When Alexander (“Sash”) Lewis receives his J.D. from Rutgers School of Law–Newark on May 27, 2011, he will have already completed four notable internships in the area of international law. For his fourth position, which he is currently undertaking in Madagascar, Lewis has been awarded an Arthur C. Helton Fellowship from the American Society of International Law (ASIL).

Lewis is one of nine student and young professional winners selected from more than 50 applicants from Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Oceania, and North and South America. The Arthur C. Helton Fellowship Program recognizes the legacy of Arthur C. Helton, an ASIL member who died in the August 19, 2003 bombing of the UN mission in Baghdad.

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As a student at Rutgers School of Law–Newark, Lewis has demonstrated an avid interest in public interest law and the ability to do high-quality international humanitarian legal work. A Marsha Wenk Fellow in Public Interest Law and the recipient of a Rutgers Public Interest Law Foundation grant, he has worked in the Constitutional Litigation Clinic and interned at the ACLU–NJ.

Our hats off to Sash! Congrats on the ASIL Fellowship!

SeniorLAW Center seeks an experienced attorney, leader, and manager to serve as Managing Attorney of its legal staff.

SeniorLAW Center is a nonprofit public interest legal services organization which improves the lives of thousands of older Pennsylvanians and protects their rights through legal representation, education and advocacy.  This position presents an opportunity to make an enormous difference in the lives of individuals and communities in need. We seek an energetic, detail-oriented, highly organized, confident, flexible and culturally-sensitive individual to provide day-to-day management of intake, caseload, and SeniorLAW Center’s legal staff of attorneys and advocates, law students and volunteers.

Primary duties include: detailed oversight of client intake, services and emergencies; daily management of caseload and management/supervision of legal staff; volunteer attorney training and oversight; and developing organizational policies and priorities with Executive Director. The Managing Attorney fosters relationships with a diverse range of local and regional legal and aging service providers and community groups and is an essential member of SeniorLAW Center’s Leadership Team.

The job is based in that famous city of brotherly love, Philadelphia!

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

This week, Chris Parosa, an eight-year Lane County deputy district attorney allowed Eugene, Oregon’s Register-Guard to pull back the curtain on the many offstage duties that also make up a typical week for a deputy district attorney.

He allowed a reporter to watch or query him about the job’s less-recognized tasks — some mundane, some horrifying — to show what Lane County’s 32 prosecutors do.  It is clear that the role of prosecutor extends far beyond what the public understands from Law and Order.

One surprising duty, perhaps, is deciding not to prosecute people…“We have to be sure we’ve got proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Parosa says. “I have to verify that there’s credible evidence for every charge.”

Even when there is, he says, “I have to ask myself: Is this a case that’s worth pursuing? Is this something the community wants me to be prosecuting, given our limited resources?”

Parosa and other prosecutors also handle volumes of cases at parole violation hearings.  While several defense attorneys are here on behalf of their clients, Parosa is the sole prosecutor in the room, and most of these cases are not his own.  As the judge calls each defendant, Parosa pulls the corresponding file from a cart of files, carefully studying it before providing his recommendation.

One of the worst parts of his job, the deputy D.A. says, is telling victims of alleged crimes that his office will not be filing charges for lack of sufficient proof.  “I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had where I have to tell them, ‘I believe he did this, but I can’t prove it.’ ”

There’s also the matter of plea bargains. Parosa finds, “You can have the sword in your hand, but you can also show some mercy.” He confesses that he was the beneficiary of mercy, for when he was 18, he was busted for using a fake ID to buy alcohol while he was a student at the University of Oregon.  

Bill Warnisher, now one of his colleagues, was the prosecutor in that case.  “In his wisdom, he saw that I was a young kid who made a bad choice, and he deferred adjudication,” Parosa says. While his case was on hold, he successfully completed a diversion program. The charge was dropped and his record expunged.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity I had, and I often reflect on that when deciding what to do in my cases,” Parosa says. “It’s not our job to make everyone who comes through this office a criminal. … I love what I do because I get to come in every day and do the right thing.”

I Want You...to remain patient. But I promise we're moving faster...

