This week’s Bulletin carries news of a possible indigent-defense caseload crisis in Missouri, more bad news about legal services funding in New Jersey, good news about clinic funding at Albany Law School, staff expansion at Pisgah Legal Services, a successful diversionary program for wayward Connecticut yoots, and a medical-legal partnership in the Lone Star State.   

• 7.29.10 – Saint Louis Post-Dispatch – an official from the Missouri State Public Defender System notified Saint Louis County’s top prosecutor and judge that the local defender’s office has “begun steps to refuse to take new criminal cases” because the office does not have the resource capacity to handle its caseload.  The county’s chief prosecutor has been sharply critical of the developments, charging that the claim of being so overworked is a “contrived issue.”  “St. Louis County is the defenders’ third battleground. Last week, they closed the offices in Troy, Mo., and Springfield to new cases through the end of July.”  Link to article.  [Ed. note: here is additional coverage from the KTVO TV station website.  Last week the Columbia Missourian reported on the Springfield office’s decision to stop accepting new cases, as did the Springfield News-Leader.  And here is a brief AP blurb on the Troy office decision from the KOAM TV station website.]

• 7.29.10 – The Record (New Jersey) – “[L]ow market [interest] rates and a weak housing market — which means less money set aside in trust for real estate closings — have devastated [New Jersey’s] Interest on Lawyers Trust Account fund, resulting in the loss of scores of New Jersey legal aid jobs, and far fewer clients being served.”  IOLTA revenue recently fell by 80%.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note:  state funding for legal services in the Garden State was also recently cut by 33%, according to a July 17 Record article.

• 7.28.10 – Press Release – “Albany Law School recently received a $205,000 grant from the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC) to fund a new Housing Clinic within the law school’s Clinic & Justice Center.  In the Housing Clinic, students will work with Albany Law faculty to offer legal services, outreach, educational opportunities and housing counseling to homeowners and tenants affected by foreclosure in Albany, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties.”  Link to press release.

• 7.27.10 – Mountain Express (North Carolina) – with the addition of four staffers to its Mountain Violence Prevention Project, Pisgah Legal Services has doubled its person-power in providing assistance to domestic violence victims.  Link to article.

• 7.25.10 – Connecticut Post – a Connecticut program to divert teens who are status offenders (skipping school, running away, etc.), but who do not actually commit crimes, to support centers rather than detention facilities has met with considerable success. “[T]he model is seen as so successful it’s being touted as a “best practice” by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.”  Link to article.

• 7.23.10 – Brownsville Herald (Texas) – a medical-legal partnership between Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Brownsville Community Health Center, forged in 2008, promotes collaboration between medical and legal professionals and allows them to take a holistic approach to helping l0w-income client populations.  “For years, the traditional health-care system and the legal system have treated low-income, underserved populations in isolation, despite the strong connection between social stressors and health, partnership members said. But the health center’s medical-legal partnership…allows doctors and attorneys to work together…”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: in March the PSLawNet Blog covered the trend of similar medical-legal partnerships springing up across the country.  Public-interest minded law students who have a background or interest in the healthcare system should think about how they may connect to this “growth field” in the legal services community.  Often the lawyers participating in such partnerships will be working on matters unrelated to healthcare, such as housing or public benefits, but a knowledge of how low-income communities access healthcare would still be a terrific asset for a lawyer who is working with medical professionals.]

 This week’s Bulletin brings news and commentary on how resource shortages in Michigan and Missouri public defense offices are being addressed (or not), the spike in pro se litigation throughout the country as more lower- and middle-income people find themselves with legal problems but are unable to afford lawyers, public benefit administration troubles in Indiana, legal services funding cuts on both sides of the Delaware River, how we should be assessing the value of pro bono work, a prison sentence for a former legal services employee who raided the till, and U. of Maryland law students bringing Terrapin love and legal skill to clients all around the globe.

• 7.22.10 – Columbia Missourian – “Criminal defendants in southwest Missouri will not be eligible for a state public defender until next month because of high caseloads and overworked lawyers. The state public defender system said Thursday that its Springfield office would not accept new cases until August because its 20 lawyers cannot handle any more defendants.”  State government officials from all three branches have been grappling with high public defender caseloads for years, but have been unable to agree on a solution.  It is unclear what courts will do to keep the criminal justice system’s wheels turning in light of this development.  Link to article.

