Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hi Interested Public,

This week, efforts by the federal government to restrict access to the legal profession for certain classes of potential clients spread from the federal executive to the legislative branch this week, when a U.S. House of Representatives committee opened an investigation into the manner in which Northwestern Law’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic chooses its clients. (Law School faculty & legal educational associations released additional statements addressing these efforts.) The arrangement Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP negotiated with the Trump administration next week suggests changes to the Skadden Fellowship Foundation’s program may be imminent. The Department of Education announced hearings as a first step toward restricting the availability of the PSLF program, and civil service workers courts had ordered reinstated and civil society groups courts had ordered refunded are still waiting to see whether those orders will be obeyed. As always, these stories and more are in the links below. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• US House probes Northwestern's law clinic over representation of pro-Palestine protestors (Reuters; 1 Apr 2025)

  “A U.S. House of Representatives committee is investigating a Northwestern University's legal clinic over its decision to represent protesters it alleges engaged in "illegal, antisemitic conduct," in what appears to be the first U.S. school to be subjected to a Congressional inquiry over legal representation.”

  • Letter to Northwestern’s President & Board of Trustees’ Chair (U.S. House Committee on Education & Workforce; 27 Mar 2025)

    “The Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law (Northwestern Law) is providing free legal representation in a civil suit to the organizers of an anti-Israel blockade of highway traffic to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport…The fact that Northwestern, a university supported by billions in federal funds, would dedicate its resources to support this illegal, antisemitic conduct raises serious questions.”

• Skadden's Trump Deal Spells Change for Prestigious Fellowship (Bloomberg Law; 3 Apr 2025)

  “A four-decade-old launchpad for public interest attorneys is getting an overhaul as part of President Donald Trump’s deal with Wall Street law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

  Skadden committed $100 million in pro bono work on causes aligned with Trump’s priorities, the president announced March 28. It also agreed to make changes to its prestigious, left-leaning fellowship program, pledging to include politically conservative participants and dedicate at least five spots to projects like “ensuring fairness” in the justice system and fighting antisemitism.”

• These Are the Students Targeted by Trump’s Immigration Enforcement Over Campus Activism (Time; 1 Apr 2025)

  “At least 300 international students who are “destabilizing” college campuses have had their visas revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference on March 27. “Maybe more, it might be more than 300 at this point,” Rubio said. “At some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.” The effort has raised questions about free speech and the rights of legal noncitizens, and it’s prompted legal challenges and protests in support of the targeted students.”

Statements from the Legal Profession

• Joint Statement from CLEA and AALS Clinical Section on Congressional Attack on Academic Freedom (CLEA; 2 Apr 2025)

  “In the weeks since Donald Trump took office for his second term, we have seen the considerable erosion of democracy and the rule of law in the United States. The latest evidence is the unprecedented request for disclosure by the House Committee on Education and Workforce issued on March 27, 2025, seeking extensive information about Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, including its policies, procedures, sources of funding, and budget. This request specifically targets Clinical Professor of Law Sheila Bedi, Director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, and her constitutionally protected representation of clients. …

  As experiential faculty members teaching and practicing law, we have duties beyond those as faculty members with academic freedom — we are representatives for our clients, officers of the court, and public citizens. Seeking to punish a lawyer for their ethical and zealous representation and advocacy compromises these core responsibilities. This, in turn, threatens the viability of our legal system — a system critical to the preservation of our democracy.”

• Law Prof Letter in Support of NW/Prof. Bedi (Google Drive; 3 Apr 2025)

  “We, the undersigned law faculty members, write in solidarity with our colleagues at Northwestern Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic and Professor Sheila Bedi, director of Northwestern’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, in the face of an unfounded and unprecedented request from the House Committee on Education and Workforce for clinical program and faculty employment records. … The government’s demand for such materials is intentionally designed to chill clinicians from representing unpopular clients — a core mission of lawyers, particularly those who represent clients disfavored by the majority and those who work to protect civil rights and civil liberties. To interfere with a lawyer’s representation of a client undermines the system of legal ethics that binds all lawyers and undermines the rule of law. Nothing in the Education Committee letter alleges that Professor Bedi, the Bluhm Legal Clinic, or Northwestern University have acted unlawfully or unethically. The letter instead rests on innuendo and threatens constitutionally protected legal advocacy. If such insinuations lead to document production and capitulation, no clinician can feel safe from harassment.”

• An Open Letter to the Legal Community Regarding the President’s Attacks on the Legal Profession and the Federal Judiciary (Various State Attorneys General; 26 Mar 2025)

  “We write to you as state attorneys general and colleagues in the practice of law. Recent actions by the Trump administration targeting individual law firms and attorneys and statements attacking, and calling for the impeachment of, federal judges represent a clear threat to our system of justice and our profession. President Trump’s recent orders and statements – plus recent letters to law firms from the Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – lay bare the administration’s desire to silence and suppress opposition to its policies, including by making it harder for those who oppose the administration’s policies to secure legal representation.

  As state attorneys general, we stand for the rule of law. As members of the legal profession and of our state bars, we all must stand together. The President’s attacks on the practice of law must not, and will not, subvert our zealous representation of our clients.”