Good news for aspiring bureaucrats!  A short Washington Post piece today offers an update on the Obama Administration’s goal to speed up the federal hiring processes:

The Office of Personnel Management wants to know what percentage of workers are hired within the 80-day goal, and how long it’s taking on average per hire. In a memo sent last week, it’s also asking agencies how long it takes to fill “mission-critical” jobs, including information-technology specialists, human resource officials and top career positions.

Numbers released in March suggest the government is still about 25 days shy of Obama’s 80-day goal, with agencies taking about 105 days to recruit and fill slots in fiscal 2010. Those numbers are down from about 122 days the year before and in the past, it used to take agencies up to 200 days to post a job, interview applicants and hire a new worker.

Obama and other administration officials have argued that the long hiring process is deterring otherwise qualified applicants from seeking federal positions.

The Regional Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is responsible for providing legal counsel, review, assistance and recommendations to the Regional Administrator, Field Office Directors, program managers and directors and heads of various Centers operating within his or her jurisdiction on a variety of complex issues raised by top management and program staff with respect to all programs within the jurisdiction. The Regional Counsel’s activities may embrace any legal issue pertaining to the administration of HUD programs and operations including, among others, issues related to housing and community development, contracts, real property, constitutional law, corporations, associations, partnerships, agency, foreclosures, torts, employee and labor relations, taxation, negotiable instruments, municipal corporations, municipal and private financing, environmental law, creditors rights, bankruptcy, civil procedure, fair housing, equal employment opportunity, ethics and administrative law.

The Regional Counsel actively participates in setting policy in all matters affecting HUD programs and administration within the office jurisdiction and exercises independent judgment and discretion in formulating responses to legal issues. The incumbent renders advice and recommendations at all levels of the organization, from the General Counsel and Assistant Secretaries to field managers and directors.

The best news? Many are eligible: first professional law degree (J.D. or LL.B.), second professional law degree (LL.M.), or superior law student work!

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

Are you a specialist in criminal and international humanitarian law?  The International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia may have an ideal position for you.

Under the guidance of the Judges of the Trial Chamber and the Senior Legal Officer or Head of Chambers, the incumbent will provide specialized legal advice on all aspects of law and procedure with emphasis on criminal and international humanitarian law.

S/he will:

• Attend judicial proceedings and hearings and provide expert advice in an expeditious manner on the various issues arising, particularly where the Judges wish to enter an immediate oral decision;
• Under the guidance of the Presiding Judge and the Senior Legal Officer or Head of Chambers, ensure the day to day management of proceedings, including contacts with the parties and others involved;
• Supervise staff and organize the distribution of work within the team; supervise the drafting of preparatory documents, decisions and judgments for the Chamber;
• Undertake legal drafting as required; supervise research undertaken by the legal officers and associate legal officers under his/her authority; provide the Judges with draft memoranda and decisions in a timely manner.

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

This week: changes to Ohio’s patchwork indigent defense system?; a medical-legal partnership in the City of Fountains (and now you know Kansas City’s nickname – you’re welcome); praise from law firm associates on the value of law school clinical and externships programs, according to new NALP report; legal services funding bills making headway in Texas legislature; “future of legal education” conference gives props to proposal that would teach law students to teach pro-se litigants; $200K in HHS domestic violence victim assistance grant leads to legal services partnership in Michigan; is Birmingham, Alabama’s money better spent on public defenders or appointed counsel?; Colorado Legal Services takes a $170K hit after federal budget compromise; make that figure $300K in Virginia; are law school clinics vehicles for advancing liberal causes?; law school scholarship opportunities for would-be Garden State prosecutors; Quinnipiac (we love that name!) law students run/walk to benefit injured U.S. servicemembers – kudos!; a libertarian proposal to create an indigent defense voucher system; tumult among the leadership of the Peach State’s indigent defense program.

