The Innocence Project climbs into the Mountain State.  From the Gazette-Mail:

[Innocence Project clinic director Valena] Beety and recent University of Chicago Law School graduate Kristen McKeon, who is helping with cases as part of a yearlong fellowship, will handle the bulk of the casework for the WVU clinic. The clinic’s four law students are charged with screening applicants for the program, Beety said.

“We’re focusing as a project on freeing innocent people who are in prison, but also on policy problems, systemic problems that lead to wrongful convictions, and making eyewitness identification more reliable,” she said.

Seventy-five percent of the 297 prisoners exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989 were convicted because they were mistakenly identified as suspects, according to figures from the national Innocence Project, which is based in New York.

WVU’s clinic is still new, Beety said, so they haven’t received many applications for post-conviction help, but she has been reaching out to prisons, public defender offices and other avenues for leads on potential cases.

When the applications do start rolling in, the clinic’s student screeners will generally take two factors into account in determining whether to take a case: the credibility of the applicant and whether there is likely to be evidence that would conclusively point to an exoneration.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  I spent time earlier this week romping around in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, prompting me once more to wonder why I live on the East Coast.  My Blackberry’s continued buzzing while I was 9000 feet up reminded me that, for good or for ill, it’s harder and harder to truly disconnect these days.  I fought off a few impulses to toss it into the Big Thompson River.  And I’m glad I didn’t because much has happened in the public interest arena. 

First, big props to Kelly Tautges, Friend of the PSJD Blog and (actual title) Director of Pro Bono with the Chicago Bar Foundation.  The Daily Law Bulletin has named Tautges one of “40 Under 40” lawyers to watch in Chicago.  I was enlisted to help embarrass Kelly by publicizing this distinction.  So that’s checked off the to-do list.  (Sorry, Kelly.  Not really.)

Okay, the access-to-justice and public-interest week in very, very short:

• Missouri’s indigent defense program is becoming a weekly news fixture;
• next door in Illinois, funding for foreclosure prevention goes to a Chicago legal aid office;
• the “Is the Income Based Repayment program sustainable?” inquiry continues;
• a public defender in San Diego will cost you $50;
• a profile of NOLA’s pro bono project;
• the FTC goes after “legal aid” scams preying on distressed homeowners;
• Michigan bill to revamp indigent defense program faces legislative scrutiny;
• pro bono Down Under;
• Manhattan DA and New York Law School collaborate on new clinical program;
• Colorado Bar Association fundraiser may offset IOLTA shortfalls facing the legal aid community;
• is California’s 3 Strikes law striking out;
• Alabama revs up the “justice bus” engine;
• proposed New Mexico constitutional amendment to create independent public defender program
• Massachusetts launches program for retired attorneys to do pro bono work.
• Super Music Bonus.

The summaries:

• 10.11.12 – there’s been a lot of ink spilled recently over the health of Missouri’s indigent defense program.  Some county defenders’ offices are limiting case intake on account of a perceived case overload which is straining resources.  A new report from the state auditor may muddy the picture, however.  “Missouri’s auditor challenged Wednesday whether the state’s public criminal defense lawyers really can support the notion that they face a genuine ‘caseload crisis.’  In a report critical of the Missouri state public defender system, Auditor Thomas A. Schweich took no position as to whether such a crisis really existed. He noted that his auditors found that the system has depended on outdated models and unsupported assumptions to calculate how much time its lawyers actually work on cases….  Cathy R. Kelly, director of the public defender system, said her office already was working on solutions to problems outlined in the audit.
  Kelly said she is happy to find better ways of measuring caseloads. But those figures, when they become available, could show that the problem is worse that anyone imagines, Kelly said.  ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ she said.”  (Story from the Kansas City Star.  Additional coverage from St. Louis Public Radio, MissouriNet, and here’s the auditor’s report.)

• 10.11.12 – $650,000 of Illinois’s mortgage foreclosure fraud settlement money is going to Metropolitan Family Services to represent low-income families facing foreclosure.  (Story from the Sun-Times, and here’s an MFS press release.

• 10.11.12 – a couple of weeks ago we took note of a blog post wondering whether the Income Based Repayment program can have staying power given how many debt-laden graduates enter the employment market each year.  This week an AmLaw op-ed piece picks up on that question: “IBR is calibrated for typical college graduates who have less than $30,000 in student loan debt. Its proponents did not contemplate the already high and ever-increasing costs of professional education coupled with acute professional oversaturation and underemployment. With so many law school graduates trying to enter the workforce with six-figure debts and very poor short- and long-term employment prospects, the likelihood that the government will be forced to cancel large amounts of law school debt in 20-25 years is high. As a result, the question floating in the legal education community is just how unpayable are most law school debts?” I’m on vacation this week and haven’t had a chance to closely read the data-heavy piece.  But in the Great Recession’s wake this is a question that law school administrators must be looking at.  I’d love to hear from Heather Jarvis, Equal Justice Works, and other debt experts on the issue.

• 10.10.12 – “Criminal defendants who are too poor to hire their own defense attorneys will have to pay $50 for public-defender representation under an ordinance approved unanimously by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.  People who are too poor to pay even the new $50 “registration fee,” can ask a judge to waive it.  Despite concerns about the impact on the Sixth Amendment right to defense counsel, many counties in California have implemented court-appointed-attorney fees, which the state Legislature legalized in 1996. Originally set at $25, the cap was raised to $50 in 2010.”  (Story from San Diego City Beat.)