• 7.22.10 – Wall Street Journal – As a result of the recession, “[a] growing number of people have found themselves in court facing costly financial proceedings such as declaring bankruptcy, fighting foreclosure and litigating employment fights. Adding to the challenge, for many: The high cost of legal representation often prompts them to go it alone.”  Some observers argue that “lawyers have created quasi-monopolies” that ultimately restrict the public’s access to legal services.  And as for low-income individuals who would qualify for free legal services, service providers are dealing with overwhelming client demand and with their own resource shortages.  Link to article.  [Ed. note: also see item 6 below for Washington Post coverage of a recent ABA report on the spike in pro se representation across the country.  And see this 7.22.10 PSLawNet Blog post which aggregates other media coverage of the pro se spike and reactions to it from the legal community.] 

• 7.20.10 – Associated Press – “For at least a decade, potentially thousands of Indiana’s neediest adults have seen some of their state aid payments slashed simply because they receive food stamps — a practice that advocates and legal experts say is a clear violation of federal law….Under the current system, when the federal government raises food stamp amounts, Indiana officials reduce grocery allowances so a person’s total food benefits do not exceed $200 a month.  But since 1964, federal law has barred states from counting food stamps as income or using them to reduce any other public benefits.”  A spokesperson for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration says that the agency does not think the benefit calculation policy ran afoul of federal law, but “…legal experts say courts have consistently upheld the law that says other assistance cannot be reduced because someone is receiving food stamps…[and]…welfare officials in other states said they were surprised Indiana would even try to count food stamps against other benefits.”  Link to article.

• 7.20.10 – The Citizen (Georgia) – “A Pike County death penalty case…has drawn national headlines and an effort to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The appeal centers on whether the state, by not allowing adequate funding for defense attorneys for Jamie Weis, is violating Weis’ right to a speedy trial.”  When the state’s public defense agency had no funding to continue paying two appointed defense attorneys, the prosecutor in the case requested that the court assign it to two public defenders.  The court did so, and the “removal of Weis’ original attorneys drew the attention of The New York Times, which last week took aim at the theory that [the prosecutor] was able to pick his opponent in court.”  After months of continued delays the defendant appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court on the argument that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated by the state.  The court disagreed, but the case may now go to the Supreme Court of the United States.  Link to article.  [Ed note: the PSLawNet Blog has covered the Weis case in several recent posts.  The New York Times article referenced above and links to prior coverage are available in item 3 of our July 9, 2010 Public Interest News Bulletin.]

• 7.19.10 – Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania) – MidPenn Legal Services, which serves clients in 18 Keystone State counties, “saw a 23% increase in the demand for its services last year” while dealing with funding decreases totaling $1 million.  The “flat funding has meant a hiring freeze program-wide.”  The economic downturn has caused state funding of legal services programs throughout Pennsylvania to drop from $3.17 million to $3.04 million in the past two years.  This decrease comes in tandem with a much more precipitous drop in IOLTA revenue streams.  Link to article.

• 7.19.10 – Washington Post – “The economic downturn has sent more people into the court system at a time when they are less able to afford representation and fewer organizations have the resources to provide it pro bono or at a reduced cost.”  A recently issued report from the American Bar Association contains results of survey responses from judges that showed increasing caseloads in home foreclosure, domestic violence, and other issues.  Along with the risen caseloads, many parties are acting pro se, which strains courthouse resources.  “Of the 78 percent of judges who said self-represented individuals had a negative impact on the court, most noted that it slowed courtroom procedure and used more staff time to assist pro se litigants.”  One of the reasons that so many more litigants are representing themselves is that legal services organizations which could provide free help to low-income parties are fighting rising caseloads and shrunken revenue streams of their own.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: here is a link to the ABA report, the findings of which are characterized as “preliminary”: Report on the Survey of Judges on the Impact of the Economic Downturn on Representation in the Courts.]

• 7.19.10 – National Law Journal [Opinion Piece] –  law firm pro bono contributions, as measured quantitatively, have not dropped during the recession.  And many more firms have created “pro bono counsel/partner” positions in the past 10 years.  But when it comes to assessing the value of pro bono work, “a fundamental difficulty involves the dominance of ranking systems that use hourly rates as the sole measure of performance.”  Many pro bono stakeholders are concerned that a “preoccupation with quantity [diverts] attention from quality and social impact.”  To better measure the effectiveness of pro bono programs, one option is to expand assessment criteria to include more qualitative measures, such as how firms evaluate and prioritize pro bono projects in light of community needs, and how pro bono culture is rooted inside firms.  Link to piece.      

• 7.19.10 – a former program manager at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for defrauding the legal services provider out of nearly $135,000 between 2003 and 2006.  Link to article.