• 4.21.11 – could Ohio see a change in its indigent defense system, with the state easing some of the funding and administrative burdens resting on county shoulders?  An article from the Elyria, Ohio-based Chronicle-Telegram (a/k/a the New York Times of Northern Ohio) sheds light on how a state legislative proposal could impact Lorain County’s appointed-counsel system (and, we would presume, other counties’ systems as well): “County officials have been reviewing whether creating a public defender’s office would save the county money over the approximately $1.8 million spent annually to pay court-appointed attorneys. Under the current system, the state reimburses the county around 30 percent of its annual expenditures for court-appointed lawyers. [County Commissioner Lori] Kokoski said under the proposal being reviewed in Columbus the reimbursement number would jump to 50 percent next year and climb by 10 percent each year until the state was fully funding a county public defender’s office.  She also said that the Office of the Ohio Public Defender would take over operating the county’s public defender’s office — if one exists — under the proposed change to state law.”  

• 4.20.11 – as we’ve noted before on the Blog, an exciting new Medical Legal Partnership has sprung up in Kansas City between Legal Aid of Western Missouri and Saint Luke’s hospital.  Health Leaders Media has a nice write-up: “Legal Aid began its first medical-legal partnership in Kansas City in 2007, but the Saint Luke’s partnership is the first to use legal staff working full-time at a medical site. Amber Cutler, an attorney with Legal Aid, said that has been critical to the success of the four-month-old project.   ‘On site is best, not only because we are more accessible to the patients, but because we are more visible,’ Cutler says…’It’s a critical component.’ … The Saint Luke’s medical-legal partnership is based on the I-HELP model. I stands for income and insurance issues; H is for housing issues; E is for ensuring patient safety in domestic situations; L is for legal status; and P is for power of attorney and guardianship.”  BONUS EASTER SEASON TRIVIA: St. Luke, known primarily as a Gospel writer, was very likely trained as a physician.

• 4.19.11 – law firm associates think law school clinics and externships were just gangbusters in preparing them for the practice of law.  As we noted on the blog earlier this week, a new NALP report indicates that present-day associates benefitted from participating in clinics and externships during their student days.  The report compares the various experiential opportunities to determine their effects on lawyer preparedness.  While only 30 percent of the associates reported participating in at least one legal clinic, almost two in three of these folks (63%) found the experience “very useful,” the highest value on a scale of 1-to-4.   Similarly, 36% of the associates said they took part in an externship or field placement, and 60% of them rated the experience “very useful.”  Pro bono programs and legal skills classes earned lower ratings from associates.  Here’s a link to the report, the 2010 Survey of Law School Experiential Learning Opportunities and Benefits.  And here’s some National Law Journal coverage of the report.

• 4.18.11 – the Texas Lawyer runs a detailed piece on two companion bills winding through the Texas legislature that would generate funding for legal services:  “Senate Bill 726 and House Bill 2174 would create new court costs and document filing fees to help fund indigent civil legal aid, indigent criminal defense and the implementation of electronic filing in all state courts.”  We checked up on the bills on 4/21 via the Texas legislature’s website.  They’re both reported has having passed in committee votes.  Faithful PSLawNet Blog readers will have seen coverage of these bills in past News Bulletins.  One of the most interesting dimensions is the bipartisan support to improve funding for the beleaguered legal services community.  Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht has been a champion for increased funding, and he’s a solid conservative.  Also, Rep. Will Hartnett, the sponsor of HB 2174, is a Republican who noted in the Texas Lawyer piece that legal services is not typically a Republican cause.

• 4.18.11 – at the intersection of technology, legal aid, and legal education sits a project proposal to have law students create self-help software for people who have legal problems but may not be able to afford an attorney.  The proposal, “Apps for Justice: Learning Law by Creating Software,” won accolades at the “Future Ed” conference, a recent gathering of stakeholders in the legal education world that explored ways to improve the way tomorrow’s lawyers are trained.  The National Law Journal covered both the conference and the “Apps for Justice” proposal, which is designed to help law students learn legal principles and processes as they create self-help software for pro se clients.  The “Apps for Justice” project proposal contemplates a grant from the Legal Services Corporation to fund pilots at 5 law schools.  (Here is a press release about Apps for Justice being honored at Future Ed.)

