By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  It’s a beautiful, quiet December morning here in DC.  But it won’t be quiet for long.  It troubles me that the beginning of the holiday season is consumed with so much hustle and bustle.  There are gifts to buy and cards to sign.  There are end-of-year deadlines to meet.  Our law student readers have finals to take.  Our national policymakers have a fiscal cliff towards which to hurtle.  And so on.   The storms before the calm, I suppose.  In any case I’m delighted when a few quiet minutes turn up.  I hope you find some as well.

Before turning to the week’s access-to-justice and public interest news, three other items that have caught my attention this week:

• Fiscal cliff dispatch: “The White House and the nation’s most prominent charities are embroiled in a tense behind-the-scenes debate over President Obama’s push to scale back the nearly century-old tax deduction on donations that the charities say is crucial for their financial health.”  (Full article from the Washington Post.)

• Homeless vets: “The number of homeless veterans in the United States counted on a single night this year declined 7.2 percent from the previous year, a reduction significantly higher than that seen in the general population, according to figures released Monday.  Overall, the number of homeless people in the country declined only slightly, to 633,782 counted on a single night in January, about 0.4 percent lower than the previous year. The figures included a 1.4 percent increase in homeless people who are part of households that have at least one adult and one child…. The decline in veterans’ homelessness, from 67,495 in January 2011 to 62,619 in January 2012, followed a 12 percent reduction between 2010 and 2011.”  (Full story from the Washington Post.)

• 12.11.12 – big news on the legal education front: “The Arizona Supreme Court gave the green light December 10 to an experimental proposal allowing third-year law students to take the bar exam before they graduate, a move law school officials hope will give students a leg up in the job market.  Under the revised rule, 3Ls who meet eligibility requirements can take the bar exam offered in February, several months before graduation. The proposal was approved as a temporary pilot project from January 2013 until the end of December 2015. Law school officials and other stakeholders will have to file a report with the court by November 1, 2015.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.) 

Okay, this week’s access-to-justice news in very, very brief:

• volunteer lawyers roll in to help Sandy victims;
• report on legal aid’s impact on the Ohio economy;
• 2013 Equal Justice Conference registration open;
• class action on (in)adequacy of NY State’s public defense system marches on;
• CFPB chasing down alleged foreclosure legal aid scammer;
• law school clinics supporting social entrepreneurs;
• technology’s expanding role in communicating with legal aid clients;
• Super Music Bonus, Rod Stewart Edition! 

The summaries: 

• 12.12.12 – in Hurricane Sandy’s wake, legal aid and volunteer lawyers have literally rolled in to assist clients in crisis.  Pro bono lawyers have been instrumental in assisting clients with public benefits and housing problems among others.  This piece in the New York World, focusing on the response of legal aid and volunteer lawyers, notes some good timing in the Legal Aid Society’s acquisition of new wheels: “Legal Aid’s ongoing presence in Coney Island, and in the Rockaways before that, was made possible by the organization’s new Mobile Justice Unit, purchased earlier this year with the help of a grant from the Robin Hood Foundation.”

• 12.12.12 – “Legal assistance to low-income Ohioans is a significant economic driver and impacts more than just the individuals receiving aid, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation.  Ohio legal aid in 2010, the most recent year studied, saved almost 1,000 homes from foreclosure and helped obtain nearly 1,000 civil protective orders.  But the economic impact of these services goes far beyond those families helped, creating $106 million in total economic impact, including $5.6 million in state, county and municipal tax revenue.”  (Story from the Dayton Business Journal.  And here’s the OLAF report.)
  • also in Ohio, the Marion Star looks at the fiscal crunch pressing against the Legal Aid Society of Columbus’s Marion office.  Two of the office’s four attorneys are set to retire soon, and there is not presently funding to replace them. 

