The Organization:

Located in downtown Pittsburgh, Ruder Law represents parents and students throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Our firm helps families obtain needed educational services for students with disabilities in all school environments, from preschool, through elementary and secondary school, into college and vocational programs.

The Position

Ruder Law seeks an associate attorney for a full-time position. The attorney will represent parents and students in matters involving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The attorney will independently manage all aspects of a busy caseload, including interviewing clients, drafting memoranda and briefs, advocating in IEP meetings, filing complaints and litigating due process claims before the Office for Dispute Resolution.

The candidate should have at least 1-3 years of legal experience.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=89601

Marissa LaVette, Assistant Staff Counsel | ABA Center for Pro Bono

Spring is around the corner! Spring’s return means the 2019 ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference (EJC) is almost here, and with it, the annual Law School Pro Bono Advisor’s Pre-Conference! The 2019 EJC is May 8-11, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky at the Louisville Downtown Marriott. The Law School Pro Bono Advisors Pre-Conference will take place on May 8, 2019 from 8am-5pm.

This year’s pre-conference will offer programming on a variety of topics relevant to law school pro bono advisors. We will open the pre-conference with an inspirational and interactive session exploring self-care for pro bono advisors to sustain themselves and their students in challenging times. Law school pro bono colleagues will then lead attendees in the annual Connecting with Colleagues session, which gives attendees a chance to network and connect with colleagues from across the country. Colleagues can explore common obstacles to completing their work and discuss what they find most fulfilling about their jobs.

Next, the entire group will participate in a Project Exchange session, which will allow colleagues to brainstorm and exchange ideas on different models of pro bono projects used by schools across the country. Attendees will be able to brainstorm with colleagues from similarly situated programs to discuss ideas for new pro bono projects and solutions to common obstacles faced in the law school pro bono realm.

After lunch, participants will head into breakout sessions that address the following topics:

• The basics of running a law school pro bono program for those newer to the field. Learn the basics of building and re-energizing a pro bono program, and how to tackle specific issues in your program such as recognition, tracking hours, and troubleshooting challenges.
• Strategies for schools in remote areas to serve clients through a pro bono program and ways for schools in more urban areas to tackle the rural pro bono needs.
• A session on doing more with less, to help pro bono coordinators strategize how to involve more students in pro bono, raise the profile of your pro bono program, and meet challenges you faxe as you gain a fresh start on your program.

Plan to come away from the pre-conference with an action plan that you can implement to reinvigorate your pro bono program. Following the pre-conference, an exciting EJC awaits! This year’s Conference will have 85 CLE accredited sessions, energizing speakers, and numerous networking opportunities. The Conference provides a wide range of learning and sharing experiences for all attendees. We hope to see you there! Please contact Marissa LaVette if you have additional questions!

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major news this week includes investigative reporting from Bloomberg revealing a surge in student-loan delinquencies, British Columbia’s decision to provide amnesty for student loan interest, and a vigorous debate in Canada over recent comments by the Chief Justice indicating his interest in exploring mandatory pro bono strategies. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to curtail civil forfeiture practices by state governments. And lots more besides! To see what I mean, read below.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on how “[t]he influx of asylum seekers [has] disproportionately affected Manitoba [relative to other provinces]” in the past year.

Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

• In Oregon, “[t]wo law school Oregon [sic] legislative interns who worked in former Republican state Sen. Jeff Kruse’s office filed a lawsuit…detailing how they were sexually harassed in Kruse’s office. The lawsuit also claims legislative leaders knew of the harassment and failed to protect the interns.“

Nonprofit Management

• In Missouri, a state appeals court ruled that “[a] nonprofit organization’s sole employee in the state of Missouri is entitled to unemployment benefits…[a] ruling that departs from decades of state interpretation of the Missouri Employment Security Law.”
• In Nevada, “lawmakers [are considering a bill that] aims to authorize county commissioners to form a nonprofit corporation to “aid the county in providing certain governmental services.”
• Professors Kuehn & Joy of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law