• 7.17.10 – Baltimore Sun – 13 University of Maryland School of Law students joined four law professors last spring as the school opened clinics in Mexico (migrant labor issues), China (micro-entrepreneurship/small-business issues), and Namibia (water and reproductive rights issues), carrying forward the mission of the school’s clinical program to give students a diverse array experiential-learning opportunities and to offer help to poor client populations.  Link to article.

• 7.17.10 – The Record (New Jersey) – Legal Services of New Jersey is facing a 33% cut in state funding that will result in layoffs of 100 staff members.  LSNJ, a statewide program composed of 6 regional programs, “has dropped from 720 staffers at its peak in 2007 to around 590 now…[and]…by the end of 2010 it will have fewer than 500,” according to LSNJ’s president.  The cuts in staff – which is 60% attorneys – will greatly reduce the number of cases that LSNJ, which already routinely turns prospective clients away, can handle on behalf of low-income Garden State residents.  Link to article.

• 7.16.10 – The Detroit News – “The Michigan Supreme Court reversed itself today and threw out a lawsuit that was aimed at holding the state responsible for failure to provide adequate funding to hire lawyers for poor people accused of crimes.  The state’s high court in April upheld earlier favorable lower court decisions for the lawsuit brought by eight men and women…against the state and Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Intended to become a class-action lawsuit that would include all people convicted of crimes in Michigan while represented by court-appointed counsel, the case appeared headed for trial in Ingham County Circuit Court until today’s abrupt reversal.”  Link to article.

 This week’s Bulletin carries news of law firm pro bono, legal services funding in North Mississippi, an expansion in law school clinical programs at DePaul, criticism of the Legal Services Corporation, indigent defense resource shortages in New York and Nevada, Maryland’s efforts to help pro se litigants, some changes in the Presidential Management Fellows program, and, ending as we began, more law firm pro bono.

• 7.14.10 – American Lawyer Daily – in Florida and elsewhere around the country, law firms are helping to soften the foreclosure crisis’s blow for low-income individuals, even in circumstances where firms traditionally haven’t done pro bono because of potential conflicts with financial institution clients.  For instance, the Florida Attorneys Saving Homes (FASH) program uses the services of pro bono attorneys who help mortgage borrowers by restructuring their loans before a lender forecloses.  The attorney can negotiate, even in some cases with a law firm client or business prospect, without worrying about having to actually litigate against that party.  In other cities, firms are finding other ways to represent borrowers’ interests without fouling relationships with institutional lenders.  Link to piece.

• 7.14.10 – WTVA Television Station Website (NBC Affiliate in Northern Mississippi) – “North Mississippi Rural Legal Services has been awarded a $75,000 grant by the Mississippi Bar Foundation Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts….NMRLS officials say the funds will be used to enhance program operations including operation of our telephone intake system known as the Call Center.”  This year, the Magnolia State’s IOLTA program has channeled over $612,000 in grants to the public interest community.   Link to article.

• 7.14.10 – Chicago Tribune –  DePaul University College of Law has “doubled the number of [law student] clinics in the past four years.”  The school’s nine clinics cover family law, civil rights, death penalty appeals, special education advocacy, and more.  Aside from serving low-income clients, the clinics give students hands-on experiential learning opportunities that do not exist in the classroom.  “[I]n an economy that has seen lawyers laid off from even the most prestigious firms, employers have their pick of attorneys and want graduates who arrive knowing how to interview a witness or negotiate a settlement…”  Link to article.  

• 7.13.10 – U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report on Legal Services Corporation Practices: “Improvements Needed in Controls over Grant Awards and Grantee Program Effectiveness” –  a GAO report, which is dated June 2010 but which appears to have circulated publicly for the first time this week, is critical of LSC’s management/administration policies regarding its financial grants to the 136 independent legal services providers that it funds throughout the U.S.  Link to report.  Link to National Law Journal coverage.  Link to LSC Press Release in response to report.  [Ed. Note: shortly after the GAO report’s release, the Center for Public Integrity published a piece that is highly critical of LSC management practices, and that highlights three instances of former employees at LSC grantee organizations embezzling funds for personal use.  In response to this piece, Jonathan Smith, executive director of the (non-LSC funded) Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, posted a blog entry in which he criticizes the CPI piece as being incomplete and painting an inaccurate picture of the legal services community.   It is noteworthy, and indeed Smith mentions in his blog post, that the criticism directed at LSC comes as the organization’s budget appropriation is being considered on the Hill.]  

