Equal Justice Works’s live webinars 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.

Current sessions include:

• How to Pay Your Bills AND Your Student Loans: Utilizing Income-Based Repayment – Thursday, July 12, 3-4 p.m. EDT: Saddled with high student debt? This webinar reviews Income-Based Repayment, a powerful provision of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that allows anyone with high debt relative to their income to reduce their federal student loan payments. This interactive webinar will teach you:
  • How to understand your federal loans
  • How Income-Based Repayment works and if it is right for you
  • How to sign up for Income-Based Repayment
•  Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness – Thursday, July 26, 3-4 p.m. EDT  For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.  You will learn about:
  • The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans
  • What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness
  • How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday Summer, dear readers.

credit: securefutures.us

The summer solstice occurred on Wednesday evening.  As if on cue, a week in DC that began at 70 degrees and rainy is ending at 95 degrees and infuriatingly humid.  Hurrah, or whatever.

Seeking comfort in northern climes, I’m about to leave for some business in Ottawa City.  My hosts have asked for a briefing about the public interest legal job market here in the U.S.  That’ll be a lot of fun news to deliver: legal services layoffs, layoffs on the state and local levels.  Etc.

But some good news emerged during my research.  Intrepid PSLawNet intern Maria Hibbard looked at the change in the number of federal attorney jobs from 2007-11.  Lo and behold, the number has increased.  In September, 2007, there were 29,845 positions classified as “General Attorney” in the executive branch agencies.  The figure has grown steadily, and in September 2011 there were 35,614.  If you need proof, here’s a table.  And we all know that tables on the Internet are always unassailable proof of the proposition asserted.  (The data is available on the Fedscope database.)   

Completely unrelated: it’s been a good week for history buffs.  A lot of old came back to be new(s).

• Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in which led to the downfall of the Nixon presidency and the rise of Woodstein-style investigative journalism.  (Imagine: without Watergate, there may be no Anderson Cooper 360.  And where would we be then, people?)
• June 18 marked the 62nd anniversary of Winston Churchill’s – he the savior of Britain and cigar-chomping curmudgeon – famous Finest Hour Speech.  (Yeah I know a 62nd anniversary is not a huge deal but I heard about it on BBC so let’s just pretend it’s a round number.)
• And even further back – I’ll let you do the math – the War of 1812 broke out on June 18.  This war was confusing and draws little attention in popular history circles.  But it did provide us with very hard-to-sing national anthem.  Ever tried?  If you have you’d cut Carl Lewis a break.   

The week in short:

• A little pushback on the state AG’s decision to give $1m to Legal Aid of West Virginia
• In Illinois, neither the state AG nor the Cook County (Chicago) state’s attorney will enforce the state’s gay marriage ban;
• $32 million in grants to California DAs’ offices to fight insurance fraud;
• The DC Bar Foundation awards $685K in grants, down from last year b/c they didn’t draw from reserve funding;
• Court fee boost will fund public defense in Louisiana;
• Back to Illinois: maybe some salary boosts for prosecutors & defenders in suburban Chicago;
• Good legal services funding news in the Old Line State;
• Cleaning up a public defense program in PA;
• There’s such a place as Sarpy County, Nebraska, and its public defenders are getting a raise;
• (Kudos x 4) to the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School;
• Legal Aid of NW Texas is using technology to cover a geographically huge service area;
• In short supply: Louisiana lawyers certified to defend capital cases;
• Legal Services of New Jersey’s attention-grabbing report about the Garden State’s justice gap;
• Washington State’s high court lays out caseload limits for defenders;
• Filing fee increases in Connecticut will benefit legal services providers;
• A PA county judge rules that the defender’s office must be better funded (partly b/c of an ACLU lawsuit);
• NPR looks at the funding shortages facing civil legal services programs (quote from LSC prez Jim Sandman);
• An op-ed calls for more state funding for legal services in Massachusetts;
• A pro bono record in the Treasure State (and my memory of driving along the Gallatin River);
• Washington State loosens rules to allow non-lawyers to do some legal work;
• LSC’s draft strategic plan is open for public comment (tip of cap to Richard Zorza for this).
• Groovin’ musical bonus.

The summaries:

• 6.21.12 – In West Virginia, there’s been a little bit of pushback on state attorney general Darrell McGraw’s decision to divert $1m of the state’s national foreclosure settlement share to Legal Aid of West Virginia.  Some have argued that the decision about how to use the funds is the province of the legislature.  The A.G.’s office says that the federal court which apportioned the settlement funds provided some direction as to their use.  (Story in the West Virginia Record.)

• 6.21.12 – “Twenty-five Illinois couples were prepared for a long legal fight when they joined lawsuits challenging the state’s ban on gay marriage. Turns out they won’t get one — at least not from the attorneys who would normally be responsible for defending the state’s laws.  Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have refused to defend the 16-year-old ban, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, saying it violates the state constitution’s equal protection clause.  The decision has raised eyebrows among some legal experts who believe prosecutors are legally bound to defend Illinois law, and sets up a scenario where a judge could quickly strike down the marriage statute.” (Here’s the full AP story, which fleshes out the arguments on both sides.)

• 6.21.12 – “The California Department of Insurance announced $5.9 million in grant money today to help the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office investigate and prosecute workers’ compensation insurance fraud.  The Orange County District Attorney will receive $3.6 million as part of $32 million in grants awarded statewide by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.”  (Full story in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.)

• 6.20.12 – good news: the DC Bar Foundation awarded $685,000 in grants to legal services providers.  Bad news: this was off by about 30% from last year, and the Foundation had to stop dipping into reserve funds to bolster its annual disbursement.  Katia Garrett and her colleagues at the DCBF are great people, and like folks at a lot of bar foundations they’ve done the best they can with miserable IOLTA revenue figures.  Tough times.  (Story from the Blog of the Legal Times.)

• 6.20.12 – we covered the Louisiana indigent defense funding boost last week, but this article in The Town Talk adds more detail: “Lawmakers are funneling more money into public defenders’ offices, keeping some from shuttering the programs that provide lawyers to those who can’t afford their own.  A bill by Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, will increase criminal court fees by $10 in most district courts to help shoulder the costs of defense attorneys who are required by law.  Louisiana Public Defender Board chairman Frank Neuner estimates the increase could bring in as much as $7 million a year.”