Student Debt

• In British Columbia, “the provincial government has eliminated interest charges on all BC student loans effective immediately.”
• Using the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s quarterly household-debt report, Bloomberg News calculated that “[s]tudent-loan delinquencies surged last year, hitting consecutive records of $166.3 billion in the third quarter and $166.4 billion in the fourth.“
• In Colorado, the State Higher Education Executive Officers’ Association officially responded to “a letter [Sens. Jones, Warren, Harris, and Masto] produced regarding racial disparities in student debt and broader challenges faced by students of color in college and career training.“
• NonProfit Quarterly reacted to the recent audit released by the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General, which sharply criticized the Department’s oversight of student loan servicers.
• MarketWatch summarized “[w]here the 2020 [Presidential] candidates stand on student debt and college affordability.”
• In Pennsylvania, The Beaver County Times reported that U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, while speaking about a town hall “said the nation’s student debt is about the same as the tax breaks given to corporations and the wealthiest Americans last year by Republicans so it is a ‘solvable problem.’”

Electoral Reform

• In Connecticut, the Yale Law School Rule of Law Clinic and the NAACP survived a motion to dismiss in their ongoing lawsuit alleging that “Connecticut’s 2011 Redistricting Plan reflects neither electoral nor representational equality [because it] count[s] the bodies of incarcerated persons in a place they have not chosen to live, to the political benefit of the people who live near prisons.“

Legal Technology

• In an episode of the Lawyerist podcast, Judge Dillard of the Court of Appeals of Georgia discusses “how judges have mostly been inaccessible to the public and how quite a few judges are now going against the grain and taking residence on Twitter.“
• According to the Washington Post, “[t]he Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are negotiating over a multi-billion dollar fine that would settle the agency’s investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices…the largest the agency has ever imposed on a technology company.“
• In Illinois, the National Law Review called attention to a recent State Supreme Court Decision (Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp.), establishing strict liability for violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, holding that “when a private entity fails to comply with one of [the] requirements, that violation constitutes an invasion…sufficient to support the individual’s or customer’s statutory cause of action.” The National Law Review believes that “the court’s reasoning…focused heavily on the nature of biometric information, which unlike a social security number or password can’t be changed.“

