Hello, readers.  We know it’s a busy time of year. So we’re extending the nomination deadline for our 2012 PSJD (formerly PSLawNet) Pro Bono Publico Award by one week.  The new deadline is Friday, 9/14.  Take advantage of this opportunity to shine the spotlight on a law student who deserves national recognition for her public interest and pro bono work.  Here’s what you need to know:

Do you know a law student who’s a public interest/pro bono rock star?  NALP is seeking nominations for the 2012 PSLawNet/PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. 

Download the Nomination Form Here!

Purpose: To recognize the significant contributions that law students make to underserved populations, the public interest community, and legal education by performing pro bono or public service work.

Eligibility: The Pro Bono Publico Award is available to any second- or third-year law student at a PSJD Subscriber School. The recipient will be honored during an Award Luncheon at NALP’s Public Service Mini-Conference on Thursday, October 25, 2012 at the Washington, DC office of Crowell & Moring, LLP. The award recipient will receive transportation to Washington, a one-night stay in an area hotel, a commemorative plaque, and a small monetary award.

Award Criteria: Law students are judged by the extracurricular commitment they have made to law-related public service projects or organizations; the quality of work they performed; and the impact of their work on the community, their fellow students, and the school. Though a student’s involvement in law school-based public interest organizing and fundraising is relevant; actual pro bono and public interest legal work will be the primary consideration. 

Nomination Deadline & Packet Contents: Nominations must be received by Friday, September 7, 2012 at 5pm Eastern Time, by fax, mail, or email (see contact information at bottom). Along with the nomination form and a résumé, nomination packets may include any materials which support a nominee’s candidacy; such as letters of recommendation, statements detailing a nominee’s work, and media articles. 

By: Steve Grumm

Two important Department of Justice application deadlines are today:

• The Attorney General’s Honors Program: the Attorney General’s Honors Program is Justice’s competitive, centralized recruitment program that is the only way for new attorneys (i.e., third-year law students and students who enter judicial clerkships, graduate law programs, or qualifying fellowships within 9 months of law school graduation) to enter Justice in an attorney position.
• The Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP) – law students who have completed at least one full semester of legal study by the application deadline are eligible to apply. Most successful applicants intern the summer between their second and third year of law school; however, graduating law students who will enter a judicial clerkship or a full-time graduate law program may intern following graduation.  Part-time law students are also eligible to apply. All applicants should review eligibility rules. 

Tonight, approximately 400 law students are expected to attend the 23rd Annual Public Interest Career Reception, held at the New York City Bar Association. Co-sponsored by more than 20 law schools from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, the event offers law students the opportunity to network with potential employers and learn more about careers in public interest law.

The networking reception is fairly informal, and students can also mingle with public interest-minded alumni from participating schools. Student participants will be able to get up close and personal with a variety of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and private public interest law firms.

PSJD will be in the building to talk to students about navigating the public interest job hunt, so look out for our table if you’re in attendance!

We’ve re-launched the PSLawNet website as PSJD.  We’ll still be blogging daily – including the Job O’ the Day – and will be adding new, recurring blog features this fall.  Thanks for reading!

PSLawNet is debuting a new look this fall! Next week, on Monday, August 27th, PSLawNet will become PSJD – a revamped site that will retain all of PSLawNet’s content while adding easier navigation, enhanced searching, and new tools for job-seekers and employers. PSJD will be found at http://www.psjd.org (not live yet).

PSLawNet users will be able to log in to PSJD with the same PSLawNet login information they have always used, and our job-seeker “email alerts” will continue uninterrupted. For our faithful blog readers, we’ll be moving to blog.psjd.org (not live yet). The current PSLawNet blog URL will redirect you as well.

We at NALP (who administer the PSLawNet/PSJD site) are very happy to launch this next-generation career center as a free resource for the public interest legal community!

For more information contact me, the PSLawNet PSJD Fellow, at amatthews@nalp.org, or Steven Grumm at sgrumm@nalp.org. You may also reach us at 202.296.0076.