• 6.20.12 – a push for higher defender and prosecutor salaries in suburban Chicago.  “Kane County Public Defender Kelli Childress said this week she plans to ask the county board next month for raises for her staff.  Last week, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said he wants raises for his prosecutors, who have been in a salary freeze since 2008.  Childress and McMahon are tired of seeing their young talent leave to work in surrounding counties that pay more…. Childress said assistant public defenders in her office have a starting yearly salary of $39,399, and 2007 was the last time her entire staff received a raise.  McMahon wants the county board to boost starting pay for prosecutors from $40,000 a year to $53,000 a year, a move he says will make Kane competitive with starting salaries in other counties.  Childress also plans to ask the county to increase assistant public defender pay to around $53,000, but she wants the raises to be implemented in phases…”  (Story from the Daily Herald.)

• 6.19.12 – some good legal services funding news from the Old Line State. Courtesy of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation the “…[Maryland] Legal Aid Bureau got $850,000 over two years, for free legal services and educational material for low-income adults.” (Story from Bmore Media.)

• 6.18.12 – in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington State, ACLU lawsuits targeting allegedly weak indigent defense programs have caused change, as states have considered providing more indigent defense funding and/or establishing caseload limits to avoid overburdening defenders.  Allegheny County, PA, of which Pittsburgh is the county seat, is one of two PA counties where ACLU action prompted change.  This Tribune piece profiles new county public defender Elliot Howsie, who seems quite comfortable with the idea of shaking things up to improve the office.  

• 6.18.12 – some healthy competition is leading to bumps in public defender pay in a few Nebraska counties: “County governments are facing tight budgets and revenue shortages, but they still want to show their lawyers some love.  Back in April, the Douglas County Board approved $455,000 in pay raises for assistant public defenders and deputy county attorneys. Board members said the increases were needed to keep pace with salary levels in Sarpy and Lancaster Counties and to retain good lawyers.  Now Sarpy County is answering with pay hikes of its own.  And officials in Douglas County, with larger staffs of attorneys on both the prosecution and defense side, are watching.  Salaries for Sarpy public defenders will jump by 7 percent in the new budget year.”  (Story from the Omaha World-Herald.)

• 6.18.12 – since 2008, the Exoneration Project of the University of Chicago Law School has aided in the release of four wrongfully convicted inmates.  “[A]bout a dozen students each quarter participate in the…Exoneration Project, a clinic that gives students hands-on experience representing prisoners seeking post-conviction relief. Students do it all — from voting on which cases the clinic should accept to writing briefs to standing before a judge — under the supervision of experienced, licensed attorneys.”  (Story from the University of Chicago News Service.  Well, tooting our own horns a bit, eh, University of Chicago? JKLOL!)

• 6.18.12 – using technology to serve a huge swath of Texas.  “Legal Aid of Northwest Texas has been approved for a grant of $22,550 by the Texas Bar Foundation. The grant is for a project designed to improve the delivery of legal services to low-income Texans. The Pro Bono Mobility Project will allow pro bono staff to offer “virtual” legal assistance at legal clinics throughout the agency’s 114-county service area. ‘This project will allow our clinic staff and private attorney volunteers the ability to create, scan and print documents from even the remotest of locations,’ said Jane Fritz, director of Pro Bono and Bar Relations.” (Story from the Amarillo Globe-News.)

• 6.17.12 – there’s a dearth of Lousiana lawyers who are certified to handle capital cases.  “The shortage of death penalty-certified attorneys and the lack of adequate defense funding means even more delays for death-penalty cases, which already take years to come to trial, says Mike Mitchell, chief public defender with the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defenders.”  But the head of the state’s district attorneys’ association thinks that the fuss about a representation crisis is really a tactic toward ending capital punishment.  Story from The Advocate.

• 6.17.12 – Legal Services of New Jersey has released its 2012 report on access to justice in the Garden State.  (Here’s a link to the report, New Jersey’s Civil Legal Assistance Gap…)  As noted in The Record, the gap exists not only because of increased client need, but decreased resources for LSNJ: “Essentially, as the extent of poverty in New Jersey has reached its highest level in at least 30 years, the opportunity for the poor to get free legal help from funding-squeezed Legal Services and other organizations has narrowed. Overall funding for New Jersey’s Legal Services programs has dropped from $72 million in 2008 to $44.7 million today. That includes the state budget appropriation being reduced from $29.6 million in the 2008 fiscal year to $14.9 million currently.  The funding reductions have led to Legal Services’ total staffing going from 720 in 2007 down to 415 at the beginning of this year. That includes a crucial loss of 130 attorneys.”
  • A Philly Inquirer editorial laments the situation, endorses a court filing-fee increase to generate funding for LSNJ, an calls upon the private bar to do more.  
  • A Record editorial supports in increased state appropriation and more private bar support. “An entire stratum of American society is left to muddle through [legal processes] that very literally could mean the difference between life and death, as Legal Services notes in its report. This is not justice. 
  • And here’s a column from The Record explaining that charitable donations from the private sector haven’t been of much aid to LSNJ as its state appropriation and IOLTA funding have dwindled.

• 6.16.12 – Big news from Washington State: “For the first time, the state Supreme Court is setting limits on the number of cases public defenders can handle — an effort to improve the quality of legal representation for some of the 200,000 poor people prosecuted in the state every year, but one that could increase costs to local governments at a time of tight budgets.  By a vote of 7-2, the justices said lawyers who represent indigent defendants generally should handle no more than 150 felony cases per year, or 300 to 400 misdemeanor cases, and even fewer when the cases are complex. The caseload standards will take effect in September 2013.”  (Here’s Seattle Times coverage, and here’s Peninsula Daily News coverage.)  

• 6.16.12 – “Connecticut is increasing court filing fees in certain civil and family cases, a change intended to raise extra money to help the state’s [legal services programs].  Legal aid to the poor has taken huge hits across the country because a main source of revenue, interest from lawyers’ trust accounts, dried up amid the recession and low interest rates…. In Connecticut, trust account interest revenue for legal aid for the poor plummeted from $20 million in 2008 to only $1 million this year, according to the Connecticut Bar Foundation, which administers funding for the state’s legal aid programs. The result has been reductions to staff and services at the three legal aid providers in the state.” (Here’s Stamford Advocate coverage, and here’s AP coverage.) 

• 6.16.12 – in Pennsylvania, “[a] senior county judge ruled Friday that Luzerne County must provide adequate funding to the public defender’s office. Five full-time vacancies will be filled, more office space will be set aside, and more employees are expected to be hired.”  This comes in the wake of lawsuit which filed by the ACLU and county public defender to compel the county for more support.  (Story from the Pocono Record.)

