Next week is EJW’s last webinar in their educational debt relief series. Check it out!

Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1-2 p.m. EST

For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.

You will learn about:

•     The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans

•     What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

•     How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

Register here!

Also, find out more about PSLawNet & EJW’s webinar series on the summer public interest job search here.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) works to reduce animal suffering and promote the welfare of all animals, including animals in agriculture.

As a part of its mission, AWI promotes humane farming systems and works to advance legislative and regulatory efforts to improve the conditions of farm animals.

During the summer of 2012, one promising student will have the opportunity to learn more about farm animal law and policy as a law clerk or intern Responsibilities include legal research and writing, tracking legislation and regulations, and drafting public policy comments.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

New Mexico Appleseed is offering a two-year fellowship beginning in the fall of 2012 to work on poverty issues plaguing New Mexico. The fellow will do extensive research, writing, and policy/community advocacy on issues pertaining to poverty. Topics include hunger policy issues (school and afterschool meals, summer food, Native American hunger, and SNAP), economic development, and housing and homelessness.

New Mexico Appleseed crafts and advocates for high-impact policy solutions to problems affecting the poor and underserved. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and part of the national Appleseed network of 17 public interest justice centers in the United States and Mexico. Because New Mexico Appleseed is a trusted knowledge base on the law, best practices elsewhere, and the financial impacts of the policies it proposes, it has been able to make major changes in how schools and the state do business on issues that matter to it.

To learn how to apply, see the full listing at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

The National Law Journal’s Karen Sloan focused on recent discussion within the legal academy about changes in the larger profession:

The state of the profession has not traditionally been a focus of law professors, said George Washington University Law School professor Thomas Morgan, author of the book The Vanishing American Lawyer. That remained true until about one year ago, when more people within the academy started taking note of the rumblings within the profession, he said. “We need to try and bridge what is a mutual set of problems,” Morgan said.

‘REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS’

Still, there remains a gap between the magnitude of change advocated by some within the profession and the modest innovations law schools are pursuing. Those innovations include a wider array of clinics, harnessing technology in simulations and student projects, and teaching transactional lawyering skills.

“I think they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” said Susan Hackett, chief executive officer of consulting firm Legal Executive Leadership and former general counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel. “The discussion seems to be, ‘Let’s add a Thursday evening extra-credit course on the legal profession that meets for a couple of hours.’ That’s just tweaking around the edges.”

by Kristen Pavón

So, we’ve all heard about mentorship and the benefits of having someone to talk to about your career path and help guide you about professional decisions. Well, it’s time to either a) get a sponsor or b) become a sponsor. Sponsorship kicks mentorship up about 10 notches. I had never heard of sponsorship before, but it seems like a necessary relationship to have in this job market.

My colleague, Millie Bond, wrote an article on this very topic after we attended a sponsorship session at NALP’s Professional Development Institute last month.

Here’s a teaser…

Having someone in your corner, whom you can count on to listen to your concerns and provide useful feedback, is valuable and necessary.  Most of us refer to these corner men and women as mentors.  They’re great but when searching for career advancement a corner person isn’t enough.  What you need is a promoter.  This person is able to talk about you and your work to leaders and decision makers within your organization.  These professional promoters are sponsors.

Stellings and Warren describe sponsors as people who “have power and clout, are key decision makers, provide visibility and expand networks, and are active advocates who fight for opportunities.”  In other words, your sponsor is willing and able to sing your praises and has ability to influence other decision makers and leaders within your organization.

Find out how to find or become a sponsor at NALPcomments!

Legal Aid of Western Missouri (LAWMo) has been providing essential legal services to low-income citizens since 1964. LAWMo staff attorneys, paralegals and volunteers assist over 20,000 people each year with problems that seriously affect their ability to provide for themselves and their families. With that level of service, it is important that the community be aware of the organization’s mission and activities.

The Attorney/Director will continue an extensive public awareness campaign targeting the English as a Second Language (ESL) and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) population of our 40 county service area to provide info/workshops about ITINs, W2 and Earned Income Tax Credits.

Additional duties include but not limited to handling relatively straightforward tax controversy cases, recruiting volunteer attorneys to handle tax controversy cases and overseeing the implementation and enhancement of Legal Aid’s policy for serving clients with Limited English Proficiency.

To find out how to apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

The free webinars I’m sharing with you today (after all, sharing is caring) are sponsored by NELP — the National Employment Law Project and are geared for attorneys working in employment law or are interested in employment law. However, law students may also find them interesting.

Here are the deets from NELP:

Please join NELP for its upcoming January webinars. We are kicking off the new year with a two-part webinar series on targeted hiring policies, and a session on recent changes to Trade Adjustment Assistance.  See below for further details and registration information.
Legal Issues and Challenges in Crafting Targeted Hiring Policies
Co-hosted by the Partnership for Working Families
Tuesday, January 24, 2-3 PM EST  |  Click here to register!
 
The Great Recession has left deep cuts in the economies of states and cities across the country, with unemployment remaining high and jobs slow to recover.  In response, many localities are searching for ways to make smart economic development choices that will create jobs and set communities on surer economic footing. Targeted hiring policies are one way to ensure that such jobs result in career-ladder, family-supporting work for local workers.

