Archive for May, 2018

Job’o’th’Week (Internship Edition)

Law Clerk

Help Wanted

The Organization:

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. NCLR litigates precedent-setting cases at the trial and appellate court levels; advocates for equitable public policies affecting the LGBT community; provides free legal assistance to LGBT people and their legal advocates; and conducts community education on LGBT legal issues.

NCLR’s projects and practice areas include family (including marriage equality, parenting, and other relationship protections), youth, immigration, elder, transgender, employment, and sports law.

The Position

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is seeking law clerks to assist with all aspects of its national impact litigation, public policy, and educational work. Much of the clerk’s time will be devoted to interacting with members of the community who contact NCLR’s legal information helpline and handling their questions from start to finish under the supervision and training of NCLR staff attorneys. Clerks also conduct case research, update publications, and draft memos on a wide range of issues affecting LGBT people and their families.

Positions are available in NCLR’s National Office in San Francisco, CA. Summer clerks work full time, and semester clerks may work full or part-time (minimum 12 hours per week).

NCLR hires law clerks for the summer as well as the fall and spring semesters.

Ready to live in San Francisco and work for an important organization? Check it out your here on PSJD.

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PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 25, 2018

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Two BIG highlights this week:

  • The Federal Student Aid Office has published a page describing the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which may be able to help borrowers whose PSLF applications have been denied. See “Student Loans,” below.
  • An article in The Practice attempts an empirical examination of “public-interest drift,” the phenomenon wherein law students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms.

See you around,
Sam

Public Service Career Development

  • In The Practice (the journal of Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession), CLP Research Fellow John Bliss conducted “a systematic qualitative look at the public-interest drift process.” Bliss defined “public interest drift” as the phenomenon wherein students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms. He concluded that “these students struggle most with a lack of preparation for the job market.” The article concludes with “policy recommendations focusing on preparing students to broker the job market.”

Student Loans

Immigration

Access to Justice – Civil

Access to Justice – Criminal

Criminal Justice Reform

Music Bonus!

Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”

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Job’o’th’Week (Experienced Edition)

Associate Director, Law Library 

Help Wanted

The Organization

University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law is the USA’s most clinically-oriented law school, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, and is devoted to recruiting and training students who are committed to public service. Its legislatively mandated mission is to to recruit and train as lawyers students from racial, ethnic and other groups traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession and to do so, to the degree feasible, through the representation of low-income people and the public interest in a clinical setting.

The Position

The Associate Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Law Library. The incumbent uses independent judgment and demonstrates expertise in the field by recommending policies, procedures, and systems reflecting professional criteria. The Associate Director is responsible for ensuring that the resources allocated to the unit will reflect an efficient level of service.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

  • Oversees the day-to-day operations of the law library.
  • Plans, develops, coordinates, oversees, and participates in the delivery of the law library’s public services, including reference, research, instruction, and access services.
  • Supervises and evaluates all employees under his/her administrative supervision.
  • Provides vision, oversight, and leadership of public services in the law library, including regular assessment of policies, procedures, and workflows related to the effective delivery of library services and makes recommendations based on those assessments.
  • Manages the law library’s hiring, training, and oversight of student and other hourly workers in public services roles.
  • Teaches in the law school’s first-year legal research curriculum with the potential to also teach advanced legal research courses.
  • Assists in the development of the law library’s budget.
  • Participate on the law library’s collection development team and engage in regular evaluation of the law library’s collection priorities.
  • Develops performance standards for resource utilization and service based on established professional criteria.
  • Prepares reports of the law library’s public services.
  • Develops strategies for staff development and implements steps to accomplish them.
  • Reviews personnel matters and recommends actions in accordance with established policies.
  • Assists with identification of library funding needs and ideas for creative funding sources, including grants for which the law library may be eligible.
  • Assists with the planning of facilities to accommodate services and collections.
  • Performs reference duties as required, possibly including evening and weekend reference shifts.
  • Oversees faculty research support.
  • Promotes the services of the law library throughout the academic community and among cooperating institutions.
  • Engages in outreach with an eye toward possible partnerships within the larger university and the local legal community.
  • Serves on law school and university-wide committees and task forces as appointed.

Ready to make an impact in the world of higher education? Check out the posting on PSJD.

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Know a great law professor? There’s an award for that.

Do you know a law professor who is doing great things? Nominate them today for the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust.

