Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been a busy few weeks, with ICE officials continuing to make arrests in California state courthouses despite a new state-level ban on the practice and the Supreme Court hearing arguments concerning a 1986 statute making it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigration. Student loan debt also remains a key topic, with a new report from the Student Borrower Protection Center arguing that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Maryland, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been permitted to run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland driver’s license photos without first seeking state or court approval, state officials said — access that goes far beyond what other states allow and that alarms immigration activists in a state that grants special driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants[.]”
• In Sonoma County CA, “U.S. immigration agents arrested two people at a Northern California courthouse, including a man detained in a hallway on his way to a hearing, flouting a new state law requiring a judicial warrant to make immigration arrests inside such facilities.”
  • Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, “[state] officials suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement over warrantless arrests at state courthouses got a boost Thursday from Harvard Law School’s immigrant and refugee clinic, whose leadership said state courts are being illegally forced to carry out a federal agenda not enumerated in the Constitution and to sideline Sixth Amendment trial rights.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is waiving certain procurement regulations to help speed up construction on the border wall…The waivers affect 10 statutes, including requirements for open competition and justifying selections[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration has issued a hiring freeze for non-asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pausing any new onboarding for positions related to benefits and programs for legal immigrants.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court…seemed doubtful that a 1986 federal law that makes it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigrants to come to or stay in the United States could be squared with the First Amendment.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Trump’s 2020 budget and 2021 budget proposes…the consolidation of income-driven repayment plans and the elimination of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicated that income-driven repayment (IDR) plans for student loans are growing rapidly.”
  • Also meanwhile, new Department of Education data “[shows that as] more time passes, it is very likely more borrowers will receive forgiveness.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[l]obbyists on both sides of the debate over U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s borrower-defense rule say it’s increasingly possible that the Republican Senate could join the Democratic House in rebuking the administration over the rule critics say makes it harder for defrauded students to have their education loans forgiven.”
• The Student Borrower Protection Center released a report titled “Educational Redlining”, finding that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

Legal Technology

• In Washington State, LegEx, “[a] new data visualization tool…developed by [the] University of Washington…draws on bill information made available by the state to enable students, journalists and voters to visually explore the lawmaking process.”
• In New York NY, the N.Y.P.D. announced it “will start expunging some of the 82,000 people in [its DNA] database who have never been convicted of a crime.”
• In Ithaca NY, “Cornell is joining the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN), a collaboration of 36 colleges and universities committed to building the field of public interest technology and preparing a generation of civic-minded technologists.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “law students from some of the best law schools in the country…signed a letter to the Judicial Conference asking for specific reforms [to workplace misconduct policies], specifically: publicly reported federal judiciary “climate surveys,” expanding the Office of Judicial Integrity, centralized employment discrimination responses for federal judges, and information-sharing between law schools and the federal judiciary for reports of judicial misconduct.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he IRS is nearly done with proposed rules that require nonprofits to report income streams separately, an agency official said.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) …introduced a bill to provide the District of Columbia Courts and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia with the same authority that federal courts and federal agencies have to offer voluntary separation incentive payments, or buyouts, to their employees.”

Pro Bono Publico

• In Tennessee, “[t]he Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission has released its annual report detailing the pro bono legal service reported by attorneys, bar associations, law firms, law schools, legal service providers, mediators and other organizations.”
• Law.com reported that “[t]he increase of lawyers who spend 50% or more of their time on pro bono work has been driven in part by law firms’ willingness to treat pro bono work the same way they do billable work.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Austin TX, “[t]he American Bar Association has passed a resolution that encourages states to consider regulatory changes that could increase low and middle-income Americans’ access to affordable legal services.”
• In Long Beach CA, “[a] new pilot program will bring free representation to low-income renters facing evictions[.]”
• In Alberta, “a group of prominent lawyers sa[id] in an open letter to Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer [that] Alberta’s legal system is in a crisis that may become irreversible if the right steps to fix it aren’t taken.”
• In San Francisco, Open Door Legal, a non-profit “committed to building the nation’s first system of universal access to legal help, has opened two new offices in the Excelsior and Fillmore-Western Addition neighborhoods. ODL was able to open the new legal aid centers thanks to a surge in funding by the City of San Francisco and is now halfway to achieving its vision in the city.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Hays County TX, the County Commissioner’s Court “approved a grant from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) to participate in a study examining potential benefits of [legal representation at a first appearance before a magistrate for arrestees].”
• In Minnesota, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reviewed the ongoing controversy surrounding the abrupt suspension of the Hennepin County Chief Public Defender by the Minnesota Board of Public Defense.
• In Indiana, “[l]egislation headed to the governor’s desk will require judges in all 92 counties to consider the same criteria when determining whether a person lacks sufficient financial resources to hire a private attorney to represent them.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Houston TX, “[c]riminal justice advocacy groups…protested the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for using pro bono civil litigation attorneys to help prosecute misdemeanor cases in the Justice of the Peace courts.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[t]he…County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously…to eliminate many county-imposed criminal justice fees and forgive related debt.”
• In Orlando FL, “[o]ne of Florida’s biggest court jurisdictions plans to start a fund to help low-income people charged with nonviolent offenses pay for bail. The chief prosecutor and the public defender for metro Orlando’s court jurisdiction joined with a prominent law firm on Thursday to create the Community Bail Fund.”

