One year and 350 posts later, we’re positively thrilled that the PSLawNet Blog has transitioned from an uncertain experiment to a going concern!  The Blog was viewed almost 50,000 times last year, and more importantly our readership grew consistently from the beginning of 2010 to the end.  We’ll use this birthday post to do two things: 1) thank our contributors and colleagues, and 2) lay out our goals for the blog in 2011.

First, we must thank the extraordinarily talented and accomplished guest bloggers who have contributed to our “Expert Opinion” series.  Our guests have included some true luminaries in the public interest arena (e.g. Orleans Parish Public Defender Derwyn Bunton), up-and-coming public interest stars (Todd Belcore, now an Equal Justice Works Fellow in Chicago), as well as law school administrators (like Georgetown Law’s public service dean Barbara Moulton and Temple Law School’s dean JoAnne Epps) who have public interest backgrounds and now promote those careers for students.  We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to former PSLawNet Fellow Katie Dilks, the founding co-editor of the Blog, and to all of the other public interest bloggers (see our Blogroll at right) who work diligently to keep our community informed and connected.

Second, we want to highlight some of the content you’ll be seeing in 2011.  The PSLawNet Blog covers two separate but overlapping content areas: general news coming from the public interest community, as well as resources for finding and landing public interest jobs.  To those ends, here’s what will appear regularly on the Blog: 

• The PSLawNet Jobs Report will run every Monday.  The Report – like this one posted yesterday – will offer updates on the number of new listings posted on PSLawNet, feature one or two really attractive listings among the new ones, and highlight one of the dozens of career resources which are freely available on PSLawNet.
• The PSLawNet Public Interest News Bulletin will run every Friday.  The Bulletin – like this one posted last week – summarizes public interest news stories from legal and non-legal media throughout the country.  (Why is keeping up with this news important for law students and recent grads?  It will help you immensely when networking and interviewing for jobs.  A job candidate who’s aware of recent developments in a certain field and who has a contextual knowledge of how that field works and who the primary actors are will be memorable to interviewers.)
• Our Expert Opinion series isn’t missing a beat.  Look out for a blog post on job-search strategic planning this week, and a post on networking tips next week.
• In addition to these three running features, we’re going to ramp up our posting of news stories, event announcements, and job resources during the week so that the blog has even more consistent, robust content offerings.

Thanks for reading, and please let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see on the PSLawNet Blog.  Happy 2011!

– Steve Grumm and Meredith Flowe

From an email circulated today: 

James J. Sandman, a former longtime Managing Partner at the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP and the current General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer for the District of Columbia Public Schools, has been selected as the next President of the Legal Services Corporation, Board Chairman John G. Levi announced today.

Here’s the full announcement from the LSC website.  The PSLawNet Blog has had the good fortune to work with folks at Arnold & Porter, Mr. Sandman’s old firm, on a number of pro bono/public interest-related  projects.  From this, we know that Mr. Sandman’s reputation as an advocate for public interest law and for promoting access to justice could not be stronger.

And here’s a little more coverage from the Blog of the Legal Times.

NOTE: the PSLawNet Blog will skip next week’s Bulletin so that we can finish our Christmas shopping and have a little sip of the egg nog.  The Bulletin will return on Friday, December 30th.  Happy holidays, cats and kittens!

This week: a Tarheel State law school launches a new clinic; New York’s chief judge takes a pragmatic approach in appealing for increased legal services funding; a shady former legal services employee gets time in the clink for skimming funds; Yale Law School’s veterans clinic goes to (legal) war with the Department of Defense – twice!; mandatory pro bono in Mississippi(?); promoting diversity in the federal workforce; a public defense shakeup in San Bernardino, CA; geeks raise money for legal services; some appreciation for the retiring ED of Rappahannock Legal Services; the continuing importance of the DOJ’s access to justice program; a pro bono up-tick in Las Vegas; and, Ropes & Gray’s deferred associates return to the firm following one-year public service placements.

• 12.16.10 – the Greensboro News & Record reports that the Elon University School of Law is stepping in to provide legal services to immigrants and refugees in the wake of a long-time provider’s discontinuance of services.  Students  and law professors involved with Elon’s Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic “will assist clients in applying for political asylum, permanent residency, citizenship and employment authorization, as well as reunifying families separated by war and conflict.”  The clinic is launching as Lutheran Family Services, on account of poor economic conditions, is discontinuing legal services to the immigrant/refugee community.  Here’s our blog coverage of these developments from yesterday.

