Actual, New Public Interest Jobs! Indigent Defense in the Bay State
By: Steve Grumm
The economy and legal employment market being what they are, we don’t always have good news for law students on public interest career paths. Our weekly news bulletin often relays stories of budget and/or job cuts with nonprofit and government law offices. (Although we still feel strongly
that law students should read this news so that they can keep their finger on the pulse of the market and identify new opportunities that may exist.)
So it’s with no small measure of delight that we pass along word of efforts to bolster the indigent defense network in Massachusetts with fresh hires. From the Milford Daily News:
Leaders of the state’s public defender system will soon detail a plan to hire more staff attorneys to represent the poor and contract less of that work to about 3,000 private lawyers across Massachusetts.
The cost of defending low-income people came under the spotlight on Beacon Hill this year when Gov. Deval Patrick proposed hiring about 1,000 new state attorneys and ending the use of private attorneys altogether.
…
After lawmakers offered less sweeping proposals of their own, Patrick ultimately signed a state budget last month that makes less ambitious reforms. It requires at least 25 percent of cases with indigent defendants to be handled by state attorneys by next July, up from about 10 percent now.
The state Committee for Public Counsel Services, which is in charge of providing lawyers to the poor, must deliver a plan to legislators by Sept. 1 to meet that goal. It will mean less work for private attorneys who handle cases for the poor, though they will be given preference in hiring.
Lisa Hewitt, the committee’s general counsel, said the plan will likely require hiring 346 new full-time employees, including attorneys, support staff, social workers and investigators.
A final number is still in the works, she said. The state now has 252 public defenders on its payroll.