• 7.13.10 – Times Herald-Record (New York State) – resource shortages plague indigent defense networks in New York counties, and “[a] number of reports by defense and constitutional advocacy groups have concluded that the public defender system needs better funding and better standards, or there will be no equal justice.”  Link to article.

• 7.12.10 – Baltimore Sun – as Maryland’s courts try “to cope with an onslaught of people representing themselves”, a self-help center for pro se litigants in Anne Arundel County is serving as a test model to ease strains on the court system and help parties who are not represented by counsel.  “Staffed by members of the Legal Aid Bureau, the pilot program is aimed at the meat-and-potatoes civil cases — small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, creditor-debtor issues and protective orders — that can clog the court system and lead to frustration when people try to handle the cases themselves.”  Link to article.

• 7.11.10 – Reno Gazette Journal – “A state commission tasked with determining whether Nevada’s court-appointed lawyers are doing a good job representing poor defendants has stalled amid arguing over…how…cases should be counted.”  Last year, a report commissioned by the Nevada Supreme Court concluded that the indigent defense system was in trouble.  But as public defenders, prosecutors, and other court officials have come together to look for solutions, they are disagreeing over threshold questions about how to define the scale and scope of the problem.  Link to article.  [Ed. note: here is a link to the July 2009 report – Assessment of the Washoe and Clark County, Nevada Public Defender Offices.] 

• 7.9.10 – FedBlog (a blog of the Government Executive news website) – the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is planning to improve some aspects of the Presidential Management Fellows program, including bolstering outreach to schools, shoring up the fellow placement infrastructure, and solidifying alumni networks.  Link to blog post.

• July, 2010 – Pro Bono Institute – “In 2009, 134 of the nation’s largest law firms reported their pro bono statistics to the Pro Bono Institute. Not all respondents provided information on every question. These firms performed a combined 4,867,820 total hours of pro bono work, as compared to 134 firms that performed 4,844,098 hours in 2008, an increase of 0.5% in pro bono time contributed by [participating] firms. While this percentage increase is statistically insignificant, it speaks volumes for the commitment to pro bono made by…firms at a time when law firms and, indeed the world, were experiencing untold changes.”  Link to report.

This comes to us courtesy of Jen Thomas at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (who blogged for us way back in January). It sounds like a great opportunity for any law students who are in the DC area this summer and are considering indigent defense work.

Public Defender Advocacy, Training & Hiring Conference (PATH):  This biennial conference will take place at Georgetown University Law Center on Saturday, July 31, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  Immediately following the conference, we will have a networking happy hour at a local venue. Students can register for the conference at http://www.pdsdc.org/LegalCommunity/CalendarItem.aspx?TrainingID=75.

PATH is a free conference for law students committed to, or interested in exploring careers in, indigent criminal defense representation – the ‘PD committed’ and the ‘PD curious’.  I conceived of the conference in 2008 as a way to help students navigate the very specific recruitment and hiring processes of public defender offices.  In this vein, students may choose from 12 sessions on the Advocacy, Training or Hiring tracks to self-direct their learning.  Although the conference is PD-specific, there are panels that will be of interest to students who are focusing on civil legal services work with low income, low wealth clients. Those students should feel free to register for PATH. You can check out the schedule for the conference online as well (pdf).

We blogged back in April about the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez case (both before and after oral arguments), which centered over whether the University of California, Hastings Law School (as a public entity) had to grant official school recognition and the benefits that entails to the school’s chapter of CLS. CLS requires members to sign a statement of faith and explicitly forbade open GLBT members, in violation of the school’s non-discrimination policy, but the organization argued that by not getting an exemption their First Amendment rights were being unfairly curtailed.

Well the Supreme Court finally weighed in yesterday, and came down 5-4 on the side of the law school and their non-discrimination policy. The San Jose Mercury News has a good recap of the decision and Justice Alito-authored dissent, with thoughts from several experts in the field.

This week’s Expert Opinion, on how to maximize your summer internship experience comes to us courtesy of Deb Ellis, Assistant Dean for Public Service at NYU School of Law, where she directs the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) and the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program and oversees the Judicial Clerkship Office. Prior to heading PILC, Deb had a varied public interest career, including serving as Legal Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where in 1992 she argued Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, and as a Staff Attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Deb graduated from Yale College and from NYU Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. She clerked for the late Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Exams are over and you’ve begun your public interest internship!  How can you be the kind of intern that employers will rave about and hopefully want to hire as an attorney someday?

