By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers!  This week’s edition is fairly short, but includes a great deal of content related to legal services funding (or, rather, lack of).  Featured: the LSC’er-in-chief on the legal services resources crunch and the value of pro bono; the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent puts recently reported pro bono figures in context; MoJo looks at the House proposal to slash LSC funding; better job protections for law school clinicians?; the controversy surrounding cuts in state funding to New Jersey legal services programs; two Massachusetts legal services programs tie the knot.

• 7.14.11 – Legal Services Corporation president Jim Sandman did an interview with the Pro Bono Institute about the widening justice gap that results from more and more poor people seeking help from LSC grantees at a time when funding is so strained, and the “essential” part that pro bono plays in stopping the justice gap from further widening.  Quotable Sandman: “The biggest challenge facing legal services today is lack of funding.”  Pro bono, Sandman went on to note, is a “critical supplement” to the work that legal aid lawyers do, even if it cannot be a substitute for it.

• 7.12.11 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent reacts to AmLaw numbers showing a marked drop in Biglaw pro bono hours in 2010, taking issue with the “melodramatic headlines” used in reporting those numbers.  From her Nat’l. Law Journal piece: “The “doom and gloom” headlines overlook some important facts and figures….  Although it is true that major firms contributed significantly fewer hours of pro bono service in 2010 than in the previous two years, it must be noted that 2010’s law firm pro bono hours were still the third highest in history. That — after the worst recession in living memory and profound, destabilizing and continuing changes in virtually every aspect of the finances and operations of major law firms — is, in context, an accomplishment.”  Esther is right.  The pro bono number changes are largely a function of fluctuations in staffing and fee-paying business at law firms.  The real story about delivering legal services to poor people has to do w/ the threatened underfunding of Legal Services Corporation grantee organizations – which, importantly, need funding to help pro bono volunteers efficiently handle cases – as well as the continued slumping of non-LSC sources (chiefly IOLTA). 

• 7.12.11 – commy-pinko-tree-hugging-liberal outlet Mother Jones breaks down the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed 26% cut to LSC’s budget, noting that a cut couldn’t come at a worse time for legal services providers and their low-income clients.  The article highlights the fact that non-federal funding streams, including IOLTA and state appropriations, have already tapered off.  (To MoJo’s mention of Florida as a state that’s cut funding, we’d add NH, NJ, PA, and WI, among others.)  The article also hits on an important point that was tucked into the end of an LSC press release about the proposed cuts: while a record 63 million people qualified for legal services last year, LSC grantees have been forced to shed staff; 200 more lawyers could vanish from LSC programs by the end of 2011.
• And while we’re over on the left side of the political spectrum, the Daily Kos issues a rallying cry to preserve LSC funding.

• 7.11.11 – Better job protections for law school clinicians?  The ABA is pondering a step towards solidifying the employment relationships between nontraditional faculty and their schools, stopping just short of tenure.  From the National Law Journal: “The Standards Review Committee on July 10 voiced initial support for a proposal to require that schools at least provide full-time faculty members with a ‘program of presumptively renewable long-term contracts that are at least five years in duration after a probationary period reasonably similar to that for tenure-track faculty members’.”  Huzzah!  Clinicians have long felt like second-class citizens in the Ivory Tower.  And their role will arguably – hopefully, in my view – become more important as schools incorporate more experience-based learning programs into their curricula.

• 7.8.11 – in the Garden State, the Star-Ledger’s editorial board sounds a truculent note in opposing Gov. Chris Christie’s surprise $5 million legal services budget cut:  “[T]hanks to Gov. Chris Christie’s recent budget slashes on services for the poor, no matter how compelling your case is, you may be forced to argue it alone.  If you’re being beaten by your spouse, it may be much more difficult to get a divorce or restraining order. If you’re seeking custody of your kids or visitation rights, your case might be too time-consuming for a pro bono lawyer to take on. You may have no way to force a delinquent boyfriend to pay child support, or fight your unjustified eviction…. A loss of $5 million means Legal Services must cut at least 50 staffers and serve at least 5,500 fewer clients. This, at a time when so many more people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Our democracy promises access to equal justice. But without the funding to back that up, it’s justice based on your bank account.”  UPDATE: the cuts are final, as the Senate failed to muster enough votes to legislatively override the budget plan (according to a 7.13.11 piece in Bloomberg Businessweek).