• 4.18.11 – A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant will help domestic violence victims with civil legal needs.  The Times Herald of Port Huron, Michigan reports: “Lakeshore Legal Aid and Safe Horizons, both based in Port Huron, are working together on an Access to Justice project, paid for with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Safe Horizons was awarded the grant last fall to develop a program to help survivors overcome obstacles that often prevent them from getting help with civil matters. The effort includes hiring an advocate to help with navigating the legal system; hiring an advocate to help survivors access child care while dealing with court matters; hiring someone to train area lawyers willing to take on pro-bono cases; and contracting with Lakeshore Legal Aid to take on complex cases.”

• 4.18.11 -a question of how to allocate indigent defense resources in Alabama.  From the Birmingham News:  “Birmingham municipal judges paid private lawyers hundreds of thousands of dollars [$300K in 2009-10] to represent poor defendants, while the nonprofit agency that serves as the city’s longtime public defender claimed it could handle the full caseload and went unpaid for months.”  The presiding judge at Birmingham Municipal Court has defended the increased payments to appointed counsel, even as the court has had to dip in to general funds because the dedicated fund for indigent defense services was depleted.

• 4.18.11 – the federal budget compromise earlier this month means depleted funding for LSC grantee Colorado Legal Services, to the tune of $170,000.  From Law Week Colorado: Colorado Legal Services will lose $170,000 over the next seven months as a result of the congressional budget compromise, the Colorado Bar Association said today…. ‘This loss will have a serious impact on the program’s ability to meet the most essential legal needs of low-income, elderly, and disabled Coloradans,’ the bar association said in a statement.  Law Week publishes the full Colorado Bar Association statement here.

• 4.17.11 – the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on how LSC budget cuts will affect grantee programs in Old Dominion:  Virginia’s legal aid chapters, which provide free legal representation to Virginia’s poor and working poor, were told this week by their federal funding source that they must immediately implement a 4 percent cut….The 4 percent cut [which LSC will have to absorb] will be passed along to the corporation’s 136 grantees, which resulted in a nearly $300,000 loss for Virginia.

• 4.17.11 – the right-of-center Washington Times runs a review about a book criticizing legal education in the U.S. as being, well, elite and leftist.  According to the review of Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and Overlawyered America, law school clinics in particular are vehicles to make social change: “The advent of law school ‘clinics’ brought both foundation funding and pedagogical cover for ‘social justice’ projects. In reality, the professed goals of training lawyers and serving indigent clients often were eclipsed by the quest for ‘test cases’ and ‘social change.’ Poor people, it turned out, wanted legal services (divorce, traffic violations, misdemeanor defense) that had “little to do with changing society.” The clinics preferred to turn away such matters in favor of ‘high profile cases,’ so that the lawyers could ‘save thousands instead of a few.’ And in numerous cases, the ‘public interest’ remedies pursued by law clinics brought results harmful to the communities they professed to serve.”  Yikes!  While the PSLawNet Blog supports changes in the legal education model that would lead to skill-based training, we’re not sure that’s a fair characterization of clinical education writ broadly.  Political ideology aside, we think most clinics handle everyday cases involving evictions, public benefits terminations, domestic violence prevention, and other matters that directly impact clients’ health and economic security. 

• 4.17.11 – the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports on three law school scholarship opportunities for Garden State residents who are aspiring prosecutors.  The scholarships are sponsored by the state’s County Prosecutors Association, and the application deadline is June 23, 2011.  Click through to the article for more detail, but here are some basics:
• To be eligible for the Oscar W. Rittenhouse Memorial Scholarship, an applicant must be accepted for admission to a law school and must have an interest in becoming a prosecutor.
• The Harris Y. Cotton Memorial Scholarship is also for applicants accepted for admission to law school who want to be prosecutors with an emphasis on domestic violence or hate crime prosecutions.
• Applicants for the Andrew K. Ruotolo Jr. Memorial Scholarship must be accepted to law school or graduate school and exhibit an interest, and commitment to, enhancing the rights and well-being of children through child advocacy programs.

• 4.17.11 – Running for our men and women in uniform.  As we noted in the PSLawNet Blog earlier this week, four student groups at Quinnipiac’s law school sponsored a 5K run/walk to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, which builds awareness and raises funds for severely injured servicemembers.  (Here’s the original story from the Quad News.)

