by Ashley Matthews

Did you miss today’s #PSJDChat? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! Click here to read the recap!

If you’re attending the Equal Justice Works Conference & Career Fair, next week’s #PSJDChat is not to be missed! Here’s a message from our friends at EJW:

Are you attending the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair (CCF) October 26-27? Do you have questions that haven’t been answered yet? Equal Justice Works is joining PSJD in a tweet chat to answer all your questions about CCF! Use hashtags #PSJDChat and #EJWCCF to send questions to our panelists—Nita Mazumder and Lauren Fuchs of Equal Justice Works. Come join the conversation with @EJW_org and @PSJDTweets on October 17 at 3 p.m. EDT and get all your CCF questions answered!

See you at next week’s #PSJDChat!

by Ashley Matthews

During last week’s #PSJDChat, we talked about ways to create a cover letter that stands out from the crowd while looking for public interest law jobs. Joined by Brenda Bernstein of The Essay Expert and representatives from Loyola Law School and North Carolina Central University School of Law, the chat was an informative discussion that focused on methods of maintaining brevity while highlighting important aspects of your resume. Click here to read the full recap! This week’s #PSJDChat will focus on drafting a public interest law resume. Tweet your questions to @PSJDTweets with the #PSJDChat hashtag on Wednesday, 10/10/2012, to join the conversation!

Also, don’t forget to mark your calendars for our special edition Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair chat next week at 3 pm EDT! Here’s a message from our chat buddies at EJW:

Are you attending the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair (CCF) October 26-27? Do you have questions that haven’t been answered yet? Equal Justice Works is joining PSJD in a tweet chat to answer all your questions about CCF! Use hashtags #PSJDChat and #EJWCCF to send questions to our panelists—Nita Mazumder and Lauren Fuchs of Equal Justice Works. Come join the conversation with @EJW_org and @PSJDTweets on October 17 at 3 p.m. EDT and get all your CCF questions answered!

See you at the next #PSJDChat, this Wednesday at 3pm EDT!

by Ashley Matthews

Recently, the ABA Commission on Women in the Law released statistics showing that women comprise only 33% of the legal profession. In addition, while weekly salaries for women lawyers are increasing, male attorneys still receive a higher weekly salary. Diversity in the legal profession includes women lawyers, so statistics like these point to a continued need for open dialogue.

For this reason, PSJD is excited to be in attendance at the 5th Annual She Leads Conference on Women & the Law today at the Washington College of Law at American University! Ms. JD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the experiences of women in the legal profession, is co-sponsoring the conference with the Women and the Law program at American University, Washington College of Law.

The She Leads conference will help attendees develop core leadership skills that can be applied at law school, legal practice, the government, or at non-profits. Breakout sessions are designed to empower women attorneys in every way – from leading a large organization such as a law firm or nonprofit, to running for political office.

For more information about the She Leads conference, visit the Ms. JD website. Also, check out this NALP Bulletin article on women and minority representation at law firms for more information on diversity within the legal profession.

PSJD is pleased to announce the winner, runner-up, and honorable mentions for the 2012 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award!

Winner: Elizabeth Gutierrez, St. Mary’s University School of Law

Runner-Up: Kathleen Norland, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Honorable Mentions:

• Charles Ryan Dalton, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
• Elizabeth Leonard, Seattle University School of Law
• Angela McCray, Stanford Law School

Please learn more about the accomplishments of Ms. Gutierrez and our slate of winners here. As always, we are delighted and heartened to receive nominations from throughout the country which attest to the great work done by law students. It is difficult to choose winners in a nominee pool with such breadth and depth. Nevertheless, the accomplishments of our winners stood them apart, and we are proud to shine a spotlight on their work. We will present the Pro Bono Publico Award to Ms. Gutierrez during the upcoming Public Service Mini-Conference.

It pays to be smart about student loan debt, especially for public interest advocates! Take a look at this message from our friends at Equal Justice Works:

Educational debt has become a crippling burden for far too many, and especially for those who want to pursue careers in public service. Equal Justice Works provides in depth information on loan repayment assistance programs and relief programs like Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness to help everyone pursue the career of their dreams.