From my perspective as both a public interest practitioner and now a law school counselor, I have developed eight tips based on what I look for when I hire:  individuals who take initiative — who can figure out what needs to be done on their cases and projects.  In short, I look for people who are proactive.

Sometimes students find that it takes a change of perspective to be proactive after a year spent in classrooms, where their role is more passive. But in the work world it is essential to take responsibility for your own learning.  If you make that effort  — to think through your priorities, contribute as much as you can to your employer, and be a team player – you will learn the most, and have the most fun, too.

Read Deb’s 8 Tips after the break!

Jonathan Smith, the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, put up an interesting post on his organization’s Making Justice Real blog last week. In it, he argues that the law school community is too focused on producing BigLaw lawyers, and should rethink the model so that more students are encouraged to – and educated in such a way to – serve clients of lesser financial means, i.e. lower- and middle-income individuals and families rather than the business interests that so many lawyers serve.

There are more than 37 million people in the United States living below the federal poverty line and scores of millions others who while not technically “poor” have inadequate incomes.   There are very limited legal services for those at the very bottom of the income scale and for those who have too much income to qualify for a free lawyer, but too little to pay a lawyer, there is nothing.  Around ½ of one percent of the legal industry is dedicated to serving people with low-incomes.  The overwhelming majority of money and lawyer time is dedicated to business interests and the concerns of the wealthy.

While law schools are not solely responsible for this disparity in access, they play a role.  The singularly important US News and World report rankings weigh heavily the rate of law placement in high paying corporate jobs, and as the deans each admitted this morning, these rankings are everything.  As a consequence, legal education has been designed to make students attractive for firm jobs, the cost of education has risen to match law firm salaries and the shrinking law firm job pipeline has law schools in a panic.

We think it’s an important point, and one that should be considered in the larger discussion of how the legal education model should be reshaped.  Weigh in and tell us what you think in the comments section.

• 6.10.10 – New York Law Journal – “Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has named 28 people to a task force charged with spearheading a court-led effort to secure adequate state funding for the representation of low-income New Yorkers in civil cases.”  The Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York is being led by Helaine Barnett, who recently stepped down as the Legal Services Corporation’s president.  The task force’s responsibilities will be to analyze information gathered at a series of hearings on the topic of access to justice that will be presided over by Judge Lippman and others.  “The aim of the hearings will be to determine the extent and nature of unmet legal needs throughout the state. Based on those findings and information gathered by the task force, Judge Lippman will make recommendations for increased state funding.”   Link to article.  [Ed note: for other, recent coverage about Judge Lippman’s focus on AtJ issues, see a 5/26/10 New York Law Journal piece on his creation of an attorney emeritus program for retired NY attorneys to provide pro bono service, and a 5.3.10 New York Times article covering Lippman’s call for a civil right to counsel.]

• 6.9.10 – Porterville Recorder (California) – budget cuts are forcing staff layoffs in the Tulare County public defender’s and district attorney’s offices.  The public defender will have to lay off three investigators and leave two other open positions unfilled.  In the prosecutor’s office, there is no funding to continue supporting an analyst position to maintain a database about agricultural crime.  Link to article.

• 6.9.10 – ABA Journal – the New York City Law Department, which is now hosting 13 deferred law firm associates, has 25 more deferred or furloughed associates taking placements this fall, and could take on more.  “The law department, which reached out to laid-off associates last April with offers of a haven to sharpen their skills while job-hunting, is now the go-to host for associates faced with 2011 start-dates, according to Stuart Smith, the law department’s director of legal recruitment.”

• 6.8.10 – Houston Chronicle [Op-ed] – a current Texas state judge and former federal judge write that a proposal to create a public defender’s office in Harris County (Houston) could be a step in the right direction, but that the public defender’s office contemplated in the current proposal would lack “1) independence from the judiciary; 2) workload standards; and 3) uniform use of the public defender office by all judges…. Harris County should undertake the establishment of this office, but only if it gets it right. The proposal should be amended to ensure that the public defender office is effective and meets national standards. Specifically, the county proposal should: 1) provide for an independent board of directors with the power to insulate the office and the public defender from partisan politics and judicial interference; 2) limit caseloads so that attorneys may zealously defend their clients; and 3) preclude judges from opting out of the new reforms.”  Link to op-ed.