Environmental Justice

• In Toledo, Ohio, “[v]oters…will be asked this month to decide whether Lake Erie, which supports the economies of four states, one Canadian province and the cities of Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, has the legal right ‘to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.’“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Canada, Chief Justice Wagner recently predicted in an interview that “you will see more and more law societies who will require that part of being a lawyer is also give some pro bono work.” Since his remarks earlier this month, a number of attorneys have provided arguments against the idea of “mandatory pro bono,” including statements this week from the President of the Canadian Bar Association.
• In Alberta, Legal Aid Alberta released its three-year strategic plan.
• In Alaska, Gov. Dunleavy proposed a budget for the 2020 fiscal year that would eliminate funding for the Alaska Legal Services Corporation, a move the ALSC estimates will force them to “turn away an additional 1,363 applicants for legal help, impacting 2,809 Alaskans.”
• In New York, “[t]wo-thirds of legal service providers…that offer free counseling on foreclosure prevention for struggling homeowners could be forced to stop offering that aid in April,” following Govenor Cuomo’s failure to including such funding in his amended executive budget proposal.
• Also in New York, “Hofstra University has launced a program to help pro se litigants with civil issues at the Eastern District of New York’s Central Islip courthouse.”
• In Detroit, Michigan, the State Bar of Michigan, the ACLU of Michigan, several Michigan law schools, Ford Motor company, and other prominent institutions announced a “Detroit Eviction Right to Counsel Summit” [to] be held March 12 and include local and national experts along with tenants facing evictions.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Bonneville County, Idaho, Chief Public Defender Crane reacted to “legislation under consideration [that] would limit public defenders to 210 felony cases, requiring counties with higher caseload averages to hire more attorneys,” saying that “the county’s public defense office would have to see if the state would volunteer funds to help counties cover the cost of hiring additional attorneys.“
• In Wisconsin, “Republicans in [the] state Assembly are supporting raising the pay for attorneys who represent poor defendants as the state faces a class-action lawsuit over the issue.“
• In Saginaw County, Michigan, the county “is creating a public defender’s office to comply with new state mandates to provide legal counsel for indigent people[, composed of] a director and eight attorneys.“
• In Travis County, Texas, the county’s Indigent Legal Services work group “has composed a draft letter indicating their intent to apply for a Texas Indigent Defense Commission grant in May, but the Commissioners Court is concerned that moving too fast could be a mistake.” (Key members of the work group departed earlier this month, as previously mentioned in this digest.)
• In Coweta County, Georgia, new data related by the District Attorney’s Office indicated that “felony caseloads…have jumped nearly 40 percent since 2015.” District Attorney Cranford “recently proposed the possibility of a circuit split for the five-county Coweta Judicial Circuit.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Louisiana, State Public Defender Dixon explained to a legislative subcommittee that a significant amount of the Louisiana Public Defender Fund is “spent propping up local public defenders who otherwise rely on ‘unstable and inadequate’ local sources like traffic tickets”–a strategy that has become complicated as “police in many jurisdictions aren’t writing as many tickets as they used to.”
• Also in Louisiana, “Orleans Parish Public Defender Laura Bixby on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for refusing to turn over records showing the locations of hundreds of crime cameras it has installed since 2017.” (See Bixby v. New Orleans.)
• In Philadelphia, NPR interviewed reform-minded District Attorney Krasner.
• In Santa Clara County, California, the District Attorney’s Office released a “Race and Prosecutions” report. According to The Mercury News, “[b]esides chronicling an ongoing over-representation of Latino and black residents in felony and misdemeanor cases, the [report] highlights how prosecutors are paying close attention to the county’s most crime-affected neighborhoods, and are being tested with experimental “race-blind” case evaluations.”
• In New York, the state’s intermediary court (Appellate Division) “ruled [that] footage from police body cameras should be subject to New York’s public disclosure laws.” (See In re Patrolmen’s Benevolent Ass’n. of the City of New York v. De Blasio)
• In Washington DC, the Supreme Court unanimously “ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause to the states.” (See Timbs v. Indiana)
  • In addition to the new precedent, court watchers remarked on how Justice Gorsuch agreed with Justice Thomas, who reached the same result as the majority but through the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
  • Others are circumspect of the ruling’s impact: “how much it will matter will depend on how the court applies it in the future. After all, the Eighth Amendment has applied to federal civil forfeitures for more than two decades and yet, during that period, ‘the federal government took in $36.6 billion in assets police seized from people on America’s roads and in its poorer neighborhoods, many of whom never were charged with a crime or shown to have drugs.“

The Organization

The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) provides professional advice and technical assistance in promoting democracy and serves as an information clearinghouse on elections, rule of law, governance, and civil society.

IFES annually awards two to four Democracy Studies Fellowships to bring outstanding graduate students to Washington, D.C. to engage in democracy development research. Based at IFES’ Center for Applied Research and Learning, fellows have access to IFES experts and conduct independent research with IFES mentors for six to ten weeks. At the end of the program, fellows must complete a paper for presentation to the public or IFES colleagues.

The Position

Hosted by IFES, Manatt Fellows carry out research at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a period of four to six weeks. The Manatt Fellowship consists of a $5,000 stipend to subsidize fellows’ living expenses while in D.C.

The Manatt Fellowship is open to Ph.D., master’s and law students who are working toward a degree or concentration in international relations, political science, public administration, public interest law or a related area at a university in one of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota or Wisconsin. Successful applicants will demonstrate how their research can directly benefit from IFES’ institutional expertise, as well as how their research could contribute to IFES’ technical leadership in the democracy and election assistance field.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=88818

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Student debt new continues to dominate this week, as the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit highly critical of the DoE’s oversight of student loan servicers and Congress introduced bipartisan bills in both houses proposing to allow employers to contribute funds tax-free toward employees’ student loans. (Commentary below.) There are also stories on legislative developments at the state level, mostly concerning states deliberations about whether or not to regulate student loan servicers. There are also some major items in Criminal Justice Reform, where the ACLU released a new report on prosecutorial transparency and New York’s The Legal Aid Society coined the phrase “knock and spit” policing.

