Looking for the latest public interest law conferences, career fairs and events? PSJD has got you covered!

We just updated our Public Interest Career Fair and Events Calendar – look for upcoming dates in bold. The two most recently added events are the Washington Council of Lawyers’ “Meet the Jolly Good Fellows: Tips on Public Interest Fellowships from Current & Former Fellows” coming up on March 18th, and “Career Paths for Young Attorneys in the Energy Sector,” an April event hosted by the LSU Law Center and the Institute for Energy Law (IEL).

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to post to the PSJD Events Calendar? If so, we’d be happy to help! Just shoot us an email to psjd@nalp.org with the details.

Click the link to view a flyer for the University of Baltimore Law School’s Alternative Spring Break!

Any law student can volunteer. The program runs from March 16-19th, 2014. Every day, students will work with a basic human right – the right to housing, the right to food and water, the right to representation, and the right to work.

For more info, view the posting on PSJD or contact Emily C. Rogers at ERogers@ubalt.edu.

Want to spend your spring break brushing up on your lit skills? The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia has got you covered:

The Black Law Students Association Alumni Committee of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia is pleased to present the 2014 Spring Break Criminal Defense Trial Practice Institute (Institute).  The Institute seeks to help students cultivate effective trial advocacy skills and explore indigent criminal defense work.  The program consists of a week of workshops on how to conduct opening statements, direct examinations, cross examinations, and closing arguments.  In addition, students will learn how to develop theories of defense, master the rules of evidence, and impeach witnesses at trial.  At the end of the program, students will participate in full-length mock trials presided over by Superior Court judges.

The Institute will be held March 10 – March 14, 2014.  The program is free of charge to students, although students are expected to provide their own transportation and lodging.

To apply, students must be a member of the school’s Black Law Students Association and commit to the entire program. Students should submit their applications electronically by clicking the link under the ‘events’ tab of the PDS website, www.pdsdc.org  The deadline to submit  applications is Friday, February 26, 2014.

If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Thomas, the Legal Recruiting Director, at JenThomas@pdsdc.org. Good luck!

Photo by Catharine Skipp, Miami Law Everitas

The University of Miami School of Law recently launched an 8-part series exploring the legal and practical implications of the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act.

From Miami Law’s Everitas:

The post-DOMA legal landscape is complex and raises many new and puzzling questions and problems that lawyers will be asked to address and resolve. The discussions are intended to serve as a venue for faculty, practitioners, judges, and students to collaboratively explore the important and rapidly evolving set of social and legal issues.

…

Each session will be led by a host and co-taught by a panel comprised of academics and practitioners with subject matter expertise.

Participants for upcoming discussions include: Judges Judith Rubenstein, Marc K. Leban, and Scott Berstein from the 11^th Judicial Circuit of Florida; and attorneys Theodore H. Uno from Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP, and Richard C. Milstein, Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson.

In addition to the University of Miami School of Law and Miami Law’s OUTLaw, the discussions are sponsored by the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association. The conversations have been made available to students for credit or audit and are open to practitioners.

Click here to read more!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

Look no further – we’ve got your step-by-step instructions, including screenshots, right here!

First things first: Head over to PSJD.org’s Resource Center by clicking the link in the header of the site.

(Click the screenshot to enlarge.)

It’s a good idea to log-in now, because you’ll need access to all the fellowships later!

The new Fellowship Deadline Calendar will be the last link in the Postgraduate Fellowships section of PSJD’s Resource Center. If you really, really like our old list of deadlines and just hate calendars, you can always click the link above it to get to the previous version:

After you click the link, you will see PSJD’s new Fellowship Deadline Calendar! At first, it may look like this:

This is called a Grid View. You can change this by clicking Calendar View, right under the gray Search Fellowships bar and right above the Search Results.

Your Calendar View will look like this:

You can filter all the results you see in the grid or calendar by using the gray Search Fellowships bar:

This bar will be your command center while searching for postgraduate fellowships. You can filter results by date range, fellowship type, and deadline type. There’s also an option to limit your results by Favorites! Here’s a breakdown of what you see:

Date Range: You have two ways to filter the date range of PSJD’s postgrad fellowships – by deadline, and by the date it was posted on PSJD. This is really helpful if you’re only looking for fellowships you need to apply for right now, or if you’re only looking for fellowships that were recently posted so you can get a head start on the application.

