Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has many openings for Civil Rights Trial Attorneys with bar certification and at least one year of professional legal experience with litigation. (If you’ve done litigation in a clinic, ask your career advisor whether you can count that experience on your application.) If you’re interested, you’ll need to act fast. The deadline for applications is 11:59pm TOMORROW.

The job post on PSJD is here, but to since you’ll need to apply through USAJobs anyway here are the direct links:

Two vacancies in Las Vegas NV: https://my.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/388435700

Five vacancies in Phoenix AZ, St. Louis MO, Buffalo NY, and New York NY: https://my.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/388434900

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

The US Court of Appeals is seeking “highly qualified” attorneys to join the Legal Division of its Office of the Clerk for a permanent, full-time appointment (after a one year probationary period). However, the position qualifications indicate that “highly qualified” individuals may include recent grads with impressive student resumes.

Interested? Check out the complete job post on PSJD. The application has a rolling deadline.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

According to its mission statement, the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem is a “holistic public defense practice.” Among other things, this means that “when [their] clients face collateral consequences with their employment, school, or in family, housing or in immigration court, NDS strives to help our clients solve those issues.” According to their recent job post on PSJD, this civil aspect of NDS’ practice is growing. (No wonder: according to National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction, there are over 1200 potential collateral consequences in New York State.)

In order to protect their clients from these civil consequences of criminal convictions and criminal accusations, NDS is looking for a supervising attorney for their civil team.  They need someone with managerial experience who’s spend at least five years representing clients or supervising representations in civil legal proceedings, with at least three years working with housing and/or benefits law in particular.

Interested? Check out NDS’ complete post on PSJD. (Application deadline December 31.)

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you’re a criminal defender with significant experience with capital cases and you’re looking for a chance to have a systemic impact on your profession, the NACDL has a challenge for you. They’re currently accepting proposals from individuals with ideas about how to provide technical assistance to capital defense teams and state grantees and also coordinate at least two bring-your-own-case national training programs. The successful proposal will land its author an independent contractor position, based in Washington DC.

If you’re intrigued, the full post on PSJD has much more detail about what the organization is looking for. You’ll need to work fast, though–the deadline is 5pm E.S.T. on December 8th.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you’re interested in labor or employment law, you probably already know that the AFL-CIO’s fellowship applications were due last month and the SEIU deadline passed this Monday. If you didn’t, you’ve missed out on two opportunities, but here comes one more: also on Monday, the National Educational Association posted notice that they are looking for three (3!) fellows to join their organization next year.

Check out the full post on PSJD.

Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow 2014 – 2015
Anna Black, VP, Public Interest Law Society – Nova Southeastern University

NSU Law students Geoffrey Langbart, Sophia Mitchell, and Anna Black (left to right) with more than 10,000 cans collected at this year’s “Canned Immunity” drive.
Photo: NSU Publications & Special Events

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope all our readers are able to take a break tomorrow, relax with family or friends, and get to the heart of whatever this particular holiday might mean for each of you. Before the PSJD staff go off to our own celebrations, we wanted to recognize the efforts of some of our member schools, who have been working hard in recent weeks to serve their communities and help make this holiday possible for low-income families. Last week, we asked our member schools and firms what pro bono and community service work they were doing in relation to Thanksgiving. Many law campuses organize community service efforts around the holiday, but here are the ones you told us about:

Western Michigan University Cooley Law School’s Ann Arbor campus has packed and distributed 100 full Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in the Ann Arbor community as part of its annual Thanksgiving outreach program. Wayne State University Law School, also in Michigan, collected 300 pounds of canned goods and non-perishables to help feed Detroit area families. Their partner in the drive was Gleaners food bank, but Barbri also pitched in, offering $25 off its student content to 1Ls who participated. However, it’s Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center, in Fort Lauderdale Florida, that’s truly suffused donation incentives into the law school experience. Anna Black, an NSU Law 2L and Vice President of their Public Interest Law Society, wrote us to explain how:

Every year in preparation for Thanksgiving, NSU Shepard Broad Law Center’s Public Interest Law Society (“PILS”) in collaboration with the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity, organizes a highly successful weeklong event called “Canned Immunity.” Canned Immunity is a collaborative effort that aims to ensure those who are currently fighting hunger in our community are well fed this Thanksgiving holiday. The entire week before Thanksgiving, PILS conducts a school-wide drive for canned and other non-perishable food items.