• A Letter to UCLA Law Students (Members of the UCLA Law Faculty; 31 Mar 2025)

  “Lawyers have special obligations to protect and uphold the rule of law. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.” … Reasonable people may disagree about how to characterize particular incidents in the news, but we are all gravely worried that the rule of law is under severe threat. We strongly condemn efforts to undermine these basic legal norms.”

• A Letter to Harvard Law School Students (Members of the Harvard Law Faculty; 29 Mar 2025)

  “Each of us brings different, sometimes irreconcilable, perspectives to what the law is and should be. Diverse viewpoints are a credit to our school. But we share, and take seriously, a commitment to the rule of law: for people to be equal before it, and for its administration to be impartial. That commitment is foundational to the whole legal profession, and to the special role that lawyers play in our society. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.” …

  While reasonable people can disagree about the characterization of particular incidents, we are all acutely concerned that severe challenges to the rule of law are taking place, and we strongly condemn any effort to undermine the basic norms we have described.”

  • Faculty Members Send Dueling Letters on the Rule of Law (The Harvard Law Record; 1 Apr 2025)

    “In “dissent”to the letter, Professor Adrian Vermeule penned “An Open Letter To My Students” in The New Digest, a substack for essays on the classical legal tradition and common good constitutionalism (which Vermeule defines as a legal theory for which “the central aim of the constitutional order is to promote good rule, not to ‘protect liberty’ as an end in itself”)…He attacks how the open letter acts as a “consensus statement” and the effect that may have on conservative students or students who oppose Trump but do not agree with the fears conveyed in the open letter. (HLS website lists 141 individuals between their HLS Professors and Emeritus Professors – 91 signed the Saturday letter).”

Access to Justice

• Legal services for unaccompanied migrant children still uncertain after judge orders reinstatement (AP; 2 Apr 2025)

  “Legal aid clinics that sued the Trump administration after it canceled legal services for migrant children alone in the country say they are still in limbo a day after a federal judge in California ordered the reinstatement of direct legal assistance.”

• Bill Gates Foundation, other nonprofits may lose tax-exempt status for breaking US law (Times of India; 3 Apr 2025)

  “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with two other organisations are facing allegations of running scholarship and career advancement programs that discriminate against white Americans. The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) has accused the Gates Foundation, the Lagrant Foundation, and the Creative Capital Foundation of “intentionally” excluding white people, a claim detailed in letters sent to the IRS. The AAER argues that these alleged discriminatory practices may violate federal law and provide sufficient grounds for the IRS to revoke the organisations’ tax-exempt status.”

Student Loans & the Dept of Ed

• Trump is moving forward with his plan to limit eligibility for a key student-loan forgiveness program for public servants (Business Insider; 3 Apr 2025)

  “On Thursday, the Education Department announced it would be holding two public hearings to solicit feedback on its plans to refine the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and income-driven repayment plans. This is part of the negotiated rulemaking process, a lengthy process federal agencies are required to undergo to change existing regulations. The department said public hearings would be held in person on April 29 and virtually on May 1.” (emphasis added)

• Laid off by Trump, student loan workers leave hundreds of cases behind (The Seattle Times; 3 Apr 2025)

  ““Our office was the backstop of the federal student loan system,” said Gittleman. “We helped people get into repayment, fix credit reporting errors, and access public service loan forgiveness.”

  She described the job cuts as devastating not just to staff but also to the borrowers left behind, who now face uncertainty and potential delays in their cases. Her email access was cut off abruptly on March 11, the day the layoffs were announced. She couldn’t tie up loose ends or redirect cases.”

• How these 10 student loan borrowers are feeling about repayment in the Trump era (Bankrate; 3 Apr 2025)

  “Christian Alvarez made what he believes to be his 120th and final qualifying payment toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) on March 5. Then Alvarez, already worried about President Trump’s executive order targeting PSLF, read a news article online about the Department of Education halving its staff. Now he’s on the edge of his seat, hoping his remaining federal student loan balance — over $143,000 — is still eligible to be wiped away.”

2025 Federal Reductions in Force

• Judge orders fired federal probationary workers reinstated in 19 states, D.C. (Missouri Independent; 2 Apr 2025)

  “Departments and agencies named as defendants in the lawsuit must now return the probationary workers’ jobs to status quo by 2 p.m. Eastern on April 8, Bredar ordered. The agencies also “shall not conduct any future reductions in force (“RIFs”) — whether formally labeled as such or not” involving the affected probationary employees unless the process follows the law, Bredar wrote.

  The enjoined defendants include:

  • The departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense (civilian employees only), Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

  The order will remain in place while the case is pending.”

• Federal workers who were fired then rehired describe uncertainty over jobs, confusing transition: "What a mess" (CBS; 3 Apr 2025)

  “It has been three weeks since courts ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers it terminated in a flurry of mass cuts across the federal government. Many of the workers — already off-boarded, locked out of their offices and disconnected from emails when the rulings came down — have yet to return to their jobs. While they wait to learn their fate, many probationary employees appear to have been left in the dark, with some saying they face daily uncertainty made worse by limited and confusing communications about their benefits and positions. "I'm hoping I get my job back, but it doesn't seem that way," said one probationary worker who was fired from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and rehired because of a court mandate…About six weeks after receiving that letter, he was on administrative leave with pay and benefits. Justice Department lawyers have said that administrative leave placement is "a first part of a series of steps to reinstate probationary employees" and an "intermediate measure taken by a number of the agencies in order to return probationary employees to full duty status."”