• 7.8.11 – Two Massachusetts legal services programs have merged.  A short blurb in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports:  Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts Legal Services have combined to become Community Legal Aid, providing free legal help to low-income and elderly people in Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties.  Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts has traditionally operated in the central part of the state, with Western Massachusetts Legal Services operating in the state’s four western counties, the organizations reported in a news release. Together they will have more than 50 staff members and multiple locations.”   And here’s a similar blurb in the Worcester Business Journal.  (Community Legal Aid is not an LSC grantee, as neither of its two parent programs were.)

From a UVA press release:

A federal judge on Monday threw out the conviction and death sentence of Justin Wolfe of Chantilly, through the efforts of the University of Virginia School of Law‘s Innocence Project Clinic and partnering organizations. 

The clinic worked closely with Wolfe’s pro bono attorneys at the Washington, D.C., law firm King & Spalding and the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center to demonstrate that the prosecutors in Wolfe’s trial had suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Wolfe. In his ruling, U.S. Judge Raymond A. Jackson agreed that the prosecutors’ conduct resulted in an unfair trial.

“We’re elated and gratified,” said Deirdre Enright, director of investigation for the Innocence Project Clinic. “It’s rare to get relief in death penalty cases and rarer still to lay it at the feet of prosecutors.”

Wolfe, who has been on death row since 2002, was convicted of murder for hire and sentenced to die in a case that received national attention and involved an extensive drug ring run by suburban middle-class youths in Northern Virginia.

…

Congrats, UVA Innocence Project Clinic!

By Jamie Bence

Today, the Wall Street Journal examines a growing trend among law schools to offer more practice-oriented courses in the wake of the recession. The article points out that these changes are largely in response to employers’ criticism of newly minted attorneys:

“Law firms are saying, ‘You’re sending us people who are not in a position to do anything useful for clients.’ This is a first effort to try and fix that,” says Larry Kramer, the law dean at Stanford.

The moves come amid a prolonged downturn in the legal job market. Only about one-quarter of last year’s graduating law-school classes—down from 33% in 2009—snagged positions with big law firms, according to the National Association for Law Placement, an organization that collects employment data.

The article also points out the incongruities between law schools and other professional schools, which typically take a more practice-oriented approach. Changes being implemented at several law schools are highlighted in the article:

Indiana University Maurer School of Law started teaching project management this year and also offers a course on so-called emotional intelligence. The class has no textbook and instead uses personality assessments and peer reviews to develop students’ interpersonal skills.

New York Law School hired 15 new faculty members over the past two years, many directly from the ranks of working lawyers, to teach skills in negotiation, counseling and fact investigation. The school says it normally hires one or two new faculty a year, and usually those focused on legal research.

And Washington and Lee University School of Law completely rebuilt its third-year curriculum in 2009, swapping out lectures and Socratic-style seminars for case-based simulations run by practicing lawyers.

A few elite players also are making adjustments. Harvard Law School last year launched a problem-solving class for first-year students, and Stanford Law School is considering making a full-time clinical course—which entails several 40-hour plus weeks of actual case work—a graduation requirement.

As the PSLawNet Blog has noted in the past, it will be interesting to see how a movement to more experiential learning models may impact public interest programming at law schools.  Clinical programs, externships, and pro bono work are already among the main avenues through which students can get hands-on legal experience, so it’s possible that a push toward more experiential learning programs may lead to a boost in public interest opportunities.

For more information on specific changes that schools are implementing, read the complete article here.

By Jamie Bence

From our friends at Equal Justice Works, a Friday webinar on public interest students who find themselves faced with hefty loans.

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

July 8, 2011 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

A must attend for anyone with high 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.

From this interactive webinar, you will learn and be able to ask questions about:

• Understanding your Federal loans
• How the Income-Based Repayment plan works
• How to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Register for this webinar here.

By Lauren Forbes

A piece in The Queens Courier announces an official location change for The City University of New York’s School of Law (CUNY Law) that has been long-awaited.  CUNY Law,  a school with a public interest mission,  is now positioning itself to train even more public servants with an upcoming change of scenery.  In an effort to better serve Queens, CUNY  Law is gearing up to leave its current Flushing location in favor of the more transportation-friendly Long Island City.