The annual drive always receives a high volume of donations thanks to both the generosity of the law student body and the method by which the weeklong event operates. PILS convinces professors to offer their students certain incentives for bringing in donations, including “immunity” from being called on in class that day or the option of selecting another student to act as “co-counsel” to help discuss a case or topic. These incentives encourage students to donate more and more often throughout the week. PILS also competitively tracks the donations, keeping students and faculty apprised of which sections and professors have donated the most. Last year, PILS collected over 12,000 cans during Canned Immunity Week. This year, we hope to collect even more. [Editor’s note: This year, the event collected over 10,000 cans. According to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the average can of food weighs almost a pound. That’s over 9,376 pounds of food!] Everything collected during the week is donated to Feeding South Florida, a local food bank.

So thank you, Cooley, Wayne State, and NSU for doing such good work. Thank you Charles Toy, Diane Fears, and Jennifer Gordon & Jennifer Jarema, for taking the time to let us know what each of your respective schools have been up to. (Cooley, Wayne State, and NSU all just made the PSJD Honor Roll for November.) And to all the law students and lawyers who took time this week or this month to make your communities a better place, we at PSJD are most thankful for you.

Enjoy your holiday!

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you’re a law student or a recent grad looking for your first policy experience, you may want to act fast. FlyersRights, a consumer advocacy organization, is looking to fill two internships and a one-year staff attorney position specifically for a recent law graduate. The organization has been around since 2006, working on behalf of airline travelers. Among their legislative successes is a federal statute requiring airlines to allow stranded passengers to disembark from planes after 3 hours on the ground.

FlyersRights’ post on PSJD is eye-catching for the care it takes to describe how working with the organization would allow legal newcomers to grow their legislative advocacy skillset:

The person we are looking to hire for one year would be a staff attorney (or as a legal analyst if the person has yet been admitted to the bar) under my primary supervision. The person would receive substantial training in public interest advocacy and law, including research and drafting of administrative rulemaking petitions, legislation, Congressional testimony and legislative memos and policy papers, amicus brief writing, as well as non-legal writing and advocacy.

If you know you want to do policy work, you should consider letting FlyersRights show you how it’s done. Check out the full post on PSJD.

If you’re interested, it’ll cost you a weekend: the Application Deadline is Sunday, November 23rd.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

Those of you with a few years of experience under your belts and an interest in community economic development may want to consider going private. Winston & Strawn–one of US News’ Law Firms of the Year for Bankruptcy, Creditor/Debtor Rights, and Insolvency and Reorganization Law–recently advertised on PJSD. The firm is looking for an attorney to work out of New York City, managing its pro bono practice. The majority of your time would be pro bono; the firm expects its Pro Bono Practice Attorney to log a minimum of 1750 pro bono hours. You would be working with employees at all levels (from paralegals to partners) throughout the firm, supporting and facilitating attorney involvement in nonprofit corporate and community development efforts.

So, if you have several years of experience in nonprofit corporate law and an interest in moving to large law firm pro bono, check out the full posting at PSJD. (Application Deadline: Jan 1, 2015)

Progressive Lawyer is a new digital hub connecting lawyers and law students with socially progressive organizations and law firms active in social justice and public interest advocacy.  This week, I had a chance to speak with Mark Boudreau about PSJD and how it connects the public sector community.  They had a great conversation with Appleseed last week, and look to be doing some wonderful work in bringing information to the public sector.  Check out the PSJD article and this new resource for bringing the community together.

We are very pleased to announce the 2014 Pro Bono Publico Award Winner: Alex Dutton from Temple University Beasley School of Law.  This year we selected 6 finalists and then had to choose a winner from a VERY competitive pool.  It was so tough, we’ve also selected two Merit Distinction recipients as well.  All three will be guest bloggers for the PSJD Blog.

In addition, we will be presenting Alex with his award (and his $1,000) at Temple.  I look forward to meeting him, his family, and all those who helped him create the Youth Court Program at Strawberry Mansion High School.

Here is the full announcement, with all the great finalists.  We are so grateful to them for their incredible work!!!