• 12.15.10 – the Rochester City Newspaper reports on New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman’s efforts to better fund legal services providers in the Empire State.  “Last month, New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman released a report that recommends doubling the funding for New York’s low-income legal-service providers over a period of four years. He’s including a $25-million increase in his proposed 2011-12 budget, which state legislators will have to approve. New York’s legal service providers receive $200 million a year, some from the state, some from the federal government, and from other sources … What makes the judge’s report compelling…is that it focuses on the benefit to institutions and taxpayers. It doesn’t just reiterate the many important benefits to clients.  The report says that New York loses an estimated $400 million annually because state residents have difficulty collecting federal funds for which they are eligible, including disability payments and veterans’ benefits. State and local governments, and ultimately taxpayers, end up paying for that, the report says.”

• 12.15.10 – We’re not sure whether to feel satisfied or nauseated at this news.  The Washington Examiner reports that the “former chief of finance for the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau will serve two-and-a-half years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from the nonprofit.” Benjamin King served as MLAB’s chief financial officer for 20 years.  A little more than 10 years ago, he and an accomplice (who was not with MLAB) started skimming funds from MLAB’s coffers through inflated office supply invoices.  Yuck.  (Here, also, is more detailed coverage of the scheme and King’s sentencing from the Loansafe.org website.)

Keep reading . . .

The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law sponsors an annual essay competition “to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law.”

This year’s topic is:  The Rights of Children and International Human Rights Law. Competition participants may focus their writing on any subject related to this topic.

There will be two awards granted, one for the best article submitted in English and one for the best article submitted in Spanish.  Award recipients will receive:

• a scholarship to the Program of Advanced Studies in Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law
• travel expenses to Washington, D.C.
• housing provided in university dorms
• a per diem for living expenses.

Further, the best articles may be published in the American University International Law Review.  Visit the Academy’s website for eligibility and requirements.

This week: a controversial testing method for an NYC homelessness prevention program; TARP funds to prop up corporate interests, but not legal services for low-income homeowners?; the Skadden Fellowship Class of 2011 contains 29 budding public interest attorneys; funding calamity averted for D.C. legal services programs; will we lose more local/state government jobs in the recession’s wake?; significant changes in how NYC indigent defense cases are assigned to counsel; an Innocence Project report sees widespread prosecutorial misconduct in California; the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at inefficiencies in the local criminal courts.

• 12.9.10 – in the New York Times, we look at a controversial social welfare program evaluation tool.  Borrowing an idea from the medical research arena, the City is essentially denying a homelessness prevention program’s assistance to half of a group of “test subjects” (who are actual people on the verge of homelessness), while giving assistance to the other half.  By doing so, the City will learn how effective the program – called Homebase – really is.  Given what’s at stake though – the welfare of families in crisis – many local public interest advocates have voiced concerns.  On the other hand, the piece notes that “randomized controlled trials” are increasingly used by philanthropies and governments because of their value in answering fundamental questions about social programs’ effectiveness.  And, due to funding shortages the program at issue in NYC is not able to serve all applicants anyway, so the net number of applicants denied is not actually rising as a result of the study.

• 12.9.10 – writing in The Nation, liberal commentator Katrina Vanden Heuvel laments that the Department of the Treasury, relying on an interpretation of current statutory authority, opposes the future use of some TARP funds by states to support civil legal aid for homeowners in distress.  There are pieces of legislation in the House and Senate, respectively, which would explicitly authorize states to channel TARP funding toward legal aid.

• 12.7.10 – The new class of Skadden Fellows has been announced.  Twenty-nine fellowships were awarded to students hailing from 21 law schools.  Four schools have multiple awards: Harvard (5), Michigan (2), Penn (2), and Stanford (3).  The 18 schools which have one Class-of-2011 fellow are a fairly varied bunch, including: Arkansas, Boston College, CUNY, Texas, UVA, and Widener.  Based upon our analysis of the past four annual classes, there has been increasing breadth and diversity with respect to the schools producing Skadden Fellows.  See our recent blog post containing comparative numbers for the classes of 2010, 2009, and 2008.

Keep reading . . .

The new class of Skadden Fellows has been announced.  Twenty-nine fellowships were awarded to students hailing from 21 law schools.  Four schools have multiple awards: Harvard (5), Michigan (2), Penn (2), and Stanford (3).  The 18 schools which have one Class-of-2011 fellow are a fairly varied bunch, including: Arkansas, Boston College, CUNY, Texas, UVA, and Widener.

For a little bit of context, the Class of 2010 (last year’s class) consisted of 27 fellows from 20 law schools.  The 2009 class conisted of 28 fellows from 14 schools.  And 36 fellows from 16 schools comprised the Class of 2008.  We don’t have time to look back further – although info on past classes is available via the above link – but based upon the past 4 years we’re seeing more diversity and breadth with respect to the schools from which fellows graduate.