• 12.12.12. – registration for the 2013 Equal Justice Conference is open.  The EJC, which brings together a wide array of access-to-justice stakeholders, will take place in St. Louis from May 9-11.  (Pre-conference events, including the law school pro bono pre-conference, take place on May8.)  And don’t worry!  I already checked, and the Cardinals are hosting the Rockies of Colorado on May 10-12.

• 12.11.12 – “A settlement conference in a class-action lawsuit brought by civil rights attorneys, which seeks to remedy what they say is the state’s “persistent failure” to provide meaningful counsel to the poor, ended Tuesday with no settlement….  The suit was filed five years ago in the name of Kimberly Hurrell-Harring and 19 others charged with crimes in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties.  Each plaintiff was left to navigate the criminal justice system without adequate counsel, some spending months unnecessarily behind bars. But the “types of harm suffered” by these defendants are “by no means limited or unique” to those counties, the suit claims.  A 2006 report from The New York State Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services called the public-defender situation an “ongoing crisis” and concluded “nothing short of major, far-reaching reform” can bring the state into constitutional compliance. It recommended a state takeover to properly fund counsel for the poor and enforce standards.”  The plaintiffs favor a state takeover, as well.  (Full article in the Albany Times Union.)

• 12.11.12 – “For the second time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has gone after a legal services provider for allegedly offering bogus mortgage relief assistance to struggling homeowners.  The CFPB announced today that a California federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order shutting down the National Legal Help Center, which allegedly offered legal representation to consumers ‘even though the individual defendants are not attorneys and consumers received no actual legal representation,’ according to the CFPB…. In July, the CFPB filed a similar complaint against the Gordon Law Firm also in California’s Central District and won a temporary restraining order the following day. On November 16, the court entered a preliminary injunction order halting the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct and freezing their assets while the case proceeds.”  (Full post from the Blog of the Legal Times.)

• 12.7.12 – an interesting look at the increasing work that law school clinical programs do to support social entrepreneurs.  “Legal systems are just one of many such complex systems that social entrepreneurs must navigate in order to be successful, but increasingly, they do not have to do it alone. Law schools are joining the ‘collective impact movement by using their legal clinics to provide social entrepreneurs with much-needed legal support from some of America’s brightest law students. Collective impact is a powerful new concept: the idea that all actors that have a stake in a problem should work together to solve that problem.”  (Story from Forbes.com.) 

• 12.7.12 –  “Like everyone else, lawyers for the poor are trying to do more with less, as government grants and private funding have dried up.  Increasingly, that means turning to tech, using new tools to deliver information to clients, support volunteer lawyers, and improve their own systems. They’re using text messaging, automated call-backs, Web chats, and computer-assisted mapping.  A crush of new clients is pushing the growing reliance on technology, as the old systems just can’t keep up. For years, people seeking help have called their local legal services offices, only to wait on hold for 20 minutes or more. If someone has a pay-by-the-minute cellphone, as many low-income people do, that gets expensive fast…. Text messages can also improve efficiency. If courts sent SMS reminders to litigants, that would help move along cases that get postponed over and over when one party doesn’t show up, says Glenn Rawdon. Rawdon runs the technology grants program at the Legal Services Corp., the federal program that funds legal aid groups. A text could also help people remember to bring documents to meetings with their overworked lawyers.”  (Full story on Slate.com.)  

• Music!  It’s the holiday season, so our thoughts turn naturally to Rod Stewart.  (It was a lot of fun to write that sentence.)  Well, even if that’s not where our thoughts are, I’ve lately been in the mood for Faces.  Faces was a rollicking 1960s British rock band whose members included Stewart – a very different version than the one we see today – and Ronnie Wood, who later joined the Rolling Stones.  They were known for terrific music, chaotic live shows, and booze.  Perhaps in that order.  Faces have a terrific back catalog, and I suppose they’re most popularly recognized song is “Ooh La La”, which a lot of people think of as the “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger” song.  Enjoy “Ooh La La.”      

The Virginia Indigent Defense Commission strives to enhance the quality of justice throughout Virginia by protecting the rights of the criminally accused through high quality, compassionate, and cost-effective legal representation.