CUNY Law reports that L.I.C.’s central location will allow for an easier commute from all five boroughs and from around the region. Further, the move will enable the School to realize its long-held ambition to establish a part-time program, an innovation that would help make the Law School accessible to a more diverse range of students. With its greater centrality, its mission will be enhanced by its closer proximity to the public interest community and to its clients.

Assemblymember Grace Meng and Councilmember Peter Koo toured the under-construction facility on Thursday, June 30. During the tour, Koo noted that the school will provide more of the kinds of lawyers society needs.

“There are too many lawyers, but not enough working in public interest,” he said. “This school is one of the best public interest law schools in the country and with this move it will serve even more people.”

Meng said that while she was sad to see the school leave Flushing, she knows that it will have an even greater presence in L.I.C.

“As a law school dedicated to public interest, CUNY Law is a great asset to our community, offering pro bono legal assistance through its clinic and supporting new lawyers who are eager to devote themselves to practice law for social justice,” she said. “The school’s move to Long Island City will allow even more people to access these critical services.”

Dean Michelle Anderson said that while Flushing was a great home for a number of years, moving to L.I.C. will help the school to better serve the community. According to Anderson, the Flushing location sometimes hindered the school – but in L.I.C. more people will have access to CUNY’s wealth of resources.

…
The new building, located at 2 Court Square, is LEED Gold certified and boasts 225,000 square feet of space for larger classrooms, an auditorium and a moot courtroom. The school will also be accessible by more than a dozen subway and bus lines, as well as the Long Island Railroad.

Both aspiring public interest lawyers and community members with legal needs will likely benefit from CUNY Law, “Law in the service of human needs,” being made more accessible to public transit. Thank you for your many years of service, Flushing’s 65-21 Main Street! Congratulations, CUNY Law!

By Jamie Bence

Congratulations to our friends at Indiana University School of Law! Their Program in International Human Rights has been awarded “special consultative status” by the United Nations, according to Law.com.

The Program, which was founded in 1997, has researched numerous human rights violations around the world, sending students to New York and Geneva to share their findings with the United Nations. This designation will give students additional access to UN resources and, the school hopes, continue to draw aspiring human rights advocates to the campus.

The successful end to a 5 year application process joins the Program for International Human Rights with 2,000 organizations in over 200 countries, which serve as special consults to the U.N.

By: Steve Grumm (with big assists from Lauren Forbes and Jamie Bence)

Happy Friday, dear readers!  The bulletin was on vacation last week, so today we bring you two weeks of news.  Featured: legal services office closure threat in TN; an all-star panel tackles the civil justice gap; how could a MN state government shutdown impact indigent defense?; NY indigent defense programs will save some coin, courtesy of the state legislature; an access-to-justice conference today in Honolulu; SCOTUS says no right to counsel in civil contempt proceeding; wrongful convictions in IL have cost taxpayers millions; CA’s capital punishment program has done the same to Golden State taxpayers; also in CA, a new court diversionary program to benefit the homeless; the state high court acts to channel funding to legal services in Hawaii; NELP launches a new website for fair wage advocates; an innovative program in Oregon pairs law grads with public interest advocates to help the former build skills; a new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas; more funding woes in TN; after a state funding cut, local officials scramble to help fund Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in FL; in NC, Pisgah Legal Services loses some funding in political spat; a legal clinic in Mexico does some groundbreaking work toward promoting the rule of law; a great primer on the current state of Legal Services Corp. funding; the Missouri indigent defense crisis has victims.

• 6.24.11 – a potential legal services office closure in Tennessee.  The Cleveland Daily Bulletin reports that, due to funding pressures, Legal Aid of East Tennessee may close its Bradley County office. LAET is taking last-ditch measures to try to avoid a closure, but things don’t look great and they will make a decision sometime in 2011.  (And see below for more bad news for another Tennessee legal services program.)

• 6.22.11 – I had a chance to attend a terrific program called “Closing the Justice Gap,” hosted by the Center for American Progress.  I’m hoping to do a write-up on it later.  Suffice to say for now, though, the program panelists have all penned white papers on the access-to-justice crisis.  The papers, from different angles, look at the significant barriers facing poor people who try to access the justice system, and they propose solutions toward knocking down those barriers.  All four papers are worth a read:
•  Grounds for Objection by Joy Moses, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress;
• The Justice Gap by Alan Houseman, executive director at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) – and speaking of CLASP, scroll down to see a terrific update on Legal Services Corporation funding from CLASP’s Linda Perle;
• When Second Best is the Best We Can Do, by Prof. Peter Edelman of Georgetown Univ. Law Center;
• Access to Evidence, by a team of authors from Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.