See you around,
Sam

Legal Recruiting

• In Boston, MA “the Boston University School of Law OutLaw chapter — the law school’s LGBTQ+ student organization — organized a protest against the school for allowing JAG to participate in a networking event for students interested in public service…The BU Law Student Veteran’s Association also issued a statement in opposition to the trans ban and in support of those who chose to protest JAG on campus.“
• In Quebec, “[t]he legal aide office in Kuujjuaq, the administrative capital of the Inuit region of Nunavik, Quebec, will be temporarily shut down in March after an inability to recruit staff for vacant positions.”

Immigration, Asylum, & Citizenship

• In Portland, ME the Innovation Law Lab , sued the Trump administration over its policy of “send[ing] asylum-seekers to Mexico while they await their immigration cases.“
• In Mission, TX “[t]he nonprofit National Butterfly Center has asked a federal judge to stop border wall activity on its property…say[ing] heavy machinery has been driving through their property for a week, including a road grader accompanied by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle. Wright alleged that someone had cut the lock on a center fence and replaced it with a lock belonging to CBP.“

Student Debt

• In Washington, DC, the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit “find[ing] that officials who oversee student loans haven’t properly tracked problems and rarely penalize servicers. The office that manages student loans says it disagrees with the finding but is implementing the audit’s recommendations.” (More on this story from NPR.)
• Also in Washington DC, “[b]ipartisan companion bills introduced in the Senate and House on Wednesday seek to allow employers to contribute up to $5,250 tax-free to their employees’ student loans[.]“
• In Washington State, the Washington Student Achievement Council created the position of “Student Loan Advocate” : “a new position stemming from state legislation, passed in 2018, to improve consumer protections for students.“
• In Virginia, “[s]tudent loan servicers in Virginia will still not be licensed after a House of Delegates committee killed a bill Tuesday to regulate the companies.“
• In New Mexico, “the [state] House Commerce and Economic Development Committee passed a bill to enact a ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights’ to protect student loan borrowers from exploitation.“
• In Connecticut, “lawmakers are looking at ways to help millennials with crucial student loan debt. Proposals being examined include free tuition and loan forgiveness programs.“
• In Colorado, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill “that would require student loan service providers [to] be licensed [and] would create an ombudsman in the Attorney General’s Office.“
• In Maine, legislators discussed their recently-filed bill that aims to introduce a referendum in an upcoming election asking voters,
  “Do you favor a $250,000,000 bond issue to provide funds for payment of student loan debt of individuals who agree to work and reside in Maine for five years and for reimbursement of employers that make student loan repayments on behalf of such individuals?”
• CNBC made a list of recent creative proposals for tackling student debt. Many of them have been mentioned in prior editions of this Digest, but SponsorChange.org and the Shared Harvest Fund were news to me.

Legal Technology

• In Washington, DC the Government Accountability Office published a report on internet privacy suggesting that “comprehensive Internet privacy legislation” is needed to protect consumers. (Commentary available from the Washington Post.)
• Also in Washington DC, “President Trump signed an executive order…direct[ing] the federal government to prioritize research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, under coordination through the National Science and Technology Council Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.” Legal technology experts are already speculating that this development “could signal technology becoming more prevalent in the legal industry.“
• In San Francisco, CA, The SF Chronicle discussed how California’s data privacy law “has strongly motivated members of Congress to create a federal privacy protection regime.“
• In Albany, NY Albany Law School students “released a web-platform…to help lawyers efficiently serve clients [] attempting to gain nonprofit status in New York State.“

Environmental Justice

• In Minnesota, “the state’s largest Indian tribe, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has passed a tribal law granting wild rice its own enforceable legal rights[,] includ[ing] the rights to ‘flourish, regenerate, and evolve.’ A similar law has been adopted by the 1855 Treaty Authority, a tribal group representing beneficiaries of an 1855 land pact the Chippewa tribes made with the U.S. government.“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington, DC the LSC announced that it is “forming an Emerging Leaders Council to raise public awareness of the current crisis in legal aid and the importance of ensuring access to justice for all Americans.“
• The New York Times published an interview with Professor Rebecca Sandefur discussing her research on access to justice. Among other things, Professor Sandefur observes that “[a]cross a number of common justice problems….nonlawyer advocates and unrepresented lay people have been observed to perform as well or better than lawyers.” (For example, social workers have an excellent record in eviction cases in New York.)