Fellowship Type: Each fellowship is posted under a category. When filtering your results, hover over the question mark next to the name of the fellowship type to get more information on what types of opportunities are listed for each:

Deadline Type: Fellowships have different types of deadlines – some may be rolling until filled, and others may be in the spring, fall or summer. Job-seekers can also view fellowships archived on PSJD with past deadlines.

You may see an entry on your Calendar View that has a plus sign and a number next to it, like this:

Depending on how you filtered your search results, this +3 just means there are 3 other fellowships that were posted on that day, or have a deadline that falls on that day.

If you’re interested in any of the fellowships you see, just click the name for application info – it’s hyperlinked right to the PSJD posting.

Got more questions about the new PSJD Fellowship Deadline Calendar? Shoot me an email at AMatthews@nalp.org or give the PSJD office a call at (202) 296-0076. We’re happy to help you navigate this new feature!

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

Equal Justice Works (EJW) has been working on an initiative to help law students bridge the justice gap while gaining practical skills and hands-on experience. They’re calling it Law Students for Pro Bono, and hundreds of law students, recent law grads and lawyers have already joined in on the campaign.

From the Law Students for Pro Bono site:

The ABA should amend Proposed Interpretation 303-2 to include an aspirational goal for all law schools to promote student participation in at least 50 hours of pro bono service during law school that can be fulfilled in a wide range of activities, including pro bono legal services, credit-bearing clinics, summer public interest internships, and externships that help under-served communities.

Earlier today, I sat down with EJW’s executive director David Stern to talk about the petition. David explained the inspiration for this initiative, why pro bono is important to everyone in law school including those who want to work for private firms, and what this could mean for the public interest job market.

Given the dearth of access to justice, this initiative is necessary to make sure we meet the legal needs of vulnerable populations who need help the most. The deadline to sign is this Friday, January 31, 2014.

Have you searched postgraduate fellowships on PSJD and wished you could see them on a calendar?  We’ve listened to your requests, and are excited to announce the Calendar is here!  Check out it and all the other great postgraduate fellowship resources in the Resource Center on PSJD.  Stay tuned for How-To’s on this convenient new resource coming later today!

Humanity in Action is now accepting applications for their 4-week Diplomacy and Diversity Fellowship!

The Fellowship, which is open to all master’s, doctorate, MD, JD and MBA students, is an educational program for 24 American and European graduate students about the changing international dynamics of diplomacy and diversity. From the website’s overview:

In Washington, DC and Paris, the Fellows will explore how American and European governments and societies are responding to a wide range of international and national diversity issues. The program’s guiding mission is to increase awareness of the importance of diversity in diplomacy and other international fields and to encourage the careers of professionals from minority backgrounds in foreign affairs.  The four-week program will take place from May 17 to June 14, 2014.

The deadline to apply is January 31, 2014. Click here for application information.

From PR.com:

Albany Law School’s Government Law Center has launched the blog Law, Innovation and Entrepreneurship to enrich New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with informative, accessible posts on such topics as forming a business, intellectual property and trademarks.

“One of the Government Law Center’s priorities is focusing on economic development and the law to help launch new ventures, bolster existing companies and create new jobs throughout the region and across the state,” said GLC Director Ray Brescia. “Through the Law, Innovation and Entrepreneurship blog, we will provide the business community with a steady stream of useful legal information.”
The blog will be maintained by GLC Staff Attorney Emily Ekland, who also works on the center’s Legal Handbook for Early Stage Business and white paper series on entrepreneurship, alternative energy systems and business startup issues.

Click here to read the full press release.

by Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow

If you’re going to the Equal Justice Works Conference this weekend, this is one conversation you don’t want to miss!

Tomorrow, meet me at @PSJDTweets on Twitter as I chat with reps from Equal Justice Works (@EJW_org in Twitter speak). We’ll be talking about everything a law student or recent law grad needs to know to be prepared for the networking, interviewing and workshop events happening on Friday, 10/15 and Saturday, 10/26.

Are you wondering just what is a “Table Talk”? Still trying to figure out what clothes to pack? Interested in learning about the workshops on pursuing a public interest career? We’ll be answering all these questions and more tomorrow – just follow us @PSJDTweets, or search for the hashtags #PSJDChat and #EJWCCF to send questions to our panelists.

Here are the deets:

Who: PSJD and Equal Justice Works

What: #PSJDChat with reps from EJW, answering all your questions about the 2013 Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair (#EJWCCF)

When:Tuesday, 10/22/2013, 5pm

Where:Twitter.com, of course!

If you can’t make it, no worries – we’ll save the tweets and sum everything up for you on our Storify page. Hope to see you all at the EJW Conference this weekend!