The Franklin and Winchester offices are currently accepting applications:

The qualified candidate should be committed to advocating on behalf of indigent clients. The attorney will handle trial and appellate cases. The VIDC is committed to providing quality legal services for indigent defendants charged with criminal offenses. The Assistant Public Defender I reports to the Public Defender of the Franklin and is employed at will. A successful candidate is subject to a fingerprint based criminal background check.

Duties include conducting client and witness interviews, working with staff investigators to investigate cases, filing and litigating motions. The attorney will be responsible for trying cases in the General District, Juvenile, and Circuit Courts.

For more information, view the full job listings at PSJD.org (log-in required)!

By: Steve Grumm

Many public-service-minded 2Ls are presently balancing finals and the job search, positioning themselves to be in full job-search mode before 2012 goes to its grave.  1Ls should be focused squarely on finals, in my view, unless there’s a job application deadline before January.  But in the interest of helping summer job seekers get into gear, we hope that they will take advantage of the cover-letter and resume drafting tips we’ve assembled on our Career Central page.  Below are highlights from those resources and some editorializing from me. 

First, though, an important announcement: NALP (which runs PSJD) and Equal Justice Works will present a two-part “Summer Public Interest Job Search” webinar in early January.  The webinars, each 60 minutes long, will take place on:

• 1/15/13 – Noon Eastern – Cover Letters and Resumes
• 1/22/13 – Noon Eastern – Interviewing and Networking

We’ll circulate registration details in the coming weeks.  (In the meantime, you can view a version of this webinar we did last January.)

Okay, here are some cover letter and resume tips we’ve culled from resources on PSJD’s Career Central page:

• Distinguish a cover letter from a resume.  I like this intro from the Michigan Law’s “Creating the Public Service Cover Letter” handout:  “A cover letter is your opportunity to communicate confidence in your abilities, and to reiterate your commitment to, and enthusiasm for, public service work….  Tell [the employer]…the main things you want her/him to learn about you. You should write a letter which addresses the requirements listed by the employer in the posting, showing why you would be an asset to the organization. Letters that merely state your needs and wishes will not evoke an employer’s interest in you.”
  • The cover letter isn’t a reformatted version of your resume.  It’s a companion piece.  Through the cover letter you can tell the employer why this job is the right one for you and why you’re the right candidate for this job.  As noted above, you can pull out one or two of the resume experiences/skills that qualify you for the job and tell what  you did.  You can also express some passion in the cover letter (which is harder to convey in a resume, of course).  I like this very succinct statement about what a cover letter does, from Harvard Law’s Office of Public Interest Advising: “Your letter is an uninterrupted chance to tell an employer about yourself and to add depth to the credentials highlighted on your resume.”
• The cover letter for summer jobs should not exceed one page. (Unlike this blog post).   Employers will likely review many, many cover letters.  It always feels good on the reviewer’s end if a candidate can say what s/he needs to in one page.  (For postgraduate jobs, there may be reasons to go to a second page.  But even those instances are rare.  For a summer job, keep it to one.) 
• Be clear, concise, and conservative in the cover letter’s opening lines. 
  • DO: “I am a second-year law student at [school name] and I am writing to apply for a summer clerkship.”
  • DON’T: “My name is Steve Grumm and this job will be the first step on my path to becoming attorney general.”   First, you don’t need to waste space on your name because the reviewer is already able to find it from the email or letter envelope they received, from your letterhead, and from your signature line.  Second, this kind of attention-seeking bravado will do more harm than good in almost every instance.
• Need Experience to Get Experience(?) – as for resumes, many students confront the perceived “But I need experience in order to get experience!” conundrum.  They wonder how they’ll get consideration from an employer if they haven’t done similar work in the past.  A secret revealed: employers don’t expect you to have a ton of directly relevant public interest experience.  How could you?  Experience is what you’re trying to get, and you’re at the earliest stage of your legal career.  So the trick is to draw parallels and find related skills from past experiences that translate to the work described in a job listing.  An example:
  • A job listing for a summer internship with a group that advocates for migrant farmworker rights may read: “Interns will do outreach at migrant worker camps, interview clients, and educate migrant workers about their rights.”  Even if a law student has done no advocacy in the arena, s/he could draw from any of several past experiences that highlight closely related skills/experiences.  As examples, consider these possible resume bullet points, all of which would stand out to the farmworker employer:
    • “conducted rural outreach to over 75 households for 2010 U.S. Census”
    • “assisted in client interviews as a legal intern”
    • “tutored a class of 20 English as a Second Language (ESL) students”
    • “taught a ‘know-your-rights’ course to 35 high-school students”
• Ditch the “Objective” section.  If your college resume included the “My objective is to secure a position blah blah blah…”, ditch it.  Employers know your objective is to get a job.  Resume real estate is a valuable commodity.  Use that freed-up space for more valuable content.
• Use action verbs and numbers.  I like this tip from UVA Law about language choice: ” Use action verbs and specifically describe your prior work experiences to let a potential employer know what skills you have developed (i.e. drafted a motion to dismiss, deposed two witnesses) and don’t use acronyms when listing your activities (i.e. P-CAP).”
  • In addition to action verbs, numbers stand out, as in the above: “taught a ‘know-your-rights’ course to 35 high-school students.”  
• Bonus Resume Tip: always keep your resume current.  If you’re wrapping up a fall work experience, get that on your resume now even if you’re waiting until January to apply for jobs.  It’s much easier to update a resume when information is fresh in your head.  You can always go back and tailor the resume to specific jobs for which you end up applying.  But it’s best to at least have an up-to-date iteration of your resume.