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Wisconsin, WPR released an expose on “what’s behind the state’s low public defender pay rate, and how it’s impacting clients who can’t afford a lawyer.“
• In Travis County, TX, “the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s board voted unanimously at a special meeting…to withdraw from [a work group hoping to create a public defenders office for the county].“
• In Utah, a report from the Utah Indigent Defense Commission concluded that “[a]n influx of state funding to bolster county public defenders” under a recently-developed statewide funding scheme (replacing Utah’s earlier system in which individual counties funded their own programs) has transformed public defenders’ work: “attorneys have more time to spend with clients and defendants aren’t rushed into taking plea deals as often.” (As described in the Daily Herald.)
• In Montana, “[l]eaders with Montana’s Office of the State Public Defender told lawmakers Friday that they’re expecting higher caseloads in the coming years – and that could lead to higher costs.“
• In Minnesota, the Public News Service previewed upcoming contract negotiations between Public Defenders and the Board of Public Defense: “the contract negotiations won’t be simply about pay but rather improving and preserving the constitutional rights of those that can’t afford an attorney. Rights are being violated when staffing is at a low level. The public defender’s office has 68% of the attorney staff and 57% of the support staff that state and national standards say they should have.“
• In Indiana, “[t]he Public Defender Commission is pushing for lawmakers to pass two bills that would help fund and staff public defender offices statewide.“
• In San Francisco, CA “[l]egislation that would ensure all youth in San Francisco have access to legal counsel and a parent or responsible adult prior to a police interrogation cleared a Board of Supervisors committee on Monday.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• The ACLU released “Unlocking the Black Box,” a report finding that “the ‘few public statistics on prosecutorial decision making often only collect information at the broadest level,’ which makes it ‘nearly impossible to uncover individual abuses, systemic discrimination, or patterns that do not align with office policies.’” (As glossed by Reason.com)
• In New York, NY Allison Lewis of the Legal Aid Society reported that “the same law enforcement playbook that brought you stop-and-frisk [provides] the latest form of racial profiling and policing: the knock-and-spit. We’ve learned that NYPD officers are willing to knock on doors to take New Yorkers’ DNA, whether by “consent” or at the precinct by offering people a cigarette or drink to collect their spit. And once again, as the city’s primary public defenders, we see this latest law enforcement sweep is happening mainly to New Yorkers of color.”
• In Tampa, FL, in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the President of the ABA asserted that “[n]o one should be jailed just because they can’t afford bail, fines, or fees.”
• In Vermont, “representatives from Vermont Legal Aid and the Attorney General’s Office…proposed a package of reforms that would allow more Vermonters with criminal histories to clear their records.“
• In San Francisco, CA “[i]n a direct challenge to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s position on the state’s new police transparency law,  a Bay Area-based First Amendment group sued the state Justice Department on Thursday over its refusal to release officer misconduct and use-of-force records.”
• In Honolulu, HI “[i]n an extraordinary move, the state attorney general on Tuesday filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court calling for the ‘immediate suspension’ of Honolulu’s embattled city prosecutor [as his] refusal to step aside ― despite being the target of a federal public corruption investigation ― ‘has subjected every case being handled by the Honolulu Department of Prosecuting Attorney to potential ethical and legal challenges.”

The Organization

The Texas Civil Rights Project is boldly serving the movement for equality and justice in and out of the courts. We use our tools of litigation and legal advocacy to protect and advance the civil rights of everyone in Texas and we partner with communities across the state to serve the rising movement for social justice. We undertake our work with a vision of a Texas in which all communities can thrive with dignity, justice and without fear. 

