The Sikh Coalition seeks a highly motivated staff attorney based in the organization’s office in New York City.  The Sikh Coalition is a community-based organization that works towards the realization of civil and human rights for all people. In particular, we work towards a world where Sikhs may freely practice and enjoy their faith while fostering strong relations with their local community wherever Sikhs may be.

The staff attorney will provide direct legal services to victims of hate crimes, employment discrimination, public accommodation discrimination, profiling, and other forms of discrimination. This is a full-time position that reports to the Coalition’s Legal Director. 

Interested?  Have the qualifications?:

• Bachelors and Juris Doctor degrees required;
• Bar membership in at least one U.S. based jurisdiction;
• At least 1-3 years of previous legal experience, litigation preferable;
• Demonstrated passion for social justice;
• Excellent written, oral and analytical skills;
• Ability to handle a large caseload and multi-task effectively;
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment;
• Basic computer and Westlaw skills;
• Punjabi language skills a plus.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Earlier this week, we highlighted pro bono and public interest work at the Charlotte College of Law on the blog.  Perhaps we wanted to wet your appetite for an available opportunity at CharlotteLaw…

The Charlotte School of Law invites applicants for the position of Director of the CharlotteLaw Program for Academic Success (“CPAS”). This is a non-faculty full-time administrative position starting as soon as possible, at a salary commensurate with qualifications and experience.

The Director of the CharlotteLaw Program for Academic Success reports directly to the Assistant Dean for Academics.  He or she will work with students seeking to improve academic performance or experiencing academic difficulty.  The Director performs other academic support functions essential to promoting students’ success in law school and to the success and growth of the institution.

The Director must be a licensed attorney with one to three years of legal experience and possess at least two years of full-time professional academic support experience (either as part of a graduate or law school program) or teaching experience (i.e., legal writing or comparable teaching experience in writing and analytical skills training).  He or she must have the ability to think creatively and critically about the goals of academic support in legal education and to design and present programs to meet those goals.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County is in search of a Staff Attorney!  The Staff Attorney will be an advocate at NLSLA’s innovative and nationally recognized flagship Medical Legal Community Partnership (MLCP) program located at St. John’s Well Child and Family Health Centers in South Los Angeles and at the Northeast Valley Health Corporation Sun Valley Health Center.  Neighborhood Legal Services (NLSLA) is one of Los Angeles County’s leading public interest law offices and has been the primary legal aid program serving the San FernandoValley for 40 years and the San Gabriel, Pomona & Antelope Valleys since 2001. The NLSLA staff of 100+, including 45 lawyers, provides legal assistance to low-income individuals, families and groups in the areas of family law and domestic violence, housing, health care, education, public benefits, economic and job development, immigrant rights, consumer rights, and environmental justice.

MLCPs require advocates who can work effectively with medical personnel and in a medical environment to address the social determinants of health.   Staff Attorney may also be assigned work through NLSLA’s Health Consumer Center.  The Attorney is expected to provide individual client assistance, policy advocacy, and work closely with community organizations.

California Bar membership or pending membership and bilingual verbal, reading and writing skills in Spanish required. Highly motivated attorney passionate about public service work, with sensitivity to those in crisis. Prefer someone with 1-3 years experience; new graduates will be considered.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Fifty years ago today on May 4, 1961, the first bus of Freedom Riders, carrying 13 people — both black and white — set out from Washington, D.C. for New Orleans.  These men and women took to America’s interstate buses to challenge the racial segregation that had become institutionalized in so much of the South.

To remember this day, the Job o’ the Day features an opportunity with The Southern Poverty Law Center.  The Center’s mission is the advancement and protection of the rights of minorities, the poor, and victims of injustice in significant civil rights and social justice matters.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit legal and educational organization, seeks an attorney/law fellow to join its staff to focus on the educational rights of children, with a focus on immigrant or limited English proficient (LEP) children in the South. This is a new position and will be based in Montgomery, Alabama.

The attorney will be expected to develop and handle cases related to education, particularly related to the rights of immigrant and LEP children and their families in schools throughout the South. Substantial travel may be required.