We’ll share more tips and resources in the coming weeks.  And look out for a registration announcement for our 1/15 and 1/22 webinars.

Last week, the Partnership for Public Service released a study covering job satisfaction within the Presidential Management Fellows program. Now, a new report details the best and worst places to work in the federal government, and the results are a little less than stellar:

A report due out Thursday, based on the largest sample ever of the workforce of 2 million, confirms a steady decline in morale and ebbing commitment.

Despite positive feedback at some agencies, job satisfaction across the government has hit its lowest point in almost a decade. Just 52.9 percent of employees at the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, for example, are satisfied with their jobs, making it the lowest-ranked large agency, followed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The seventh annual “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” rankings pose a challenge for the Obama administration as President Obama, who pledged to reinvigorate federal work and make government “cool again,” embarks on a second term.

Even workers at layoff-battered private companies are more optimistic than government employees, who historically have had far more job security, the survey by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service found.

Still, most federal workers say they are committed to the missions of their agencies.

Click here to read the full article.

The American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital (ACLU-NCA) is currently accepting applications for a vacant staff attorney position, focusing primarily on legislative advocacy and advancing criminal and racial justice in the District of Columbia. From the PSJD job listing:

This new position provides a unique opportunity for candidates who are committed to impact-oriented civil rights work and are passionate about equal protection under the law, racial justice, and the full range of ACLU issues.

Under the direction of the Legal Director, the staff attorney is expected to further the affiliate’s litigation program and legislative advocacy. In addition, the staff attorney will develop and execute an integrated advocacy approach combining litigation, legislative advocacy and public education in protecting and advancing civil liberties and civil rights, including racial justice and criminal law reform. The staff attorney will be encouraged to identify, lead, and carry out program activities and strategies to address discrimination, racial profiling, police practices, the problems of incarceration, and the over-discipline of public school children.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Litigation of ACLU cases in a broad range of areas in federal and D.C. trial and appellate courts (including the typical activities of research and writing on factual and legal issues, preparing memoranda of findings and recommendations, drafting briefs and other pleadings, engaging in discovery and motions practice, and appearing in court for all purposes);
• Working with pro bono co-counsel from private law firms;
• Working with senior management to create a strategic work plan to advance criminal and racial justice;
•  Serving as a resource in the affiliates’ legislative and policy work including legal analysis of proposed legislation and government policies and practice, and providing testimony;
• Advancing racial justice in the District of Columbia through administrative and legislative forums, including partnering and advising the local bar, other organizations and advocates;
• Developing new cases and non-litigation advocacy projects;
• Working closely with the public outreach and education staff on civil liberties issues;
• Supervising entry-level attorneys, legal fellows, paralegals and student interns.