The Position

The Texas Civil Rights Project (“TCRP”) seeks a senior or experienced attorney (five years post-J.D. experience) for its Racial & Economic Justice Program. This position will focus on impact litigation and other advocacy related to civil and human rights, and will be based in our Alamo, Texas office in the Rio Grande Valley, with an option to transfer to one of TCRP’s other offices after one year.

Our senior Racial & Economic Justice attorney will work closely with Program Director Efrén C. Olivares to develop and implement TCRP’s litigation strategy, including challenging discriminatory policies and practices based on arbitrary criteria, with a focus on defending the rights of individuals and communities in South Texas in the face of new and rising threats. TCRP’s Racial and Economic Justice Program uses creative legal advocacy and litigation to represent historically or socioeconomically marginalized individuals and communities. By fighting discrimination based on immutable characteristics, immigration status, poverty, and other arbitrary criteria, we work to promote a fair, equitable, and just Texas for everyone.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=88354

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! This week’s news is defined by a dizzying array of responses to the issue of growing student debt from all levels of government as well as from private institutional actors. There are also a number of stories concerning the positive effects of legal technology and landlord-tenant-court right-to-counsel policies on Access to Justice. Also, Toronto has a fixed-fee legal cafe now!

See you around,
Sam

Professional Development

• According to NYNmedia.com, “[a] new report examines the barriers faced by women of color in the nonprofit sector. About 4,000 nonprofit professionals took part in the 40-page study, which was conducted by Ofronama Biu, senior research associate at Building Movement Project. She found that women of color are paid less than their male and white counterparts [and t]he social environments of nonprofits help explain why.”
• At Harvard, “[t]hirty-eight [law school] student groups signed an open letter calling on the school to continue its support of a pilot federal clerk hiring program [and] refrain from trying to work around its restrictions on hiring clerks before a certain point in their law school career.“
• The Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the Indiana Supreme Court “announced a pilot program in which up to five 1L students committed to public service with work with judges through the state [in order to] introduce Maurer students to different facets of rural and smaller-city practice.“

Student Loans & Debt

• In Washington State, “Democrats are pushing to fund a program that would give Washington high school graduates access to state student loans at a one percent interest rate. A program was created in 2009 to issue low-interest educational loans, but the program was never funded.”
• In Texas, a state legislator proposed a bill that “would change a state statute that can bar teachers, nurses and other professional license holders from working if they fall behind on their student loan payments.“
• In Washington, DC, “U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) on Thursday reintroduced the Employer Participation in Repayment Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would allow companies to annually provide $5,250 in tax-free student debt relief for workers. Existing legislation allows companies to offer up to $5,250 in tax-free tuition reimbursement, but that incentive has not been in place for student loan repayment benefits.“
• Also in Washington, DC, “Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) cosponsored legislation to require that the annual percentage rates (APRs) for federal student loans are disclosed, giving Americans better information related to the associated costs of higher education.“
  • Meanwhile, in Iowa a state senator introduced a resolution “advocat[ing] limits on loan interest rates from the U.S. Education Department.“
• Also also in Washington, DC, “Senator Lamar Alexander…the chair of the Senate[] Committee…which oversees higher education[] proposed automatically withholding a borrower’s monthly student-loan payment from their paycheck, similar to the system already used for federal payroll taxes[,] in a speech outlining his priorities for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.” (More coverage available here and here.)
• Again also in Washington, DC, “the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), a division of HHS, launched a new student loan repayment program that offers up to $75,000 to qualified health care professionals for three years of full-time service at an approved substance use disorder site, particularly in ‘health professional shortage areas.’“
• In Pennsylvania, state legislators “introduced a bill…that would bring legal cannabis to [Pennsylvania,] estimat[ing] that a regulated cannabis market could generate $580 million dollars in taxes [and proposing] to use half of that money to reduce student loan debt[.]“
• MarketWatch called attention to a “Voices of Despair,” a 2018 report from the National Consumer Law Center arguing that “[t]he government’s policy of seizing federal student loan borrowers’ EITC runs counter to almost every goal Congress set for the EITC and its student loan programs.”
• Looking at the way circuit courts are splitting on the question of whether federal student loan laws pre-empt state authorities, Professor Rubenstein of Washburn University School of Law predicted that “these cases [are] prime candidates for Supreme Court review in the foreseeable future” in an interview with MarketWatch.
• Dean Rodriguez of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law discussed his thoughts on “how law schools should collectively work to lessen the cost [of law school] and how students should be educated on debt management” in a Legal Talk Network podcast.
• In Portland, Maine, “[i]nsurance provider Unum has started a new program [under which] employees can use paid time off that they carry over to pay part of their student debt.“
• In a blog post on lawyers.com, a New York State tax attorney examined the case for student loan debt amnesty.
• CollegeHumor released Total Forgiveness, a show in which “two CollegeHumor personalities[] dare each other to complete increasingly challenging tasks–interviewing a student-loan expert while leeches roam your body or laying in a coffin for an extended period–in exchange for money from their employer to help pay off their student loans.“