• 6.22.11 – the Detroit Lakes Tribune (don’t be fooled, it’s in Minnesota) reports on the question of whether a Minnesota state government shutdown, which may take effect on July 1, could mean that the criminal justice system goes awry because public defenders are not allowed to work: “The Minnesota Board of Public Defense is concerned about the effects of government shutdown on Minnesota’s judicial system, and has asked a district judge to include the public defender system with other essential state functions.  [According to an official w/ the BPD,] a shutdown on July 1 could mean that people accused of minor offenses will have to sit in jail for three days because there’s no judge to let them out. Or worse, that people accused of serious crimes will go free, either for lack of a public defender or failure by the state to meet its requirement for a timely trial.”  The piece also highlights how badly the recession has impacted the state’s defenders.  Three years ago the BPD had 421 attorneys; now it t has 347.

• 6.22.11 – the NewsLI website (from Lawwnng Eye-land, NY) reports that the state legislature passed a fee waiver that should benefit public defense programs, and the counties that fund them: New York State Senate today gave final legislative passage to legislation, sponsored by Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (R-Merrick), to help counties save money in providing public defense services to individuals who cannot afford an attorney.  The legislation (S5474) would exempt legal aid societies from having to pay a fee to search DMV records in public defense cases. This exemption would provide savings to the counties who fund the services provided by legal aid societies.”

• 6.20.11 – um, my invitation to the access-to-justice conference taking place today in Honolulu must have been lost in the mail.  The Pacific Business News notes that the Hawaii Access to Justice Conference will “deep-dive into the major issues affecting access to civil legal services in Hawaii for underserved populations.  Among the most pressing issues to be tackled at this year’s conference is the search for more funding sources for legal services providers that cater to these groups — organizations such as Legal Aid Society of Hawaii , the Hawaii Justice Foundation and the Mediation Center of the Pacific — which were hit hard in the economic downturn when government funding for their programs was slashed.”  The Aloha State’s AtJ Commission was created in 2008.  Here’s a link to their most recent report, from 2010.  And see a few stories down for some good funding news for Hawaii legal services providers…

• 6.20.11 – the National Law Journal reports on a potential setback for Civil Gideon advocates.  In an opinion issued in the matter of Turner v. Rogers this week, SCOTUS came down against extending the right to counsel to a defendant in a civil contempt proceeding.  From NLJ (article may be pw-protected): “On the question of right to counsel [a decision having been reached on other grounds], [Justice] Breyer wrote that there was little precedent to guide the Court. For example, in a 1967 case, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause requires states to pay for counsel in a civil ‘juvenile delinquency’ proceeding, but that case was similar to a criminal prosecution. Breyer wrote that three reasons argue against providing counsel to child-support defendants like Turner: the proceedings are ‘sufficiently straightforward’ that a lawyer isn’t necessary; the custodial parent often doesn’t have a lawyer and could be disadvantaged; and other procedural safeguards could given the defendant sufficient due process.”  The specific facts of this case are nuanced and very important to the decision.  The Turner v. Rogers decision is available in full on the SCOTUS website.

• 6.20.11 – a different National Law Journal piece reports on a study out of Chicago finding the cost to the public of wrongful convictions in Illinois over the past two decades to have topped $200 million:  “Wrongful convictions don’t just harm those who spend time in jail for crimes they didn’t commit and their families. They also come at a hefty cost to the public, according to a study by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based good-government group.
  The study concluded that wrongful convictions for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers more than $214 million since 1989. Those wrongful convictions also resulted in people later proven innocent spending more than 900 years in prison…. Researchers calculated the financial toll by tallying the cost of incarceration, compensation to those wrongfully convicted and civil litigation costs. Settlement payments represented the largest portion of the bill, at nearly $160 million. Another $31.6 million was spent to hire private attorneys to defend the government against civil suits, while jail and prison costs totaled $18.5 million. State compensation payments came to $8.2 million.”  Here’s a link to the report on the Better Government Association’s website.