Successful applicants will have had a federal judicial clerkship and/or significant federal court litigation experience, and a minimum of 3 years litigation experience. For more information on qualifications and application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Fiscal health is a subject that is, for obvious reasons, of great importance to all law students. It bears even more importance for public interest law students, who must balance their passion for legal advocacy with a need to pay for an expensive legal education.

Today, the U.S News & World Report’s Student Loan Ranger blog, written by Equal Justice Works, tackled the feasibility of pursuing a public interest law career in the midst of low salaries, expensive loans and “Big Law” temptations:

…the Student Loan Ranger disagrees that a career in public interest law is not viable; particularly for lawyers who graduated over the last five years, a combination of Grad PLUS loans, income-driven repayment plans, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness has made a long-term public interest career more financially feasible than ever before.

Law students (and other graduate and professional students) interested in public interest careers should use Grad PLUS loans to cover what remains of their expenses after their grant aid and federal direct Stafford loans have been used up. This means they’ll only be using federal loans, which have important borrower protections and access to the full panoply of federal relief options.

Those options include income-driven repayment plans, including Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), Income-Based Repayment (IBR), and Pay As You Earn. (The latter will be available December 21, thanks to early implementation by the Department of Education.)

IBR— the best option most law school graduates are eligible for—limits the amount borrowers pay monthly to 15 percent of their discretionary income.

Even better, ICR, IBR, and Pay As You Earn are qualifying repayment plans for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which provides forgiveness after 120 monthly payments (10 years’ worth) made while working full time at any of a broad range of qualifying jobs, including 501(c)(3) nonprofits and for federal, state, local, and tribal governments. The upshot is that attorneys dedicated to public interest careers can make 10 years’ worth of low monthly payments and then apply for forgiveness.

Click here to read the full article, and check out PSJD’s “Funding & Debt” section of the Resource Center to learn more about financing a public interest career.

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) is a Legal Services Corp.-chartered organization that serves the seven counties north of New York City. LSHV clients are typically at or below 200% of the poverty level, and they handle civil litigation primarily in the areas of homelessness prevention, disability rights, domestic violence, discrimination, education and public benefits.

LSHV is currently looking for a Disability Rights Staff Attorney in its White Plains office:

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) has an immediate opening in Westchester County for a full time, Disability staff attorney.  The attorney will serve low-income individuals and families living in Westchester County in matters ranging from discrimination under the ADA, Social Security and SSI Disability Claims, Medicaid, Eviction Prevention, and Protection and Advocacy for the Developmentally Disabled.

Duties of the Position:  individual case work, litigation in state and federal courts, and education and outreach efforts directed at community members, advocates and services providers.  The person hired will also be expected to adhere to program and case handling standards, funder requirements, the highest professional standards, and be available as a resource to all LSHV staff and access to justice communities.

LSHV would prefer applicants fluent in both English and Spanish. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project promotes justice for low-income immigrants by pursuing and defending their legal status. They focus on providing direct legal services, supported by education and public policy work. Founded in 1984, NWIRP’s roots were in addressing the legal needs of Central American refugees and others who were able to legalize their status under Amnesty programs, and they are currently looking for an Immigrant Youth Attorney for its office in Seattle, Washington.