• 10.10.12 – a profile of NOLA’s Pro Bono Project: “Rachel Piercey, executive director of the Pro Bono Project, talks with great passion about her group’s work to provide free civil legal services to New Orleanians who need them. ‘We’re in our 26th year of operation, and we continue to grow because unfortunately, the civil needs of the poor are not going away,’ she said.   ‘And the needs always exceed the available resources. The entire organization is built around the volunteer concept and giving back to our community.’  During a typical year, the project averages between 1,300 to 1,400 cases, but in 2012 there has been a 50 percent increase in the case load.”  (Full story in the Times-Picayune.)

• 10.10.12 – “Targeting scam artists offering bogus legal services to distressed homeowners, the Federal Trade Commission on October 9 announced three suits against mortgage relief operations that allegedly victimized thousands of consumers.   In suits filed in federal court in Florida, California and Ohio, the FTC charged the companies with violating the Federal Trade Act and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rule by falsely claiming they could help homeowners avoid foreclosure. In some instances, the scammers allegedly promised but failed to deliver assistance from a ‘network’ of lawyers, or falsely passed themselves off as attorneys.”  (Full story in the National Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 – news out of Michigan about proposed reforms to what is now a decentralized, county-by-county indigent defense system.  “A Senate panel has begun hearing arguments on a bill to fix the way Michigan counties provide defense attorneys to the poor.  The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s still skeptical about the legislation.  Senator Rick Jones says…he…doesn’t see it as a statewide issue that requires sweeping changes…. The bill would create a state panel to set standards for appointing public defenders. Supporters point to a number of studies that rank Michigan’s public defense system among the worst in the country.  Some Michigan counties worry the changes could cost them, even if they’re already doing a good job.  The state House has already passed the bill out of committee. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.”  (Story from Michigan Public Radio.)

• 10.9.12 – “Australia’s foremost pro bono advocate has challenged mid-tier and small law firms to devote more resources to pro bono work.  John Corker…of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre…spoke to Lawyers Weekly in the wake of the release of the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey.  While the average number of pro bono hours per lawyer per year had increased when compared to the last survey two years ago (from 29 hours per lawyer per annum in 2010 to 29.9 hours in 2012), it was large law firms that picked up the slack.” (Full story from Lawyers Weekly.)
  • Here’s the Centre’s 2012 report, in case you’d like to learn more about pro bono Down Under in the Outback among the Kangaroos and the Fosters and “That’s not a knife…” and I’ve run out of stereotypes so let’s all be happy about that.
  • As an aside, I’ve met John Corker a few times.  He’s a delightful person and a highly successful advocate for pro bono in Australia.  While at a conference in 2008, John and I ended up sitting together for John’s first-ever baseball game.  (Twins v. Red Sawx in the old Metrodome.)  I’m a lifelong baseball fan, and thought it would be easy to walk him through the basics.  Turns out baseball is by any objective measure the craziest game you could ever conjure up, and/or I’m the world’s worst explainer.  John graciously pretended to understand my ham-handed rule explanations.  But we had some beers and shared some laughs.  And that’s baseball’s true virtue, anyway, people.

• 10.9.12 – “The Manhattan District Attorney’s office and New York Law School are teaming up to have students prosecute non-violent misdemeanors and violations in the Manhattan Criminal Court’s Quality of Life part. The clinical program announced Oct. 5 will allow students to engage in plea negotiations, prepare witnesses and participate in suppression hearings and bench trials under the supervision of assistant district attorneys and adjunct professors. The yearlong clinic will begin in the fall of 2013.”  (Story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 –  “[Legal aid] programs around the state will be spared cuts after a Colorado Bar Association fundraising drive has helped cover almost the entire projected [IOLTA] shortfall.  The CBA and its sections in three months have raised $79,000, just shy of the estimated cuts….  The programs are funded largely by the Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation, made of the interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts. But because of the down economy, and its resulting low interest rates, the fund hasn’t generated the same funding level as past years. Just this year, COLTAF monies going to Colorado Legal Services dropped by $500,000.  In June, the CBA learned that pro bono programs were going to receive an $83,000 reduction in their COLTAF funding. The bar quickly organized a fundraiser, and nearly every section contributed with the CBA matching the donations dollar-for-dollar.”  (Here’s the story – but I just quoted most of it – from Law Week Colorado.)

• 10.8.12 – a New York Times op-ed looks at whether California’s “3 strikes” law is working as it should.  A study [by Stanford Law’s Three Strikes Project] showed that more than 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses under the three-strikes law. While it is possible that some of the inmates may be eligible for parole after 25 years, a majority face the prospect of decades of prison time. Many of these stiff sentences struck us as egregious. Although judges have sentencing discretion in a very narrow band of three-strikes cases, the reality is that judges almost universally consider themselves bound under California law to impose a life sentence for a third felony offense, no matter how minor.”  (Here’s the fancy multimedia opinion piece.)

• 10/8/12 – Alabama’s going the justice bus route.  “Low-income Alabamians across the state this month can get free legal help when the ‘Justice Bus’ rolls into town.  In conjunction with the National Pro Bono Celebration, volunteer lawyers will fan out to four spots in the Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile regions. They literally will arrive in buses.  The lawyers will help people with uncomplicated civil matters like wills and trusts, uncontested divorces, housing disputes and debt collection issues.”  (Story from Alabama.com.)  The piece notes that these very well-intentioned Alabama lawyers borrowed the idea from lawyers in California.  They also borrowed the name “Justice Bus,” which may or may not be cool with San Francisco-based One Justice, which launched the initiative back in 2007.

• 10.6.12 – “It’s the last item on the Nov. 6 ballot. Hence, proponents are urging voters to “start at the bottom” with Amendment 5, which would change the New Mexico Constitution to create an independent Public Defender Department.  The chief public defender is currently appointed by the governor, and the agency is attached to the state’s Corrections Department.  The amendment gives authority to appoint the chief public defender to a Public Defender Commission, which also would provide administrative guidance and oversight of the new department.”  (Story from the Santa Fe New Mexican.)