• 6.20.11 – as noted above, putting the wrong people in jail costs Illinois taxpayers a lot of money.  According to a Los Angeles Times article, maintaining California’s capital punishment system is also a bit pricey: “Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, according to a comprehensive analysis of the death penalty’s costs.  The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year…. The authors outline three options for voters to end the current reality of spiraling costs and infrequent executions: fully preserve capital punishment with about $85 million more in funding for courts and lawyers each year; reduce the number of death penalty-eligible crimes for an annual savings of $55 million; or abolish capital punishment and save taxpayers about $1 billion every five or six years.”

• 6.18.11 -also in California, the Marin Independent Journal reports on a new, diversionary program to help the homeless deal with minor legal infractions outside of court:  “The Marin Community Court, a collaboration among Legal Aid of Marin, the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin County and the Marin County Superior Court, has held three sessions [since its launch in April].”  One of the program’s driving motivations is helping the homeless and those struggling with housing to avoid the spiral of accumulating legal fines and penalties that begins when they can not afford to resolve a problem at the outset.  The Community Court program includes one-on-one counseling sessions between a participant and an attorney, and then a “hearing” which often results in sentencing that focuses on treatment and support services rather than sanctions.  (A note to the law student readers who are interested in postgraduate fellowship proposals:  If I were in your shoes I would give serious thought to proposals that help poor people more efficiently navigate the justice system, like either diversionary programs or courthouse resource centers for pro se litigants.  There are a lot of people these days who can’t afford a lawyer, and there are a lot of courthouse officials looking for ways to keep the wheels of justice turning smoothly by helping these people navigate the system as efficiently, and as cheaply, as possible.)

• 6.17.11 – TheHonolulu Star Advertiser reports that Hawaiian legal services providers are due to benefit from class-action residual funds: “A rule adopted by the Hawaii Supreme Court helps clear the way for money left over from class-action lawsuits to be given to nonprofit groups that provide legal services to the poor. The rule takes effect July 1 and provides guidance on how to distribute money from lawsuits after the plaintiffs, attorney fees and expenses have been paid. Those residual funds include money for plaintiffs who cannot be located or who don’t file claims….  The groups that would qualify for the money under the high court rule include the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Elder Law Program, Voluntary Legal Services Hawaii and the Domestic Violence Action Center.”

• 6.17.11 – the National Employment Law Project has launched a  new website – Raise the Minimum Wage – focused on, well, raising the minimum wage.  It’s an easy-to-navigate site with a broad array of resources, news items, and data for fair wage advocates or those who wish to learn more about the cause.

• 6.17.2011- The ABA Journal reports that a new program in Oregon for recently graduated lawyers is receiving overwhelming response. Announced last month, the Practical Skills through Public Service Program pairs Oregon law school graduates with public interest attorneys, in hopes of giving young practitioners the opportunity to learn by doing. The Oregonian reports that this program is part of a larger effort in the state to prepare new law grads for solo practice, in light of diminishing offers from law firms.

• 6.17.2011- A new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas aims to improve access to healthcare and education for at-risk children in the state. Walmart and Legal Aid of Arkansas have teamed up to provide legal assistance to children and families staying at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, providing holistic advice and guidance to help children and families get back on track. KTHV notes: “Direct access to legal services will help many families address obstacles to good health and continuing recovery. Attorneys can help families who need utility service recovery for the child’s home care, assistance negotiating with a landlord over the environment of an apartment or even special educational testing.”

• 6.16.2011- Just four attorneys will remain to assist clients at Northeast Tennessee Legal Aid after the end of this month. Federal budget cuts coupled with dwindling grants and donations have caused the office to lay off one third of its attorneys, including an associate director, according to TriCities News.

• 6.15.2011- The Jacksonville Daily Record calls the new ethics commission now in place for the city government “a promise kept.” In a unanimous vote after several months of heated debate, the city council voted to reinstate an ethics code and ultimately create an independent Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight. In the same session, the council considered a bill to impose a $50 court fee to benefit Jacksonville Legal Aid, a measure supported by Fourth Circuit Judge Donald Moran and intended to help offset decreased funding from the Florida Bar Foundation and the state legislature. “The funds from the court fee would be used to provide free legal services for the disadvantaged through JALA, including services to domestic violence victims, the mentally ill or disabled, the un-deremployed or unemployed, residents facing landlord/tenant issues or homelessness, foreclosure-related educational, mediation and defense programs, and the elderly.” The council will vote on the measure during its June 28^th meeting.