Legal Technology

• LegalTech News reported that “Microsoft has completed work on the artificial intelligence powering the Legal Navigator, which could change the way that people with limited resources gain access to legal aid.”
• In Maryland, “[e]xpanded access to legal services was among the successes touted by Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera in Wednesday’s State of the Judiciary speech…The state government branch has opened five self-help centers across the state. Lawyers working in the self-help center at the Frederick County Courthouse have assisted hundreds of people, primarily with domestic cases, since it opened in 2018. The judiciary also now operates services such as phone lines and online chat platforms.“
• In Akron, Ohio, Community Legal Aid announced that “[i]n the first three months since [upgrading its online application system] online intakes have tripled.“
• In the New York Law Journal, ethics and intellectual property attorney co-authors argued that “lawyers and law firms [should] treat information security and data privacy awareness and diligence as key components of their practice management–on an even footing with other critical issues such as conflicts of interest, confidentiality and privilege.“
• “Cisco has joined Apple in calling for a U.S. version of the European General Data Protection regulation, underlining the divisions among big technology companies over how to tackle privacy concerns.“
• In an open letter on Medium.com, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, and 26 other technology & human rights organizations criticized the House of Representatives’ Democratic Caucus proposal for border security and its reliance on “various invasive surveillance technologies that would intrude on the liberties of travelers, immigrants, and people who live near the border.”
• “Amazon unveiled new proposed guidelines…for any national legislation regulating facial recognition technology following months of scrutiny over Rekognition, the tech giant’s facial recognition software,” as reported in The Hill.
  • Meanwhile, in San Francisco, CA a member of the Board of Supervisors has proposed “new requirements for police to obtain approach from the city’s Board of Supervisors before purchasing new surveillance technology [and] ban[ning] the use of automated facial recognition technology outright.“
  • Also this week, “[a] top Microsoft executive…said that stopping government agencies from using facial recognition software would be ‘cruel in its humanitarian effect,’ … referenc[ing] the fact that the National Human Genome Research Institute is using facial recognition to improve the diagnosis of DiGeorge syndrome.“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In North Dakota, “A shortage of lawyers…could be hindering people’s access to justice. Attorney job listings have increased 300 percent in the past year, according to Job Service North Dakota.”
• In Indiana, “a team of lawyers wants to force three [] counties to provide lawyers to all youth involved with the child welfare system.“
• In British Columbia, “[L]aw Society of British Columbia bencher and Access Pro Bono executive director Jamie Maclaren [] submitted his report on how to best delivery legal aid services to Attorney General David Eby.“
• In Alberta, “Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) [] released a three-year strategic plan that highlights…streamlining client service.“
• In San Bernardino County, CA, “the Superior Court…announced the official launch of the Tenant/Landlord Assistance Project.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York, NY, “[t]he de Blasio administration is crediting its program to provide free lawyers to low-income tenants for helping reduce New York City’s overall eviction rate[, which] dropped by 14 percent in 2018[.]“
• In Montana, “Republicans on a House panel…voted to kill a measure that would create a $900,000-a-year fund to aid low-income Montanans with civil legal disputes.“
• In Connecticut, a state senate bill “would give undocumented immigrant children access to an attorney.“
• In Wisconsin, the state bar profiled the work of April Faith-Slaker, associate director of research innovations at Harvard Law School’s Access to Justice Lab (A2J Lab), where she conducts work with the “hope [that] the legal profession will start embracing rigorous empiral research to inform changes in access to justice and other areas.“
• In Toronto, Canadian Lawyer Magazine profiled Lawyers & Lattes, “a new legal cafe [where] clients can order rental agreements, family trusts, employment contracts and all sorts of coffee off menus that clearly indicate each service’s price. The café also hosts free legal information sessions, one pro-bono Saturday a month and will soon introduce an LSAT prep course.“
• In Canda