The Organization

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond. NALP believes in fairness, facts and the power of a diverse community. NALP staff work every day to be the best career services, recruitment, and professional development organization in the world because they want the lawyers and law students they serve to have an ethical recruiting system, employment data they can trust, and expert advisers to guide and support them in every stage of their careers.  

A NALP initiative, PSJD is a unique online clearinghouse for law students and lawyers to connect with public interest job listings and career-building resources. As a collaborative project among over 200 American and Canadian law schools, PSJD is a free resource for law students and alumni of our subscriber schools to search among thousands of public interest job opportunities and employer profiles. Public service employer organizations may also post job opportunities for free. In addition to its database, PSJD offers an online library of educational and career-building resources for those interested in pursuing a career in public service. These resources are publicly available to all website visitors.

The Position

NALP is hiring a recent law graduate to serve as the PSJD Fellow for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Fellowship is a unique opportunity for the graduate to manage a small staff, shape priorities for a major project serving public interest organizations, and participate in decision-making and budgeting for a mid-size non-profit at an early stage in his or her career. Because NALP takes professional development so seriously, the PSJD Fellow will have time (and be encouraged) to build relationships with public service employers through daily tasks, public appearances, and pro bono work.

The ideal candidate will graduate before August 2020 and have a demonstrated commitment to public interest work. The candidate will also be proficient in oral and written communication for a variety of audiences, be familiar with social media conventions, and be adept at independent and focused work that often involves juggling multiple tasks at once.

Read the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=90561

At the October Mini-Conference, we announced the finalists for this year’s PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. To commend each finalist on their hard work and to demonstrate how difficult it will be to select the winner, we have featured a different finalist on the blog every Monday for the past four weeks.

For our final week in this series, we feature Ming Tanigawa-Lau from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in Los Angeles, California.

Ming Tanigawa-Lau

Ming was selected as a finalist because of the outstanding impact she has made at her school and in her community. As a 1L, Ming felt empowered by the strong sense of community she felt at UCLA, and she fostered that feeling by strengthening the community of students dedicated to immigrants’ rights. She jumped at opportunities to volunteer at fundraisers and events that would create relationships between students and practitioners. She traveled to Dilley, Texas and Tijuana, Mexico to help nonprofit organizations prepare asylum seekers for their credible fear interviews and to conduct Know Your Rights presentations. Ming was so moved by these experiences that she dedicated her 1L summer to Al Otro Lado, where she coordinated a weekend clinic to connect volunteers with asylum seekers who needed assistance preparing their applications. Beginning her 2L year, Ming continued her work with Al Otro Lado and introduced her colleagues at work with her peers at school. Notably, Ming organized multiple trips for law students to assist asylum-seekers in detention and at the border in Texas and California. Ming’s peers, colleagues, and professors describe her as a leader in pro bono service because of her unending dedication and her ability to connect volunteers with meaningful opportunities. As she describes her work, Ming is “dedicated to making [her invaluable] experiences possible for others.”

The Program

Access to Justice (ATJ) Tech Fellows was created to provide future lawyers with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they will need to be successful civil justice leaders. To achieve its goals, ATJ Tech Fellows implements an internship program that connects students with participating host organizations and provides a $5,000 stipend to cover summer expenses.