As part of this continuing work, we’ve created a free manual that details how these programs work and covers the basics of student loans and repayment options. Click here to download your free copy.

This month in our U.S. News blog, the Student Loan Ranger, the topics we covered included the striking rise in six-figure student loan debt,  the impact of student loan debt on the middle class and Pell Grants might fare under Obama and Romney.

Every month, our free, live webinars also provide a comprehensive overview of the debt relief options available for students and graduates – including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Based Repayment – and provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of our webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Our current sessions include:

Drowning in Debt? Learn How Government and Nonprofit Workers Can Earn Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Thursday, October 11, 3-4 p.m. EDT

A must attend for anyone with educational debt planning to work or currently working for the government or a nonprofit, this webinar explains how you can benefit from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

This webinar will teach you how to:

• Understand your federal loans
• Manage your monthly payments using income-driven repayment plans like Income-Based Repayment plan
• How to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Plan Before You Borrow: What You Should Know About Educational Loans BEFORE You Go to Graduate School

Wednesday, October 24, 3-4 p.m. EDT

Interested in government or public interest work after graduating? This webinar will help you plan ahead and make sure you can take full advantage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

The webinar will teach you about:

• Taking out the right kind of loans
• Consolidating or reconsolidating your previous student loans
• How the College Cost Reduction and Access Act can free you to pursue a public interest career

Our weekly #PSJDChat continues with the topic, “Creating a Stand-Out Cover Letter”.

We’ve all been there. After finding the perfect job in the perfect location, you draw a blank when trying to sum up how your experiences and skills are best suited for the position. How do you come up with attention-grabbing ways of selling yourself without coming on too strong? Is it even possible to come on too strong with increased competition for public interest jobs? And what’s up with the format – is it even all that important?

Join us on 10/3/2012 for #PSJDChat, where we’ll discuss this and more. Click here for a recap of last week’s #PSJDChat. See you there!

Earlier today, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) sponsored a forum in North Carolina to address the role of legal aid for the poor in safeguarding the fair administration of justice. Held in conjunction with a LSC board meeting, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Sarah Parker and five other distinguished judges from the Southeast participated in the forum. The panel also emphasized the civil legal needs for military veterans.

In an op-ed to the Raleigh’s News & Observer, LSC Board of Directors chairman John Levi stressed the dire situation facing the nation’s legal community as it struggles to balance funding cuts, increased demands for civil legal services and rising poverty:

The 2 million people aided by lawyers at LSC-funded programs every year are seeking assistance with problems that go to the very heart of their safety and security. They are fighting to avert unlawful foreclosures, or to escape domestic violence. They are veterans returning from overseas and facing legal issues, or grandparents seeking legal guardianship of a grandchild in need of lifesaving surgery. Nearly three of four of them are women, and include Americans of all races, ethnic groups and ages.

LSC, established by Congress during the Nixon administration with a bipartisan board of directors appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, provides federal grants to 134 nonprofit legal aid programs with more than 900 offices in every state. LSC’s grantee in North Carolina, Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC), operates 20 field offices across the state and gets nearly 50 percent of its funding from LSC.

LSC’s programs throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country are increasingly overwhelmed with requests for help. As a result of the recession, nearly one in five Americans – 61 million people – now qualify for LSC-funded civil legal assistance because they live at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That is an all-time high.

As demand has been rising, the combined funding for LSC programs from federal, state, local and all other sources has dropped from $960 million in 2010 to $878 million in 2012.

Not surprisingly, the combination of increased demand and diminished funding has reduced LSC’s ability to meet the civil legal assistance needs of low-income Americans. Recent studies have shown, in fact, that the U.S. ranks 21st on access to justice for disadvantaged groups and 52nd in the world in terms of access to legal assistance.

by Ashley Matthews

The first #PSJDChat was a success! Click here for a full recap of what went down.

A special thanks goes out to Ms. JD and Alison Monahan of the Girl’s Guide to Law School for their invaluable insight and advice. Participating students learned a lot of tips and tricks to stand out in a crowded and competitive legal job market!

