Public Interest News Bulletin – September 7, 2012

September 7, 2012 at 9:56 am · Filed under Legal Education, News and Developments, Public Interest Jobs, Public Interest Law News Bulletin, The Legal Industry and Economy

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  The Bulletin went on holiday last week while its author observed the Labor Day weekend and hiked around Harper’s Ferry, WV.   Three noteworthy items before moving to the access-to-justice and public interest news:   

  • I was initially attracted to this op-ed because it offers data on state/local government job cuts between 2008 and the present.  But more interesting is its exploration of the importance of community engagement in our government fiscal decisions.  When We The People aren’t engaged and informed, fiscal policy decisions become less factually grounded and more “quixotic and arbitrary.”  If nothing else it’s a testament to why it’s our civic duty to, well, actually engage in civics.  (Here’s the New York Times op-ed.)
  • What personal/professional traits drive entrepreneurship and creative action in the legal arena?  There are eight of them, it turns out, and the ABA has collected them for us.  They boil down to: “Be a glass-half-full person and welcome new ideas.”  But the list is worth a read.
  • With record-level numbers of food stamp recipients these days, here’s some insight, via The Atlantic, as to whom those recipients are: 
    • Some 43 percent of SNAP recipients live at or below half the poverty line. Only 15 percent can say they live above the poverty line.
    • Children under 18 account for 47 percent of all food stamp recipients. Eight percent are seniors.
    • Forty-one percent of beneficiaries lived in households with partially- or fully-employed workers.  

The public interest news in very short:

  • $50 for a public defender in Riverside County, CA?;
  • what Alabama is to college football, Vermont Law is to environmental law (with due respect to my Oregonian law-school friends);
  • a class of 14 new assistant district attorneys in Massachusetts’s most populous county;
  • the American Bar Foundation receives federal grant funding to explore access-to-justice issues;
  • appointed counsel or staff public defenders for NYC conflicts cases?;
  • Baylor Law School starting up veterans legal aid clinics;
  • LSC v. CRLA moves to the federal appellate level;
  • a new nonprofit law office in Oklahoma serving low- and moderate-income clients;
  • Warren County, NY is re-examining its public defender salaries;
  • a federally mandated overhaul of Shelby County’s (Memphis) juvenile court system plods along;
  • the strain on Legal Aid of the Bluegrass’s resources;
  • experimenting with Civil Gideon in San Diego;
  • U. of Memphis School of Law goes to a pro bono graduation requirement;
  • report highlights the economic benefit that Iowa Legal Aid provides for the Hawkeye State;
  • Kansas lawmakers emphasize importance of indigent defense funding;
  • more good news re legal aid funding from national foreclosure class-action settlment funds (IL and WA);
  • the dire financial straits of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (FL);
  • kudos to the San Fran defender’s Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities (MAGIC) program;
  • Ohio prosecutor moonlights as civil legal aid lawyer;
  • pro bono developments stemming from Dewey & LeBoeuf’s downfall;
  • DOJ funding will provide loan repayment assistance for some prosecutors and defenders in Vermont;
  • Super music history music bonus(!) for those who read all the way to the bottom, and for those rulebreakers who just scroll down.

The summaries:

  • 9.6.12 – “Criminal defendants in Riverside County [CA] using public defenders may soon have to pay $50 for the service.  The Board of Supervisors will consider establishing the registration fee at its meeting Tuesday, Sept. 11.  County officials suggested the fee to avoid using taxpayer dollars to recoup court costs. As much as $1 million annually could be raised through the fee, according to a county staff report.  The fee would apply to defendants during arraignments who say they can’t afford their own lawyer. Defendants fill out confidential affidavits under penalty of perjury about their finances, which the courts examine to determine their ability to pay toward their defense.  The fee would be waived if the defendants prove they can’t pay it and legal services would not be denied if there’s no payment, the staff report read.”  (Story from the Press-Enterprise.)
  • 9.6.12 – Vermont Law School has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. State Department to support a three-year project designed to improve environmental and public health in China.  The U.S.-China Partnership will work with Southwest Forestry University in Kunming, Yunnan Province, to create a “legal ecosystem” that includes an environmental and biodiversity law clinic to serve nongovernmental organizations, communities and underserved citizens. The school will host workshops to educate environmental leaders, lawyers and citizens on legal avenues to address environmental and public health issues.”  (Story from the VTDigger.com website.)
  • 9.6.12 – real, actual, good hiring news on the public interest front – 14 new prosecutors in Middlesex County, MA: “District Attorney Gerry Leone announced today that eighteen new Assistant District Attorneys have been hired as part of the 2012 Fall Class of ADAs. Fourteen of the new ADAs will be assigned to the district courts throughout Middlesex County, located in Ayer, Lowell, Concord, Framingham, Woburn, Cambridge, Malden, Somerville, and Waltham. Additionally, four of the new ADAs will be assigned to the Appeals and Training Bureau.”  Of the fourteen new ADA’s, all but one went to law school in Boston.  (Full announcement on Boston.com.) 
  • 9.5.12 – bringing some analytical precision to the quest for equal access to justice.  From Richard Zorza’s blog: “On December 7 and 8, in Chicago, the American Bar Foundation, with [Nat’l. Science Foundation] funding, will be conducting a two day event on research into access to justice. The scheduling is planed [sic] to facilitate attendance by those going to the NLADA Conference.   On Friday December 7, in the afternoon, there will be an open event — a poster session and town hall meeting, bringing together researchers and practitioners to explore issues of research into access to justice.  On Saturday Dec 8, there will be an all day invitational meeting to explore the possibilities further and move the agenda ahead.  Moreover, while the Saturday meeting is by invitation, it is possible to apply to be asked.  The application to attend is here.  The application is due Sept 28, 2012.  Additional information is available from A2JWorkshop(at)abfn.org.”
  • 9.5.12 – appointed counsel or staff public defenders?  Indigent defense controversy in NYC:  “New York City’s plan to shift tens of thousands of criminal cases involving indigent defendants from private attorneys to the Legal Aid Society and other groups is illegal and an attempt to usurp judicial authority, attorneys for a group of bar associations told the Court of Appeals on Wednesday.  Six bar groups are challenging the plan, which was adopted in 2010 and would only affect cases in which the initial legal aid group assigned to a defendant cannot provide representation due to a conflict.  Before 2010, cases in which aid groups had a conflict were reassigned to approximately 1,100 private attorneys, known as 18-B lawyers, who were identified by the county bars. But the city decided to solicit contracts from aid groups to handle conflict cases instead of continuing to rely solely on 18-B lawyers.”  (Article from Thomson Reuters.)
  • 9.4.12 – “Baylor Law School will host free legal aid clinics each month to help local veterans with a variety of civil issues.  Law Professor Bridget Fuselier, who is coordinating the program, said veterans will meet one-on-one with a local attorney for help with anything from estate planning and help filing for disability benefits to filing for divorce or pursuing a civil suit.  The law school is recruiting local attorneys to provide pro bono legal counsel and case-management services. The attorneys also will be paired with law students who will assist in preparing legal documents or law research.  The initiative is supported by a $22,500 grant the law school received from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. The funds will help purchase laptops lawyers will use to complete transactions at the clinics, as well as purchase legal forms, and cover filing and administrative costs.”  (Article from the Waco Tribune.)
    • Here’s a little more from a Baylor Law School press release: Baylor Law School is one of 11 Texas nonprofits which are splitting over $400K in Texas Access-to-Justice Foundation grant funding to provide legal services to veterans.  “The Texas Access to Justice Commission – through its Champions of Justice Gala – raised more than $413,000 in 2012. TAJF will use the money raised to provide the grants to the selected nonprofit organizations. Now in its third year, the Champions of Justice Gala has raised more than $1 million for veterans’ legal services since its inception.” 
  • 9.3.12 – “For more than six years, federal officials have pressed for client information and internal policy documents from [California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA)].  The inspector general for the Legal Services Corp. (LSC), which funds organizations that offer civil legal services to low-income families and individuals, is investigating whether…CRLA has abused its receipt of grant money — potentially violating federal law.  [CRLA’s] lawyers have resisted complying with an administrative subpoena, pushing the U.S. Justice Department to ask a judge in Washington’s federal trial court to force the organization to obey the demand for documents. CRLA lost at the trial level last year, and now the…dispute is unfolding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  The case spotlights a clash between government oversight of federally funded legal service groups and state-based professional rules of responsibility that govern attorney[s].  Lawyers for CRLA contend disclosure of the information the government has demanded will violate attorney-client confidentiality and intrude on protected work-product documents.”  (Full story from the National Law Journal.)
  • 9.3.12 – a new nonprofit law office in Oklahoma serving low- and moderate-income clients: Oklahoma Attorney Resources (OAR) is a private, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides family law legal assistance for low- to middle-income working public who need help with legal issues, according to a media release. Some of those issues are divorce, child custody, child support, paternity, guardianship and adoptions. The group also assists with Chapter 7 bankruptcies.  The program is designed to meet the need for access to the justice system by low-income residents whose resources are insufficient to pay prevailing rates for private attorneys. The attorneys working with the organization are all licensed in Oklahoma and experienced in family law. They have agreed to work at reduced rates to provide legal services to families in need who would otherwise be without representation. (Article from the Muskegee Phoenix.)
  • 9.3.12 – Warren County, NY is looking at its public defender salaries, in part because, well, defender salaries are low, but also because a new state law will have the defenders providing counsel in some divorce matters (in addition to the more traditional criminal docket.) The county “…Public Defender John Wappett told county supervisors last week his two top assistant public defenders are searching for new jobs because of their stagnant salaries and a change in law that has assigned some of them to cases of divorce, in which most of the assistants do not have significant experience. Assigned counsel for the indigent has typically only been available in criminal and Family Court cases.”  (Article from the Post Star.) 
  • 9.2.12 – “The federally mandated overhaul of Shelby County Juvenile Court is expected to cost millions — even if the county can avoid a federal lawsuit.  That’s because the proposed changes would create new positions, including full-time juvenile public defenders and a court-based Disproportionate Minority Contact coordinator who would work to reduce the number of black youths brought to court, held in jail and transferred to adult court.” (Article in the Commercial Appeal.)
  • 8.31.12 – “Legal Aid of the Bluegrass (LABG) expects to provide legal assistance to nearly 20,000 individuals this year in 33 northern and central Kentucky counties.  LABG will be financing its operations with $1.1 million less than it had to work with the previous year.  Richard Cullison, executive director and program director for Rowan and 11 other area counties, said the Morehead office is working with the fewest number of attorneys it has had since its inception…. The Covington-based LABG said they already turn away 7,063 people annually who are eligible for services.”  (Story from The Morehead News.)
  • 8.31.12 – experimenting with Civil Gideon in San Diego: “Courts around the state are in the middle of adjusting to budget cuts that have led to courtroom closures, reduced hours at clerk’s offices and concern the reductions will limit access to the justice system for state residents.  But a groundbreaking program in San Diego that began this year goes against that grain, providing legal representation to a select group of people in cases involving landlord-tenant disputes and child custody matters.  With a $2 million in annual funding from the state under legislation passed in 2010, the San Diego Legal Aid Society and the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program have been providing lawyers for free to indigent people in some civil law cases.”  (Story from the San Diego Union-Tribune.)

