We took a break for Turkey Day last week (and hope you did too!), but we are back with your weekly public interest news blast.  This week:  New York’s top jurist continues his crusade to bolster support for legal services; Yale Law students put their skills to use creating opportunities for New Haven public school students; UDC’s law school launches initiatives to serve at-risk youth; SCOTUS looks at California’s prisons, which are bursting at their seams; a rise in domestic violence against immigrant women is troubling to West Virginia DV prevention advocates; new public defender positions in Wisconsin – you did not misread that: NEW PUBLIC DEFENDER POSITIONS in Wisconsin; the fight about subjecting a state law school’s clinic to open public records provisions continues in NJ; Kids in Need of Defense is making an impact in Houston; 32 candidates want to be the head public defender in Cincinnati – maybe some of them should move to Wisconsin; speaking of defenders, caseload woes in Missouri persist; praise for the Georgia Supreme Court; pro bono efforts of Wal-mart’s in-house counsel in Arkansas; EJW’s growth and pursuing a public interest career; Dade County Bar Association thinking outside the box to fundraise for local Legal Aid Society; Millennial law students vs. Gen-X predecessors:  who is more public-service oriented;  does Indiana need to define “law enforcement costs” for county prosecutors?; and sentencing for the former Maryland Legal Aid Bureau Chief of Finance and his partner for stealing more than $1 million from the nonprofit.

• 12.1.10 – exciting news for legal services in the Empire State this week with Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman calling for the state legislature to increase civil legal services’ spending by $100 million.  This increase for civil legal services funding in the judicial branch’s budget proposal is a result of recommendations by the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York.  According to WNYC News the Chief Judge explained that while the state is experiencing tough economic times, it still makes sense to increase civil legal services spending “[b]ecause the ones hit hardest by this economic collapse in the state is the poor and the most vulnerable among us and if you let these people fall off the cliff, the consequences in every way are damaging.”  Under this proposal, the spending increase would be phased in over a four year period and by 2015 result in a 50% increase in civil legal services spending in NY.  The New York State Bar Association and the Urban Justice Center are both applauding the recommended funding increase.

• 11.30.10 – student members of Yale Law School’s Community and Development Clinic have helped draft a multi-million dollar agreement between Yale University and the city of New Haven to establish the New Haven Promise Program.  This program “will pay the full college or university tuition of New Haven public school students who meet its requirements for achievement, starting with current freshman,” for at least four New Haven public school classes.   Contract negotiations began in September and resulted in a formal announcement of the program on November 9.

• 11.30.10 – the Washington Post reports on new initiatives at the University of the District of Columbia’s (UDC) law schoo to protect at-risk youth.  The momentum – and funding – for these projects comes from the law firm of Crowell & Moring, which granted UDC over $600K to create the Took Crowell Institute for At-risk Youth.  One of the Institute’s projects will aim to provide lawyers for students who challenge school suspensions so that they can return to the classroom.  According to the Post:  “In an effort to keep serious school misbehavior from spiraling into even more serious juvenile delinquency, the law school at the University of the District of Columbia is taking up cases of public school students who have been suspended for weeks or months.  Critics of [long-term suspensions] say that far from encouraging better behavior, the suspensions often open the door to more trouble.”  Here’s a fact sheet on the the Institute, a press release about its launch, and past coverage from the Blog of the Legal Times.

• 11.29.2010 – Tuesday the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding overcrowding in California’s prisons and access to health care for prisoners.  This past January, a federal district court held that “overcrowding in the state’s prison system, the nation’s largest, is the main cause of substandard medical and mental health care that violates the prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment . . . The state houses 164,000 inmates in a system designed to hold about 80,000, and the prisons have been beyond capacity for two decades.  The judges ordered the state to cap the inmate population at 137.5% of their capacity within two years, which would be about 110,000 inmates this year.” Inmates, together with prison guards, support the lower court’s decision while the state of California contends that the court “overstepped” its authority and should be overturned.     How did the overcrowding get so bad?  During the 90’s the state legislature adopted tougher sentencing laws, including 3-strikes-and-your-out and parole crackdowns.  What is California’s plan to address the overcrowding?  “[R]eleasing low level offenders, sending fewer nonviolent criminals to prison by changing sentencing laws and building new prisons.”  Stay tuned, a decision from the Court is expected in Summer 2011.