• 6.15.12 – NPR looks at impact of funding shortages plaguing civil legal services programs: ” ‘The legal services system in the United States today is in a state of crisis,’ says Jim Sandman, president of the national Legal Services Corp., which gives money to 135 aid programs all over the country.  The traditional funding streams, from Congress and state governments, are under attack. Aside from government dollars, there’s another important source of financing for legal aid: interest that collects on trust accounts that lawyers set up for their clients. But because of record low interest rates, that money has hit record lows, too.  Over the past couple of years, Sandman estimates, more than 1,200 people who work for legal aid programs — 1 in 7 — have lost their jobs. Offices in rural Arkansas and North Carolina have closed outright. But Sandman says more than 60 million people now qualify for civil legal aid.  (Here’s the NPR story.)

• 6.15.12 – in the Bay State, an op-ed from former legal aid lawyer and current law professor Justine Dunlap argues for more state funding for legal services: “The Massachusetts Legislature is currently considering how much to allocate to Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, which helps fund organizations like South Coastal Counties Legal Services. The House budget recommended $12 million while the Senate recommended $11.5 million; those differences are now being worked out in the Legislative Conference Committee. It is important that the commonwealth adopt the higher of these two numbers and pass a budget of $12 million for MLAC for fiscal year 2013.”  (Here’s the piece 0n South Coast Today’s website.)

• 6.15.12 –  “[a] report by the Montana Supreme Court and the State Bar of Montana said more than 2,000 Montana attorneys contributed more than 150,000 hours of free legal services to low-income Montanans last year. The value of that work is nearly $20 million.  That’s an increase of nearly 9,000 hours from 2010 and 38,000 hours from 2009.”  The 2011 tally is an all-time record in the Treasure State.  (Story from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.)
  • personal aside: one of my life’s most peaceful experiences occurred while driving out of Yellowstone Park and north into Montana.  Just after dawn, and after being caught in the equivalent of a Yellowstone rush hour – dozens of bison crossing the road – I left through the park’s west exit and paralleled the Gallatin River on a state highway, winding through gorgeous pine forests.  I didn’t see another car for miles.  Just myself, a newly risen sun, the occasional deer, and Son Volt’s Trace in my tape deck.  Three months later I started law school and became the cynical, curmudgeon-in-training that I am today. Heh.

• 6.15.12 – “With a goal of making legal help more accessible to the public, the Washington Supreme Court has adopted APR 28, entitled “Limited Practice Rule for Limited License Technicians”. The rule will allow non-lawyers with certain levels of training to provide technical help on simple legal matters effective September 1, 2012…. Under the new rule, persons who are trained and authorized by a newly-established Limited License Legal Technician Board will be able to provide technical help to the public on civil cases.”  The announcement from the Washington Courtsincludes some detail on what kinds of work non-lawyers will be doing.

• 6.14.12 – the Legal Services Corporation has opened up a draft, 5-year strategic plan for notice and comment from the public.  So take notice and get your comment on! (Tip of cap to Richard Zorza, from whose Access to Justice Blog I picked this up.)

And now some seasonally appropriate music from my hometown.

By: Steve Grumm

The Washington Council of Lawyers, which is a public interest bar association here in DC, is welcoming summer law interns/associates to the District with a happy hour at Science Club on 6/27.  Festivities start at 6:30pm.  Registration info and other details are here.  It will be a great networking opportunity for public-interest minded law students (whether you’re working in public interest or not).  Aside from other students, a number of Council board members – including yours truly – will be there.  Come on out and join us.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Some miscellany before getting into access-to-justice news:

• Needless to say this week’s huge legal story involves the lawsuit against the Phillie Phanatic, in which it’s alleged that the Phillies mascot carried his antics too far by throwing a party reveler into a swimming pool.  (The pool did have water in it, so presumably things could’ve been worse.)
• Both Florida’s and California’s high courts this week looked into the question of whether an undocumented immigrant may receive a license to practice law in those respective jurisdictions.  Here’s coverage from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
• Sign of the fiscal times from New Jersey: “Recognizing that Lawrence Township would receive an additional $2.5 million in municipal taxes this year if nonprofit organizations were required to pay taxes, township officials plan to ask for “voluntary contributions” from these tax-exempt groups. The [t]ownship administration and council are in the process of drafting a letter that will be sent out to tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations in the township seeking “voluntary contributions” in lieu of the municipal taxes these groups do not pay.”  (Full article from the Lawrenceville Patch.)

As for public interest news, its’ been a busy week:

• an AtJ commission formed in Illinois;
• LSC funding cuts will wreak havoc in Puerto Rico;
• the need for reform in Michigan’s indigent defense program;
• pro bono patent work;
• a Chicago law school gets HUD funding to smite housing discrimination;
• Legal Aid of W. Virginia gets desperately needing funding from state AG;
• bad news for the Public Defender Corps;
• prosecutor layoffs in Sacramento?;
• access-to-justice bonanza in the Treasure State;
• 5 tips for fixing the civil justice system;
• a Wake Forest Law clinic promotes rural economic development;
• Alaska Legal Services Corporation opens its 11th office;
• business is booming in an Oklahoma veterans court;
• the June edition of LSC Update;
• civil Gideon in San Fran.

This week:

• 6.14.12 – an access-to-justice commission in Illinois: “The Illinois Supreme Court announced Wednesday the formation of a commission to remove barriers and increase the ease of interacting with courts by those persons who can’t afford lawyers to represent their interests and needs.  It will be known as the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission and is made up of 11 persons, seven of whom are appointed by the Supreme Court. The Illinois Bar Foundation, the Chicago Bar Foundation the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois and the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation appoint one member each.” (Full story from the Aledo Times Record.)

• 6.14.12 – “Puerto Rico’s Legal Services office faces $5 million in federal budget cuts next year, a reduction that officials say will force attorneys to drop thousands of civil cases in this U.S. territory where nearly half the people live in poverty.  The budget cuts are occurring at a national level, but the 32 percent decrease announced for Puerto Rico is the largest compared to cuts facing U.S. states, executive director Charles Hey Maestre said Thursday. He added that the funds being cut represent a fourth of the organization’s budget.”  (Story from WTOP.)

• 6.14.12 – will Michigan’s long-troubled indigent defense system finally be reformed?  NPR takes a look.

• 6.13.12 – transactional pro bono is no longer a new thing, but there has been a recent upsurge in pro bono patent work done on behalf of DIY inventors.   Full story in the National Law Journal.

