By: Steve Grumm

Particularly in the Great Recession’s wake, there has been much discussion about whether and how to make fundamental changes to the way we train new lawyers.  But this debate far predates the recession.  Stakeholders in legal education have for several years been examining the current orthodoxy, especially in asking whether we should be de-emphasizing the “casebook” model in favor of additional experiential learning opportunities and teamwork exercises.

In 2006 Stanford Law School undertook several measures to alter its education model.  Six years later they’re eager to tell us about their progress.  Here’s an excerpt from a detailed press release highlighting SLS’s expansion of team-oriented coursework, clinicals, joint degree programs, etc.. 

Stanford Law School today announced the completion of the first phase of comprehensive reforms to its legal curriculum that began in November 2006—successfully transforming its traditional law degree into a multi-dimensional JD, which combines the study of other disciplines with team-oriented, problem-solving techniques together with expanded clinical training that enables students to represent clients and litigate cases while in law school.

Read the full press release here.

By: Steve Grumm

For several months now a Univ. of Maryland School of Law environmental law clinic has taken heat from some state legislators (and the governor) over its involvement in a lawsuit concerning chicken farming and potential pollution of local waterways.  The developments raise interesting questions about law clinics’ autonomy in taking cases.

From the National Law Journal:

The University of Maryland would have to pay as much as $500,000 toward the legal expenses incurred by a farm’s owners while fighting a lawsuit brought by the school’s environmental law clinic under legislation proposed by a Republican state lawmaker.

State Sen. Richard Colburn introduced the bill on Feb. 13. It was the latest development in a three-year battle between the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and Republican lawmakers over the appropriate role of publicly funded clinics.

The clinic represents the Waterkeeper Alliance in the lawsuit against poultry giant Perdue Farms Inc. and a Hudson Farm, a local, family-owned chicken operation that supplies the company. The lawmakers fear that suit and others like it hurt the local economy and shouldn’t be backed with public money.

Have you heard about this?

From Juvenile Justice Information Exchange:

For several years, students in Los Angeles have complained about hefty $250-plus fines for being tardy [under the city’s curfew law], and about police officers who staked out schools to catch students sometimes only minutes late. The ticketing also requires students to go to court, with parents, during school hours, so they miss more class time and parents miss work.

IMHO, laws like this are backwards — they allow for the criminalization of children and ultimately, keep kids away from the classroom. I feel similarly about other disciplinary methods, like in-school suspension. Public Counsel and the ACLU agree:

From the Business Insider:

Activists from the ACLU say the law does the exact opposite of what city councilmembers would like to believe.

Instead of encouraging school attendance, they allege it’s unfairly targeting low-income and minority students who would rather skip school altogether than burden their family with yet another bill to pay.

“They are criminalizing kids for coming to school late,” Laura Faer, education rights director for Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm, said. “It’s backward in every way.”

I understand the intention behind the laws, but they’re just not working in the right way and students and community members have been up in arms about it. For this reason, the L.A. City Council will vote next week to make amendments to the curfew law.

The curfew amendments — if they get full city council approval on Feb. 22 — would replace the $250 fines with graduated penalties emphasizing counseling. Students ticketed once or twice would be required to participate in an attendance-improvement plan or in counseling or community service. If ticketed a third time, the ordinance would call for a possible monetary fine whose amount is still being negotiated, said Michael de la Rocha, legislative deputy to Los Angeles City Council member Tony Cardenas, who sponsored the amendments.

Cardenas wanted to end all fines, and would prefer capping a third-strike fine at $20, which in reality would end up costing students more, given extra fees that get tacked on, de la Rocha said.

As of January, Los Angeles’ students won’t be required to pay monetary fines — for now — regardless of what the city council does. Last month, Michael Nash, the county’s presiding juvenile court judge, instructed all court officers to stop imposing daytime curfew fines on ticketed students throughout the county and instead order them to show improved attendance, or, if that fails, mandatory counseling or community service.

Interesting. Thoughts?

Advocates for Justice, a non-profit public interest law firm in its second year of operation, is seeking an experienced attorney to serve as the Director of Legal Affairs for the organization. The mission of the Director of Legal Affairs is to enable the organization to manage its legal workload more efficiently and ensure that the organization is able to always provide the highest quality service to our clients.

The Director will report to the Executive Director (not an attorney) on administrative matters and will collaborate with Arthur Z. Schwartz, Esq., President, Board of Directors, on all legal matters. All other attorneys will report directly to the Director.

