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

Happy Friday!

Here are the week’s headlines:

• UnitedLex launches legal residency program;
• Ontario launches pilot to strengthen access to justice in French;
• Canadian legal clinics ramp up efforts to get justice for vulnerable workers;
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund boosts grants to law school scholarship fund;
• Seven people passed test to become limited license legal technicians in Washington;
• ABA will revisit paid externships;
• Spotlight on Public Service Servants;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

May 28, 2015 – “UnitedLex, a leading global provider of legal services, announced today an innovative ‘legal residency’ program in conjunction with four top U.S. law schools: Emory University School of Law, the University of Miami School of Law, the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Recent Emory Law graduates who participate in the two-year UnitedLex residency program will learn to use cutting-edge legal technologies and processes to provide high-quality and efficient legal services to corporate legal departments and top law firms. Those selected for the residency program each year will receive rigorous classroom instruction provided by senior attorneys, will serve in a supervisory capacity, and will work directly with clients to deliver legal services in such practice areas as litigation management, e-discovery, cyber security, contract management, patent licensing, IP management and immigration law. At the end of the residency, some residents will remain on UnitedLex’s permanent legal staff, while others will join employers seeking experienced attorneys trained in the technologies and processes of 21st-century law practice.” (Emory News)

May 29, 2015 – “Ontario is piloting an initiative in Ottawa to give French-speaking Ontarians timely and seamless access to French-language justice services. A pilot project at the Ottawa courthouse, delivered in partnership with Ontario’s chief justices, will help reduce potential challenges faced by French-speaking litigants, lawyers and other users of Ontario’s courts. The project, which responds to a number of recommendations set out by the French Language Services Bench and Bar Advisory committee in its 2012 Access to Justice in French report and the French Language Services Commissioner’s 2013-2014 Annual Report, will help Ontario identify best practices to enhance access to justice in French at court locations throughout the province.”  (Ontario Newsroom)

May 31, 2015 – “For the precariously employed, getting justice for workplace violations is more often than not confusing, daunting and discouraging. Legal Aid Ontario does not provide any direct support for workers’ rights matters. Instead, it funds the province’s 76 clinics, about 40 per cent of which are in the GTA. They are the only source of legal support for the thousands of precariously employed people whose rights are violated at work each year. But for years, many of those clinics have been too overburdened to offer employment law services at all. And for decades, the working poor have not even qualified for their help because of outdated government eligibility criteria. Clinics are leaping on a sliver of opportunity presented by two recent developments: new money for the community clinic system from Legal Aid Ontario, and new guidelines that mean more low-income people are now able to use legal clinics. The new funding, first announced in March, will pump $9.8 million a year over the next two years into community legal clinics. Of that, $2 million will be devoted specifically to improving clinic capacity, including a boost to services such as workers’ rights law. ‘There are plans to expand in this area as there is an unmet client need currently,’ Geneviève Oger, Legal Aid Ontario’s media relations officer, told the Star.”  (The Star)

June 2, 2015 – “The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is overhauling its law student scholarship program, increasing the amount of grants and providing substantive civil rights training. The changes come as the organization celebrates its 75th anniversary of leveraging the law in pursuit of racial justice and education.  The Earl Warren Scholarship— launched in 1971 and named for the former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who presided over the seminal school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education—has increased from $9,000 to $30,000, although the organization will limit recipients to five each year, down from about 15.”  (The National Law Journal)

June 2, 2015 – “Seven people have cleared a major hurdle to become the nation’s first limited license legal technicians. Nine people took Washington state’s first exam for limited license legal technicians, and seven of them passed. Washington is the first state with a program to allow limited license legal technicians to help litigants prepare legal documents and provide advice on legal procedures without a lawyer’s supervision. The seven applicants passed a test to work in domestic relations, the first practice area open to technicians in Washington’s program. The seven people will still have to show they have insurance and 3,000 hours of supervised experience. A licensing fee and trust account reporting are also required.”  (ABA Journal)

June 3, 2015 – The the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will again take up the issue of whether schools can allow paid externships in addition to granting academic credit.  We’ll keep you posted on their conclusions.  (National Law Journal)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: On June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.  The women’s suffragist movement was founded in the mid-19th century by women who had become politically active through the abolitionist and temperance movements.  71 years and two wars later, the struggle for female enfranchisment was rewarded with passage of the 19th Amendment.  Thank you to all the brave women and men who fought for a woman’s right to vote.  (History Channel)

Super Music Bonus!  https://youtu.be/xQNqaERUYy4