• 6.12.12 – bad news for Chicagoans who like housing discrimination: “The John Marshall Law School in Chicago is receiving more than $1 million in funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that will help maintain its Fair Housing Legal Clinic, Fair Lending/Home Preservation Law Project and its Fair Housing Internship Program to train college students in fair housing law and investigations.  The funding of the three programs is divided into a three-year grant of nearly $840,000 to underwrite the work of the Clinic; a $97,100 grant for the law school’s ongoing Fair Lending/ Home Preservation Law Project; and $99,800 that is allowing the law school to continue its groundbreaking fair housing law course and internship for college students.”  (Full press release here.)

• 6.12.12 – “Attorney General Darrell McGraw announced Tuesday that his office has secured $1 million in funding for the beleaguered Legal Aid of West Virginia, which had to lay off 12 case handlers and consider shuttering its Logan and Mingo County office because of budget cuts last year. McGraw said in an afternoon news conference at the Chief Logan Conference Center in Logan that the $1 million will help keep the office open for the next three years. The money comes from a small portion of a massive national mortgage settlement that the attorney general’s consumer protection division reached earlier this year, which netted more than $33 million for West Virginia consumers affected by foreclosure abuse from large banks.”  (Full story from the Charleston Gazette.)

• 6.11.12 – a rotten development for the Public Defender Corps: “Equal Justice Works and The Southern Public Defender Training Center have recently learned that the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, will not provide funding for the Public Defender Corps program in 2012-2013 and beyond. As such, the application process for the Public Defender Corps class of 2013 will not open on July 6 as previously planned.  We are actively seeking alternative funding sources for the program. We recommend that you periodically check our website for updates.”  (Message from the Equal Justice Works’ website.)

• 6.11.12 – a risk of prosecutor layoffs in Sacramento: “District Attorney Jan Scully says she’s made cuts to close a budget gap, but will have to lay off 8 staffers including 4 attorneys unless she gets an additional $2.1 million dollars from the Board. She says prosecutors will concentrate their efforts on felony cases in which suspects pose a danger to citizens. Scully’s office has already backed off on prosecuting certain drug and property crimes and she may raise the threshold on prosecutions.” (Story from Fox 40.)

• 6.11.12 – good news from the Treasure State: “the Montana Supreme Court has taken a pair of steps designed to increase the availability of lawyers and other resources for people who cannot afford them, responding to a nationwide drop in funding for legal aid programs and a rise in recent years in the number of people arguing their cases “pro se,” or without professional legal representation.  May 22, in a 5-1 decision, the high court launched an appellate “pro bono” program, effective July 1, with a mission to create an online database of attorneys and law students who will volunteer to help self-represented parties in appeals before the Montana Supreme Court. The court also unanimously agreed to establish an 18-member Commission on Access to Justice to advise the court on the needs of low-income people and their business interests in the justice system.”  (Story from the Helena Independent Record.)

• 6.11.12 – the director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, Rebecca Love Kourlis, offers five steps for fixing the civil justice system.  (Full post on The Atlantic website.)  

• 6.11.12 – Wake Forest Law’s Community Law and Business Clinic offers students meaningful transactional experience while promoting economic development in rural areas.  (Story in the Winston Salem Journal.)

• 6.10.12 – Alaska Legal Services Corporation’s newly opened Barrow office is the organization’s 11th location in the state.  I wonder if they can see Russia from there.  (Story in the Arctic Sounder.)

• 6.10.12 – business is booming at the Oklahoma County veterans diversionary court. Story from The Oklahoman.  

• 6.8.12 – the June edition of “LSC Update” recaps funding news, LSC personnel changes, and a Washington Council of Lawyers report on the state of legal services funding nationally. 

• June, 2012 – a piece in the California Lawyer looks at San Francisco’s experiment with a civil right to counsel.  My colleague Maria did a write-up on this earlier this week.

Let’s close out with music.  I am a child of the 80s.  This means a lot of things as regards my musical tastes, some of which are more defensible than others.  One thing that happened is that, while riding around in the back of the family station wagon, I heard lots of songs that were at the time called “oldies.”  To my young ears the oldies broke into two groups: horrendous music from the 50s and amazing music from the 60s.  Included in this latter group was Motown, which for my money is one of the most moving, soul-stirring genres in the history of American music.  I have my dad to thank for that wonderful introduction.  And this Four Tops song has long been a favorite.

Our friends at Equal Justice Works are putting on a student debt webinar later this month.

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

Thursday, June 28, 3 – 4:15 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

EJW hosts webinars like this every month  that provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Yakima, Washington! (courtesy: eagle cap communications)

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  I’ve largely tuned out of non-legal news coverage this week.  The weather in DC – no humidity and plenty of sun – has been awfully seductive.  And things around the office have kept me occupied.  But one of my favorite weekly rituals is to rise around 4:30 on Friday mornings to enjoy the quiet predawn, go for a run, and catch up on news I’ve missed.  It’s a sort of relaxing beginning to the end of the week. 

So having looked at the news, the two big political items have been the presidential race taking form – both in terms of fundraising and messaging – and of course the Wisconsin recall election.  I do not underestimate how difficult and divisive are the times in which we live.  Pressures in the economy, the workplace, and the home will pull at our social fabric.  But it has still surprised me to see Wisconsinites so bitterly divided over the past several months.  (In my view, the recall’s real outcome has less to do with Gov. Walker retaining his post and more to do with the cloud of long-term uncertainty looming over unions.)

As for the recall itself, what a weird bit of business.  While dozens of local and state officials have been recalled throughout U.S. history, only two governors have.  Of course the infamous one that everybody remembers is the……1921 recall of Gov. Lynn Frazier of N. Dakota.  He was a popular guy but the agricultural economy went south and he got booted.  Then there was that other one from America’s beautiful, wondrous loony bin – California.  In that one The Terminator ousted Gray Davis to save Cal-eeee-for-knee-yaa from itself.

Oh, and speaking of California, it’s June and they’re still playing hockey in Los Angeles to determine the NHL’s Stanley Cup winner.  June.  Los Angeles.  C’mon now.  Shorten up the playoffs, NHL.

I’ll segue into public interest news with news of the broader legal economy.  NALP just put out employment data for the graduating law school class of 2011.  Not rosy.  View some data points and analysis here.  Two items worth highlighting:

• The overall employment rate for this cohort was 85.6%, which is the lowest since 1994.  But more alarming is this: [O]f those graduates for whom employment was known, only 65.4% obtained a job for which bar passage is required. This figure has fallen over 9 percentage points just since 2008—when it was 74.7%—and is the lowest percentage NALP has ever measured.

• The figures in the public service arena have been relatively static.  But one must remember that the greater number of law-school funded “fellowships” and bridge programs which place grads in public service positions factors into these data.  And this report measures the percentage of grads going into different types of jobs, not how many jobs there are all told.  Anecdotally we’ve all seen cuts in public service jobs.