• 6.15.11 Sadly, in North Carolina, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted to discontinue county funding for nonprofit Pisgah Legal Services at the request of Chairman Mike Edney. PLS provides free civil legal aid to help low-income people avoid homelessness, escape domestic violence, access health care and meet other basic needs.  At the meeting, Edney, an attorney, said PLS “does provide some benefit to our community,” particularly in the area of domestic violence, but wanted to withdraw the $16,745 in county funding for 2011-12 partly because PLS sometimes “oversteps its bounds,” such as getting attorney’s fees out of landlords.

• 6.14.11 – the Los Angeles Times profiles the work of a novel legal clinic in Mexico City, through which law students have achieved groundbreaking results for their clients in a justice system which has a tenuous relationship with the rule of law: “The clinic is part of a Mexico City university called the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, or CIDE. The center’s legal studies program combines law school training with hands-on public interest advocacy, a novel field in a nation where many attorneys are poorly trained and their best weapon is often a bribe…. Students, guided by [Professor Javier] Angulo and another staff lawyer, work on the cases for free. Many of them probe uncharted terrain and have yielded legal precedents or led to new laws, such as one easing the penalty for abortions.  As Mexico works to cultivate a fully functioning democracy, the 6-year-old clinic is an effort to modernize a system long viewed as a factory of injustice.”

• 6.14.11 CLASP’s Legal Services Corporation update reiterates the uncertainty and disconcerting impact that the proposed cuts would have. LSC has asked Congress to appropriate $516.5 million for FY 2012.  President Obama’s budget request sought $450 million for LSC.  However, during the April 5, 2011, hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) on the FY 2012 LSC budget, there was again discussion of returning LSC funding to the FY 2008 level — all in the name of deficit reduction.  CLASP is working to increase the LSC funding level in the Senate and is hopeful that the Senate will adopt a funding level close to the President’s request of $450 million.   given the slow pace of events to date, and the need for Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling before August 2, there is unlikely to be a conclusive action on LSC’s FY 2012 funding before September.

• 6.14.11 In Missouri, Jared Blacksher is caught in the middle of a public defender debate.  Last year, Blacksher, 22, reached a plea deal with prosecutors that would have put him in a drug treatment program.  In July 2010, Blacksher was booked into the Christian County Jail on charges of burglary and forgery. He and prosecutors reached a plea agreement that would have given him 120 days in a drug treatment program in the Missouri Department of Corrections, which would have ended in January. However, he never got a chance to enter the program — his was one of the first cases the Missouri Supreme Court put on hold in 2010 during debate over the Missouri public defender system, putting him in jail. Assistant Prosecutor Ben Miller said Blacksher’s case is an unfortunate one that could have been prevented had he been able to take advantage of a plea agreement last year.

By Jamie Bence

I think the thing I remember most about the summer before law school is the anticipation- waiting to find out who my professors would be, what my schedule would look like, whether I’d like my classmates. I’m not a fan of the unknown, so it was a weirdly stressful time for me. Looking back, I wish I’d worried less and listened more. Here are 5 things I wish I’d known about law school before I walked through the doors on my first day.

1. The work is never “finished,” per se. In theory, law school could literally take up all of your time. With an endless array of study aids, practice exams and then of course your actual assignments, it can seem like you should be working 24/7. However, letting law school take over isn’t exactly healthy, or even helpful, so it’s important to find balance. For me, this meant treating school like a job. I got there early, worked between classes, and left around the time most of my friends were commuting home from their office jobs. This way, I could still enjoy my evenings, even if I occasionally had assignments to finish up. On weekends, I got up early and worked while most of my friends slept in. It wasn’t exactly what you would call fun, but being able to have time with important people in my life was important enough to me that I stuck to it.

2.  Not everyone is as excited about this as you are. If you have a supportive group of family and friends, they will probably want to know about your experiences in law school, and what your day-to-day life is like, and what classes you’re taking. However, around week 3, you will be into material very few people outside of the legal industry really know (or want to know) anything about. Thus, while it’s fun to share anecdotes and keep your friends and family in the proverbial loop, it’s also important to keep perspective especially if you are living with a partner or parent, for there will only be so much they want to hear about your new adventure. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Find Hermione and Ron. Law school can be incredibly competitive, and sometimes it might seem counter-intuitive to talk to your classmates about what you’re going through. For the first month, I heard all sorts of crazy stories, and thought maybe I was better off just sticking with the friends I had before this whole thing started. However, I soon realized I wasn’t going to get too far without a group of people I could trust and talk to, and that having a 3L mentor was incredibly helpful. There will be times when you feel overwhelmed and lost, and you will need to commiserate. There will also be the occasional flat tire, the job interview during class, and you will need people who will give you accurate and complete notes. It’s never a bad idea to lean more toward Hermione than Ron under such circumstances.