• 11.29.10 – the News and Sentinel reports that domestic violence advocates in West Virginia are seeing a rise in cases involving immigrant women.  In addition to the obstacles faced by every victim of domestic violence, immigrants face additional challenges:  “they speak little or no English, they are isolated, have no support system, can’t work because they don’t have the proper paperwork and have no financial support” (and are not eligible for public benefits).  Further this is not an issue isolated to West Virginia, in an earlier national study, domestic violence was estimated to be three times more prevalent in marriages between immigrant women and U.S. citizens than in the general population. “An estimated 70% of abusive U.S. citizen spouses, including those who consummate relationships through [International Marriage Brokers], withhold the filing of the proper paperwork necessary to validate the legal status of their immigrant female partners to cause them to fall out of legal status and to hold the threat of jail or deportation over the woman.” . . . Further underscoring the depth of this problem is the National Justice Institute’s estimate that more than 73% of domestic violence cases are unreported.

Keep reading after the jump . . .

This UK alternative rock band has received 117 award nominations worldwide, of which they won 43 (we here at the PSLawNet blog decided to trust Wikipedia on this one) and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 since the band got together “sometime in 1997.”  But, MORE exciting (to us anyway in all our public interest legal geekiness) is the band’s recent decision to become patrons of Client Earth.

Client Earth is “an organization of activist lawyers committed to securing a healthy planet” who “work in Europe and beyond, bringing together law, science and policy to create pragmatic solutions to key environmental challenges.”

From ecorazzi: the latest in green gossip,

The band learned of the organization thanks to Coldplay’s creative director and fifth member Phil Harvey — one of ClientEarth’s trustees. What’s more, the producer of their last album Brian Eno, as well as the MP and former editor of the Ecologist Zac Goldsmith, are also patrons of the organization.

“Client Earth is at the forefront of changing the way the planet’s resources are governed,” said the band. “They have a positive and pragmatic approach to environmental issues, improving and enforcing environmental law. Coldplay are proud to support them.”

Now we know there are a lot of jokes out there about lawyers, but lawyers who help save the planet are no joke to us!

Check out the video:  Coldplay support ClientEarth from ClientEarth on Vimeo.

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   21 new attorney positions,   12 new internships, and  7 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,236 active opportunities in our job database.  PSLawNet enjoyed a Thanksgiving Holiday as well so we have a backlog of new attorney and internship postings, so make sure to check the database mid-week for a number of new openings.  To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

The Harris County Public Defender is currently hiring for both an Assistant Public Defender to serve as Division Chief for their Mental Health Division and an Assistant Public Defender to serve as Division Chief of their Appellate Division.  Harris County, Texas hired its first public defender earlier this month and the office is gearing up to begin operations in 2011 (Read local coverage from Houston and check out our earlier coverage of this issue in the June 11, 2010 issue of the Public Interest News Bulletin).

The Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project (CDP) is currently seeking law student interns interested in working with them in Summer 2011 to protect the rights of low-income people and to provide legal and technical assistance to advance diverse community development projects.  The CDP provides legal, technical, research, and policy support to community-based organizations working to improve conditions in low-income communities in New York City.  Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, but must be received by January 10, 2011.  Check PSLawNet for additional details about the internships and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Considering a career as a public defender?  The University of Virginia School of Law has shared their How to Get a Job in a Public Defender’s Office guide with PSLawNet’s Public Service Career Library.  The guide is designed to help students decide if they would like a career as a public defender.  It was also created to assist committed students in successfully landing a job at a defender’s office.  Among other features, this publication includes information on how to choose the right public defender’s office for you, how to develop a public defender resume, and how to prepare for a public an interview for a public defender’s office.   Check it out.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .

From the Legal Services Corporation late last week:

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) today announced the launch of StatesideLegal.org, the first national website focused on common legal problems of veterans and military families, and the start of an awareness campaign involving community-based Vet Centers and local legal aid offices.“Our veterans have defended and protected our most basic freedoms and now it is imperative that we stand up for them. That is why this special effort is so important,” LSC Board Chairman John G. Levi said. “We are delighted to be working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to help make local Vet Centers aware of our services and to train those centers about the legal services that are available through our programs.”