The Director will be responsible for (a) leading weekly meetings amongst the attorneys to discuss cases, (b) generating legal strategies regarding ongoing cases, (c) assisting with outreach regarding potential cases, (d) making court, arbitration or deposition appearances if necessary, (e) reviewing all legal papers generated by attorneys; (f) training and developing less experience attorneys as appropriate, (g) interacting with opposing counsel as necessary, (h) providing written feedback on the organization’s legal work as well as the performance of the other attorneys, and (i) assisting the Executive Director and the Board President with the preparation of related materials (e.g. – grant proposals.)

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Below you will see a lot of news, from Florida, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere about crippling cuts in legal services funding. It can be easy, when reading reports that focus on dry items like IOLTA yields and budget lines, to forget that those dollar figures have real impacts on real people: low income individuals and families who are struggling to get by, to say nothing of legal services staffers who have lost their jobs in budget cuts.  

A story summarized below tells of Legal Services of Greater Miami’s work on behalf of a veteran of operations in Afghanistan whose wartime injuries have left him with physical, mental and psychological after-effects.  After a year of advocacy, LSGM secured $1000 in monthly benefits for their client, who is married with children.  Reading of this impacted me powerfully.  I often jog by the Dep’t. of Veterans Affairs headquarters.  Engraved in stone on the building are these words from Abraham Lincoln, spoken during his second inaugural address in the midst of the Civil War: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”

To me, this quote speaks to our shared obligation to provide support for those who sacrifice in service.  Sometimes it falls to legal services lawyers to ensure that that obligation is fulfilled.  So when I think of legal services funding cuts, I think of fewer veterans who access benefits.  I also think of fewer domestic violence victims who achieve legal protection from abusers, and fewer children who receive medical care.  There are tolls exacted on real human beings when figures on spreadsheets shrink. 

This week:

• Maryland’s high court considers the financial burden of ensuring that indigent defendants have counsel at bail hearings;
• New Mexico voters to decide if public defense program should become independent agency;
• an ACLU suit over allegedly over-burdened public defenders in Washington State;
• the Legal Aid Society of Orange County spins off a for-profit entity to help pro se litigants;
• the White House FY2013 budget proposal includes a $402 million LSC appropriation;
• the PA governor’s budget proposal would significantly cut legal services funding;
• to close or not to close the San Joachin County, CA public defender’s office;
• how last November’s LSC cuts are impacting programs in the DC metro area;
• funding woes for Alabama prosecutors’ offices and courthouses;
• federal employee retirements jumped by 24% in 2011;
• speaking of Uncle Sam, a Presidential Management Fellowship application snafu dashes the hopes of 300 candidates;
• Yale Law School cuts back on LRAP program;
• the impact of legal services funding cuts in Florida;
• ditto, West Virginia;
• ditto, Connecticut;
• ditto, Detroit;
• but closing with good news(!), $2 million to the Arkansas Access to Justice Foundation.  

Here are the summaries:

• 2.17.12 – Maryland’s highest court decided Thursday to wait for more information before issuing a mandate that would require lawyers to be available to a defendant within 24 hours of arrest, when it is decided whether he or she will be detained or released.  [T]he Court of Appeals decided to consider responses, due March 5, to motions filed by the Baltimore City District Court Commissioners and state Public Defender Paul B. DeWolfe Jr. before issuing a mandate to enforce its Jan. 4 decision.  DeWolfe, whose office would need an estimated $28 million more annually to make public defenders available at initial bail and bail review hearings, told the court in asking again for a stay of at least 180 days that his office does not have and is unlikely to quickly obtain the resources to comply.”  (Story from The Gazette.)

• 2.16.12 – the question of whether to separate the state’s public defense program from the executive branch so that it operates as an independent agency will be on the November ballot in New Mexico.  (Story from the Daily Times.)

• 2.15.12 – the ACLU is litigating over alleged over-burdened defenders in Washington State.  From the Seattle Times: “Attorneys for the cities of Mount Vernon and Burlington are sparring with the American Civil Liberties Union over allegations that the Skagit County cities knew their public defenders were overburdened with cases. In a federal lawsuit, the ACLU says the two part-time attorneys contracted by the cities fielded more than 2,100 cases in 2010, even though Washington state Bar Association guidelines say full-time public defenders shouldn’t surpass 400 cases a year.” 

• 2.14.12 – there has been much talk in the Great recession’s wake about the rise in pro se clients and the potential value of unbundling legal services delivery.  This SoCal development is interesting: the Legal Aid Society of Orange County is spinning off a for-profit entity, Legal Genie Inc., a “web-based program which combines the power of self-help technology with access to unbundled legal services, enabling self-represented litigants to complete and e-file legal pleadings.” Here’s a press release.