• 6.8.10 – Dallas Morning News – “Legal aid lawyers today accused Texas of still running an illegally understaffed, inconvenient and confusing eligibility system for food stamps despite having worked off a backlog of pleas for help.”  Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has just made an additional court filing on behalf of food stamp applicants, following up on an initial lawsuit last December.  The Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s food stamp offices have been laboring for some time in the wake of a failed privatization attempt and swelling numbers of food stamp applicants.  “Last October, the state was tardy in deciding the cases for some 42,000 households that sought aid.”  Link to article. [Ed. Note: additional, past coverage of the lawsuit can be found in this 12.23.09 Houston Chronicle piece, this  1.26.10 KGNS TV Station website piece, and this 2.1.10 Dallas Morning News blog post. ]

• 6.7.10 – PR Newswire [Press Release] – staff attorneys of the Legal Aid and Defender Association in Detroit who are unionized with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) will demonstrate outside of the Association’s office because they have no employment contract.  Link to press release.

• 6.6.10 – The Star-Ledger (New Jersey) – two Seton Hall Law School graduates, both of whom work as local prosecutors in New Jersey, are leading a grassroots campaign to have their alma mater expand its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) to cover prosecutors.  They have launched a website and a Facebook page, and have secured the support of the New Jersey State Bar Association.  Seton Hall Law School’s LRAP program was begun in 2002 for graduates in public service careers.  A school official noted that there was never an intention on the school’s side to exclude any lawyers in public service careers, but rather that they did not see career paths of prosecutors as including some of the same financial hurdles as other public service career paths.  Link to article.

• 6.6.10 – Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) – on June 1st, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, urging him to reconsider restrictions on the use of federal funds made available to Ohioans through a mortgage foreclosure relief program.  Brown is concerned that the money can not be used to fund the provision of free legal services to low-income Ohioans in trouble.  “Brown said in a letter to Geithner last week: ‘Legal-aid services are immensely useful to homeowners who fall behind on their mortgage payments, sometimes because they are unable to access benefits like unemployment insurance. Foreclosure counseling is a similarly vital service’.”  Link to short article and to press release from Sen. Brown.

• 6.5.10 – Fresno Bee –  “Central California Legal Services has threatened to sue the City of Merced if it moves forward with its plan to enforce a no-camping ordinance and remove the residents of a large homeless camp on the edge of the city…”  CCLS contends that the city’s plan is “short-sighted, [and] unsupported by any evidence that suitable and affordable housing is available to accommodate the housing needs of the homeless persons threatened with displacement…”  Link to short article.

We’re a little behind.  The May, 2010 edition of the ABA Law Student Division’s Student Lawyer magazine just wound its way to our desk.  Here’s the magazine’s electronic home (some content is password protected, accessible to Law Student Division members and other subscribers).

The lead featured article is focused on law student pro bono.  “Don’t Wait to Work Pro Bono,” written by Prof. Mark E. Wojcik of the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, explains how pro bono fits into the rubric of attorneys’ ethical obligations, reviews some of the motivations for doing pro bono (which run from the entirely altruistic to the altruistic-but-also-self-serving), and explores the benefits that pro bono service offers.  The piece also offers resources for law students who wish to engage in pro bono service while in school, and reviews how to avoid “unauthorized practice of law” problems in performing pro bono before becoming a licensed attorney.

Some noteworthy info about law school pro bono programs (from the article):

• 36 ABA-accredited schools have pro bono or public service graduation requirements;
• 111 ABA-accredited schools have an administratively supported pro bono program

On a related note, last week the PSLawNet Blog highlighted a highly successful pro bono collaboration between the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and Southern Arizona Legal Aid.

Seton Hall Law School is one of about 100 law schools which offers a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for its graduates to support public interest and government work. It is  also one of several schools that currently does not include graduates working in prosecutor’s offices in their LRAP, but that may soon change thanks to the efforts of some Seton Hall alumni. The Star-Ledger has a story about two Seton Hall alumni working in the Essex County prosecutor’s office who have been actively lobbying their alma mater for changes to the LRAP program. They have created a website, a facebook page, and received support from the New Jersey State Bar Association.

The school is working actively to assess the issue and develop a response. Claudia St. Romain, an associate dean at Seton Hall, explains the purpose of the LRAP program:

“One of our goals was to remove some of the financial disincentives to our students who might have been not interested in going into some areas because of pay,” St. Romain said. “It was not our experience that the prosecutor’s office was one that students might have hesitated before entering.”

She assures the concerned alumni that the school is working on this, saying, “we hear our alums and we value them. We’re trying to figure out a resolution within the numbers and the dollars.”

This is an interesting issue for other schools with less-than-universal LRAPs to pay attention to, and we will provide updates here as they come.