The program begins with Fellows diving into a skills-training bootcamp where they will be engrossed in live training modules for two days. Then fellows will apply their newly acquired skills in their 10-week, full-time internships with participating host organizations. Fellows will also have opportunities for professional development and to contribute their summer experiences to a blog for all Fellows.

Ideal candidates will be passionate about ensuring legal access and eager to learn about the ways legal technology can enhance resources available to low-income individuals and communities.

Students can learn more about which organizations will host ATJ Tech Fellows this summer on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/search?SearchTypeID=jobs&OrgID=112177

At the October Mini-Conference, we announced the finalists for this year’s PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. To commend each finalist on their hard work and to demonstrate how difficult it will be to select the winner, we will feature a different finalist on the blog every Monday for five weeks.

This week we feature Chelsea Reese from the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia.

Chelsea Reese

Chelsea was selected as a finalist because of her compassionate commitment to children and victims of domestic violence. During her 1L year, Chelsea began working as a Court Appointed Special Advocate with Athens-Oconee CASA, where she not only produced quality work product, but also showed her supervisors her passion for ensuring children in temporary foster care receive the best possible outcomes. Chelsea grew attached to a pair of siblings and her dedication to these children has led her to follow their case with CASA and encouraged her to help as many children and families as she can. At school, Chelsea participated in UGA’s Family Justice Clinic where she provided sole representation for 10 clients and served over 600 hours. Chelsea’s devotion to family law and her exceptional work allowed her to become a teaching assistant with the Family Justice Clinic’s clinical professor for whom she supervised students’ work and addressed clients’ concerns. Alongside her clinical professor, Chelsea was also able to publish an article in the Georgia Law Review Online about the factors that cause women and children of color to become overrepresented in cases involving domestic violence. Chelsea has successfully served her community and her school as an advocate, a role model, a leader in pro bono service, and as her clinical professor describes Chelsea, someone who cares.

The Organization

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is a nonprofit organization serving the LGBTQ community in the New England area. Their mission is to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation. GLAD staff achieve their mission through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Because discrimination against LGBTQ people and individuals living with HIV is prevalent in almost all areas of the law, GLAD works in every area to achieve full equality under the law.

The Position

GLAD seeks legal interns! Interested students can apply for term-time or summer internships. Legal interns will assist with active litigation, legislative and public policy advocacy, and public education initiatives.

Ideal candidates will have completed their first year of law school and have excellent research and writing skills. Most importantly, ideal candidates will be dedicated to achieving GLAD’s mission.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=99560

At the October Mini-Conference, we announced the finalists for this year’s PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. To commend each finalist on their hard work and to demonstrate how difficult it will be to select the winner, we will feature a different finalist on the blog every Monday for five weeks.

This week we feature Emily Holland from Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California.

Emily Holland

Emily was chosen as a finalist because of the strength of her dedication to pro bono service, which has taken her overseas to help ensure individuals’ rights are protected. Emily’s passion for volunteering began before law school, and her experiences have driven her to continue her work at Pepperdine. During her 1L summer, Emily worked as a judicial extern to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rwanda, where she learned about the ethics of sentencing and criminal justice. She was able to apply what she learned on a week-long clinic in Uganda where she successfully negotiated a plea deal based on insufficient evidence. But Emily’s passion for service knows no borders as is evident by her participation in the Community Justice and Legal Aid Clinics at Pepperdine. Her work with these clinics allowed her to advocate for human rights and access to justice in international and domestic contexts. As her supervisors have stated, Emily’s “priority is people,” and she is described as “a true representation of the spirit of pro bono.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public!

Major news this week includes regulatory changes concerning student loans, with a new MOU between the Department of Education and the CFPB, as well as a streamlined application process for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Additionally, the ABA received pushback about its proposal to encourage state bars to explore “new approaches” in the practice of law. And in the top story below, Mother Jones spoke with immigration judges and attorneys about the logistical challenges they face implementing the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols”.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• Mother Jones published a piece examining the impact of the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” on immigration courts:

  According to immigration judge Ashley Tabaddor, who spoke to me in her capacity as union president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, MPP has constituted a fundamental change to the way courts are run. DHS, she says, is “creating a situation where they’re physically, logistically, and systematically creating all the obstacles and holding all the cards.” The MPP program has left the court powerless, “speeding up the process of dehumanizing the individuals who are before the court and deterring anyone from the right to seek protection” All this while the Department of Justice is trying to decertify Tabbador’s union—the only protection judges have, and the only avenue for speaking publicly about these issues—by claiming its members are managers and no longer eligible for union membership. Tabaddor says the extreme number of cases combined with the pressure to process them quickly is making it difficult for judges to balance the DOJ’s demands with their oath of office.

