates, New York settled a 2006 case this week that accused it of “violating the spirit of its own longstanding rules for housing mentally ill people.” The settlement came on the heels of the judge setting a trial date for early October.

Here’s the low-down (as I have gathered from the New York Times article): Back in 2002, NYT did a series of exposé articles revealing the repulsive nursing home conditions that mentally ill people were living in and as a result, this case was filed. Not surprisingly, New York has a “longstanding legal principle . . . [that] the mentally ill cannot be confined unless they are considered a threat to themselves or others, and should be housed in the leased restrictive setting appropriate for their needs.”

The meat of the settlement is in the three-year deadline to move qualifying patients out of nursing homes and into the community. However, the state has also promised to provide for reforming the assessment process that is used to determine whether patients can live in the community and develop 200 new supported housing units.

Read the whole story here.

Share your public-interest wins with us below & let us know what you think of NY’s settlement.

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15), I’ve got a great opportunity for you — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking for a Lead General Attorney for the Office of Regional Counsel (ORC) , Caribbean Team, in . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . San Juan, Puerto Rico! Not only will you be working to promote a cleaner, healthier environment, you’ll be doing so in a gorgeous, tropical setting.

The attorneys on ORC’s Caribbean Team represent the EPA in administrative and civil enforcement litigation arising under a number of federal environmental laws.

Interesado? Check out the listing on PSLawNet.

By Kristen Pavón

When it comes to taking on our nation’s growing access-to-justice crisis, the Pro Bono Institute’s President and Chief Executive Officer Esther Lardent is not willing to wait around for a solution to conveniently present itself, especially because she has sensed apathy outside the legal profession.

In a recent National Law Journal article, she proposed seven bold steps that can alleviate the gap between the need for legal assistance and the availability of free legal services for the poor (teaser: one is mandatory pro bono hours for law students, gasp!).

Lardent contends that the situation is now dire because of the “Great Recession” and budget cuts for legal services organizations and courts across the country. For Lardent, the last resort should be mandating pro bono service for attorneys. However, she has other interesting options. Here’s a quick rundown of her proposals:

1. Voluntary-plus pro bono. Assume all attorneys are willing to take on pro bono cases. Allow uninterested attorneys to opt out of the program, instead of recruiting individual attorneys.

2. Law student pro bono. In contrast to her prescription for attorneys, Lardent suggests law students be required to complete 150 hours of pro bono hours to graduate. She emphasized the value in awakening an appetite for pro bono work and engaging in a hands-on legal experience for students.

3. Pro bono as a criterion for leadership. Attorneys should have a consistent portfolio of pro bono work before becoming eligible for any leadership position.

4. Revise ABA Model Rule 6.1 (the volunteer pro bono publico provision). Rule 6.1 is too broad for Lardent. The definition of pro bono should be narrowed, and should only mean free legal work for low-income or disadvantaged clients (fun fact: Lardent co-authored Rule 6.1 in the 1990s).

5. Bar association contributions. These associations should actively support local legal services programs, financially and on the legislative front.

6. Make pro bono reporting meaningful. Put procedures in place so that accuracy, consistency, disaggregation and transparency are reflected in annual reporting.

7. Triage and simplification. Come up with an effective triage system that would include effectively diagnosing a client’s legal issues and treating them with the “best and least costly legal intervention.” This could include brief advice, education, unbundled assistance or full-fledged zealous representation.

Check out the article in its entirety here. To learn more about Esther Lardent, read her bio here.

What do you think? Do these seem like viable solutions to access-to-justice issues?

The Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, is looking for a Litigation Director to help provide vision for as well as to manage and expand APALC’s impact litigation work.

APALC’s mission to advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and to create a more equitable and harmonious society. Annually, APALC serves more than 15,000 clients.

The Litigation Director will be responsible for the overall development of strategic litigation, including identifying broad patterns of abuse or other systemic rights violations and developing strategies to address these patterns of mistreatment as well as fundraising and relationship building.

Additionally, the Litigation Director will lead a team of civil rights professionals, with a focus on serving indigent clients in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in a variety of substantive legal areas such as worker’s rights, education, race and national origin discrimination and consumer law.

Sounds like a great gig, right?!

Check out the specifics on PSLawNet (login required, but remember — it’s free if your law school is already a subscriber!)

Please note that we’ve extended the nomination deadline to Monday, 9/19 at 5pm Eastern.

NALP is accepting nominations for the 2011 PSLawNet Pro Bono Publico Award, which recognizes the extraordinary contributions that law students make to under-served populations, the public interest community, and legal education by performing pro bono or public service work.

 Eligibility: The Pro Bono Publico Award is available to any second- or third-year law student at a PSLawNet Subscriber School. The recipient will be honored during an Award Luncheon at NALP’s Public Service Mini-Conference on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the Washington, DC office of Arnold & Porter, LLP. The Award recipient will receive transportation to Washington, a one-night stay in an area hotel, a commemorative plaque, and a small monetary award.

Award Criteria: Law students are judged by the extracurricular commitment they have made to law-related public service projects or organizations; the quality of work they performed; and the impact of that work on the community, their fellow students, and the school. Though a student’s involvement in law school-based public interest organizing and fundraising is relevant, actual pro bono and public interest legal work will be the primary consideration.

Nominations must be received by Monday, September 19^th at 5pm Eastern Time. View/download the nomination form here.

By: Steve Grumm

With 3Ls on the job hunt and bar results coming out (soon) for recent grads I figured it worth resurrecting a webinar that NALP produced earlier this year, “Destination Public Interest: Landing the Ideal Public Interest Job.”  The one-hour webinar offers best practices and tips in the areas of cover letter and résumé drafting, as well as interviewing and professional networking.

Presenters:

• Charlene Gomes, Senior Program Manager, Law School Advocacy and Outreach, Equal Justice Works
• Steve Grumm, Director of Public Service Initiatives, NALP
• Jennifer Thomas, Director of Recruiting, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia

By Kristen Pavón

NPRreported that a Chicago judge ordered investigative journalism students to deliver more than 500 emails related to a 33-year-old murder case to state prosecutors. The students were investigating the case as part of the Medill Innocence Project, which has helped free a dozen men wrongfully convicted of murder.

[State prosecutors] filed a subpoena in 2009 demanding all the students’ and professor Protess’ notes, interviews, tapes, emails relative to the case, as well as other documents, including grades and course evaluations. . . .

[T]he judge ruled that the students weren’t acting as journalists, protected by the Illinois reporter’s privilege law, but as investigators for the defense. . . .

There are concerns that if the ruling stands, it could have a chilling effect on the work of journalism students across the country. . . .

Northwestern University has until Sept. 21 to decide whether to appeal.

There is also concern that this may affect law schools’ Innocence Projects that may collaborate with investigate journalism students.

How, if at all, do you think this ruling will affect law school clinical programs?

Read the full story here.