In this webinar, you will learn about the legal issues that are important to consider when designing targeted hiring policies and agreements. You’ll also hear about issues related to different funding streams, types of projects, and  legal vehicles for advancing targeted hiring objectives.  Common myths and challenges that often present roadblocks to crafting local hiring policies will also be discussed.

Presenters:  Ben Beach, Legal Director, PWF; Julian Gross, Project Attorney, PWF. Moderated by Anastasia Christman, Senior Policy Analyst, NELP.
The Implementation and Impact of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011
Co-hosted by the AFL-CIO’s Working for America Institute
Friday, January 27, 1-2 PM EST  |  Click here to register!
 
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is a critical source of income support and retraining for workers who have lost their jobs because of globalization, and the program recently underwent a number of changes under the TAA Extension Act of 2011.  In this webinar, you’ll gain a macro-view of TAA, its impact on workers affected by trade, and an overview of changes under the Act.  You’ll also learn about state implementation issues and amendments to the IRS’s Health Coverage Tax Credit Program.

Presenters: Mike Goldman, DWP Labor Liason, MN DEED; Ragini Kapadia, Senior Economic Analyst, Working for America Institute; Laren Neatherlin, Outreach Coordinator, Stakeholder Support IRS HCTC; Debra Schlekewy, TAA Coordinator, MN DEED; Lindsay Webb, TAA Coordinator, NELP.  Moderated by Lynn Minick, Workforce Development Specialist, NELP.

Best Practices in Developing and Implementing Targeted Hiring Policies
Co-hosted by the Partnership for Working Families
Tuesday, January 31, 2-3 PM EST  |  Click here to register!
In this second session of our targeted hiring webinar series, you will hear about programmatic issues in creating and implementing targeted hiring policies on the ground.  You’ll learn about effective approaches and lessons learned in implementing targeted hiring policies for both construction and non-construction projects, as well as best practices, such as recruitment and training programs, that ensure targeted hiring policies reach local residents and result in meaningful opportunities.

Presenters: Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Deputy Director, PWF; Marie McKenzie, Redevelopment Project Manager, City of East Palo Alto. Moderated by Paul Sonn, Staff Attorney, NELP.

Enjoy!

West Virginia Law is launching a new clinic which sit at the intersection of land use and natural resource extraction/conservation.  From the Register-Herald:

A new law clinic at West Virginia University, funded by millions of dollars in legal settlements between environmental groups and coal companies, will focus much of its effort on the New and Gauley river watersheds.
…

“There are just a handful of these land use clinics across the country,” says [clinic managing attorney Nathan Fetty. “The idea was that West Virginia does not have the resources for land and water protection like surroundings states, so this clinic is an effort to beef up West Virginia’s resources to protect land and water. For us to have this clinic in West Virginia is a big feather in our cap as far as we’re concerned.”

The clinic resulted from lawsuits brought by environmental groups against coal companies for pollution discharges. Instead of penalties going into the general funds of federal coffers, the litigants decided to use the money to create a “supplemental environmental project,” or SEP.

“In other words, we’re funded by virtue of those payments by coal companies to settle these lawsuits,” says Fetty.

The clinic will work closely with the West Virginia Land Trust, which will receive about $4.5 million from settlements, mostly from a case involving Alpha Resources.

by Kristen Pavón

A bitter minority² vs. minority battle (temporarily anyway) ended earlier this week when a NY judge granted a preliminary injunction against the construction of an affordable housing project on 31-acres of city-owned land in Brooklyn.

The planned Broadway Triangle affordable housing project was designed to be full of multi-room apartments in buildings no higher than eight stories – perfect for chasidic families with many children, who can’t use an elevator on Shabbat or holidays.

Plaintiffs in the case claim the project is discriminatory by design, meant to favor Orthodox applicants, though the area is heavily black and Latino. As a result, plaintiffs claim, the planned project is a violation of the Fair Housing Act, Equal Protection Clause and state and city human rights laws.

“There can be no compliance with the Fair Housing Act where defendants never analyzed the impact of the community preference,” Goodman wrote in her decision last month, which became public last week. . . .

A demographic analyst working for the plaintiffs . . . Lance Freeman of Columbia University, testified that in the districts qualifying for the project, 90,000 blacks and Hispanics needed small apartments, compared with only 9,000 whites and/or Yiddish speakers who needed large apartments, the New York Times reported. That made the focus on large apartments out of character with the area, plaintiffs said. . . .

The city and the defendants are debating whether to appeal the ruling or to allow the case to go to trial, said David Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, citing conversations with those involved.

I find this stuff fascinating (fair housing cases, not discrimination)… I’m not informed enough to have an opinion on this yet, but I will say that it’s sad to see minorities fighting each other rather than working together.

You can read more about the case at here.

Also, FYI — I get great policy articles (like this one) in my inbox from the National Institute for Latino Policy. You can join the NiLP Network here.

The Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ) is accepting applications for its spring semester internship program.

CFYJ seeks interns interested in being introduced to the “nuts and bolts” of juvenile and criminal justice reform and issue campaign organization and management. This may include everything from poring through government reports, statistics, records, and data to working on the communications strategy associated with a state-based campaign/ initiative or analyzing legislation with clear policy implications.

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!