The attorney will be expected to develop and handle cases related to education, particularly related to the rights of immigrant and LEP children and their families in schools throughout the South.  Substantial travel may be required.   This position provides the chance to help develop a new area of advocacy for the Center, focusing on equal educational opportunities and language access for immigrant and LEP students. The Southern Poverty Law Center is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from people of racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds that are underrepresented in legal professions, immigrants, women, lesbian, gay, and transgendered people, and people with disabilities.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Summer is approaching quickly, and folks here at the PSLawNet Blog cannot wait! For many of us, summertime = summer job or internship!

A couple of weeks ago, the PSLawNet Blog highlighted some tips to maximize your summer public interest experience.  As we’re all aware, a public interest experience offers a glimpse  into how  public interest and pro bono attorneys use the law as an instrument of social justice.  A summer experience also allows one to cultivate practical skills that are useful in any number of settings.

Here are some more tips from the experts:

Network, Network, Network.

• Networking ≠ Schmoozing

Even though many of you might equate networking with schmoozing, they aren’t the same thing.  Networking is simply building relationships, and even friendships, among the folks you work with.  It is an extraordinarily valuable tool.   In all honesty, many professionals in the law world would admit that their professional networks are their most valuable professional asset.

• Express a Genuine Interest in Someone 

We realize that it can be intimidating to approach someone and ask he or she to have a cup of coffee with you.  But most public interest lawyers are very receptive to making new contacts, and to helping law students.  Our advice is simply to show a genuine interest in the person you’d like to meet – or the work they do – and go from there.  In the long term, it’s one of the best time investments that you can make.

Plan your exit strategy and stay in touch!

• Identify Loose Ends before Last Week

Be sure to accurately check the status of any of your projects and make sure you’re aware of the right point person to update.  Often, a memo on the status of all that you’ve worked on is a helpful tool for your supervisor and successors.  It’s likely a good idea to start the memo with case or project summaries before your last week, so that you do not leave anything out!

• Keep in Touch!

When folks at your summer job tell you to keep in touch, they are sincere. Harkening back to our point about professional networks, keeping in touch is an excellent way to allow everyone to stay abreast about what you’re up to and where they’re at. You would not want to miss an opportunity perfectly tailored to you because you didn’t make the call or send the email.

Smile, Share & Laugh!

• Take Stress in Stride

Remind yourself that it is summer, after all. Regardless of your experience, no supervisor expects you to be stressed out all the time. Aim to be efficient while you’re at work, but remember that work-life balance is a healthful thing. 

• Share Laughs, Not Just Work!

While we’d warn against inappropriate office gossip and venting to co-workers, be sure to get to know your colleagues. Knowing more about them–and allowing them to know you–will be helpful both personally and professionally. In most offices with which we’re familiar, a good sense of humor goes a long way.

Seton Hall University School of Law is seeking applications for a Practitioner-in-Residence for the Urban Revitalization Project within its Center for Social Justice from July 2011 to July 2012 with the expectation of renewal of the position for one additional year, dependent on grant funding and performance.

The Practitioner-in-Residence will take a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing issues of urban revitalization, with an emphasis on housing and education, and will work in collaboration with faculty in two sections of the Civil Litigation Clinic of the Center for Social Justice, led by Professors Linda Fisher and Shavar Jeffries.  The Civil Litigation Clinic represents clients in cases addressing foreclosure scams, housing discrimination, and public education reform.  Examples of cases/projects undertaken by the Project include representing homeowners against foreclosure rescue scams, representing tenants in a housing conditions case for appointment of a rent receiver to manage their building, challenges to municipalities’ affordable housing plans, and advocacy for an equal education for all children in New Jersey.  The Practitioner-in-Residence litigates cases, undertakes community education, and generally advocates on urban issues.

All applicants must be members of a state Bar; New Jersey bar membership is preferred but not required.  All applicants should have a strong academic record, an ability to be proactive and work independently, and excellent written and oral communication skills.  We welcome applications from those with at least 5 years of experience working in one or more of the areas of concentration of the Urban Revitalization Project.  This is not a tenure-track position and cannot be converted to a tenure-track line.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

The Domestic Law Project of Safe Horizon is seeking to hire a Staff Attorney. The Staff Attorney, using complete autonomy and independence, provides legal representation to domestic violence victims in family offense, custody, visitation and child support cases in Family Court.

Safe Horizon is the largest victims’ services agency in the United States, with 57 locations serving more than 250,000 children, adults, and families affected by crime and abuse throughout New York City each year.  The Staff Attorney, using complete autonomy and independence, provides legal representation to domestic violence victims in family offense, custody, visitation and child support cases in Family Court.  Candidate must have a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from an accredited law school, be admitted to the New York State Bar and have 2 to 4 years of related experience.