4.   Study guides are your friends, if you choose wisely.  When I was first told that almost everyone uses study aids in law school, I thought, “Are you kidding me? I’ve never touched CliffNotes in my life!” However, in law school, rather than serving as a way around the hard work, study aids make the hard work doable. When selecting study guides, think about how you learn best. For example, I really like audio lectures a lot, even though they are not widely popular (I run and I take the train, so I have a lot of time to listen to them).  There’s no shame in that- just because something doesn’t work for everyone (or because it does) doesn’t mean you will have the same result. So think about how you learn (and consider the materials carefully) before you buy.

5.  Study smart not (necessarily) hard. There is a lot of “conventional” advice on how to approach 1L year. Everyone told me that I would be lost in class if I didn’t brief cases. I did this for exactly one week before I realized how it didn’t really help me understand the cases or rules. I also realized there were people on law review who never made an outline, who never wrote briefs. They learn differently and they have succeeded because they have unlocked what has worked for them, probably through trial and error. So I stopped briefing, because it was boring and I wasn’t paying attention when I was doing it anyway. It’s all a matter of figuring out what works for you. My advice would be to consider all the advice you’re given (maybe even this post…) then let it all go, and just be you.

If you will be starting your 1L year in August, good luck, and until then, have a relaxing summer!

By Lauren Forbes

Happy Thursday! It is time for the weekly roundup of some of our favorite posts from the public interest blogosphere. With no further ado…

• 6.9.11 SCOTUS to Rule on Right to Counsel in Collateral Proceedings. Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog includes a piece on the Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case that will test how firm the distinction between  a right to counsel at the first level of direct appeal and the right to counsel at collateral post-conviction proceedings.
  
• 6.8.11 The Povery Law Blog discusses Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Robert A. Moffitt, and John Karl Scholz’s NBER Working Paper, An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States.  In  which direction does the  U.S. benefit system tilt?
  
• 6.6.11 DC budget and safety net programs cut, but not eliminated. Some of the hardest-hit social safety net programs, TANF,  homeless services, and Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) were restored or preserved.
• 6.6.11 Heather Jarvis tells us five ways IBR beats ICR.  Important bottom line: monthly payments are typically higher under income-contingent repayment than under income-based repayment.
• 6.6.11 Technola’s timely post about igniting your community referenced  last week’s Legal Services NTAP (National Technology Assistance Project) post.  Ideas include TED, CommonCraft, and others.
• 6.3.11 Partnering to aid our nation’s veterans, a piece in the Equal Justice Works Blog. Public Counsel has partnered with the Southern California Salvation Army to help provide legal services to hundreds of homeless veterans and their families in the Los Angeles area. The blog also highlight’s The Salvation Army‘s piece on how legal help is often the missing piece in a veteran’s recovery.

By: Steve Grumm

Some news affecting legal Wolverines:

My career planning office is now a one-stop shop.

A beefed-up and retooled Office of Career Planning debuted this week with the aim of helping Michigan Law grads become even more marketable to employers than they already are—which, based on the office’s existing strengths, is no easy task.

The most dramatic change in the new office—which will be known formally as the Office of Career Planning for the Public, Private, and Nonprofit Sectors—is the merging of the Office of Public Service and Office of Career Services. The new entity will be led by assistant dean Susan Guindi, a 1990 Michigan Law grad who began her career at the law school in 1995, as the first associate director in the Office of Public Service, before being selected to lead the Office of Career Services in 1998. Her own path—which includes two clerkships and private practice at a large D.C. firm—equips her well for carrying out one of the missions of the new office: allowing students to more seamlessly explore opportunities in a variety of practice areas.

But the key motive for reorganizing the office, Guindi said, was the actual course of most students’ and graduates’ professional lives.

“In studying the careers of our students and alumni, we’ve learned that most enjoy a combination of opportunities across public, private, and nonprofit sectors,” said Guindi. “It makes sense to structure the office to mirror that fact.”