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Indiana, “[l]eaders of state and national criminal justice organizations are declaring their support for the Indiana Public Defender Commission’s reform initiative, which the commission is presenting to the Indiana General Assembly this year in an effort to secure additional funds to expand and improve indigent defense services statewide.“
• In Wisconsin, “[t]he number of private attorneys willing to take on poor people’s cases is dwindling, and legal experts warn[ed] that Wisconsin’s inability to provide indigent defendants with representation is a serious problem in the state’s criminal justice system.“
• The New York Times vividly portrayed the crushing caseloads under which Louisiana public defenders struggle in an infographic-driven story.
  • For more on this story, see Louisiana local TV news and a local opinion piece arguing that “trip[ing the state’s] annual appropriation…would essentially enable some local defender offices to evade responsibility for better funding their operations.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Los Angeles, CA, “officials agreed Thursday to drop all criminal charges against one of the city’s most visible Black Lives Matter organizers as part of a negotiated arrangement after hundreds of activists filed petitions, filled courtrooms and led rallies in recent weeks accusing prosecutors and police of using the charges to silence a critical voice. “
• In Philadelphia, PA, “the District Attorney’s office announced major reforms to the juvenile justice system…hop[ing] to reduce the number further by declining to file charges in low-level cases and building up support services in the community.“
  • In related news, “student organizers of a Yale Law School conference have rescinded their invitation for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to serve as keynote speaker, citing his decision to appeal a judge’s ruling in favor of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.“
• In Baltimore, MD, “Baltimore’s top prosecutor has filed a rarely used legal petition intended to vacate 3,778 convictions for possession of marijuana, arguing an extraordinary legal strategy is necessary to ‘right an extraordinary wrong.’“
• In Nevada, the state attorney general “nam[ed] a former Washoe County public defender as a top legal adviser.“

The Organization

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. The principal objectives of the NAACP are to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all persons. As part of its mission, the NAACP seeks to enforce federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights and to educate persons about their constitutional rights.

Throughout its history, the NAACP has provided attorneys the opportunity to make significant, historic contributions to the field of civil rights law. Past NAACP attorneys include Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker-Motley, Robert Carter and Nathaniel Jones. The NAACP hopes to inspire attorneys to enter the field of civil rights law and to provide broad exposure to various strategies utilized by grass roots civil rights organizations.

The Position

The NAACP Law Fellow Program is designed to give individuals who have completed at least one year of law school the opportunity to work for the summer at NAACP Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. The NAACP Law Fellow Program is made possible through the generous support of the Kellogg’s Corporate Citizenship Fund, which has funded the program since its inception in 2003. This year, the NAACP Law Fellow Program celebrates its 17th Anniversary. The Law Fellow Program is contingent upon continued funding. 

The Law Fellow Program continues to provide law students with first-hand exposure to civil rights advocacy and many other facets of the legal profession. Through working with the Legal Department and networking with lawyers in many different legal arenas, our summer Law Fellows see the multiple roles lawyers play in shaping American society. One recent Law Fellow participant emphasized the program’s importance to her: “I met lawyers and judges and participated in discussions with practitioners about law and policy. I’ve gained a new and different perspective that has made a tremendous contribution to my personal and professional growth.” In our 17th year, we look forward to continuing and building upon our work growing the next generation of civil rights advocates.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=88964