  Immigration attorneys in El Paso, San Antonio, and San Diego have told me they are disturbed by the courtroom disarray: the unanswered phones, unopened mail, and unprocessed filings. Some of their clients are showing up at border [sic] in the middle of the night only to find that their cases have been rescheduled. That’s not only unfair, one attorney told me, “it’s dangerous.” Central Americans who speak only indigenous languages are asked to navigate court proceedings with Spanish interpreters. One attorney in El Paso had an 800-page filing for an asylum case that she filed with plenty of time for the judge to review, but it didn’t make it to the judge in time.

• In Olympia WA, “[s]tate lawmakers are crying foul after a series of Immigration Customs Enforcement arrests outside of the Grant County Courthouse in Ephrata and Adams County District Courthouse in Othello last year [and considering] House Bill 2567[, which] ultimately could put an end to ICE courthouse arrests.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Education and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – essentially a cooperation agreement – to address and better manage student loan complaints. The agreement calls for the Education Department and CFPB to meet quarterly and share complaint information, data, recommendations and analytical tools. Importantly, the MOU more clearly defines role and responsibilities.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Department [of Education] said it would create one application for both PSLF and TEPSLF [Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness]. This would make it much easier as [forgiveness-seekers] could apply once and no longer be denied and forced to reapply if they qualified.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney [] threatened Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with a subpoena, saying DeVos’ office “stonewalled and delayed” when the committee tried to confirm a date for her testimony…about ‘critical issues facing the Department,’ including oversight of federal student loans.”
• In Virginia, “the Virginia Senate joined the House of Delegates in passing what’s known as the ‘Student Borrower’s Bill of Rights.’”
• A new report from the Student Borrower Protection Center revealed that “[f]inancial companies often use data on borrowers’ higher education to determine access to credit and the price of consumer financial products. And those education data can lead to redlining, a form of discrimination against borrowers who attended community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, or Hispanic-serving institutions.”
• Nationwide, “a coalition of attorney generals…from [26] states as well as the District of Columbia…renewed a request that the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos discharge federal student loans for people who were enrolled in now closed schools operated by Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC.”

