by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday everyone!  Welcome to March and spring break season.  This month we’re going to feature spring break pro bono trips.  If you’d like to be featured, send us the information.  We are looking forward to all the great work that will be done this month!!

Here are the week’s headlines:

• MacArthur Foundation awards $400,00 to legal incubator;
• Legal Aid Ontario extending services to Tilbury;
• Montana counties receive DOJ domestic abuse grant;
• Georgia lawmakers back away from indigent defense changes;
• Louisiana Public Defender cuts set to take effect April 1;
• Virginia General Assembly includes law clinic in budget;
• Oregon governor signs legal aid class action bill;
• Spotlight on Public Service Servants;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

February 26, 2015 – “The MacArthur Foundation is awarding a two-year, $400,000 grant to a Chicago pilot program that connects lawyers hanging out their shingles to clients who need low-cost legal services.  The grant to the Chicago Bar Foundation will support the group’s Justice Entrepreneurs Project, which launched in 2013. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation program officer Jeff Ubois said in a press statement that the project shows ‘great potential to develop replicable, market-based models’ to address the needs of low- and moderate-income people who don’t qualify for free legal aid but are priced out of the open market.  ‘This gives us a really big endorsement from someone who’s in the business of looking for promising models,’ said Bob Glaves, executive director for the Chicago Bar Foundation, the charity arm of the city’s bar association.”  (Chicago Business)

February 26, 2015 – “Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) has recognized transportation is a challenge for some residents of this Chatham-Kent community.  That’s about to change.  ‘LAO’s mandate is to provide assistance to low-income people and what we found through our experience is a lot of these individuals in our outlying communities, such as Tilbury, have a lot of problems accessing services in Chatham due to lack of transportation,’ Rocio Alvarez, staff lawyer at LAO’s Chatham Family Law Service Centre told The Daily News Thursday.  So Alvarez will make the drive from Chatham to Tilbury to reach those individuals in need through a new family law advice clinic held locally once a month.  ‘The intention is that it’s a walk-in clinic, but we also will be taking appointments through our family law service office in Chatham,’ Alvarez said.  People can receive legal advice on issues such as separation, divorce, child custody, access, child and spousal support and Children’s Aid Society matters.”  (Chatham Daily News)

March 2, 2015 – “A three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow two western Montana counties to expand their domestic abuse and sexual violence programs, and help prosecute the offenders.  Missoula County signed a memorandum of understanding last week with nearly a dozen partners and hopes to receive the $750,000 grant this fall from the Office on Violence Against Women.”  “As proposed, the new grant would fund a crime-victim advocate in Mineral County to work with local prosecutors. It would also fund a part-time investigator, marking the first time the Mineral County Sheriff’s Department would have an investigator on staff who specializes in sexual and domestic abuse.”  (Missoulian)

March 3, 2015 – “Georgia lawmakers have backed away from a proposal that would have removed requirements governing public defense, a move that had sparked backlash from attorneys groups in the state.”  “Under an amended bill introduced in a House committee late last week, though, that language would have been stripped out. It also would have changed the name of the state agency that oversees the system from the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council to the Georgia Public Defenders Council. The changes to the public defender provisions, tied to a criminal justice reform bill, prompted strong opposition from the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  But just before a the committee was set to vote on the bill Monday afternoon, sponsor Republican Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, restored the public defense requirements currently in place.”  “With the changes, the bill passed out of committee with a unanimous vote.  It now moves on to the House floor. ” (WABE)

March 3, 2015 – “Cuts to Louisiana’s Public Defender Offices are set to take place on April 1.”  “Back in October, Alan Golden the head of that department in Caddo Parish, announced the program was going broke and would soon require cuts.  ‘We have to make personnel cuts,’ said Golden. Tuesday, those cuts were announced as an initiative to help offset a projected $700,000 shortfall for next year.”  (KLSA News)

March 3, 2015 – “The Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at William & Mary Law School is slated to receive $245,000 in funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia in FY2015/16 through the state budget passed by the Virginia General Assembly last week. This legislation is now before Governor McAuliffe for his approval.  William & Mary Law School’s Puller Clinic provides free legal representation to injured veterans seeking disability benefits from the Veterans Administration.  Since its founding in 2008, the Puller Clinic has represented more than 100 veterans with their disability claims – all of whom suffered an injury or illness as a result of their military service.  Almost all of them are Virginia residents.  ‘We are enormously grateful that the General Assembly has made this important investment in the Commonwealth’s wounded warriors who served our nation,’ said Davison M. Douglas, dean of William & Mary Law School.”  (William and Mary Law School)

March 4, 2015 – “Kate Brown on Wednesday signed the first bill of her young tenure as Oregon’s governor, waiting a little more than a day to approve controversial legislation redirecting unclaimed class-action damage awards to the state’s legal aid fund.  Under House Bill 2700, that money will now be used by the Oregon State Bar to help low-income Oregonians obtain free counsel in housing, family law, public benefits and other noncriminal cases. State law had otherwise allowed companies that were sued to keep whatever money was unclaimed.”  (Oregon Live)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Law Alternative Spring Break.  UT Pro Bono is proud to support an Alternative Spring Break program. Each year, during Spring Break, students choose to serve at various locations across the country.  We’re looking forward to hearing about the great work they will do this year.  (UT Law Pro Bono)

Super Music Bonus!  http://youtu.be/iKuxM1Lt4y0