Join us next Wednesday, October 3rd, at 3pm for the next #PSJDChat. We’ll be talking about crafting the perfect public interest law cover letter. See you there!

by Ashley Matthews

During today’s #PSJDChat on Twitter at 3 pm Eastern, we’ll be discussing ways to use our social media profiles during the public interest law job hunt to stand out from the crowd and create a personal and professional brand. It’s no secret that social media has revolutionized the way job seekers look for new opportunities. With easy access to technology, searching for jobs has become a task that most people can complete at home in their pajamas, at any time of day or night.

So how does this affect you as a law student or graduate looking for public interest employment? According to the American Bar Association’s 2012 Legal Technology Survey Report, there has been a marked growth in the amount of social media activity in legal communities. This means that law firms and lawyers are more likely to blog and use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn than ever before.

With competition for public interest law jobs at an all-time high, law students are getting proactive about ways to use social media to plan their careers and manage their online reputations. However, there is an art to building a digital brand – especially in the world of public interest law. Here are a few things we’ll be discussing during today’s #PSJDChat:

1. Broadcasting What Kind of Job You’re Looking For

With the rise of microblogging and status updates, it’s easy as a click of a button to find out the latest information about anyone with a searchable social media profile. Today, we’ll discuss the best ways to maximize your microblogging and send out public blasts about yourself and your professional interests.

2. Building a Multiplatform Digital Profile

These days, some would argue that your online profile is more valuable than your paper resume. With the right hyperlinks and recommendations, your digital resume can offer a much more comprehensive view of who you are and what you do.

3. Stalking Researching Your Potential Employer

One of the best tips in preparing for a new job is to investigate news and developments related to where you want to work. Finding this information is easy, but what do you do with it once you find it? We’ll discuss this today during the #PSJDChat!

4. Retweet, Retweet, Retweet

Twitter is quickly becoming one of the best ways to create your own personal brand and find out information about employers that would previously be difficult to locate. Today, we’ll talk about how to strategically retweet desired employers and hiring managers, and how to connect with those in your chosen field.

5. Developing Your Personal and Professional Brand

Your social media profiles all offer a comprehensive view of who you are. In the world of public interest, your hobbies and beliefs may be more important to potential employers. Today, we’ll talk about how to effectively use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to show your personality and professionalism, and discuss other web tools that can help you develop and shape your online reputation.

6. Joining Industry Chats

#PSJDChat included! Industry chats are a great way to show a demonstrated interest in your chosen field. Today, we’ll talk about industry chats that exist relating to public interest and social justice law.

7. Using Different Social Media Outlets in Different Ways

With controversy over privacy concerns mounting, it’s smart to tailor your use of social media to your different job search needs. There’s no way around it: lawyers are held to a higher ethical standard, and our public profiles must reflect that. We’ll talk about the different ways to use various social media outlets to enhance the public interest law job search.

8. Following Your Digital Footprints

Potential employers use Google to research applicants’ past history, employment and education. Where does your digital footprint lead? We’ll show you how to find it.

9. Using Pinterest Professionally

Pinterest is the relatively new-kid-on-the-block in the world of social networking sites. We’ll talk about innovative ways to keep your Pinterest page professional and use this site to your job-hunting advantage.

10. Creating a Social Media Package

Once you’ve developed a personal and professional brand using social media, how do you package and present yourself to potential employers using all of this information? We’ll share ideas and fun ways to get yourself noticed and stand out from other job applicants using the power of social networking technology.

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During the #PSJDChat, we will talk freely, share success (and horror) stories, and get advice about all of these tips and more. Be sure to check out our #PSJDChat blog post for instructions on how to join and links to sites that will help you follow along with the conversation. We will post a recap and transcript of the chat here on the PSJD blog, along with standout tweets and information about next week’s chat.

See you there!

Educate. Empower. Protect. Volunteer for Election Protection.

Election Protection – led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – is the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition.  Through the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline and a comprehensive legal field deployment, Election Protection helps ensure eligible voters are able to participate in our democracy while collecting data for meaningful reform so that our elections are free, fair, and accessible.   

How you can help:  Election Protection is currently recruiting attorneys, paralegals, and law students to:

• Serve as hotline call center volunteers on or before Election Day
• Participate in legal field deployments on Election Day to ensure the process is running properly

To volunteer, use this online form.