Okay, this week in short:

• Florida’s high court hears arguments about whether overly burdened public defenders can limit caseloads;
• the CBS law department’s successful, wide-ranging pro bono program;
• IOLTA disbursement in the Hawkeye State;
• county budgets & weighty criminal dockets & prosecutorial discretion – it’s a tough mixture;
• NALP research shows that public interest lawyers took greater advantage of clinical programs while in school, relative to law firm attorneys;
• DOJ promotes AtJ on the international stage;
• some long-form reporting on LSC’s funding history;
• great legal services funding news from the Empire State;
• Oklahoma City School of Law put DOJ anti-domestic-violence funds to use;
• an Illinois attorney license fee bump will benefit legal services providers;
• foundation funding to support public interest scholarship programs at U. of Minnesota Law;
• huzzah, Illinois Legal Aid Online!;
• discussion of the NY 50-hour pro bono rule continues.
• BONUS MUSICAL TREAT! for those who read all the way to the bottom.  Or just see this and scroll to the bottom.  It’s a loophole.

The summaries:

• 6.7.12 – from the Miami Herald: “Grappling with whether poor people are getting adequate representation, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday about whether the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office should be able to decline to take cases because of overwork. The dispute raises constitutional questions about the quality of representation provided to criminal defendants and the relationship between the courts system and the Legislature. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office and a statewide group of prosecutors have fought the Miami-Dade public defender’s attempts to decline to take certain types of felony cases.”
  • More coverage from the Associated Press.
  • And here’s a Tampa Bay Times editorial published before the arguments. “What’s needed are objective workload standards for public defenders that set manageable limits. Florida’s high court should allow public defender offices to decline new appointments when caseloads exceed reasonable limits, pushing the Legislature to provide the necessary resources. A new workload study will soon be conducted through the Florida Public Defender Association with money appropriated in 2012 by the Legislature.  In the meantime, the justices have a responsibility to ensure that public defenders are not so overwhelmed that poor defendants receive an attorney in name only.
  • And a little more from the Orlando Sentinel. 

• 6.7.12 – here’s an informative interview with the CBS Law Department’s bigwigs about their corporate pro bono program, which was started in 2006 and has since grown considerably in breadth and depth.  (From the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel.)

• 6.7.12 – the Iowa Supreme Court has made IOLTA fund disbursements, splitting $232,000 among 14 organizations.  (Short story from KCRG.)

• 6.7.12 – here’s an interesting piece that highlights how concerns of budgeting and efficiency affect county criminal justice systems.  A recent report out of Yakima, WA is critical of the county prosecutor’s policy of taking so many cases to trial.  Fully 82% of the county’s general funds have been going to courts and law enforcement.  The report also dismissed the idea of doing away with the county’s public defense program, noting that mix of full-time defenders and assigned counsel seems to work efficiently in Yakima.  (Story from the Yakima Herald-Republic.)
  • The reason you got a picture of Yakima atop this week’s bulletin is because I spent some time there before law school.  Some of my fondest hiking memories involve hiking the Cascade foothills in Eastern Washington. 

• 6.6.12 – “Law firm leaders have made it clear in recent years that they want to hire “practice-ready” associates, but government and public interest lawyers are more likely than associates to take advantage of clinics and other so-called experiential learning while in law school.  A survey of lawyers in a variety of jobs conducted by NALP…reached that conclusion regarding clinics, externships, practical skills courses and pro bono work.  Nearly 56 percent of the responding public-service attorneys said they had participated in a clinic during law school, compared to slightly more than 30 percent of law firm associates.”  Full story from the National Law Journal.

• 6.6.12 – DOJ is promoting AtJ on the international stage.  From the Dep’t. of Justice’s blog: “Recognizing that criminal legal aid – or indigent defense – “is an essential element of a fair, humane and efficient criminal justice system that is based on the rule of law,” the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (the UN Crime Commission) adopted the first international principles and guidelines on indigent defense at its recently concluded 21^st session.  The United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems affirm the importance of legal aid at all stages of the criminal justice system.”  The U.S. was one of the cosponsors pushing this initiative through.  

• 6.6.12 – here’s a thoroughly reported article exploring the up-and-down history of LSC funding, including look at how much of a political football LSC has become in spite of its straightforward mission to advocate for those on society’s margins: “At first glance, it appears that the LSC’s current budget is marginally higher than it was in 1981: a total of $348 million in this fiscal year versus $321 million back then. But this comparison fails to take into account either inflation or the increasing number of people who are eligible for services. Even if the number of those eligible for services had remained constant, Congress would have had to appropriate $812 million this year to account for inflation over the past three decades.  In view of the fact that the number of people eligible for LSC-funded services had, by 2010, grown to more than 60 million from just under 43 million, the inflation-adjusted and eligible-population equivalent to 1981 services would require a budget of at least $1.1 billion (in fact, the LSC estimates, an additional 5 million people have been eligible for services since 2010, which would mean that a 1981-equivalent budget would need to be in excess of $1.2 billion). Thus, that ostensible 8 percent increase over 31 years represents in real terms a cut of between 69 and 71 percent.”  (Full story on the Remapping Debate website.)

• 6.6.12 – some great legal services funding news from the Empire State: “Nonprofit groups that provide free civil legal services to low-income people in New York have received twice the state funding they were awarded last year, state court administrators said.  At the request of Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, state lawmakers this year doubled to $25 million total funding for the programs, court administrators announced on Tuesday. The programs have lost millions of dollars in federal and local funding over the last few years.”  (Story from Thomson Reuters.)

• 6.6.12 – great use of DOJ funds by the Oklahoma City School of Law: “The Native American Legal Resource Center (NALRC) housed at Oklahoma City University School of Law, in partnership with the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, is using a $450,000 grant from the Grants to Indian Tribal Governments Program to assist victims of sexual assault in southwest Oklahoma.  The law school received the grant from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.  With the grant funds, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) examination equipment has been purchased and placed in hospitals in Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties to assist law enforcement with the collection of evidence in sexual assault cases.  Previously, victims would have to travel hours to be examined by a sexual assault nurse.”  Full announcement from OKC School of Law. 

