OneJustice is looking for an individual hoping to make a dramatic difference in the world, gain exceptional work experience on a high-caliber team, and play an influential and exciting role in a highly-productive environment.

The staff attorney is responsible for expanding and managing OneJustice’s statewide Capacity Building Project, which seeks to expand the capacity of legal services nonprofits to serve more clients through nonprofit management trainings and resources, linking nonprofits with law student summer interns, and linking nonprofits with postgraduate legal fellows. The Attorney will leverage resources to better serve attorneys and staff at legal services organizations, thereby better serving all Californians.

OneJustice is a statewide legal services nonprofit that expands legal help for underserved Californians by building infrastructure and partnerships in the legal community. Every day, OneJustice works with lawyers and law students around the state to assist and empower Californians in need of legal help to overcome legal barriers to basic life necessities.

If interested, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

Here are a few legal advice clinics going on for our veterans in commemoration of Veterans Day, as well as some ongoing resources.

California

• San Diego Bankruptcy Law Firm is giving back to the San Diego Veteran community with a new bankruptcy service. The law firm has partnered with Thomas Jefferson School of Law Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic to offer free bankruptcy services to San Diego Veterans.

Colorado

• Nov. 11 – The fifth annual Northern Colorado Veterans STAND-DOWN from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Catholic Charities – The Mission, 460 Linden Center Drive, Fort Collins. The Colorado Bar Association will be offering free legal assistance to veterans, service members and their families.
• The Colorado Bar Association will be offering free legal assistance to veterans, service members and their families from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Citadel Mall on the upper level of the food court area near guest services, 750 Citadel Drive East. The event is hosted by the El Paso Bar Association.
• The Colorado Bar Association will be offering free legal assistance to veterans, service members and their families from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Matthews Center, 3030 Downing St., Denver.

New  York

• Free Services for Veterans at ‘Veterans Stand Down’ November 21,  which will be held at the 1st Marine Corps District Headquarters, located at 605 Stewart Avenue in Garden City, NY.

Oklahoma

• Tulsa County Bar Association will hold a free legal advice clinic for area military service members and veterans on Nov. 10 from 1:30 – 4 p.m. The clinic will take place at the Tulsa County Bar Center, 1446 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa.
• Nov. 11 – Free Legal Advice Clinic For Active Duty Military and Veterans — sponsored by the Carter County Bar Association, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Santa Fe Depot, 251 E. Main St.

Phoenix

• Nov. 11 – Muskogee County Bar Association’s free legal advice clinic — 9 a.m. to noon, Arrowhead Mall, 501 N. Main St., for all military service members and veterans.
  

Other Resources for veterans

• Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans
• Oregon Veterans Resources
• VetsFirst
• New Jersey State Bar Association Military Legal Assistance Program
• ABA Coordinating Committee on Veterans Benefits & Services
• Lawyers Serving Warriors
• National Veterans Legal Services Program
• The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program
• The Military Law Task Force
• National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates

by Kristen Pavón

The Guardian reported yesterday that the legal profession is bracing itself for an increase in pro se litigants as a result of the legal aid budget cuts, which are set for 2013.

. . . [W]ith £350m set to be lopped off the legal aid budget in 2013, removing funding for areas such as divorce and housing cases, turning up to court without a brief is about to become a lot more common.

A report on litigants-in-person to be published on Friday acknowledges this, setting out measures for minimising the chaos that will be caused by the coming surge of “DIY lawyers”.

Here are a few of the solutions lawyers are considering to address this surge:

• Prevention of legal battles through public legal education
• Increased reliance on and use of experienced volunteers, including law students, unemployed lawyers and retired lawyers
• Creating a more formalized pro bono structure in law firms (rely on peer pressure rather than a pro bono mandate)

Pretty general suggestions if you ask me… Read more here.

Thoughts?

This public interest law firm is looking for a senior attorney with 5+ years of experience practicing civil complex litigation and class actions.