• 10.5.12 – Massachusetts has just launched a program for retired attorneys to serve as pro bono “fellows”, helping beleaguered legal aid offices deal with overwhelming caseloads.  (Story from the AP.)

• Music!  Pretty sure I posted this once before, but repetition is just fine for this heart-melting Bill Withers tune. 

By: Steve Grumm

Bipartisan Bird. Big Bird kickin’ it with former first lady Pat Nixon.

Happy Friday, folks.   I hope your week is closing out well.  From my perch here in Washington, DC I’m looking out at a beautiful October morning.  Well, truth be told I’m looking out at an office building alleyway, a dumpster, a frozen yogurt place, and the guy in the office across the alley with whom I have a sort of awkward, and very quiet, relationship.  Nevertheless it is a nice day. 

What’s happened this week in the world of access to justice?  The Legal Services Corporation released a report from its pro bono task force.  There are two birthdays, one for a law school clinic and one for a legal aid organization.  Indigent defense caseloads continue making headlines throughout the country.  And more…

The news in very, very brief:

• show me new public defender caseload limits in Missouri;
• happy b-day, LANC;
• short on capital defenders in the bayou;
• a call for more legal-aid funding from the NY gov’t.;
• LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force report;
• LSC board meeting and an op-ed from its chair;
• former law school dean to administer NY’s new pro bono requirement;
• the importance of legal aid in serving domestic violence victims;
• happy b-day to a UC Davis clinic;
• new WA public-defender caseload limits cause stir among one county’s contract defenders;
• what is BABSEA CLE?;
• super music bonus!

The summaries:

• 10.4.12 – here is a trio of stories about how the criminal justice community is reacting to newly effective caseload limits in some Missouri public defenders’ offices:
  • from St. Louis Public Radio: “Several public defender offices around the state have notified courts they will not be taking cases beyond their maximum caseload this month.  The 18 offices around Missouri include ones in St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson City and Springfield.  In St. Louis instead of turning away all cases public defenders met with the 22ndCircuit Court and the Circuit Attorney’s office to craft a different solution. Director Mary Fox says the circuit’s presiding judge then issued an administrative order that the public defender’s St. Louis office will no longer take cases involving certain non-violent crimes.”
  • a Columbia Daily-Tribune piece looks at what’s happening in Boone County, where overwhelming caseloads several months ago led to supreme court action to take action: “The 13th Judicial Circuit has agreed on a protocol for assigning private attorneys to overflow public defender cases, and those attorneys will be assigned cases at the end of the month.  Public defenders in the circuit, which includes Boone and Callaway counties, today began transferring to an assignment docket misdemeanor cases as well as misdemeanor and felony probation cases of qualified clients not incarcerated….  The enactment of today’s protocol, however, is not a long-term solution. The Missouri Bar and the Missouri State Public Defender will be seeking additional funding for more attorneys and resources when the Missouri General Assembly gathers later this year.” 
  • same thing from this password-protected Columbia Missourian piece: “Monday marked the first day the Boone County Public Defender’s office operated under a monthly 1,727-hour caseload restriction.” 
  • 10.4.12 – Legal Aid of North Carolina has hit the big 5-0.  Here’s some coverage from the Winston-Salem Chronicle.

• 10.3.12 – short on capital defenders in Louisiana.  “East Baton Rouge Public Defender Mike Mitchell says his office is in ‘crisis.’ He says the office cannot accept any new death penalty cases…  In Louisiana, death penalty cases must be tried by lawyers who are certified to try those type of cases. Mitchell says he cannot accept any new cases because he has 7 current and 15 pending.”  (Story from WAFB.)

• 10.3.12 – an Albany Times-Union editorial calls on the state government to find more legal aid funding: “A major mechanism for funding legal aid in New York is the Interest on Lawyer Account Fund, which draws revenue from interest on some bank accounts set up by lawyers on behalf of clients. As interest rates on those accounts have plunged, from 2.25 percent in 2007 to just .25 percent, so has its annual revenue, from $31.7 million to just $6.5 million.  Indeed, when all government and private sources are added up, funding for civil legal aid has plummeted from $261 million three years ago to $223 million this past year.  Meanwhile, the need has soared, as more and more people struggle to keep their homes, obtain public assistance to feed their families, or get what’s due them from unemployment insurance.”

• 10.2.12 – the Legal Services Corporation’s blue-ribbon Pro Bono Task Force has issued a much anticipated report, laying out the need for increased pro bono work, and calling for specific actions from various actors in the legal community.  Here’s a summary of the reports recommendations, here’s the full report, and here’s a list of the task force members.

• 10.1.12 – with the LSC board meeting in North Carolina, board chair John Levy penned this op-ed in the Charlotte News Observer: “LSC’s programs throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country are increasingly overwhelmed with requests for help. As a result of the recession, nearly one in five Americans – 61 million people – now qualify for LSC-funded civil legal assistance because they live at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That is an all-time high.   As demand has been rising, the combined funding for LSC programs from federal, state, local and all other sources has dropped from $960 million in 2010 to $878 million in 2012…. The circumstances in North Carolina mirror the national trend. More than 21 percent of North Carolinians now qualify for help from Legal Aid of North Carolina, but LANC is facing a 14 percent drop in funding from all sources this year.   Last fall, budget cuts forced LANC to shutter three field offices in largely rural areas and eliminate nearly 30 staff positions, impacting services in 11 counties. The budget crunch has also forced LANC to impose a salary and hiring freeze since 2008 and to narrow the kinds of cases it will accept.”