• 4.15.11 – an indigent defense voucher system?  A blog post on the Right on Crime website looks at a conservative solution to the indigent defense resources crisis as articulated in a paper published last year by the Cato Institute.  From the blog post: “Late last year, The Cato Institute published an intriguing paper on indigent defense reform. It is an attempt to apply limited government principles to an exceptionally difficult criminal justice problem….  [T]he Cato paper suggests replacing the inefficient indigent defense system with a voucher system. Indigent defendants can be provided with vouchers — and perhaps a list of options – and they can select whomever they prefer. It is a market-based solution that emphasizes personal liberty and minimizes the role of government.”

• 4.15.11 – according to the Daily Journal, there are big changes affecting the embattled Georgia Public Defender Standards Council (which is the statewide indigent defense service): “…Georgia lawmakers voted to replace the [Council’s] current 15-member board with nine new appointees tapped by the governor, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker. The measure, which must be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal, also gives the [Council’s] director more power over whom the system hires.”  The Council has been in the legislative doghouse for some time, particularly among conservative lawmakers.  As noted by the Daily Journal one departing board member complained that “the measure only marginalizes the council, turning it into a mere advisory board while putting more power in the hands of the director, ex-prosecutor Travis Sakrison, who is the third leader of the group in the past six months.”  Indeed, he referred to the move as a “pig in a poke,” which we suspect constitutes fightin’ words in the Peach State.

Our good buddy Heather Jarvis has just launched the Ask Heather Jarvis website.  For several years now, Heather has been a national leader in working on solutions to the student debt burdens that weigh upon law grads, in particular those who pursue public interest careers.  

Our initial scan of the website suggests that Heather’s done a great job organizing educational resources for borrowers.  And she’s presenting a free webinar entitled “Public Service Loan Forgiveness in Five Easy Steps” on multiple dates/times in May.  Good stuff.

Find a job you’re wild about at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the nation’s largest member-supported conservation organization, which is at the forefront of global warming issues, reconnecting our children with nature, and protecting America’s wildlife and habitat.

NWF seeks a Conservation Litigation Director to be responsible for leading NWF’s efforts to advance its conservation priorities through litigation. Litigation is one of the key tools that NWF uses to advance its agendas of confronting global warming and safeguarding nature for people and wildlife. NWF litigators build their cases in support of the organization’s advocacy campaigns. This position will therefore work closely with program staff to identify the evolving needs and objectives of advocacy campaigns and help design and implement litigation strategies to meet those needs and objectives. This position will expand NWF’s litigation capacity by filing cases, recruiting other attorneys to provide donations of pro bono or reduced fee services, and fundraising.

Qualified candidates for this position must possess a J.D. and a minimum ten years experience in conservation litigation. He or she must be a highly organized professional, able to identify, articulate and implement effective litigation goals and strategies and be able to work hard while maintaining a sense of humor.

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

Prairie State Legal Services (PSLS), a 65-lawyer legal services organization, serving 36 counties in northern and central Illinois outside of Cook County, is seeking applicants to direct its Low-Income Tax Clinic.  The Clinic provides free legal advice and representation in tax controversies to low-income individuals.  The Clinic serves all 36 counties in PSLS’ service area.  The Clinic Director would be responsible for all Clinic activities, including client representation, supervision of interns and volunteers, community outreach, staff training, and grant reporting and preparation.  Prefer candidates with a tax or legal aid background.

Tax issues are of crucial importance to many low-income individuals – and to low-wage workers, single parents, and immigrants in particular.  Critical issues our clients face include denial of anti-poverty credits (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit), wage and benefit garnishments, tax problems stemming from identity theft, tax problems related to domestic abuse, worker misclassification, and deceptive tax schemes.  The Clinic assists clients through litigation (primarily in the United States Tax Court), administrative and agency advocacy, and, where appropriate and permitted, systemic advocacy outside the legal process.

PSLS has 12 offices across its service area, and will consider placing the director in the location which best meets the needs of the program and the interests of the director.  For further information about PSLS and its office locations, see www.pslegal.org

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