The Legal Advocacy Center of Central Florida, Inc. (LACCF) is a non-profit non- Legal Services Corporation restricted law firm dedicated to enforcing the legal rights of eligible low-income clients and disabled persons in Florida Legal Services Region III by providing advice and counsel, legal representation on “impact matters” and class action lawsuits, community education and outreach, and legislative advocacy.

Sound interesting to you? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

The last car I owned was a 1991 Honda Civic.  If the police attached a GPS tracker to it, my car would have quadrupled in value.  But that’s beside the point.

Yesterday in U.S. v. Jones the Supreme Court heard arguments on the questions of whether, according to SCOTUSblog:

 (1) Whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on respondent’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment; and (2) whether the government violated respondent’s Fourth Amendment rights by installing the GPS tracking device on his vehicle without a valid warrant and without his consent.

Supreme Court observers generally found the high court wary of such government power.  A National Law Journal recap from Marcia Coyle offers:

Police use of GPS surveillance and society’s expectations of privacy clashed in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices weighed new technology and its impact on Fourth Amendment rights.

With multiple references to the novel 1984, a majority of the justices seemed uncomfortable with the federal government’s defense of law enforcement’s warrantless use of a GPS tracking device on a suspected drug dealer’s car over a four-week period. But the justices also struggled to find a legal way to regulate that type of surveillance.

Writing in SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denison notes:

The argument in the much-anticipated case of U.S. v.  Jones (docket 10-1259) left a solid impression: the Court, though it is unsure just how much privacy remains in the new  digital world, does know just enough about the GPS device to see in it a considerable threat to people’s right to be let alone. 

By: Steve Grumm

Below is a link to a short survey that NALP and the NALP Foundation are distributing nationwide to attorneys in nonprofit and government practice.  The “Law School Experiential Learning: Opportunities and Benefits” survey is designed to learn:

1. how many attorneys in government and nonprofit law offices took experiential learning courses (e.g., clinics, externships, skills courses) as law students; and
2. how these courses have contributed to the attorneys’ effectiveness in practice today.

The survey is part of an important discussion about how the legal education curriculum can be shaped to produce the best attorneys.  We are especially interested in receiving replies from attorneys who have been in practice for fewer than seven years, but encourage all attorneys to complete the survey.

• Survey link:                https://survey.vovici.com/se.ashx?s=17CFEB6018D8CBFC
• Deadline:                     December 9, 2011
• Time to complete:      5-10 minutes
• Distribute to:               Attorneys in nonprofit and government practice.  Please distribute this survey far and wide among colleagues.
• Confidentiality:           NALP and the NALP Foundation will never release any research that can be used to identify either an individual or an employer.  We also will not share an individual attorney’s survey response with their employer.

The survey results will be published in a comprehensive report, expected in Spring 2012. We performed a similar survey among law firm associates last year, and the 2012 report will include comparisons between the two groups’ experiences. 

Here is a link to a PDF version of the survey in case attorneys wish to review it before completing or distributing to others: http://tinyurl.com/6sufzr4.  (The PDF survey version is provided for review purposes only.  The online survey should be completed and submitted.)

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Steve Grumm, NALP’s Director of Public Service Initiatives, at sgrumm@nalp.org or Judy Collins, NALP’s Director of Research, at jcollins@nalp.org.  We appreciate you taking the time to assist us in this important effort.

by Kristen Pavón

Cover letter endings are tricky. In my PR courses, professors advised me not to leave the ball in the employer’s court at the end of my cover letter. So, I usually ended my cover letters with something like this:

I will contact you within a week to follow up on my application. However, you may contact me at blah, blah, blah. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

After starting law school and getting some feedback on my resumes/cover letters, I stopped being so “aggressive” and to the chagrin of my PR profs, ended my letters by gingerly placing the ball in the employers’ courts with the shamefully passive “thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

Now, I’m rethinking this whole thing again.

I came across a post on The Nonprofit Times’ Jobs Blog about this very issue.

One of the most common mistakes people make when writing an ending is using passive language.  Here are a few examples:

• “I look forward to hearing back from you in the near future.”
• “If you wish to discuss my qualifications further, get back to me.”
• “I think you will find that my qualifications really fit well with your position, and I hope to hear back from you.”