This prestigious award honors one law student nationwide for their pro bono contributions to society, and recognizes the significant contributions that law students make to underserved populations, the public interest community, and legal education through public service work.

WINNER

Alex Dutton

Temple University Beasley School of Law

In 2012, as a 1L, Alex volunteered to assist with Philadelphia’s first Youth Court, located at Strawberry Mansion High School—the only high school on the Philadelphia School District’s list of “persistently dangerous schools. Youth Court initiatives are exercises in restorative justice, using positive peer pressure to reshape student behavior and interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by providing an alternative to suspension for students who commit minor offenses. Philadelphia’s new program had significant expertise behind it: it was backed by the US Attorney’s Office and run by Mr. Greg Volz, a seasoned practitioner who had already implemented Youth Courts successfully elsewhere. Even among such company, Alex distinguished himself by teaching as much as he learned. In order to reach students overtly distrustful of anyone associated with the criminal justice system, he convinced his supervisor to set aside the Court manual temporarily and meet with students in small groups so the students could take the lead and educate the program staff and volunteers about their lives and their values. (Alex later added to the manual and helped create new curricula.) Alex’s involvement with the program has continued throughout his law school career, as he has successfully attracted other law students from all six Philadelphia region law schools to support the city’s burgeoning Youth Court programs.

In his letter of recommendation, Mr. Volz summarized best the impact of Alex’s contribution to the Youth Court program and to the Philadelphia community: “Alex[‘s] efforts have sparked a potential paradigm shift in law school pro bono activity and shown how youth courts help disadvantaged youth help themselves.” 

MERIT DISTINCTION

Shannon Johnson

Boston College Law School

Shannon is a multi-talented advocate single-mindedly dedicated to immigrant youth—a group whose concerns she has been addressing in one way or another since she first encountered them at age 18. As the inaugural student in Boston College Law School’s hybrid crimmigration clinic, she assisted her clinical supervisors as they developed the program into an official course at Boston College. Shannon’s recommenders focused on her ability to adapt her strategy and tactics to the idiosyncrasies of a wide range of legal fora and to the changing wishes and circumstances of her clients. They speak of her “enormous respect” for her clients, and her “incredible ability” to understand their complicated lives and serve them in a holistic fashion. In addition to her work helping develop Boston College Law’s new clinical program, Shannon partnered with the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project to create a pro bono project in which law students of all levels represent detained non-citizens requesting releases on bond.

Alexander Gamez

Southwestern Law School

Alexander leads by example. As a 2L, he recruited 50 other students (an unprecedented number) to consistently volunteer as part of the Children’s Deportation Defense Project (CDDP), a pro bono program he founded in collaboration with the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project. Esperanza attorneys have been able to screen five times as many children in sessions in which they have the CDDP’s help. Alexander is himself the CDDP’s most prolific volunteer. Without Alexander’s personal and structural contributions to their work, Ms. Carolina Garza De Luna, Esperanza’s Pro Bono Coordinator believes her organization “would not have been able to respond to the surge of demand for legal screenings for unaccompanied alien children.” Alexander also heads Southwestern Law School’s chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, through which he trained and recruited many students to participate in the NLG’s new Immigration Court Watch Program. The NLG’s Mr. James Lafferty believes that Southwestern owes its status as one of the Guild’s most active chapters in the L.A. area to Alexander’s “inspirational leadership.”

Alexander best expressed the source of his own inspiration: “My parents went through all of the hurdles of obtaining legal status and eventually obtained US citizenship. Now, although people can still question their immigration status, they cannot, however, take it away from them…Each of my clients has had a profound effect on my legal capacity to assist others and my attitude towards life by giving me a newfound appreciation on what it means to live without the constant fear of being taken away at [any] second.”

OTHER FINALISTS

Matt Brooks, Boston College Law School.

Revived Boston College’s chapter of the Foreclosure Taskforce. Created a housing search workshop for Greater Boston Legal Services.

Katherine Collins, California Western School of Law

Worked over 500 hours of uncredited, unpaid pro bono service for Human Rights Watch.

Kristine Cruz, SMU Dedman School of Law [Nominated by Mosaic Family Services]

Went beyond the terms of her internship to design training materials for legal interns and pro bono attorneys, resulting in large-scale, systemic impact on Mosaic’s work.