 

  • 8.30.12 – the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law has implemented “a new pro bono requirement that will affect students this fall. Students entering the law school at that time will be among the first class that will have to perform…pro bono legal work to graduate.  Students entering this fall and thereafter will be required to complete 40 hours of supervised pro bono work. (Story from the Memphis Daily News.) 
  • 8.29.12 – Here we are in Kansas: “A Senate committee grilled appointees to a board that oversees the state’s public defenders Wednesday, asking repeatedly if they will fight to ensure the program is properly funded.  Sen. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, said the state could be “in dire trouble” if it doesn’t provide more money for public defenders for defendants who can’t afford them. Owens, a lawyer, suggested that the state could face lawsuits if it fails to do so…. Owens wasn’t the only member [senator] to express concern. Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, said she believed the indigent defense program had been “underserved and underfunded” throughout her 12 years in the Legislature and warned Beck to gird himself for further cuts.  Sen. Jay Emler, R-McPherson, the committee chairman and a lawyer, said his colleagues’ concerns about public defense are valid.”  (Article from the Topeka Capital-Journal.)
  • 8.29.12 – a couple of good-news items regarding legal services funding:
    • From Illinois: “A legal aid group in Chicago is getting $4.7 million from a national foreclosure settlement to help homeowners hit by the mortgage crisis.   Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced on August 28 that the Legal Assistance Foundation in Chicago would receive the money from her state’s portion of the $25 billion settlement reached with five banks in March. Illinois received about $1 billion from the settlement, and Madigan has said that $20 million would go to legal aid.  Illinois joins other states that have committed proceeds from the settlement to legal aid.”  (Article from the National Law Journal.) 
    • Washington State: “Thirteen…non-profit organizations will split the $43.8 million the state received to fund foreclosure relief as part of the landmark $25 billion national settlement with the country’s five largest mortgage servicers….  The Legal Foundation of Washington’s Home Justice project will receive…roughly $13 million to provide legal representation for the more than 30,000 low and moderate income people who are expected to face foreclosure in the coming years or who are among the more than 135,000 households whose homes were foreclosed upon in the last four years.”  (Article from the Seattle Medium)