Fortunately, many similar initiatives to help those who wore (or are wearing) the uniform have materialized in recent months.  The PSLawNet Blog has written extensively about law-school based projects, including one at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, one run by the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and one at the William & Mary School of Law.

Veterans assistance programs are popular among funders, so law students who are interested in pursuing legal services careers should think about getting some experience working with vets and servicemembers in need.

This week: Professor Tribe leaving DOJ Access-to-Justice initiative to return to Harvard; looking for more pro bono volunteers in Maryland; a report on poverty from Legal Services of New Jersey; public benefits backlog in a California county; federal security clearance process speeding up; pro bono lawyers needed in Maryland, part deux; a tax on Ohio lawyers to pay for public defenders?; DOJ domestic violence prevention funding in Los Angeles; the terrible IOLTA situation in Florida; a need for pro bono attorneys in Eastern Washington State; a beneficiary of cy pres funds in Dallas; and a post-election call to defund the Legal Services Corporation.

• 11.18.10 – an announcement on the Harvard Law School website states that Prof. Laurence Tribe, who has been serving as Senior Counselor for Access to Justice at the DOJ, will leave that post and return to Boston on account of health problems.   He has stayed on at DOJ this fall because he is playing “a key role in a public White House event to be held Nov. 19 with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. The event will announce new initiatives to help middle class and low-income families secure their legal rights, Tribe said.”  Of course his health must come first, but the PSLawNet Blog is saddened to learn that the Access-to-Justice community will lose Prof. Tribe – at least in this prominent and unique DOJ position.  There was no word in the announcement about who will fill his DOJ position (or whether it will be filled, although we assume the AtJ initiative will not be abandoned outright because Tribe had slowly been adding staff and building an office in DC).  Here’s the announcement: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2010/11/18_tribe.html.

• 11.16.10 – the Maryland Daily Record reports that the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service is trying to expand its service capacity by recruiting more attorneys who practice in small firms and those practicing in rural areas.  MVLS is touting the support infrastructure it provides to attorneys as a huge benefit for attorneys trying to do pro bono in smaller offices.  One interesting tidbit from the story is that MVLS’s income-eligibility guidelines are fairly permissive.  According to MVLS’s deputy director,  “‘Our criteria is up to 50% of the Maryland median income – a family of four can make up to $50,000 and still qualify…'”  MVLS also administers a “low bono” judicare program – via a grant from the Maryland Legal Services Corporation – that provides modest attorney fees for advocates handling contested family law matters.  (For more on the rising need for pro bono services in Maryland, see the Baltimore Sun article below.)

• 11.16.10 – the Asbury Park Press reports that “Legal Services of New Jersey researchers on Tuesday said they compiled the stories of more than 80 people struggling on a daily basis to afford food, health care, child care, housing and other needs … The 223-page report ‘represents by far the largest-scale social science inquiry into what life is like for New Jerseyans burdened by poverty,’ said Melville D. Miller Jr., president of Legal Services, the nonprofit organization that coordinates the state’s system of legal aid for low-income people in civil matters.”  Here’s a link to the report: “Food, Clothing, Health or a Home?  The Terrible Choices and Deprivations – and Great Courage – of New Jerseyans Who Live in Poverty.”  Oh, heck, since the Asbury Park Press covered the story, Springsteen for everybody!

• 11.16.10 – in a clear sign of how the recession has impacted local governments’ abilities to administer social services programs, “San Mateo County is  racing to process a backlog of applications for food stamps, financial aid, Medi-Cal and other forms of public assistance.”  As reported by the Mercury News, records show that the “Human Services Agency failed to process more than 1,000 applications by state-required deadlines each month between May and September.”  The primary culprits are a huge increase in public benefit applications and the fact that the Human Services Agency, laboring under budget constraints, hasn’t been able to fill open positions.  The Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County “will consider legal options” if there is still an application backlog by 2011.