If you are a 2L looking to work for the government this summer, then this post is for you! The following government programs have 2L deadlines coming up in the next few weeks:

Fall

• Federal Communications Commission – Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Student internship Program (Unpaid, Deadline 08/31/12)
• City of Houston Legal Department – Student Externships (Unpaid, Deadline 08/31/12)
• Illinois Attorney General’s Office – Law Clerk Program (Unpaid, Deadline 09/01/12)
• Department of Commerce – Office of General Counsel Legal Internship Program (Paid & Unpaid, Deadline 09/15/12)

Spring

• Department of the Interior – Office of the Solicitor legal Internship/Externship Program (Unpaid, Deadline 09/01/12)
• Office of the District Attorney Denver, CO – Legal Internship Program (Unpaid, Deadline not yet established was 09/06/11)
• Executive Office of the President – Council on Environmental Quality Legal Clerkship Program (Unpaid, Deadline 09/07/12)

Summer

• Environmental Protection Agency – Office of General Counsel Summer Honors Program (Paid, Deadline 08/24/12)
• Environmental Protection Agency – Region 9 Volunteer Intern Program (Unpaid, Deadline early Sept.)
• Government Accountability Office – Office of General Counsel Summer Associate Program (Paid, Deadline 09/01/12)
• Department of State – Office of the Legal Advisor (Civil) Summer Intern Program (Unpaid, Deadline 09/01/12)
• U.S. Dept. of Justice – Summer Law Intern Program (Paid, Deadline 09/04/12)
• Federal Trade Commission – Bureau of Consumer Protection 2013 Summer Law Clerk Program (Paid & Unpaid, Deadline 09/14/12)
• Central Intelligence Agency – Office of General Counsel Summer Law Clerk Program (Paid & Unpaid, Deadline 09/15/12)
• Environmental Protection Agency – R7 Summer Legal Intern Program (Paid, Deadline 09/15/12)
• Federal Trade Commission – Bureau of Competition Intern Program (Paid, Deadline 09/15/12)
• Department of Health & Human Services – Office of Counsel to the Inspector General Summer Law Clerk Program (Paid, Deadline not yet established was 09/16/11)

For more information on these listings and more, check out The University of Arizona College of Law’s 2012-2013 Government Honors & Internship Handbook. Please note that the Handbook is available to subscribers only. Don’t worry, though – most law schools are already subscribed. Just talk to your Career Services counselor for your school’s username and password.

By: Steve Grumm

We’ve got great news for law students and lawyers on public interest career paths, as well as the organizations that hire them.  On August 27^th, PSLawNet will become PSJD, a redesigned website that retains all of PSLawNet’s content but that adds easier navigation, enhanced searching, and new tools for job-seekers and employers alike.  PSLawNet users will be able to log in to PSJD with existing PSLawNet login credentials, and our job-seeker “email alerts” will continue uninterrupted.  We at NALP (who administer the PSLawNet/PSJD site) are very happy to launch this next-generation career center as a free resource for the public interest legal community.  As of August 27 PSJD will be found at http://www.psjd.org (not live yet).   

For blog readers, this means that we’ll be moving to blog.psjd.org (not live yet).  But this blog URL will redirect you as well. 

For more information contact me at sgrumm@nalp.org, or PSLawNet PSJD Fellow Ashley Matthews at amatthews@nalp.org.  You may also reach us at 202.296.0076.

If you’re a public interest minded law student, then you’ll definitely want to be in Washington, DC on October 26-27 for the Equal Justice Works 2012 Conference & Career Fair! Registration opened today for job-hunting law students and recent graduates. Over 125 public interest employers will be in the building, and the weekend is packed with skill-building workshops and career advising sections with the nation’s leading experts.

The Equal Justice Works website posted these important dates to remember:

For more information, visit the EJW Conference & Career Fair information page.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) is seeking a Legal Fellow to help coordinate their Cholera Accountability Project (CAP) for a 6-12 month period from their office in Boston. Preference will be given to candidates who can commit to a longer time frame. The Legal Fellow will be working closely with a team of lawyers in the United States and Haiti on advocacy and legal work aimed at seeking accountability from the United Nations (UN) for causing Haiti’s cholera epidemic.

From the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti:

Cholera broke out in Haiti in October 2010, and the country is now fighting to contain the world’s largest cholera epidemic. Overwhelming evidence has established that reckless disposal of human waste on a UN peacekeeping base in Mirebalais poisoned Haiti’s rivers with a particularly deadly strain of cholera bacteria and caused the epidemic. IJDH and BAI represent victims of cholera in their quest for justice from the UN. In November 2011, we filed claims on behalf of 5,000 victims of cholera seeking: a) investments in water and sanitation infrastructure to control the epidemic; b) compensation for the victims; and c) a public apology. The UN has yet to accept responsibility and respond to the victims’ claims. CAP works with Haitian grassroots groups and international advocates in a broad-based campaign to push the UN to take action to stop cholera’s killing.

Check out the full listing at PSLawNet.org (log-in required)!