• 10.1.12 – – in the Empire State, Touro Law’s former dean is tapped to oversee implementation of the new rule that will require 50 hours of pro bono service in order to become licensed to practice.  “Lawrence Raful, the former dean of Touro Law Center on Long Island, has been appointed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to oversee implementation of a new rule that all applicants to the New York bar first prove they have completed at least 50 hours of pro bono activities (NYLJ, Sept. 20).  Raful will be the Unified Court System’s “point person” in dealing with law schools, law firms, legal services providers and others who have questions about the new requirement, said Paul Lewis, chief of staff to first deputy state administrative judge Lawrence Marks.” (Story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 9.30.12 – October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  In Tennessee, a Legal Aid Society attorney emphasizes the importance of legal aid in supporting DV victims.  “Studies show that the most effective way to end the cycle of abuse is to help victims become independent of their abusers. Low-income victims often remain in abusive marriages or relationships because they can’t afford the legal assistance needed to get a divorce or an order of protection. A victim who understands that she can get an order of protection, divorce, job training, affordable housing and child care will have the confidence and courage to leave an abuser and become a stable, independent member of the community.”  (Full op-ed in The Tennessean.)

• 9.29.12 – happy 30^th to the Immigration Law Clinic at UC Davis Law: “Founded in 1982, the clinic was the first in the nation to train law students to represent non-citizens in immigration court, said Dean Kevin Johnson.  Guided by supervising attorneys, about 30 law students per semester have represented clients from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Jamaica, Romania, Fiji, Laos, Cambodia, India, China and the Philippines.”  (Here’s a brief profile in the Sacramento Bee.)

• 9.29.12 – there’s all sorts of confusion in one Washington State county in the wake of a state high court order which will place caseload limits on public defenders.  In Benton County, a handful of contracted defenders handed in resignations – which may have been a form of protest –but then reconsidered.  “A Benton County public defense attorney who tried to rescind his resignation during a contract dispute has filed for an injunction to keep his job. Six of the county’s nine public defenders recently submitted letters of resignation following a stalemate in negotiations about new caseload restrictions mandated by the state Supreme Court. Four of the attorneys later rescinded their resignations, but it’s not clear if Benton County commissioners knew that when they voted this week to accept the resignations of Dan Arnold, Kevin Holt, Scott Johnson, Sal Mendoza Jr., Gary Metro and Larry Zeigler.”  (Story from the Tri-City Herald.)

• 9.29.12 – here’s an interesting piece on an American lawyer who runs a nonprofit training Southeast Asian lawyers on representing impoverished clients in countries where relatively weak rule-of-law protections can leave those on the economic margins on the justice system’s margins as well.  “Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEA CLE), a nonprofit Lasky cofounded about a decade ago, trains young lawyers across the Asia-Pacific region to defend the powerless, even though law schools here typically place little emphasis on helping vulnerable groups.  Lasky’s organization has worked with more than 40 universities in nine Asia-Pacific countries to develop programs that teach lawyers to understand the need to provide legal services to at-risk communities.”  (Story from the Alaska Dispatch.)

Music! Last Sunday I attended a Unitarian Universalist service which included a “dedication” ceremony for my little cousin, Matthew Patrick Clowry.  (My roots are in Catholicism, so I’d liken a dedication ceremony to a christening.)  It was a lovely experience, the only downside for me being that Matthew, who is a year old, fidgeted less than I did during the service.  Some habits we do not lose.  In any event the service closed with an inspiring and pretty song that was new to me.  So here’s Nina Simone’s take on “I Wish I Could Know What It Means to Be Me”, which is a nice way to start a day.

By: Steve Grumm

Their robes dry-cleaned, their pencils sharpened, their hatchets (apparently) buried after last term’s contentious healthcare decision, the nine justices begin a new term today.  Here are rundowns of the major cases which the court will tackle between now and next spring:

• “A Term under Construction” from the National Law Journal
• “Supreme Court to Delve into More Contentious Issues” from USA Today
• SCOTUS Blog looks at the cases being heard this week
• An LA Times editorial focuses on two big civil rights cases
• “Supreme Court Begins New Term on Monday with Voting Rights a Top Issue” from Fox News
• “Supreme Court Preview: the Roberts Legacy Term?” from the Atlantic

And on a related note, I’d recently remarked to myself – making remarks to myself is something I do more than I’d care to admit – that there’s very little Supreme Court discussion in the presidential campaign.  The Washington Post looks into this today.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  At the beginning of this month, I preemptively lamented the summer humidity that has stretched into recent Septembers.  The public interest news bulletin gods – and they are fearsome, powerful deities – must have been in a mood to accommodate.  While a bit muggy today, the weather this month has been beautiful.  I have this morning paid tribute to the news bulletin gods through the ritual consumption of an everything bagel.  So we’ve got that working for us.

I’ll begin this week’s bulletin by highlighting new NALP research which looks at the fluctuations in entry-level civil legal aid jobs over the past few years.  The picture is muddied by the increase in law-school-funded postgraduate placements in civil legal aid offices.  The upshot: “Based on…job counts alone, entry-level job prospects in civil legal services would appear to be doing just fine in recent years, with twice as many jobs reported as 12-15 years ago, and a far cry from a low of just over 300 jobs reported in 2000. But these figures do not…square with well-publicized reports of cutbacks in funding in general for legal services….  It turns out that law school funding played a major role in generating legal services jobs taken by the Class of 2011, with 44% of these jobs (or 324 actual jobs) reported as law school funded….  This means that, absent such funding, there would have been only about 400 legal services jobs, or about as many as in the early 2000s – coincidentally years in which the level of LSC funding, in real terms, was about the same as in 2011.”  Here’s the full article.

And while I don’t have time to weigh in on this issue, here’s an interesting blog post positing that the federal Income Based Repayment program could become the norm for how future law graduates manage their educational debt, and wondering whether that’s tenable or prudent policy.