Overview of the Award: Gail McKnight Beckman created the Beckman Award to benefit teachers who have inspired their former students to make a significant contribution to society. The award is given to current or former academic faculty members who have inspired their former students to “create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large.” Alternatively, the academic faculty member must have inspired their former students to “establish on a lasting basis a concept, procedure, or movement of comparable benefit to the community at large.”

Types of Support: Award recipients will receive $25,000 as a one-time award to be used at their sole discretion (taxable income).

Application Deadline: Nomination application packages must be submitted via email by May 25 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Know a law professor deserving of this award? Find more information here: https://www.wellsfargo.com/private-foundations/beckman-award-trust/

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Job’o’th’Week (Fellowship Edition)

Help Wanted

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

Litigation Fellow

The Organization

Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention advocacy group in the country, is seeking a passionate, dedicated professional for a full time position. The Associate Corporate Counsel will report to the Senior Corporate Counsel and work with Everytown’s CFO and finance and operations departments on a variety of legal and compliance matters, including lobbying and political work as well as nonprofit governance matters.  The Operations team provides finance, legal, human resources, IT and other support to our rapidly growing organization. We’re looking for a flexible problem-solver with exceptional attention to detail to join us.  This would be an ideal opportunity for someone who wants to pursue an in-house legal career in compliance, risk management, politics or nonprofit governance.

The Position

Everytown for Gun Safety’s Litigation Team is seeking applicants for a full-time Litigation Fellowship starting in fall 2018.  This is a two-year paid fellowship program (including salary and benefits) and will involve the Fellow in the full range of Everytown’s affirmative and Second Amendment litigation work.

Everytown’s Litigation and Enforcement team is the largest team of litigators in the country dedicated full-time to advocating in the courts and through the criminal and civil justice systems to advance gun safety while respecting the Second Amendment.  The Litigation Team focuses on two principal areas:  (1) developing and implementing affirmative litigation strategies to take on dangerous gun laws that conflict with other constitutional and statutory rights, enforce gun violence prevention laws that are not being implemented, and challenge the gun industry’s dangerous business practices; and (2) defending life-saving gun safety laws against Second Amendment challenges, including working with and representing states and cities facing constitutional challenges to gun violence prevention laws.

We are looking for a Fellow who wants to use and grow their litigation skills and public-spirited ambitions to make a difference in the fight to save lives.  Working out of the New York office, the Fellow will be responsible for working with the team to develop and implement Everytown’s national affirmative and Second Amendment federal and state court litigation practice, including constitutional and other legal research and analysis, strategy development, complaint drafting, trial court and appellate brief writing, participating in all other aspects of litigation, and working with pro bono counsel.

Is this your dream opportunity?  See the full-post on PSJD.

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PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 11, 2018

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The big news for this week once again grew out of our recent conference, as the conversation we were having during the Public Service Luncheon about diversity and legal technology became a talking point in the ABA Journal. And folks working on proposals for NALP’s 2019 Conference may want to check out the Center for Court Innovation podcast below (see Criminal Justice Reform), where a longtime public defender discusses the power of prosecutors to change the system.

See you around,
Sam

Legal Technology

Access to Justice – Civil

Access to Justice – Criminal

Criminal Justice Reform

Music Bonus!

Childish Gambino, “Stand Tall”

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Job’o’th’Week (Internship Edition)

2018 Summer PSJD Project Assistants (3-4)

Help Wanted

The Organization:

Now known as NALP, The National Association for Law Placement® was founded in 1971, during a period of rapid change in both the legal profession and legal education, in response to a perceived need by many law schools and legal employers for a common forum to discuss issues involving placement and recruitment.

NALP is dedicated to facilitating legal career counseling and planning, recruitment and retention, and the professional development of law students and lawyers.

NALP administers the PSJD (formerly PSLawNet) website.

The Position

In brief, PSJD Project Assistants make PSJD what it is. Many of the job announcements that find their way onto PSJD.org are placed there by PSJD’s Project Assistant (PA) team. During the year, the team is composed of local undergraduate students, but over the summer we open our hiring process to law students in the DC area. This position is ideal for a law student looking for ways to finance an unpaid public service internship here in Washington, DC.

The PA team’s primary task is to update and maintain database content on PSJD.org–mostly its job announcements, but also PSJD’s employer directory and resource center. The team reports directly to NALP’s Director of Public Service Initiatives and the PSJD Fellow.

Project Assistants are expected to work around twelve hours per week. Hours are flexible within normal business hours, and can be arranged around an internship or other activity. Work must be performed in our offices; telecommuting is not possible for these positions.