Legal Technology

• In Memphis TN, “[t]he Memphis Bar Foundation, Community Legal Center and Memphis Area Legal Services are joining to spearhead [a] new initiative [whose] goal is to provide resources and information through an online legal portal[.]”
• In Washington DC, “the Federal Circuit heard oral argument in this case involving the $0.10 per page fee for downloading documents from PACER. The basic argument here is that ‘PACER fees must be limited to PACER costs.’”
• In Chicago IL, ChicagoInno profiled JusticeText, “a software platform that allows public defenders to quickly and efficiently sift through video footage that can be imperative in how they build a case and defend a client.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Bowling Green KY, “[a] new full-time staffed federal prosecutor’s office opened[.]”
• In Montgomery AL, “[t]he executive director of Amnesty International USA will take over as chief executive of Southern Poverty Law Center, which is trying to steady itself after months of turmoil that included the firing of its founder.”
• In Allendale MI, “[n]ew research by Teri Behrens and Tory Martin of the Grand Valley State University Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy shows nonprofits are succeeding in changing with the times [and accommodating millenials’ new role as the largest sector of the workforce] in some areas but struggling in others.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Chicago IL, “[a] proposal before the American Bar Association that would encourage states to consider “new approaches” in the practice of law is facing mounting opposition by some state bar leaders who say it will lead to outside investment of law firms and nonlawyers practicing law.”
  • Meanwhile, in Arizona “[t]he University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has started a two-year pilot project that licenses a small group of nonlawyers to give limited legal advice on civil matters stemming from domestic violence.”
• In California, the California Commission on Access to Justice (CalATJ) published a report finding that “California’s housing crisis stems from an inadequate supply of affordable housing coupled with insufficient legal protections for renters and homeowners. The resulting access-to-justice challenge for low-income and modest-means residents is aggravated in rural areas by the underfunding of legal-aid organizations and the state’s rural lawyer shortage. …Free, high-quality Legal Aid is needed urgently.”
• In Brooklyn NY, “[a] community legal service planted a new home in a Brooklyn neighborhood in growing need of help with housing displacement, deed theft and foreclosure.”
• In New York NY, “State Supreme Court justices from Arizona and Utah…said they support considerations to open up the legal industry to greater participation from nontraditional players largely to tackle the country’s growing access to justice gap.”
• In Little Rock AR, “[a] state Supreme Court justice and a chief judge on a federal appeals court emphasized the need to increase access to civil legal aid for people with low incomes at a Legal Services Corp. board meeting[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Seneca County OH, “County Commissioners [] approved a pay increase for attorneys who handle the defense in court matters for indigent people to $60 per hour. The increase was recommended by the judges of Seneca County.”
• In Virginia, “[b]ills to create a public defenders’ office in Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park were approved by the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates with bipartisan support[.]”
• In Manitoba, “criminal defence lawyers are taking job action, resulting in the halting of bail court services for Legal Aid Manitoba clients.”
• In Travis County TX, “commissioners announced [] they had hired Adeola Ogunkeyede to serve as chief of the county’s forthcoming public defender’s office. She will begin April 20.”
• In Louisiana, “[f]or the sixth consecutive year, an annual report has declared Louisiana’s public defense system is in crisis.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Washington DC, “Justice Department lawyers have improperly used requests for overseas evidence to buy more time to bring some fraud cases, a memo filed with the agency’s internal watchdog alleges.”
• In San Francisco CA, Chesa Boudin, the city’s new District Attorney, sat for an interview with local news to discuss his approach to criminal prosecution.
• In Dallas County TX, the county “public defender’s office plans to hire social workers to help keep its mentally ill clients out of jail.”
• In Cohoes City NY, “[a]n upstate judge set up a legal battle over the state’s new bail reform law [] with a ruling that intentionally challenged the controversial statute.”
  • Meanwhile, “NYPD brass and police unions blamed a new state bail reform law for an increase in overall crime in New York City, though murder, rape and hate crimes decreased significantly last month compared to January 2019.”
• In Savannah GA, “[a] Georgia district attorney has taken steps to help people remove criminal charges from their records if they are qualified to do so.”
• In Billings MT, “[t]he domestic violence prosecutor for Montana’s largest city says changes to the state’s probation and parole system are coming at a cost to victims.”

The Organization

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is a regional nonprofit organization working to protect the South’s natural resources as well as the health and well-being of Southern people. Their work may center on the Southern region, but the impact of their advocacy and litigation efforts is nationwide. SELC’s programs focus on six areas: clean energy and air; water; forests; the coast and wetlands; transportation; land-use and communities; and wildlife and special places. SELC attorneys and staff work in all branches and all levels of government to ensure that environmental laws are strengthened and enforced, to hold government agencies accountable, and to prevent environmental abuses.

The Position

SELC seeks an associate attorney to begin this fall in their Charleston, SC office. This is a two-year term position with the option for a third year and is perfect for recent law graduates looking to jump-start their careers. The associate will gain invaluable experience litigating and advocating in state and federal courts and before regulatory agencies.

The ideal candidate will have litigation experience and a background in environmental law.

More info on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=99610

At the October Mini-Conference, we announced the finalists for this year’s PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. To commend each finalist on their hard work and to demonstrate how difficult it will be to select the winner, we will feature a different finalist on the blog every Monday for the next five weeks.

This week we feature Ashley De La Garza from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas.

Ashley De La Garza

We selected Ashley as a finalist because she has shown unending dedication to pro bono work and criminal justice reform since she began law school. Ashley saw a need in Texas for devoted public defense and jumped in wholeheartedly to provide her support and skills. Ashley has worked in two public defender offices and has participated in her school’s Criminal Justice Clinic and Wrongful Conviction Review Project as well as the ABA’s Death Penalty Representation Project. Moreover, Ashley’s passion for service has extended to frequent participation in St. Mary’s Pro Bono Program, an alternative spring break in Washington, D.C., and public interest student organizations. As a former supervisor describes, Ashley’s compassion and advocacy for indigent clients has led her to achieve “one of the most critical student successes [the supervisor] has witnessed.” Her service has been invaluable in practice but also in the promotion of social justice reform through the selection of her legal journal article for publication in The Scholar. Ashley’s commitment, professionalism, and positive attitude has led her to be described as a leader in pro bono work among her classmates and colleagues.