• 6.6.12 – an attorney license fee increase in Illinois may not rub every member of the bar the right way, but it will generate desperately needed funding for legal services providers: “Attorneys will now have to pay an additional $53 a year to practice law in Illinois…. The state high court this week announced the rule change…. Under the amended rule that took effective Tuesday, the annual attorney registration fee jumped from $289 to $342. The court has earmarked the $53 hike for The Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois (LTF), a nonprofit foundation that awards grants to some of the state’s civil legal aid providers…. The Lawyers Trust Fund has been hit hard in recent years as the tough economy has forced banks to reduce the amount of interest they pay out on pooled trust funds. The court said in its press release that in 2008, LTF received about $17 million in interest from the trust accounts it administers, but expects to get only about $2.7 million this year.”  (Story from the Madison Record.)

• 6.5.12 – some great news for the U. of Minnesota’s Law School’s public interest students: “The University of Minnesota Law School has established a public-interest scholarship program with a $3.5 million donation from the Robina Foundation. The school announced the gift on June 4, saying the program will assist students interested in public-interest law careers from the time they enroll to when they enter the job market. The Robina Public Interest Scholars Program will combine elements of existing programs at other law schools into one, including scholarships; financial support for summer public-interest projects and post-graduate fellowships at public interest organizations; and loan repayment assistance.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.) 

• 6.4.12 – kudos to Illinois Legal Aid Online: “A decade ago a small group of Chicago attorneys mapped out plans on a bar napkin to deliver Internet-based legal services to the poor. Today, 2.5 million people access Illinois Legal Aid Online’s statewide websites, mobile apps and community-based self-help centers when a lawyer is out of reach.”  (Read more via the Skokie Review.)

• 6.2.12 -and how could I go a full week without mentioning the New York 50 pro bono hour rule?  Last week the New York Times solicited reader input on about the rule’s propriety and effectiveness.  Sentiment was most favorable toward the rule, but some interesting points were made on both side.  Check it out here. 

If you’re made it to the bottom of this week’s rather robust – if not meandering – bulletin, you deserve a treat.  Here’s a song from punk rock outfit Bouncing Souls that speaks to me about staying true to my principles as a public interest lawyer.

By: Maria Hibbard

The National Law Journal has released a special report highlighting innovation in the law school classroom—law students and professors looking at the law in new ways, developing practical applications and real-world solutions. Among the programs highlighted:

• Even if mandatory pro bono doesn’t take effect in New York or elsewhere, students at Arizona State will still get valuable practical experience at a low cost to clients—through the creation of a non-profit law firm inside the Arizona State law school, set to run by 2013. The firm would allow recent grads of ASU to rotate through practice areas for a set amount of time.
• Some lawyers may still prefer to research using textbooks and registers, but students in a class at Georgetown University Law Center are making apps that provide practical advice—via smartphone applications—for avoiding copyright infringement, finding out if you have citizenship status, and figuring out the laws concerning same-sex marriage and civil unions.
• Students at University of Pennsylvania Law School are making documentaries and exploring a new method of legal advocacy—in a legal world run by reading and writing, this visual type of advocacy may possibly be a welcome change.
• Two professors—Neil Siegel of Duke Law and Robert D. Cooter of UC Berkeley School of Law—have collaborated to develop the theory of “collective action federalism,” a novel way of interpreting Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to prove the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Since I’m still recovering from my 4-hour constitutional law final debating this very topic, I was happy to read about their innovation—potentially, their ideas might lead to decisions in Congress.
• Luke Bierman, associate dean for experiential education at Northeastern University, writes about an alliance of educators focused on building the modern law school: “This group of legal educators is committed to educating students to hit the ground running, with experience helping clients, collaborating with colleagues, resolving disputes, facing adversaries, drafting documents and interacting with judges, so that these lawyers are ready to solve legal challenges right away.”

In a day where law schools are frequently criticized for teaching methods and structures that are ineffective and out-of-date, it’s encouraging to read about new methods of research and teaching that will hopefully better equip future lawyers. What about your law school? What could you do?

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  And happy June.  June is the sunniest month, at least for those of us living on the Earth’s northern half.  Speaking of where we are, I am in motion – aboard an Amtrak train and destined for my hometown of Philly.  I’m in Maryland now.  This state’s beauty is sadly unheralded.  To cross the bridges spanning the Chesapeake Bay tributaries just after sunrise is to observe a wonderful bit of scenery.  And the City of Baltimore is like Philly’s cool little brother, except with crabs.  There has to be a better way to phrase that.

Shortly I’ll be at the Philadelphia Bar Association, where I’ll have the pleasure of speaking with a group of law students about maximizing their summer public interest experiences.  Later I’ll join my childhood friends Billy and Sean – neighborhood riff-raff like myself – to watch the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise reel in the Marlins of Miami.  (If you think it’s bad that we call a grown man by his yesteryear nickname of Billy, imagine how bad it is for our friend Stinky.  He’s a medical doctor these days.  He really wishes we’d call him Duane.)

As you know I focus mainly on access-to-justice developments in this newsletter.  I feel strongly, though, that the AtJ community must itself monitor happenings in the law-firm world, especially those affecting the “business of law.”  So I commend to you this incisive AmLaw article by Professor Bill Henderson.  He uses this week’s demise of the storied law firm Dewey & Leboeuf to explore how large law firms must quickly rework their business models lest they risk running themselves into the ground.  (You may be required to register to read the piece; a trial registration should be free.)  Also, every Friday NALP’s executive director Jim Leipold produces a terrific legal industry digest that you may access here.

On to our news:         

This week:

• Upside: the U.S. has a strong civil justice system. Downside: poor people don’t get to use it
• The New York State Bar’s incoming president is a legal aid leader
• Student loan debt is a real big problem
• Maine’s got some King-size indigent defense funding problems
• More debate around the 50-hour pro bono requirement for admission to practice in New York
• A veteran PA children’s rights advocate moves into retirement
• Merck’s in-house team has launched a pro bono project to serve vets in need
• The Northern District of Alabama is finally going to host some federal defenders
• A great new report out of Illinois about the economic benefits generated by civil legal aid

The summaries:

• 6.1.12 – an ABA Journal piece covers one of the central access-to-justice dilemmas in the U.S.: “Two recent studies provide news good and bad for the U.S. legal system. The good: The United States’ civil legal system is one of the best in the world, according to the results of the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2011.  And the bad? According to this same study, millions of Americans can’t use this fine system because they can’t afford it. They have legal rights—to child support, Medicare benefits or protection against an improper home foreclosure—but they find these rights meaningless because they can’t enforce them….  A plethora of government and volunteer programs provide free legal aid, but they are overstretched…. To make matters worse, the system for providing free legal services is a mess. There is “an enormous diversity of programs and provision models with very little coordination at either the state or the national level,” according to Access Across America, a 2011 report (PDF) authored by Rebecca L. Sandefur and Aaron C. Smyth and funded in large part by the American Bar Foundation.”