• 11.16.10 – here’s some good news for those who are interested in federal careers: security clearance processes, which have at times moved with all the speed of a sleepy, apathetic glacier, are quickening.  The Government Executive website reports that a “…Government Accountability Office audit … found [that the Department of] Defense required 325 days on average to complete initial personnel security clearances in 2007, but reduced processing time to 60 days in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010. The Office of Personnel Management, which conducts 90 percent of the government’s background investigations, reduced its average completion time for initial security clearances from 153 days in fiscal 2007 to 47 days in fiscal 2010, according to agency data.” http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=46530&dcn=e_gvet

Keep reading . . .

This week’s Bulletin begins and ends with stories on overburdened public defenders’ offices in Missouri.  In between: a new project to serve veterans in Georgia; an op-ed on supporting legal services from the ABA’s president-elect; a “broken” legal aid system in British Columbia; a look at Michigan Law’s one-of-a-kind human trafficking clinic; a new, statewide legal services program in Wyoming; a sobering report on the fiscal state of nonprofit human services providers; a new pro bono project to engage senior law-firm lawyers in D.C.; and the Federal Career Intern Program may not be much longer for this world.

• 11.11.10 – the Nodaway News Leader in Missouri reports that the Nodaway County public defender’s office has a caseload “that has increased to 270% of what the state believes a normal caseload should be.”  (See the final item below for more Missouri public defense news.)

• 11.10.10 – a press release from the Georgia Legal Services Program announces a new resource for veterans advocates: “In response to the growing need for legal assistance, Georgia Legal Services and the State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project teamed up to create an online resource to encourage and support lawyers in delivering critical legal help to our country’s defenders. The website is also designed to support the work of the Military Legal Assistance Program of the State Bar of Georgia, a new initiative that connects pro bono and reduced-fee lawyers with veterans and service members in Georgia.”  Georgia Military Legal Assistance Program website.

• 11.10.10 – on the heels of the national Celebration of Pro Bono we were happy to read ABA President-elect William T. Robinson III’s piece in the Louisville Courier-Journal emphasizing the importance of both engaging in pro bono and encouraging Congress to “pass legislation to grant full FDIC protection for IOLTAs . . . during the upcoming lame-duck session” in order “to protect this important source of legal aid funding.”  IOLTA accounts currently have FDIC protection, however that protection will expire at the end of 2010.

Keep reading the bulletin . . .

We’ve recently posted about great work being done by law students throughout the country via legal clinics for veterans. On a related note, last week we came across an article about the naming of the William & Mary School of Law’s veterans clinic.  (It’s called the Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic, and you can read more about it here.)  Most noteworthy to us, though, is that the article mentions how the clinic is run and how it’s been funded thus far.  This information may be useful for students who are working with – or hoping to launch – a similar clinic now.

The Veterans Benefits Clinic accepted its first clients in January 2009. William & Mary law students working under the supervision of Adjunct Law Professors and retired JAG officers Stacey-Rae Simcox and Mark D. Matthews help veterans with their claims for benefits while students and faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Psychological Services and Development provide assessment, counseling and referrals to veterans in need of those services.

The clinic’s work is made possible, in part, by the support of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and members of the William & Mary Law School Class of 1974. In addition, the Virginia Bar Association (VBA) announced Nov. 4 its Veteran’s Initiative is urging law firms to sponsor fundraisers to benefit William & Mary’s Veterans Benefits Clinic. The VBA Veteran’s Initiative seeks to educate attorneys about veterans’ legal needs and to enlist attorneys to provide assistance to veterans on a pro bono or reduced fee basis.

The partnership with VCU’s psychology professionals seems like a terrific idea, since substantiating eligibility and need for benefits and services is critical to securing them.  It’s also good to see that the clinic has such diverse players as a charitable foundation, the state bar, and law school alumni supporting its work.  We hadn’t thought of this before, but it makes a lot of sense to reach back to Vietnam-era graduates for support.  Many served in the military themselves, and almost all of them watched friends and relatives adjust – sometimes with great struggle – to civilian life after military service.