On to the week’s access to justice and public interest news, which is bookended by law school clinical work.  The week in very, very short:

• a UT Law children’s rights clinic involved in a new community initiative to help at-risk youth;
• Yakima, WA officials sort out new public-defender caseload limits;
• DOJ to issue ~$3 million in grants in support of indigent defense;
• pushback on the much-discussed NY State 50-hour pro bono rule;
• MO moves toward implementing public-defender caseloads;
• LSC TIG grants, or “fun with abbreviations!”;
• CLASP’s ED outlines the basics of the civil legal aid funding crisis;
• butting heads over Michigan legislative proposal to bolster indigent defense;
• civil legal aid funding news potpourri, NY State edition;
• reauthorize state funding for legal aid in Florida;
• APBCo hangs out with Vice President Biden;
• lots of chefs stirring the pot in new DC-based pro bono project;
• the funding woes of Community Legal Aid in western MA;
• a PA county favors bigtime changes to state’s indigent defense system;
• the strain on indigent defense resources in ND’s oil-boom territory;
• more on Washington State’s move toward indigent-defense caseload limits;
• the Immigrant Justice Clinic launches at Wisconsin Law;
• Super Music Bonus!

The news in less short:

• 9.27.12 – “The [University of Texas] Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and Children’s Rights Clinic have helped develop a multi-stakeholder pilot education reform project focused on youth entering the child welfare system in Travis County. The Education Advocacy Pilot Project, an initiative of the Travis County Model Court for Children and Families, launched last week and will continue through the 2012–2013 school year.  The Travis County Model Court for Children and Families is a multidisciplinary community initiative [to] facilitate systemic improvement of the court and child welfare systems. The Model Court works to improve outcomes for children and families…who are involved in civil suits filed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as a result of findings of child abuse and neglect.”  (Press release from the University of Texas.)

• 9.27.12 – in Yakima, Washington – hey, I used to live there! – “…city leaders faced the reality of contracting up to 20 more public defenders and spending a million more of your tax-payer dollars” in order to comply with new defender caseload limits being imposed in the Evergreen State.  “But city leaders have a new plan to cut those costs dramatically.  ‘Having the prosecution unit actually do the charging versus the police officers and looking at a pretrial diversion program,’ said Yakima City Manager Tony O’Rourke.  This would give more discretion to city prosecutors on what cases are taken to court, without limiting the violations prosecuted.
  O’Rourke said as it stands now, Yakima police handle the majority of charging.”  (Story from KIMA’s website.)

• 9.26.12 – the Department of Justice “announced nearly $3 million in grants to improve access to criminal legal aid services….  The announcement of grants from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) represent part of the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to ensure that all criminal defendants, regardless of ability to pay for an attorney, can be guaranteed their rights.   The grants are administered by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and National Institute of Justice (NIJ).” (Full press release on the Sacramento Bee’s website.)

• 9.26.12 – a commentator takes issue with New York’s new 50-hour pro bono requirement.  On top of the administrative burden that pro bono supervisors may shoulder in trying to facilitate more pro bono work, writes Matt Leichter, the rule constitutes yet another practice restriction added to an already dense set of rules for admitting lawyers.  Further, “pro bono” is defined too broadly, and law schools could have to spend more money (and charge more tuition) to administer new clinical and pro bono programs.  Finally, Leichter sees the rule’s creation as a cynical approach to addressing the plight of the poor.  Hmmm.  While I have some questions about the rule’s breadth and overall effectiveness, I think it’s fairly seen as a sign of the profession acknowledging barriers confronting the poor – not a bad thing since citizens’ access to the justice system can be effectively barred without financial means.  And after all, the judge who conceived of the rule has been one of the most vocal champions of increasing access to justice.  It’s hard for me to ascribe cynical motives to the rule’s adoption.  (Full piece in the American Lawyer.)

• 9.26.12 – more developments as Missouri public defenders move toward implementing caseload limits:
  • “Public Defenders Can Now Refuse Cases – But Seek Long-Term Solution” from Saint Louis Public Radio.
  • Earlier in the week a News Tribune editorial noted that the state high court’s latest intervention to prop up the overloaded public defender system “is systematic postponement, not a solution….  In the absence of tax dollars to hire additional state public defenders, a reasonable remedy is greater pro bono participation by private attorneys.”  The piece goes on to encourage the state bar to figure out play an active role in figuring out how to staff indigent defense matters.  (Here’s the full editorial.)
  • 9.22.12 – the Columbia Daily Tribune’s editor/publisher emeritus has an interesting solution: reduce the need for public defenders by legalizing drugs.

• 9.26.12 – “To improve access to civil legal assistance for low-income Americans, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has announced new technology grants to increase access to Web-based resources, enhance pro bono, expand websites for veterans and disaster recovery, and – a new category this year – improve data collection and analysis.  Through its Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) program, LSC plans to award 43 grants in 2012, totaling more than $3.4 million. The grants will fund LSC grantee programs in 25 states and the territory of Guam.”  (Here’s the LSC announcement, and here are specifics on the how awardees will use the grants.  Good to see Guam on the list.  Rock on, Guam.)

• 9.25.12 – Alan Houseman of the Center for Law & Social Policy (CLASP) looks at the crisis in civil legal aid funding.  Houseman’s blog post presents a broad look at how legal aid funding originates from various sources, and how LSC funding in particular has recently stagnated.  (Here’s the post on the American Constitution Society’s blog.)

• 9.25.12 – in Michigan, a proposal in the state house to bring some uniformity to the county-by-county, patchwork indigent defense system has some state and local officials at odds. (Story from the Iron Mountain Daily News.)