• 5.31.12 – a legal aid leader takes the helm of the New York State Bar.  “Seymour W. James, Jr. of Brooklyn, a 38-year veteran of The Legal Aid Society of New York, assumes office on June 1 as the 115th president of the New York State Bar Association….  James is the attorney-in-charge of the criminal practice for The Legal Aid Society, which provides criminal and civil legal services for low-income individuals in New York City.  The theme for his presidency is “making a difference” with an emphasis on access to justice.”  (Story from realMedia.)

• 5.30-31.12 – the PBS Newshour aired a two-part report on the increasing crisis of skyrocketing educational debt-loads being carried by higher-ed grads, including law students.  Indeed, part two contained a lot of content about the plight of law grads.
  • Here’s part one: “The State of Student Loans: More Debts, More Defaults, More Problems”
  • Here’s part two: “Student Loan Debt: To Pay or Not to Pay”

• 5.30.12 – “Maine’s Commission on Indigent Legal Services, which provides lawyers for criminal defendants who can’t afford their own, gets inadequate funding every year. Its budget for this fiscal year recently bottomed out, and it will not be sufficient to pay lawyers for the month of June. They will be paid at the start of the new fiscal year in July, but dwindling funds are an ongoing problem.”  Thanks for the (bad) news, Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

• 5.30.11 – debate continues around the new 50-hour pro bono requirement for admission to practice law in New York.  In the New York Times, David Udell of the National Center for Access to Justice at Cardozo Law defends the initiative as one that is not overly burdensome on law students and that could have great outcomes for students and clients.  (I believe that the devil remains in the details – e.g. will work satisfying the definition of “pro bono” for a law school’s internal program count toward the requirement if that work does not meet New York’s definition? – but I generally agree with David.  More importantly: what do you think? The Times writes: “We invite readers to respond to this letter for the Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Mr. Udell’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail: letters@nytimes.com.”
  • And here, from Bloomberg, is a nice summary of the key considerations driving the debate.

• 5.29.12 – we bid “Happy Trails” to a veteran, Pennsylvania-based children’s advocate.  From the Philadelphia Inquirer:  “Shelly Yanoff, a longtime champion of children’s causes, will step down this fall from her role as head of the nonprofit Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the organization’s board of directors announced yesterday.”  The Inquirer did a Q&A with Yanoff which captured her thoughts on what her job had taught her: “That people can respond to the needs of kids. That there are many different ways to get to a good result and that nothing ever stays done. You have to keep at it.”

• 5.29.11 – when pharmaceutical giant Merck began supporting veterans support group Community of Hope, Merck’s in-house lawyers “…realized that they could provide services through their substantial pro bono program that would be as helpful if not moreso than the checks their company was writing to support Community of Hope. Thus was born the Hope for Veterans Program.”  Read about it in the Huffington Post.

• 5.28.12 – some federal court news: the Northern District of Alabama finally has some full-time federal defenders.  From Al.com: “North Alabama’s first crew of federal public defenders, working out of Birmingham and Huntsville, in August will begin defending indigent clients charged with crimes…. The district is one of only four federal court districts out of 94 nationwide that don’t [presently] have some form of federal public defender’s office.”

• 5.24.12 – this may even cause my friend Bob Glaves to forget about the misery of the Chicago Cubs for a bit.  The Chicago Bar Foundation was one of a few stakeholders involved in producing “Legal Aid in Illinois: Selected Social and Economic Benefits.”  This report does a wonderful job of exposing the concrete, financial benefits that inure to Illinois’s population at large because of the work that legal aid organizations do to keep families in their homes, stop domestic abuse, secure government benefits, and obtain child support for clients.  This is the so-called “business case” for legal aid, and this report makes a strong one.  Here’s the report and an accompanying press release.

Finally, this being graduation season, I leave you with the transcript of this commencement speech by Professor Lawrence Lessig.  In it, he emphasizes that if lawyers are stewards for the rule of law and for meaningful access to justice, then we must not make it a priority to serve moneyed interests at the expense of society at large – particularly our society’s most vulnerable members.  I think 90% of commencement speeches are hot air – bromides strung together lazily so as to offend no one and congratulate everyone.  This one resonates with me, though.  Happy June.  Enjoy the sun

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Earlier this week I participated in a one-day conference focused on the role of New York State’s 15 law schools in addressing the civil justice gap.  Much discussion centered on the recent announcement by NY Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman that 50 hours of pro bono service will be required for admission to practice law in New York.  Most of this blog’s readers will have been aware of how much buzz this announcement has generated.  Ink has been spilled.  Articles and opinion pieces have run in legal and mainstream media.  The old debate about making volunteer service mandatory has been revived. 

Letting alone the “mandatory v. voluntary” policy debate, I think this requirement will prove fairly easy to satisfy.  Pro bono performed in law school satisfies the requirement.  Fifty hours of pro bono over three years is just less than 17 hours per year.  Frankly, that’s easy for any law student.  That said, there are two noteworthy considerations:

1. There will be some burden on law schools (both inside and outside of NY State) to make sure worthwhile pro bono opportunities exist for their students.  Two of the law school deans who attended this week’s program made the point over and over that pro bono also has to mesh with law school’s larger mission of training tomorrow’s lawyers.  So pro bono programs should be efficiently administered, and should offer skill-development chances for students.
2. The pro bono work itself must effectively serve client communities.  And public interest law offices should not be overly burdened in offering pro bono opportunities for students.              

But given that so many schools already have some infrastructure in place for student pro bono, I think the 50-hour requirement will not be too much of a burden on students, schools, or the public interest community.

This week:

• more on NY State’s 50-hour pro bono requirement;
• $300K in grant funding divided among NV legal services providers (and my thoughts on the Las Vegas bachelor party);
• mandatory pro bono in the Caymans;
• addressing legal needs long after Hurricane Irene struck NC;
• fewer death sentences in Ohio, tracking a national trend;
• tracking wrongful convictions nationally;
• for reasons of efficiency and expediency, an early intervention court program for nonviolent offenders in one county courthouse;
• the justice gap, and legal services funding shortages, in Cleveland;
• a 2012 law grad on why he’s chosen a career in indigent defense (hint: it’s not the money);
• a special master appointed in the PA lawsuit over an underfunded indigent defense program;
• one Maryland prosecutor, under the weight of an overwhelming caseload, is pushing hard for $ to hire new attorneys.