  

  • 8.27.12 -in Michigan, the Jackson County Legal News takes note of the state’s indigent defense woes: “The plight of the public defender in Michigan has come under scrutiny since a state report said the Michigan wasn’t doing enough to represent indigent people.  The Michigan Advisory Commission on Indigent Defense released a report in June that found the state wasn’t meeting minimum standards for indigent defense as set forth by the American Bar Association.  In 2008, the National Legal Aide & Defense Association’s report found Michigan ranked 44th in the nation on per-capita spending on indigent defense.”  
  • 8.27.12 – “The San Francisco Public Defender’s MAGIC program will be honored by public school officials Tuesday for its service to tens of thousands of low-income San Francisco children… .Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities (MAGIC) was initiated by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office in 2004 in Bayview-Hunters Point and in the Western Addition in 2006. The program convenes more than 100 community organizations and concerned citizens who work to reduce the number of kids who fall through social service gaps by efficiently coordinating opportunities, support and resources.” (View full press release.)
  • 8.25.12 – public service times two.  In addition to his day job, an Ohio city prosecutor moonlights by running a civil legal aid clinic through his church.  (Article from the Toledo Blade.) 
  • 8.24.12 – some pro bono developments in the wake of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf’s downfall.
  • 8.23.12 – “Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) has received a grant of $51,515 from the U.S. Department of Justice to go toward student loan forgiveness for attorneys who work as state prosecutors or state or federal public defenders in Vermont.  This is the third year VSAC has received the funding, although federal cuts resulted in a grant amount this year that is half that awarded each of the prior two years. VSAC administers the program at no charge so that all of the funding can go to eligible recipients. By law, half the dollars must go to prosecutors and half to public defenders.  VSAC works with the state’s Office of the Defender General, its Department of State’s Attorneys, and the Federal Public Defender for the District of Vermont to identify eligible applicants and award funding.”  (Press release hosted at VTDigger.org.)    

Music!  It’s September.  September used to be one of my favorite months because the summertime humidity would abate.  Now August seems to stretch and stretch, ever defiant.  September may be corrupted beyond salvage.  I accept it.  Nevertheless, it’s worth paying tribute to the ninth month with Big Star’s “September Gurls” (goofy spelling theirs).  Big Star, while not achieving commercial success during their active period in the 1970s, later emerged as a powerful influence on indie-rock bands.  (Here’s NPR’s take on the band’s history.)  Alex Chilton, Big Star’s major creative force, had already felt some 1960s fame as a member of the Box Tops.  Their song “The Letter” was a hit single back when my parents were young and hip.  Then came Big Star.  After Big Star ceased to be, bands from the Replacements (their song “Alex Chilton” is an unapologetic tribute, and the video displays the band’s contempt for MTV culture) to Counting Crows (who aspired to be “big stars” in their mega-hit “Mr. Jones”) praised Chilton loudly and proudly.  Though Chilton continued making music, the influence he had on rock & roll far outsized the little bit of money he made.  Later in life he spent time washing dishes in a New Orleans restaurant.   Chilton died in 2010 without the trappings of (big) stardom.  But not without a legacy.

So we’ve gotten a little far afield from plain old September.  Anyway, enjoy the September weekend.