• 9.24.12 – civil legal aid news potpourri out of New York:
  • “Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the grantees of the Homeowner Protection Program, his office’s commitment of $60 million over three years to fund housing counseling and legal services for struggling New York homeowners. Today’s announcement covers the first year of program funding at $20 million to aid struggling homeowners across the state who are fighting to avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes. Throughout New York State, 35 legal services organizations and 59 housing counseling agencies will receive over $16.1 million to provide free foreclosure prevention services. An additional $3.9 million has been allocated for training, technical assistance, and other support services to assist homeowners in foreclosure.”  (Full post from Albany Times Union blog. And here’s a related piece from the Buffalo News looking at how the funding will be administered in Western New York.)
  • “The State Department of Aging, the State Office of Court Administration and the New York State Bar Association are teaming up to help senior citizens and state residents with disabilities afford legal services…. The collaboration will develop a strategy using existing resources, including pro bono programs, to target the needs of older adults and individuals with disabilities. The plan also calls for a “think group” of attorneys, judges, health care professionals and experts on aging and disabilities. An interactive Web site is expected to be launched to help raise awareness, provide education, and increase accessibility to low-cost legal services.” (Story from the Legislative Gazette.)
  • “Neighborhood Legal Services of Buffalo, working with Haven House and the Bar Association of Erie County’s Volunteer Lawyers Project, has been awarded a $497,847 grant through the U.S. Justice Department’s Legal Assistance to Victims Grant Program to continue in its work to aid Buffalo-area victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, Sen. Charles E. Schumer announced….  [T]he grant will help Neighborhood Legal Services in supporting four attorneys to provide direct legal services for victims….”  (Story from the the Buffalo News.)

• 9.24.12 – an editorial from Panama City, Florida’s News Herald laments the state of legal aid funding in FLA, and calls on the governor to pony up: “Funding for legal assistance for the poor and financially troubled has hit rock-bottom all across Florida.  In April, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed about $2 million in state funding for legal assistance centers. It was money that would have helped fund a lot of attorney hours for the poor. It was a relatively small budget item that could have had a significant impact on legal services for people who can’t afford to hire a lawyer.  Scott should rethink the state contribution to legal aid centers, either through next year’s budget recommendations or as a request to a legislative commission with the authority to make mid-year budget changes.”

• 9.24.12 – “On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, the Board of Directors of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel (“APBCo”) and senior management from board members’ firms met with Vice President Biden and White House staff…in Washington D.C.  The Vice President convened the meeting to focus on access to justice issues and the role that pro bono counsel at law firms play in the delivery of legal services to the poor….  The participants committed to a long-term project to improve law firm efforts to expand access to justice, and the Vice President commended their commitment to increasing pro bono services.”  Here’s the full press release.  Shout out(!) to David Lash and my other APBCo friends.  Hobnobbing with the Veep, who is, I suppose, the Phillies Fan-in-Chief.  Pretty cool.

• 9.23.12 – Skadden Arps is at the center of a new, Washington, DC pro bono project that engages three legal aid offices – the Legal Aid Society, the Children’s Law Center, and Bread for the City – as well as corporate counsel from Living Social, Northrop Grumman, and Cisco Systems.  The Impact Project ”is structured so that lawyers from the firm and the companies can join one of three teams — domestic violence, guardianship (guardians are court-appointed lawyers who look out for the interest of children in divorce, child abuse and other proceedings) or housing — and be trained by staff attorneys from legal aid organizations in those areas of the law. Skadden’s technology specialists are also building an intranet that will have training materials, relevant laws and sample documents that can be accessed at any time.” (Story from the Washington Post.)

• 9.23.12 – a Worcester Telegram article looks at the funding woes of Community Legal Aid, which serves clients in Western Massachusetts.

• 9.23.12 – “The Northampton County Bar Association last week joined colleagues throughout the state by endorsing a series of changes that would drastically alter the way criminal cases are defended in Pennsylvania.  By unanimous vote Thursday night, the bar recommended 10 principles that should be required of public defenders.  The standards, which were already approved by the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia bar associations, include requiring public defenders to continue to receive training after law school and to be reviewed by their supervisors, and they set limits on how many cases they can be assigned…. As of now, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that does not provide funding to public defenders, according to a study [from a state legislative committee] released in December.” (Story from the Express–Times of beautiful Lehigh Valley, PA.)

• 9.23.12 – the indigent defense system, such as it is, in western North Dakota’s oil-boom territory is stretched thin.  (Story from the Oil Patch Dispatch website.  Great name!)

• 9.22.12 – Three of the six Benton County public defenders who resigned earlier this month in a contract dispute have decided to keep representing poor court-appointed clients [by withdrawing their resignations]…. The resignations stem from a stalemate in negotiations with the county about new caseload restrictions mandated by the state Supreme Court.  The justices, in a 7-2 vote earlier this year, said full-time public defenders can take no more than 150 felony cases each year or 300 misdemeanor cases.  In Benton County, attorneys previously negotiated a 150-case cap on their contracts. They get paid $82,105 a year.”  (Story from the Tri-City Herald.)

• 9.21.12 – The University of Wisconsin is stepping into a new service area, with the launching this semester of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the UW Law School.  The clinic…will provide free representation to people fighting deportation, [according to] clinic director and assistant professor Stacy Taeuber.  The students will focus on undocumented immigrants being held in detention for federal immigration authorities at the Dodge County Jail, which is where people taken into custody in the Madison area typically are sent.  (Full article from the Cap Times of Madison.)