For me, the problem with these endings is that they show no initiative, no assertiveness, and no glimmer of perseverance!

On the other hand, I’ve heard that more assertive endings can give the employer the idea that an applicant is conceited.

The NPT Jobs blog suggests ending your cover letters on a confident and respectful note, like this:

• “I will contact you within the week to follow up on my application.  Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or requests.  Thank you for your time and your consideration.”
• “I have enclosed my resume, which will contain additional details about my qualifications.  If you have any additional questions, please contact me.  I look forward to discussing the job with you in the coming weeks.”
• “Thank you for taking the time to review my credentials.  I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have at your convenience.”
• “I appreciate you considering me for this position.  I will contact you soon so we can discuss my qualifications further, and see if we can find a time to schedule an interview.”

I tend to agree — by keeping the ball in your court (can you tell I miss basketball? When will this lockout end?!), you’ve set yourself up with an opportunity to talk with an employer and make another good impression.

What do you think? How do you end your cover letters?

Brooklyn Defender Services is looking for full-time summer law interns with a commitment to public defense! The internship program is a ten-week program and duties include legal research and writing, representation of clients in arraignments (under supervision), court appearances, client and witness interviews, trial preparation and investigation assistance.

Brooklyn Defender Services protects the legal rights of poor Brooklyn residents who are charged with crimes and have nowhere else to turn for help. They believe all people—regardless of economic means—deserve respect, individualized care and the fullest extent of legal protections when accused of a crime. They are one of the largest NYC legal service providers, serving 18,000 people each year!

If interested, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

The Institute for Justice Center for Judicial Engagement is hosting a law student essay contest! Entries are due no later than February 6, 2012.

Here’s some background info from IJ:

For too long, the public debate over the role of the judiciary in American society has been consumed by a battle between two empty slogans: “judicial activism” and “judicial restraint.”

The Institute for Justice’s Center for Judicial Engagement seeks to change that debate:  Judges should not be “activist” (which is too often simply a code word for “a judge whose decision the speaker does not like”), nor should they be “restrained” (which is too often simply code for complete judicial abdication).  Instead, judges should be engaged—engaged in the process of applying the law to the actual facts of the case before them, including constitutional cases.

The Center’s law student essay contest seeks to reward the best law student writing designed  to persuade the general public of the virtues of judicial engagement.

Word limit

Entrants should write an essay of no more than 2,000 words.

Topic

In an essay aimed at a popular audience, discuss the role of the courts in American government and the differences among judicial engagement, judicial activism, and judicial abdication.

Recent debates over the role of the courts in reviewing legislative enactments have focused heavily on terminology:  specifically, whether we should be most concerned with courts that engage in “judicial activism” or whether, as the Eleventh Circuit wrote in striking down portions of the Affordable Care Act, in cases of legislative overreach, “the Constitution requires judicial engagement, not judicial abdication.”

Winners will be those who most clearly and persuasively articulate the principles and importance of judicial engagement.  Further explanation of those principles and their application can be found at www.ij.org/cje<http://www.ij.org/cje>.

Prizes!

First prize will be a $3,000 award, along with a free trip to Washington, D.C. to receive your prize at IJ’s headquarters; second prize will net a $1,000 award; and third prize $500.

How to Enter & Deadline

Students should email a Word version of their essay (no PDFs) to essays@ij.org no later than February 6, 2012.  Late entries will not be considered.  The Institute for Justice will announce winners by mid-April of 2012.

Good luck!

International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) is looking for a full-time associate to work on its international human rights cases, which employ legal strategies to hold multinational corporations accountable for human rights abuses. All cases are administered through the Washington, DC office of Conrad & Scherer, LLP.

International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) is a new organization that is the successor to the litigation department of the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF).

IRAdvocates is dedicated to the expansion of ILRF’s successful efforts to use innovative legal mechanisms to hold corporations and governments accountable for human rights violations worldwide.

If this interests you, check out the listing at PSLawNet!