Kentucky Equal Justice Center is looking for an attorney committed to public interest advocacy and with experience in employment law to serve as staff for KEJC’s Workers’ Rights Project.

The Employment Law Attorney will provide services other than direct representation of clients. The attorney will work as a multi-forum advocate for low wage and non-traditional workers through partnerships, policy advocacy, impact litigation and community education.

Is this just what you were looking for? Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

Another great legal aid program bites the dust.

The Florida Bar Foundation is the only statewide organization in Florida that provides funding for legal aid (and does so without strings) and promotes improvements in addressing the civil legal needs of the poor.

The FBF has already suspended funding for the Florida Law School Civil Clinics and Florida Public Service Fellows programs. Now, the Foundation’s Legal Aid Summer Fellowship program is also being suspended. The good people at the FBF expect that funding for the Summer Fellowship program will be suspended for several years, possibly.

This is a sad day for civil legal aid in Florida. I was a Legal Aid Summer Fellow in 2010 and the amount of legal work fellows accomplish in ten weeks is incredible. In ten weeks, I was able to meet and interview with more than 60 clients, offer advice to almost all of them, and draft over 20 legal documents for pending litigation. And that was just me. The other 39 fellows did the same, if not more, I’m sure.

Let’s do a bit of math, shall we? In theory, the 2010 summer fellows funded by the FBF helped 2,400 clients and wrote 800 legal documents. That’s a big hit for legal aid organizations in Florida.

The benefits that the fellows received from the program are immeasurable. Fellows were able to build relationships with attorneys, save some money (the pay is $5,000 for rising 2Ls and $7,000 for rising 3Ls — paid for my Barbri course!), learn the ropes and do some really satisfying work.

I hope the program comes back sooner than later.

The Foundation’s main source of support comes from the Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program. However, Foundation grants also are supported by gifts from Florida attorneys, law firms, corporations, foundations and other individuals.

by Kristen Pavón

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of integration in Memphis City schools, WMC-TV ran a story about the beginning of desegregation in Memphis. It profiles Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, whose daughter was one of the thirteen children who became known as the Memphis 13.

Kyles was the head of the NAACP’s Education Committee in 1961 and was part of the bold plan to begin desegregation at city schools with 13 first graders.

“In my own case, my daughter was five years old, and I had to give some thought to putting a five-year-old in that position,” said Kyles.  “But we said, well, it’s got to be done.  If if has to be done, we will do it.”

Kyles’ daughter and 12 other children became known as the Memphis 13.  While Kyles has marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and been involved in the fight for civil rights his whole life, he was stunned by the intense anger of people who did not want white and black children to attend school together.

Kyles said police had to surround his daughter’s school to keep mobs away, but even some police ordered to protect them hurled racial insults.

Kyles said the courage those 13 first graders and their parents showed is something people of all races should be proud of.

Interesting perspective. Read the entire story here.

By: Steve Grumm

Catch SCOTUS fever!  The Atlantic’s got “A Constitutional-Law Nerd’s Take on Upcoming Supreme Court Cases.”  The Washington Post’s Interweb site has some great SCOTUS content up as well, including coverage of the fact that retired justice John Paul Stevens – who is one sharp-witted nonagenarien – is as active off the bench as he was on it.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation seeks a Staff Attorney in its Philip Merrill Environmental Center headquarters office located in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is the largest regional non-profit conservation organization working solely to save the Bay. Established in 1967, CBF has a staff of approximately 185 employees working in offices in Annapolis and Salisbury, Maryland; Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C., and in 17 field education program locations.

CBF seeks to employ strategic litigation to reduce nutrient and toxic pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. The Staff Attorney will undertake legal and factual research to develop and support proposed and pending litigation designed to aid in Bay restoration.

The position requires an Attorney who is able to handle complex litigation from inception to trial, as well as be responsible for day to day case management. The staff attorney will report directly to the Litigation Vice President.

For more information about CBF and to apply, see the listing at PSLawNet.

by Kristen Pavón

In a pretty well-coordinated and large-scale human rights movement, thousands of inmates are continuing a hunger strike in an effort to bring about policy changes in the California prisons.

The strikers are accusing officials of not following through on earlier promises to overhaul policies governing the Security Housing Units, where some prisoners, including several strike leaders, have spent decades locked in windowless cells.

Corrections officials say prisoners housed in the units are dangerous gang leaders who need to be segregated from the general prison population for security reasons. Officials also say they are moving forward with significant policy changes that were discussed with Pelican Bay inmates during the last hunger strike, which ended July 20.

A separate department memo also distributed to inmates today outlined the new policies being developed by senior corrections staff, including “increased privileges based upon disciplinary free behavior, a step down process for SHU (Security Housing Unit) inmates, and a system that better defines and weighs necessary points in the (gang) validation process.” The memo warned that work on the new policies “may be delayed by large-scale inmate disturbances or other emergency circumstances.”

Prisoners’ rights advocates, Marilyn McMahon, executive director of California Prison Focus, and Carol Strickman of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children are under investigation by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for allegations of misconduct and unspecified security threats.

[They] have been banned from state institutions until the investigation is resolved, according to temporary exclusion orders signed by Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Sept. 29.

The investigation will determine whether the attorneys “violated the laws and policies governing the safe operations of institutions within the CDCR,” the order states.

There is concern among prisoners’ rights advocates that the hunger strike will cost the inmates their lives or serious injuries because neither side seems open to compromising.

Read the whole story and updates at California Watch or HuffPost.

Thoughts?