• 2.13.12 – the White House’s FY2013 budget proposal includes a request for $402 million in LSC funding.  This would be an increase over the current $348 million funding level.  For its part, LSC is asking Congress for a higher sum than the White House is: $470 million.  But LSC has also expressed its understanding concerning the White House’s lower proposal, according to the Blog of the Legal Times.  

• 2.13.12 – “Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget would keep general-fund money allotted to the judiciary the same as last year, but funding for civil legal services for the poor would be cut by $274,000….  Mr. Corbett has proposed that legal service s funded in a budget line within the state Department of Public Welfare be funded at $2.5 million, down from $2.74 million last year and down from $3 million two budget cycles ago.”  Story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• 2.13.12 –  in northern California, San Joaquin County is debating the financial efficiencies of a proposal to close the public defense office.  Here’s the story from the Record. 

• 2.12.12 – the Washington Post reports on how last November’s LSC cuts are impacting grantee programs in DC, MD, and VA.

• 2.12.12 – funding woes are plaguing Alabama courthouses and prosecutors’ offices, and there are more clouds on the horizon.  From the Ledger-Enquirer:  “District attorneys and court officials who rely on state funding are reeling from recent budget cuts that have strained Alabama’s judicial system. The squeeze is being felt in East Alabama counties and elsewhere, prompting circuit clerks to shrink their staffs and scale back hours of operation despite mounting caseloads.” As for Gov. Bentley’s new budget proposal, “District attorneys would [experience] 20 percent cuts. And while the courts requested increased funding next fiscal year, the governor’s plan would slash the total judicial system’s General Fund appropriation by some 26 percent, mitigated mildly by about a 9 percent increase in earmarked funds.”

• 2.10.12 – no attorney-specific numbers, but Government Executive reports that, “[f]ederal retirements increased 24 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to new statistics from the Office of Personnel Management…. The appeal of buyouts and early outs to agencies grew after the failure of the joint select committee on deficit reduction to agree on a plan to reduce spending by $1.2 trillion triggered across-the-board automatic spending cuts. Those cuts are slated to take effect in January 2013 unless Congress repeals sequestration. While there are no official figures available yet on how many employees accepted such incentives in 2011, tens of thousands were offered, and agencies en masse are likely to offer another round of buyouts heading into fiscal 2013.

• 2.10.12 – a glitch in the Presidential Management Fellowship program application process gave false hope to candidates before crushing said hope.  From Government Executive: “A prestigious postgraduate fellowship program run by the Office of Personnel Management has acknowledged it sent acceptance letters to about 300 applicants by mistake in January. The [PMF] program had 9,077 applicants, nominated for the program by their graduate schools, for 2012. Of those, 628 were ultimately chosen as fellows and 1,186 were semifinalists. All semifinalists were invited to conduct in-person interviews.  Approximately 25 percent of the semifinalists received erroneous acceptance letters, according to Fox News.”  Boy, it’s just never good to be one of The 300. 

• 2.10.12 – “Faced with increased enrollment and rising loan costs, the Yale Law School is scaling back its loan forgiveness program. The Career Options Assistance Program, which partially subsidizes tuition loan payments for Law School graduates should they enter relatively low-salary careers, will require a larger student contribution from members of…incoming…classes…. Under the previous policy, law school alumni who earn less than $60,000 [annually]…are eligible to have their loans payments fully subsidized by COAP, while those earning more than $60,000 are expected to contribute a quarter of their income above that baseline. The new policy sets the baseline salary lower, at $50,000, and expects participants to contribute varying percentages of their income toward loan payments, based on a sliding scale…”  (Story from the Yale Daily News.) 

• 2.10.12 – the Miami Herald reports on how legal services providers in Florida have struggled with federal and state funding cuts.  Florida’s IOLTA program was flush with cash and the envy of other states until the recession. IOLTA funds have taken an 88% hit since 2008.  The Herald article touches upon the work that legal services providers do to support veterans and their families.  To me, this powerfully humanizes what it means when we talk in much drier terms of “IOLTA” and budget appropriation lines. 

• 2.10.12 – legal services layoffs in West Virginia.  From the Charleston Gazette: “West Virginia Legal Aid executives announced Friday afternoon that they have laid off 15 case handlers and closed their Logan County office in response to federal budget cuts that promise to saddle the program with a $1.2 million deficit by 2013.”

• 2.10.12 – NBC Connecticut looks at the funding woes plaguing Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, which is the Nutmeg State’s sole LSC grantee.

• 2.10.12 – the impact of legal services funding cuts in the Detroit area, as reported by the Daily Tribune.