This at-will opportunity requires a minimum commitment of 9 weeks, to begin in late May or early June, and conclude in early to mid-August.

Ready to come work with us? Check it out your here on PSJD.

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Job’o’th’Week (Scholarship Edition)

Help Wanted

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

LGBTQ Division Public Interest Scholarship

 

 Summer is fast approaching and as students begin to secure summer positions in the public interest field, the age old question keeps arising: “how do I fund this?” This week at PSJD we are focusing on one of the many summer funding opportunities we have up on the site. If you have a great unpaid opportunity and can’t figure out how to fund your summer, this scholarship may be the answer! In addition to this opportunity, check out the other national and regional funding opportunities up on PSJD. 

The Organization

In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the HNBA’s LGBT Section, the HNBA LGBT Division announced the launch of the LGBT Division Public Interest Scholarship Program at the 2018 Corporate Counsel Conference in San Francisco, CA. Applications are now open!

“The leadership displayed by LGBT Division Chair Raquel Matas in establishing this scholarship exemplifies this year’s theme of ‘Vision in Action’,” stated HNBA National President Erica V. Mason. “In less than 6 months, we were able to take the idea for the scholarship program from concept to fully-funded for the 2018 scholarship year, demonstrating, once again, what we can accomplish when we are all working towards a common goal. Thank you to everyone who worked tirelessly to create and fund this program in such a short period of time, and to all that have contributed thus far. This scholarship is a wonderful way to commemorate the LGBT Division’s 10th Anniversary, and represents an important step in the Division’s legacy of promoting the advancement of Latinx LGBTQ lawyers and advocacy on behalf of the Latinx LGBTQ Community. I encourage our members to contribute to this fund!”

About the Division: The mission of the HNBA LGBT Division is to monitor and ADVOCATEfor legal issues affecting the Hispanic LGBT community; EDUCATE the HNBA and others on legal issues facing the Hispanic LGBT community; and PROMOTE the expertise, advancement, and empowerment of Hispanic LGBT legal professionals. In addition to programming and Division meetings through the year, in conjunction with the HNBA Corporate Counsel Conference or Annual Convention each year, the Division hosts its Annual LGBT Division Latinx Legal Professionals Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to: (i) discuss issues of concern within the Latinx LGBT legal professional community and broader community; and (ii) develop advocacy strategies to address them.

The Scholarship

This scholarship will provide up to $5000.00 in financial assistance to law students or recent law school graduates who are or will become members of the HNBA, and who will be performing public interest work (advocacy, policy, and/or direct legal services) with a direct impact on Latinx LGBTQ individuals during their 2018 Summer (current law students) or 2018 Summer/Fall (recent law grads).

It is the goal of the LGBT Division Scholarship Program that scholarship recipients attend the Annual LGBT Latinx Legal Professionals Summit and contribute substantively by reporting on the work in which they were engaged during the summer and/or fall, respectively.

One or more scholarships of up to $5000 each will be awarded annually, beginning in 2018, subject to the availability of funds and the recommendation of the Division’s Scholarship Committee.

The Criteria

To be eligible, the applicant must:
(i) be either a first, second or third year law student in good standing in an ABA accredited law school, or a recent law graduate (having received the degree within 12 months of the application date);
(ii) have secured an internship or placement for Summer 2018 (which can extend beyond the Summer) or the fall of 2018 (for a recent law graduate) with a public interest organization engaged in legal, advocacy, or policy work with a direct impact on Latinx LGBTQ individuals.

Ready to fund your summer?  See the full posting and how to apply here: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=df9a27c10b6d6ba38ba001440&id=39198baea4

Check out this funding opportunity and other national and regional funding opportunities on PSJD!

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PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 4, 2018

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! I must confess, with the Annual Education Conference very much on my mind the news that leapt off the page for me this week concerned coverage of efforts in Newark and San Francisco to create a right to counsel in eviction cases, in the model of New York City. The Public Service Section’s Conference Proposals Committee is considering proposing a conference session on these kinds of new initiatives and their implications for legal hiring; if you’re a NALP member feel free to reach out to me for details on how to attend the open meeting where we’ll be discussing this proposal and others, today at 1:30pm EST.

See you around,
Sam

Funding & Loans

Legal Technology

Access to Justice – Civil

Access to Justice – Criminal

Music Bonus!

2Cellos, “Thunderstruck”

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