Archive for February, 2020

PSJD Public Interest News Digest – February 28, 2020

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress

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

Student Loans & Student Debt

Legal Technology

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

Pro Bono Publico

Access to Justice – Civil

Access to Justice – Criminal

Criminal Justice Reform

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Job’o’th’Week (Fellowship Edition)

The Organization

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

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

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Pro Bono Publico Award Finalists

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

Logo reproduced with permission

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.”

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Job’o’th’Week (Internship Edition)

The Program

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

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

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Pro Bono Publico Award Finalists

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

University of Georgia Logo

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.

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Job’o’th’Week (Internship Edition)

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

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

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Pro Bono Publico Award Finalists

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

Logo reproduced with permission

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.”

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PSJD Public Interest News Digest – February 7, 2020

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress

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

Legal Technology

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

Access to Justice – Civil

Access to Justice – Criminal

Criminal Justice Reform

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Job’o’th’Week (Entry-Level Edition)

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License

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

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Pro Bono Publico Award Finalists

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.

Logo reproduced with permission

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.

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