The summaries:

• 5.24.12 – more on the recent announcement in NY State about requiring 50 pro bono hours from all bar license applicants.  While the larger policy debate about mandatory vs. voluntary pro bono will continue both in the context of this announcement and more broadly, New York’s top jurist is moving into the implementation stage: “Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman yesterday announced the creation of an advisory committee that will make recommendations on how to implement a new pro bono service requirement set to become a prerequisite in 2013 for admission to the New York bar.”  (Story from Corporate Counsel.)  And here’s more coverage from the New York Law Journal and the Lower Hudson Blog. 

• 5.23.12 – in Nevada, the state bar is divvying up about $300K in grant money among legal services providers.  (Story from KLAS in Las Vegas.)  As a personal aside, I have never told you about the bachelor party I attended in Las Vegas last year.  There are many good reasons for this.  Suffice to say I am still angry with the erstwhile bachelor for deciding that, at 35 years of age, we’d be able to contend with Las Vegas’s many attractions and excitements.  We were not.  The Vegas bachelor/ette party is a young person’s game.  What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas if “soul-crushing physical exhaustion” can be said to happen in Vegas.  Rather, soul-crushing physical exhaustion flies home on the plane with you and stays in your place for a week.  Never again.

• 5.22.12 – more mandatory pro bono, this time with a tropical-tax-shelter theme.  “All practicing attorneys in the Cayman Islands would be forced to work a certain number of hours for free or pay an annual fee of $2,500, according to a draft of the Legal Aid and Pro Bono Legal Services Bill, 2012.  The draft bill was made public by the attorney general’s office
last week.  According to a summary of the proposal, every attorney-at-law in the Islands to whom a practicing certificate has been issued “shall render pro bono legal services to persons in accordance with this legislation”, or face discipline under the territory’s Legal Practitioners Law.”  (Story from the Cay Compass.)

• 5.21.12 – legal woes caused by a natural disaster can exist long after the disaster itself has dissipated: “A Raleigh law firm is working with Legal Aid of North Carolina to find what problems people still have from Hurricane Irene.  [Irene struck North Carolina in August, 2011.]   The Daily Reflector of Greenville reported that Womble Carlyle and Legal Aid are asking individuals who may be struggling with recovery problems from last August’s storm to call a toll-free hotline. Such issues could include insurance claims, construction scams and mortgage-related problems.”  (Story from the Associated Press.)  

• 5.21.12 – a trend in Ohio which basically tracks national developments: far fewer death sentences as lawmakers, prosecutors, and court officials contend with the high cost of administering capital punishment programs along with changing sentiment about the death penalty’s effectiveness and propriety.  (Here’s the article from the Columbus Dispatch.)  And here’s some related follow-up…   

• 5.21.12 – ….of course one of the long-running criticisms of capital punishment stems from the risk of executing an innocent person.  Here’s an AP report on wrongful convictions: “More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.  There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled.  The database compiled and analyzed by the researchers contains information on 873 exonerations for which they have the most detailed evidence. The researchers are aware of nearly 1,200 other exonerations, for which they have less data.” 

• 5.20.12 – “One of the initiatives that Bibb County commissioners are considering for next year’s spending plan is a $600,000 request designed to expedite the legal process in local courts.  The request, made jointly by the Bibb County District Attorney’s Office and the Macon Circuit Public Defender’s Office, would allow each office to hire two additional attorneys as part of an Early Intervention Program. The program, officials say, would reduce the number of cases in the court system by allowing for a quicker disposition of nonviolent crimes.”  (Full story in the Macon Telegraph, a newspaper with an oddly Tolkienesque tagline: “Middle Georgia’s News Source.”)
   
• 5.20.12 – in Cleveland, the local bar president and board president of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland make it clear just how much the organization’s funding situation has worsened, and explains how vital a service legal aid is in preserving justice.  (Op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)   

• 5.20.12 – more Cleveland!  Jeffrey Stein, a 2012 NYU Law grad, explains his decision to pursue a career in indigent defense in the pages of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  “It’s hiring season for public defender offices, which means it’s also the time when law students pursuing jobs in indigent defense enjoy the privilege of justifying their chosen career to skeptical — and, inevitably, disappointed — relatives (“You’re sure you wouldn’t rather make $160,000 as a first-year associate at a firm?”), friends (“But what if you know they’re guilty?”) and professors (“Ah, that’s . . . great.”).  Like the populations we serve, we who devote our professional lives to defending poor people are not a monolithic group. But, to answer your questions, here are some of the reasons I have chosen to commit my life to public defense….”  

• 5.19.12 – in the Pennsylvania lawsuit about alleged underfunding of indigent defense, a special master has been appointed to help sort things through.  (Story from the Citizens Voice of Luzerne County.) 

• 5.18.12 – in Charles County Maryland, the state’s attorney is pressing hard for funding to hire new attorneys.  “…[P]rosecutors are so overworked that they soon will have to pick and choose which cases to pursue in court, State’s Attorney Anthony B. Covington warned the Charles County commissioners Tuesday.  He asked the commissioners to give his office a $989,000 budget increase, or 41 percent, which would include enough to hire five new prosecutors in fiscal 2013, which begins July 1. Over three years, his office will require a $1.7 million increase, enough to hire a total of eight new attorneys and at least one researcher, he said. (Story from Southern Maryland News Online.)

From the New York Times:

THE chief judge of New York State, Jonathan Lippman, announced at a Law Day ceremony on May 1 that, starting next year, aspiring lawyers must perform 50 pro bono service hours before joining the state bar. The goal is to provide legal services to needy clients, including those facing eviction, foreclosure and domestic abuse.

Mandatory pro bono work for lawyers is a good idea. But Judge Lippman’s plan is deeply flawed, as it affects only aspiring lawyers who have not yet gained admission to the bar. . . .

The Lippman plan hurts these budding lawyers most of all. Recent law school graduates face a growing employment crisis: the Law School Transparency Data Clearinghouse lists 67 schools (out of the 185 that were scored) with full-time legal employment rates below 55 percent. At the same time, law school tuition and student debt have skyrocketed. The average 2011 law graduate from Syracuse owes $132,993, not including any debt incurred for undergraduate education. At Pace, the figure is $139,007; at New York Law School, $146,230.

After commencement, things get worse. Law graduates often borrow more money for bar preparation, to pay for both living expenses and prep courses, which can cost more than $3,000. Even graduates with good jobs lined up face tight summer budgets; many work in retail or food service to make ends meet, as do many law students. The irony is that many recent law graduates may well qualify for the free legal services Judge Lippman will bestow on New York’s poor. It is from these struggling New Yorkers that Judge Lippman demands over a week’s unpaid labor. . . .

Read more here.