• Super music bonus!  One of my favorite indie rock bands was Uncle Tupelo, the now-lauded trio that combined the energy of punk rock with the songwriting and accompanying instrumentation of country-western music.  Sounds like a poor marriage, right?  It worked out remarkably well, though, and spurred the Americana musical movement of the 1990s.  What did not ultimately work out was the artistic marriage of the band’s two singer-songwriters.  Uncle Tupelo split amidst risen personal tension in 1993.  Jeff Tweedy went on to lead the critically acclaimed Wilco.  Jay Farrar hewed more closely to the singer-songwriter mold, founding his on-again-off-again project Son Volt.  Here’s one of my favorite Son Volt songs, which combines a pretty melody with some engagingly metaphorical lyrics.  Enjoy “Medicine Hat.”

by Ashley Matthews

In a new NALP Bulletin article by PSJD’s own Steve Grumm and NALP Research Director Judith Collins, employment data shows a slight decrease in the amount of legal services jobs taken by the class of 2011. While the numbers are down from last year, they are still dramatically higher than the amount of legal services jobs reported a decade ago – which could mean that entry-level prospects for civil legal services are doing just fine.

But with widespread reports of funding cuts for legal aid, it may be hard to imagine such a thriving employment landscape for legal services organizations. How are the numbers of entry level jobs in legal services rising, while the funding continues to dwindle? Research points to the role law school funding has played in developing job opportunities for their graduates in the field of public interest law. The NALP Employment Report and Salary Survey showed that 44% of legal services jobs reported for the class of 2011 were law school funded.

Absent this funding, what could the landscape of entry-level legal services employment look like? The answer may be frightening, but it’s worth questioning. Funded by a law school, postgraduate legal aid opportunities are a great way to get your foot in the door with organizations that may not be able to afford new hires – but is this type of opportunity a gateway to permanent legal employment?

by Ashley Matthews

In the midst of a national debate over the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, Texas has shaken things up once again with its latest effort to revise the state’s voting procedures. This time, more than a few Texas citizens were shocked to find out they couldn’t vote – because they had been declared dead. Seeing as how they were still alive, this presented a major problem.

From Bloomberg Businessweek:

Texas officials were temporarily barred by a state judge from ordering county election officials to purge presumably dead voters from registration rolls because the initiative may violate the election code.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed yesterday by four voters who were told they would be purged from voter-registration lists as deceased. They asked state court Judge Tim Sulak in Austin to stop the state from striking about 77,000 names, arguing the plan violates state and federal law.

The secretary of state is “restrained from further instructing the counties to remove any other names from the voter rolls,” Sulak said in an order. “Plaintiffs are entitled to temporary injunctive relief.”

The voters’ Lawyers say that under the federal Voting Rights Act the state must get pre-approval for the rule changes. The law mandates that jurisdictions with a history of rights violations first get clearance for new election procedures from the U.S. Justice Department or a three-judge panel.

“There is no statutory authority for this purge,” David Richards, a civil rights lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview while waiting for the judge to rule.

Texas recently lost a federal court of appeals case striking down the state’s voter identification law passed by the Texas Legislature last year. This lawsuit is only one of multiple court battles being fought over voting rules in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

By: Steve Grumm

Hi, folks.  There is much news to cover in the access-to-justice, pro bono, and public interest arenas – including, of course, information about New York State’s newly implemented rule requiring 50 hours of pro bono service before getting licensed to practice.  Before that, a few other items that caught my attention this week: 

• as I mentioned in a previous bulletin edition, new data are out looking at poverty in the U.S.  Here, from the Census Bureau, is Poverty: 2010 and 2011 – American Community Survey Briefs. 
• nonprofit news: the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports on a Forbes study of wealthy charitable donors’ giving habits: “The richer a donor is, the less likely he or she is to make unrestricted gifts, a new study of the world’s wealthiest donors has found. Nearly 70 percent of donors with $1-million to $5-million in investable assets say they prefer to give unrestricted gifts to charity, while among those with assets of $50-million or more, just 45 percent say they prefer to make unrestricted gifts.”
• a report getting much attention this week was this one, from the New York Times, about collaborations between debt collection agencies and prosecutors’ offices through which the former issue notices to debtors on the latter’s letterhead. 

Okay, the public interest news in very brief:

• more legal aid funding from the national mortgage foreclosure fraud class-action settlement (MA and RI):
• Missouri public defenders about to implement new policies to limit caseloads;
• the legal aid community should use more research and data to make progress on the access-to-justice front;
• a new veterans initiative from 2 Florida legal services providers;
• an update on San Fran’s Neighborhood Prosecutor Initiative;
• details on NY’s new 50-hour pro bono requirement for admission to the bar;
• light on lawyers to help the poor in NW Texas;
• Contra Costa County prosecutors headed for the picket lines(?);
• rolling out the Ohio Veterans and Military Legal Assistance Project;
• trouble in Warren County, NY meeting new state indigent defense standards;
• educating nonprofit funders about legal aid’s importance;
• LSC has a new VP for grants management;
• call for proposals for the Equal Justice Conference’s law school pro bono pre-conference;
• more self-help legal centers in Illinois (keeping w/ a national trend);
• NorCal pro bono all-stars;
• public defenders should not post pictures of clients’ underwear (leopard-skin or otherwise) on the Facebooks;
• Harvard, Stanford, NYU, and Yale law schools get Ford Foundation funding to promote student public interest work;
• Super music bonus!

The summaries:

• 9.20.12 – some good legal-aid funding news out of New England, stemming from the national foreclosure fraud class-action settlement:
  • Rhode Island: “To assist low and middle income families facing foreclosure, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin today announced a two-year, $1.57 million grant to Rhode Island Legal Services (RILS) to fund the Foreclosure Prevention Project.  The Foreclosure Prevention Project grant is funded through the National Mortgage Settlement between the five largest mortgage service providers and attorneys general nationwide…. With the grant, RILS expects to help stop, prevent, or delay the foreclosure of approximately 1,800 homes each year.”  (Full article on LoanSafe website.) 
  • Massachusetts: “The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC) and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) are set to launch a two-year effort to give legal help to homeowners facing foreclosure or eviction.  The Borrower Representation Initiative is being funded by a $6 million grant from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.”  (Story from the Boston Business Journal.  And here’s more info from AG’s website.

