By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  It pleases me to report that the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise is undefeated this season, having shut out the Pirates of Pittsburgh yesterday.  While we’re talking baseball, I encourage you to check out the artwork of Will Johnson.  Johnson, who is steeped in baseball history, produced a series of paintings that profile some of the game’s most fascinating and impactful personalities, like this one of Cubs great Mordecai Brown.  (That’s for you, Mr. Glaves.)  Johnson is also the frontman of Centro-matic, a great rock band out of Denton, Texas.

This week in access-to-justice, pro bono, and related public interest news:

• sharing the wealth across counties to fund indigent defense in Nebraska;
• making the business case for nonlawyer professionals to provide pro bono services;
• the early end of the Cincy defender’s tenure;
• the Wash. State Bar Association’s “Moderate Means” program provides sliding-scale legal help to the (not quite) poor by partnering with the state’s 3 law schools;
• the Virginia Legal Aid Society is charting a course to maximize services with less anticipated future funding;
• how law student pro bono is done by those hippie kids in Berkeley;
• the Early Resolution Project in Alaska seeks to make the legal dimension to divorces quick, inexpensive, and as pain-free as possible;
• more nonlegal pro bono, this time focusing on the value of “secondment” projects;
• the Media Access Project will soon cease to be;
• a New Hampshire lawmaker opposes the state’s move from a voluntary to mandatory IOLTA jurisdiction.
• the Illinois AG and defender press for funding to boost attorney salaries.

The summaries:

• 4.5.12 – a Nebraska state legislator has withdrawn a bill that would have diverted funds away from indigent defense in rural counties.  (Story from the Omaha World-Herald.) 

• 4.5.12 – a Taproot Foundation blog post explores the business case for pro bono, with a focus on how pro bono provides experiential learning opportunities.  But here, we’re dealing with pro bono by nonlawyer professionals who offer free technical and strategic planning assistance to nonprofits.  Recently I’ve seen more and more coverage of “nonlegal pro bono.”  This probably speaks to 1) the increasing sophistication of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement, and 2) the post-recession need among resource-strapped nonprofits for free professional services.   

• 4.4.12 – the rocky tenure of Cincinnati’s public defender came to an early end after a report pointed to an abrasive management style and failure to inspire trust among staff.  Full story from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

• 4.4.12 – the Washington State Bar Association’s Moderate Means “low bono” program: “Washingtonians of moderate means now have a better chance of getting legal representation when they need it.  More than 350 lawyers have volunteered to adjust their fees on a sliding scale to accommodate people who are neither rich nor poor. The attorneys are part of a partnership between the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) and the state’s three law schools….  People are eligible for the Moderate Means Program if their household income is between 200 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level for their family size. That would be household incomes between $45,622 and $91,244. The bar association said that includes about 30 percent of Washington households.”  Full piece in the Seattle Times.  And here’s more from the Seattle Business Journal.

• 4.4.12 – “Because of federal budget cuts, the Virginia Legal Aid Society needs help to determine how best to use limited resources to help residents.  While more low-income residents in Danville and Southside need free civil legal services every year, Legal Aid revenues have declined by about 20 percent in the past two and a half years, said VLAS Executive Director David Neumeyer. Next year, Legal Aid faces a deficit of $500,000 for a $2.6 million budget. Without significant help, the nonprofit law firm would need to reduce staff or close an office next year, he added.”  VLAS is seeking community input as it charts a course forward.  (Story from Roanoke-based WSLS.)

• 4.4.12 – law student pro bono. The ABA Center for Pro Bono’s blog features a guest post from our friend Sue Schechter (Hi, Sue!) of Berkeley Law.  Sue reviews Berkeley’s law student pro bono program, a model that provides staff and academic support to students but that also allows much autonomy as students make their own volunteer commitments with local agencies.  This latter dimension reflects the fact that pro bono at Berkeley law has historically been a student-run initiative. 

• 4.4.12 – the Early Resolution Project set up by an Alaska judge uses pro bono attorneys to help bring about amicable – and brief – divorce resolutions.  The underlying philosophy is that the longer divorces stay in litigation, the more painful and financially draining they are likely to be for the parties.  So brief, low-stress proceedings are the ERP’s goal.  Here’s the story from Alaska Public Radio and NPR.

• 4.3.12 – more nonlegal pro bono.  Global public relations outfit Ketchum blogs about the advantages of pro bono “secondments,” through which Ketchum professionals are embedded within a nonprofit organization to provide pro bono services for a period of time.  This pro bono model is of course not new to the law firm world, but it is still interesting to see how and why pro bono work is structured in other professions.   

• 4.3.12 – “The Media Access Project announced on Tuesday that it will be shutting down its operations in May because of funding difficulties.  The public interest law firm said its board has decided to suspend operations on May 1 because of the ‘difficult funding environment facing MAP and other progressive public interest groups.’  The group was founded in 1973 and represents clients that promote the free flow of information and free speech and diversity in electronic and other forms of new media.”

• 4.3.12 – in the recession’s wake New Hampshire’s high court converted the state’s IOLTA program from voluntary to mandatory in order to boost funding for beleaguered legal services providers.  One state legislator, attorney Gregory Sorg, is proposing a bill to undo this change and return to a voluntary program.  “’I moved to New Hampshire because this was the one state left in the Northeast where a person could own his own soul’, says [Sorg]…. But to [New Hampshire Legal Assistance exec. director John Tobin,]…Sorg’s focus on the principle of the issue ignores the very real consequences.  ‘Even if we lose the funding that costs us one lawyer or one paralegal, that means that several hundred New Hampshire people will not have an advocate,’ says Tobin. ‘And that means that some of them will lose their housing, some of them won’t get health care, some of them won’t be able to escape from domestic violence’.”  Story from New Hampshire Public Radio.

• 3.30.12 – In Illinois, the AG and state public defender pressed for higher salaries during budget hearings in the state senate.  (The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article is password-protected.)