The good news for new graduates?

New graduates who have completed an approved fellowship may be considered. Candidate must also have prior experience in and/or thorough knowledge of family law, crisis intervention, criminal justice system, working with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, family violence, poverty law, feminist law and/ social justice work.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

CharlotteLaw seeks to add to our faculty a full-time professor who will start and run an Immigration Law Clinic and teach related podium courses. The successful candidate will preferably begin January 2012. He or she will join a growing faculty dedicated to experiential learning integrated throughout the curriculum and an academic team that includes a Director of Experiential Learning and three additional full-time professors who teach in and run clinics, an externship program and a pro bono program. We also have adjunct professors who teach clinics.

The mission of CharlotteLaw is to provide a legal education that is student-centered, facilitates practice readiness in a way that stimulates intellectual excellence and fosters personal integrity, and serves underserved communities. We seek candidates with distinguished academic records, excellent written and oral communication skills, practice and teaching experience, as well as a strong commitment to public interest law and clinical legal education.

Applicants should have at least 5 years of practice experience in the field of immigration, or a combination of immigration and criminal law, as well as experience or a strong interest in clinical teaching. All applicants must be members of a state Bar; North Carolina bar membership is preferred. We are looking for a candidate who is the best fit for this faculty position and, thus, the position may be filled by a candidate who is interested in either a tenure track or a non-tenure-track faculty appointment, subject to long-term contract renewal, with a ten or eleven month contract. All full-time faculty have full faculty voting rights, except in the area of promotion and tenure. Opportunity for research and scholarship development is available.

To view the full job posting, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Greetings from NALP’s annual conference in sunny Palm Springs, California.  Earlier today we sat in on a terrific program called “Counseling for International Public Interest Careers.”  Several dozen law school public interest career counselors were in attendance to pick up best practices and strategies for advising students and alumni.

One of the panelists, Akua Akyea of Yale Law School, laid out five qualities that successful candidates for international public interest jobs typically possess:

1. Substantive Knowledge of International Legal Issues – sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s important for law students who wish to work in the international arena to figure out  how they can soak in the most knowledge through classes, writing opportunities (journal, etc.), experiential learning opportunities, attending extracurricular lectures/programs, networking with faculty and practitioners, and of course, through summer work.
2. Demonstrated Commitment to Becoming an International Public Interest Advocate – this career path is not a backup plan.  Aspiring international public interest lawyers should take advantage of every opportunity they can get to build their credentials.  (See no. 1 above.)  It’s one thing to tell a job interviewer that you’re committed; it’s another to show that you’re living out that commitment through your legal education.
3. Language Skills – when the PSLawNet Blog practiced in civil legal services, he often found himself regretting that he never developed anything even approaching a proficiency with a second language.  (Some would say the PSLawNet Blog is still struggling enough with English.)  In any case, possessing  foreign language skills – or not – can make a break a candidate for an international public interest law job.  It’s not too late to build skills.  Look into foreign language offerings within your law school’s larger university system.  Some students even take temporary leave to pursue language immersion courses – or do it during the summer.
4. International Travel Experience – in two words: “Go abroad!”  Travel abroad – even for leisure – helps us to build awareness of different cultures, and it helps us to at least begin to understand what might be involved in integrating and working in a different culture.
5. Gain Relevant Work Experience – this will help you take care of tips 1 and 2, and at the same time you’ll figure out what kind of work setting is right for you, what areas of law/policy interest you, and where in the world you might like to work.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will hire 2-4 1Ls and 2Ls for its volunteer Summer 2011 externship program. Program dates are flexible, but externs must work 20-40 hours per week. Externs conduct legal research and writing, as well as substantive work relating to the investigation of charges of discriminations. They may assist with interviewing claimants and witnesses, prepare discovery responses, or aid in the preparation of witnesses for depositions. They also attend intake interviews, mediation sessions, court hearings, and trials. Externs are assigned to mentors and encouraged to interact with as many attorneys and administrative judges as possible.

The EEOC is responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the federal sector. The Minneapolis Area Office has jurisdiction over the States of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Candidates will be evaluated based on academic performance, demonstrated research and writing skills, and interest in furthering the mission of the EEOC.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).