• 2.10.12 –  two million dollars from the recent blockbuster mortgage/banking industry settlement will go to the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission.  The Sun-Times has the story: “The Arkansas Attorney General’s office announced the news on Thursday, and funds distributed to the Commission will be used to provide access to civil justice for Arkansans affected by the mortgage crisis

Immigration Equality’s high-performance policy team is expanding.  We are recruiting a new Policy Director who will build on our team’s core strength to take full advantage of opportunities to advance our agenda within the federal government over the next year and beyond. 

Founded in 1994, Immigration Equality is the country’s premiere legal aid and advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive immigrants and their families.  Immigration Equality works to end discrimination against LGBT people in U.S. immigration law through education, outreach, and advocacy.  Immigration Equality’s pro bono asylum project represents LGBT people fleeing persecution with the participation of more than 40 top national law firms.  In 2009, Immigration Equality created the Immigration Equality Action Fund, a 501(c)(4), to expand its federal legislative advocacy.

We currently have a first-rate Legislative Director, Julie Kruse, and seek to build a bigger team that can design and execute an effective, nimble administrative advocacy strategy.  We are recruiting the perfect person to manage, grow and lead this expanded policy team.  The remainder of this presidential term is an extraordinary window of opportunity, and the organization is committed to putting resources into this area.

To learn more and apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

In September 2011, NALP conducted a snapshot survey on the public interest employment market to lend some statistical precision to hiring market changes and forecasts. We received survey responses from623 public interest organizations across 44 states, D.C., the American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These responses were aggregated to report on recent law student and attorney hiring, hiring expectations for the immediate future, and employer advice for job applicants competing in today’s market.

Not surprisingly, the survey showed that the public interest job market remains tight as nonprofit and government sectors face budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs. However, the results do show that there is hope of stability for more than half of the respondents expect hiring of 2012 law graduates and interns to remain steady in relation to 2011.

Here are some of the key findings:

• Almost 80% of respondents hosted law students for unpaid summer positions in 2011.
• Approximately 26% of respondents hired law students for paid summer positions in 2011.
• Over 13% of responding state attorneys general offices hired fewer paid summer interns in 2011 than they did in 2010. No responding attorneys general indicated that they would increase paid summer hiring in 2012.
• Approximately 76% of respondents expect to host the same number of paid law students in 2012 as they did in 2011.
• Overall, 18.7% of respondents hired Class of 2011 graduates for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
• About 27.6% of respondents hired lateral attorneys for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
• Approximately 1 in 3 respondent organizations was in a hiring freeze at the time of the survey.

Read the rest of the report and see the nitty-gritty details here.

The American City Coalition is a nonprofit organization which was founded in 1994 to promote best practices and innovation in neighborhood revitalization. The TACC Fellow will work on an intensive project not to exceed two months, collaborating closely with TACC staff and partners. The TACC Fellow will:

• Lead an independent project related to social and economic development of distressed neighborhoods and housing developments
• Coordinate and collaborate with consultants contracted by TACC
• Engage with relevant institutions at the local level
• Conduct specific research related to housing and residential services best practices
• Contribute to the research and writing

To apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

From our peeps at Equal Justice Works:

Summer Corps will begin accepting online applications for the 2012 program on March 1, 2012.  The deadline to apply is March 23, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.  Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted. 

There are three steps you must take before completing an application:

• Make sure you are eligible to apply. Please see our member eligibility and criteria page for more information.
• Secure a qualifying project with a qualifying organization. To apply for Summer Corps you must first obtain a placement at a qualifying nonprofit organization. Equal Justice Works will not find a placement for you.
• Design a qualifying project. Summer Corps supports projects in which students provide primarily direct legal services to low-income and underserved individuals. Community outreach and education components are also encouraged. Projects where students are doing pure policy work do not qualify for Summer Corps.

The ATF is a unique law enforcement agency in the United States Department of Justice that protects our communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.

ATF partners with communities, industries, law enforcement, and public safety agencies to safeguard the public we serve through information sharing, training, research, and use of technology.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is responsible for administering and enforcing the provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Federal explosives laws, the National Firearms Act, and the Arms Export Control Act.  With regulatory, law-enforcement, counterterrorism, and homeland-security-related missions, ATF affords one of the most dynamic and interesting work environments in the Federal government.

Interns will work alongside ATF personnel conducting research and performing special projects designed to protect the public, while not imposing unnecessary burdens upon industry.  Additionally, interns may perform work within the Directorates various divisions.

Interested? Check the listing at PSLawNet for more information!