From the PSJD job posting:

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) seeks a Spanish-speaking bilingual attorney to provide community outreach, education and direct representation to individuals eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and to provide other services to immigrant youth and their families.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Coordinate community education events and workshops throughout Washington State with NWIRP staff;
• Conduct presentations, workshops, legal clinics and individual consultations in Spanish and English;
• Provide direct representation to persons applying for deferred action or other immigration benefits before US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS);
• Provide direct representation to persons in removal proceedings;
• Provide support to NWIRP staff on cases dealing with the impact of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
• Provide direct representation and other forms of legal assistance to individuals in other types of immigration matters;
• Perform administrative tasks related to grant reporting and other requirements;
• Participate in NWIRP’s outreach, community education and development efforts.

Successful applicants will be admitted to practice in any state, but NWIRP will also consider recent law graduates awaiting admission who have a demonstrated commitment to immigrant rights. The starting salary is $43,160 or DOE, plus health, dental and other benefits. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required)!

Did you miss last month’s educational debt webinars? If so, no worries – EJW is hosting one more webinar on managing student loan debt before the start of the new year! Check out more information below and register here.

Educational debt has become a crippling burden for far too many, and especially for those who want to pursue careers in public service. Equal Justice Works provides in depth information on loan repayment assistance programs and relief programs like Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness to help everyone pursue the career of their dreams.

Our new student debt eBook Take Control of Your Future received its first review in the Kindle Store and it got five stars! Please help us spread the word about this comprehensive guide to borrowing student loans, repayment and eligibility for relief programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness. We go into the details borrowers need to understand and the exact steps they need to take to manage their educational debt and take control of their future.

We were also busy last month writing our U.S. News blog the Student Loan Ranger. We examined the effect of the fiscal cliff on student debt, looked at some new initiatives colleges are using to help students avoid debt  and, of course, examined President Obama’s new Pay As You Earn plan.

Eligible student loans borrowers will be able to enroll in Pay As You Earn starting December 21. The plan caps borrowers’ monthly student loan payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and provides forgiveness for borrowers still repaying their loans after 20 years. Only borrowers who took out their first federal loan after Sept. 30, 2007 and received a loan after Sept. 30, 2011 are eligible. The Department expects the program to initially help 1.6 million borrowers when it takes effect.

Every month, our free, live webinars also provide a comprehensive overview of the debt relief options available for students and graduates – including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Based Repayment – and provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of our webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Our current sessions include:

Drowning in Debt? Learn How Government and Nonprofit Workers Can Earn Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Tuesday, December 18, 3-4 p.m. EST

A must attend for anyone with educational debt planning to work or currently working for the government or a nonprofit, this webinar explains how you can benefit from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

This webinar will teach you how to:

    – Understand your federal loans

    – Manage your monthly payments using income-driven repayment plans like Income-Based Repayment plan

    – How to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

The Family Defense Center’s mission is to advocate justice for families in the child welfare system. It advocates for families threatened with losing their children to foster care, which many child protection systems frequently do as a first resort instead of a final resort. Many families lose custody because of financial issues or because they are victims of abuse themselves, and the FDC is the first legal advocacy organization of its kind to provide high-level systemic advocacy and grassroots activities for families treated unfairly by state child protection agencies.

The FDC is currently looking for a staff attorney to join its office in Chicago. From the PSJD job listing:

A staff attorney at the FDC has primary responsibility for handling a caseload of 15-25 individual client cases at various stages of child protection proceedings (pending investigations, negotiations, expungement appeals, and juvenile court cases); co-counseling with and supervising attorneys in major law firms who handle referred cases pro-bono; co-counseling affirmative civil rights cases in addition to handling a regular caseload; supervising and managing the work of law clerks and paralegals on the FDC’s staff, assisting the Executive Director in researching, writing, and drafting briefs and memoranda as assigned in major cases (in addition to performing such tasks in the attorney’s own caseload) and assisting other staff on an as-needed basis to cover cases accepted in the office; assisting in development of training materials and self help materials for FDC programs; developing legislative proposals and materials as the FDC expands its legislative policy work; and representing the FDC in relevant bar association activities.

Starting salary for 2012 graduates will be $45,000. The deadline to apply is January 2, 2013. For more information on qualifications and application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).