Congrats Class-of-2011 Skadden Fellows!!!  Good luck!!!  

From some rebellious types at Yale Law School, here’s information on a terrific, upcoming event that brings together public-interest minded law students, attorneys, activists, academics, and rodeo clowns (last one’s not true) from parts hither and yon. It’s a great way to make new contacts and explore career options, as well as to gain invaluable knowledge about the challenges and opportunities facing public interest lawyers these days. With no further ado…. it’s RebLaw!!!

Hello Rebel!

You are invited to the 17th Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference, which will take place on the weekend of February 18-20, 2011. Last year, we brought over 700 practitioners, law students, and community activists to New Haven to discuss progressive strategies for social change within and without the law, and we’re excited to do it again! We will be posting descriptions of panels and workshops on our website and will continue to update with speakers and schedule information as it becomes available. Please visit: http://www.yale.edu/reblaw/

We also invite you to check out our blog, where we’ll be posting information and updates about the conference: http://blogs.law.yale.edu/blogs/reblaw/

Registration is now open on the website. When you register, you’ll be able to sign up receive FREE HOUSING for the weekend in New Haven on the spare beds, couches and floors of local friendly, rebellious law students. Questions? Please contact rebellious.law.questions@gmail.com

Good stuff.  We now conclude this post with some theme-appropriate sonic rebellion, courtesy of Social Distortion.

Legal Language Services is sponsoring an immigration writing contest for law school students.  From their website:

Law school students: Are you studying immigration law? Have you noticed any trends in US or international immigration? Legal Language wants to hear what you think!

Submit an unpublished article on legal issues that affect immigration in the United States and/or abroad. Articles should reflect recent developments in immigration, bring forth new ideas about the subject or introduce a discussion.

Articles should be between 500 and 1,000 words and written for an audience of legal professionals. The articles will be judged on subject matter treatment, scholarship and analysis.

The winner will be awarded a $500.00 cash award and two runners-up will receive $100.00 cash awards. The winning articles as well as a number of additional articles receiving honorable mention will be posted on the Legal Language Services website.

The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2011.  Visit their website for full details and rules of eligibility.

Were you glued to coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill this past spring/summer? . . .  Are you burning to combine your love for 24/7 media coverage and legal research and writing?  It might just be your lucky day . . . The topic for Public Justice’s 2011 Hogan/Smoger Access to Justice Essay Contest is “The Gulf Oil Spill:  Who Are the Victims and How Do They Get Compensated?”

Any student currently enrolled in an accredited American law school may submit a legal essay for the competition.

The author of the winning essay will receive a $5,000 cash prize; recognition  in the Public Justice newsletter and on the website;  publication of the essay in the Vermont Law School’s online Journal of Environmental Law; and a free Public Justice Foundation membership for the Contest Year.

Each entry must be submitted through a faculty adviser.  All entrants must submit an INTENT TO ENTER FORM by January 31, 2011.   The deadline for the essay is March 31, 2011. A panel of nationally renowned trial lawyers and law professors will judge the entries.

Visit Public Justice’s website for complete contest rules and criteria.

The Celebration of Pro Bono continues with highlights from the pro bono activities organized by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service at Suffolk University Law School to commemorate the ABA sponsored second annual National Pro Bono Celebration.

Today the Rappaport Center is sponsoring a Criminal Record Sealing Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services.  Massachusetts keeps criminal offender record information, known as “CORI,” on every individual who enters the state’s criminal court system. CORI is recorded and kept on file even if the underlying case is ultimately dismissed or the accused is found not guilty. CORI is used in screening processes by employers, landlords, and government agencies. The increased use of CORI by employers and others has resulted in more and more people with criminal records being denied employment, housing, benefits, and other opportunities for economic stability that others take for granted.

During the Criminal Record Sealing Clinic, law student volunteers will meet with clients to answer CORI questions and provide information on how to get a copy of a CORI and how to seal a CORI.  The students attended a training earlier in the week and will be supervised by attorneys from Greater Boston Legal Services and the Legal Advocacy and Resource Center.

On Saturday, Suffolk Law students will participate in foreclosure prevention canvassing in Chelsea.  The foreclosure crisis is predominantly affecting Boston’s low and moderate-income neighborhoods, with minorities and single women as its most common victims. After foreclosure auctions, banks take ownership of the homes and evict everyone living there, whether they are owners or renters, even if everyone tries to continue to pay a fair rent to the bank.

The Rappaport Center, the Student Bar Association, the No One Leaves Project, and the Chelsea Collaborative are partnering to train students and then hit the streets of Chelsea to inform tenants and former owners of foreclosed properties that they have rights and may stay in their homes.

For a full schedule of this week’s events visit the official 2010 Celebration of Pro Bono site.