This week: Strong demand for legal services in South Carolina; $350K from DOJ to law school for veterans clinic; 3 deferred law firm associates wrap up their public interest placements; in “brave people taking tough jobs” news, Missouri to get a new public defender; what will a Republican House do to the federal workforce?; loan assistance for U. of Tennessee public interest grads; foreclosure clinics in Kentucky; loan assistance for South Dakota prosecutors and defenders; the Wyoming Access to Justice Commission launches a new legal services program; a new DOJ program brings together law schools, firms, and public interest offices to combat domestic violence.

• 11.3.10 – just FYI South Carolina’s Greenville News is a running a subscription-only article entitled “Legal Services Faces Big Demand in Tough Times.”  We seem to have let our Greenville News subscription lapse, but if you’ve got one…

• 11.2.10 – from a press release we learn that the “Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC) at The John Marshall Law School recently was awarded a $350,000 grant from the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs.”  We covered the announcement more extensively in this Wednesday blog post.  It’s truly heartening to see so many law schools creating and expanding programs to serve veterans.  We’ve covered some past instances of law schools/students working with vets; see the last item in our 10/8/10 News Bulletin for stories about work at the University of San Francisco, Arizona State, and Detroit Mercy.  And for good measure here’s an interview we did with Michael Taub, a staff attorney who runs a successful veterans assistance program at Philadelphia’s Homeless Advocacy Project.  Michael, a friend and former officemate of the PSLawNet Blog, is an outstanding attorney but has so-so taste in music.

Keep reading the bulletin . . .

Congrats to The John Marshall Law School’s Veteran’s Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC)!  The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs has awarded VLSC a $350,000 to support its efforts to “work with the state court system to implement Veterans Courts; . . . develop the partnership with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to administer support for qualifying veterans appearing in Federal Misdemeanor Court;  serve as the strategic depository for all scholarship addressing domestic violence issues . . . and assist other law schools across” the country to develop similar programming in their communities.

“This grant makes it possible for us to provide valuable legal support to those who have given so much to our country – the men and women who have served our nation in time of need.”

-The John Marshall Law School Foundation President John Lee.

VLSC is one of the first clinics of its kind in the country and is committed to addressing the legal needs of veterans seeking benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The program assists veterans by investigating and researching their VA benefit claims.   The clinic also provides referrals to private attorneys for qualified veterans through a statewide network of pro bono attorneys.

“We ask a lot of our veterans. We put them in harm’s way. We ask that they give the last ounce of devotion that they possibly can and then sometimes when they get back state-side, we don’t always give them the support that they need.  That is one of the reasons for our veterans clinic – to try and make sure that we do give the men and women who are veterans the help that they need.”

-John Marshall Dean John E. Corkery

Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL) congratulated the law school during the grant announcement ceremony for both receiving the grant and the school’s “tremendous outreach into the community.”

PSLawNet is always excited to hear about law schools providing legal assistance to our country’s veterans.  Check out our earlier post to learn about two programs at The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law addressing the growing legal needs of low-income veterans.

Students from the  Voter’s Rights Project at Rutgers School of Law-Camden are volunteering their time to monitor participation and provide advice to voters at the polls today throughout Camden.

The Voters’ Rights Project is a non-partisan pro bono program established by Rutgers-Camden students, in 2004, in a effort to mirror the efforts of the national Election Protection program.

“The goal of the project is to ensure that every voter within Camden feels safe and is able to successfully exercise their right to vote without fear of intimidation,” said 2L Matt DePasquale, co-coordinator of the student-run project.

Students have registered dozens of voters, monitored Camden polling places, and developed a strong partnership with the Camden County Board of Elections.  According to Eve Biskind Klothen, Assistant Dean for Pro Bono and Public Interest Programs at Rutgers–Camden

“[t]he Camden County Board of Elections has sought their assistance and input, and in turn conducts training for participating students. They then monitor elections as student observers; and now some students, after additional training, have been deputized to provide further assistance on Election Day.”

The students’ work does not stop after election day, throughout the year the project organizes voter registration drives and implements educational programming at local schools and community centers.  In 2009, the project received national recognition when it was awarded received Equal Justice Work’s Exemplary Public Service Award for a student group.  Read the full coverage.

Interested in learning about more election efforts today?