• 9.20.12 – Missouri public defenders are about to implement new policies regarding caseload restrictions in order to alleviate pressures and increase quality of service to defendants.  Here is an interview with Cat Kelly, head of the statewide indigent defense program.  An excerpt of Ms. Kelly explaining forthcoming changes: “As of October, 17 district public defender offices serving 54 counties will be operating on limited availability — meaning they will be able to take cases during that month only up to their maximum allowable monthly caseload and then their doors will have to close.  Any remaining applications will have to go on a waiting list for defender services unless the judges choose to do something else with them — e.g. dispose of the cases without jail time (since the possibility of jail time is the constitutional trigger that requires appointment of counsel) or appointing private attorneys to handle the cases pro bono (without pay).  Another 10-12 offices are in line to do the same in the next month or two.  All but three public defender trial offices are significantly overloaded and those three (Moberly, Maryville, and Kirksville) are operating right at or just slightly over their capacity.” More coverage: 
  • 9.20.12 – a story from TV station KY3: The Missouri State Public Defenders office is bursting at the seams. It’s a problem that’s been brewing since the early 1990s.  Caseloads keep growing but staffing increases are not keeping up.   In 2008, the Public Defender Commission decided enough was enough.  It limited the number of cases each district could take as a way to deal with the growing overload.   The commission’s ability to impose such caps was tied up in litigation.  That changed in last July.  That’s when the Missouri Supreme Court decided judges cannot appoint public defenders to additional cases after they’ve reached their
  • 9.13.12 – “Boone and Callaway County attorneys who practice civil law found out yesterday they might be assigned criminal defense cases as soon as next month as the result of a new cap local public defenders are placing on their caseloads…. Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Gary Oxenhandler [went on to say,] ‘Don’t think for a moment that somehow this crisis is the fault of the public defender. It is not. For the past 40 years, the public defender has been the savior of the private bar.”  (Story from the Columbia Tribune.)   

• 9.20.12 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent calls for increased use of statistical- and research-based processes in evaluating access-to-justice needs in the civil legal services community.  “All too often in the civil legal services and pro bono worlds we simply rely on our sense of what works and anecdotal information, rather than rigorous and evidence-based research on what strategies, fora, and approaches work best for which low-income clients. With so many low-income families facing foreclosure, can we identify with any degree of confidence and evidence of outcomes, which approaches – mediation, litigation, negotiation – work best for which types of homeowners? As the number of bankruptcies grows, have we analyzed the outcomes of these cases to identify the most effective steps and protocols? At a time when more and more people come to court without a lawyer, have we examined the different models of pro se/self-representation and their usefulness for various matters such as landlord/tenant versus small claims?  Sadly, the answer is that, with some notable exceptions, we have not.”   Here’s Lardent’s full piece.

• 9.20.12 – in Florida, the Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida are collaborating on a goal “to create a veterans’ initiative, expanding upon current services provided to military members and their families. Expanded services include representation in securing veterans’ benefits and Social Security benefits for homeless veterans, and obtaining driver’s licenses and birth certificates. The initiative will assist in eviction and foreclosure prevention; family issues such as child support, custody and divorce, and probate and consumer matters.”  (Full op-ed in the Sun-Sentinel.)

• 9.20.12 – in San Francisco, “District Attorney George Gascón updated reporters Wednesday morning on his office’s 18-month old Neighborhood Prosecutor Initiative and announced his plan for a program for juvenile offenders throughout the city.  The initiative aims at curbing recidivism and keeping non-violent crimes such as infractions out of the criminal court system.  There are currently nine neighborhood courts, each with prosecutor assigned to work with two police districts.”  The initiative uses volunteer “adjudicators” who work with prosecutors to determine criminal punishment and treatment options that will help defendants avoid future criminal activity.  (Story from the MissionLocal website.)

• 9.19.12 – Details of the new 50-hour pro bono requirement for applicants to the New York bar were unveiled yesterday by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman…. The first-in-the-nation requirement will take effect immediately for first- and second-year law students, who will have up to 34 months to fulfill the mandate. Current third-years are exempt.  Starting Jan. 1, 2015, every applicant to the bar will be required to fulfill the requirement….  Approved pro bono work includes legal services for people of “limited means”; not-for-profit organizations; individuals or groups seeking to promote access to justice; and public service in the judiciary and state and local governments….  Participation in law school clinics for which students receive credit would count.   (Here’s a New York Law Journal article.)  Also noteworthy is that New York Law School, where Chief Judge Lippman made the announcement, rode its momentum by announcing a new pro bono program to help its students meet the requirement.  Finally, some additional materials from the state high court: 
  • an FAQ sheet;
  • a press release;
  • a report from the committee tasked with crafting the rule.

• 9.18.12 – despite the efforts of Legal Aid of Northwest Texas and a group of pro bono volunteers, “the demand [for legal aid] is still far greater than the available help”  (Article on the NewsWest 9 website.) 

• 9.18.12 – “Deputy district attorneys in Contra Costa County said that a strike is a distinct possibility given the wave of deep cuts that have swept through their office.  Since 2006, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has lost more than 30 prosecutors – many to neighboring counties that pay more with lighter workloads…. In July, the county imposed a contract on deputy district attorneys, cutting wages by 5.25 percent while also reducing benefits.”  (Report on the KCBS website.)
  • Here’s more coverage, from the San Jose Mercury News, on how budget cuts are adversely affecting Contra Costa’s criminal justice system.

• 9.18.12 – well, “OVMLAP” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but this is still good news: in Ohio, diversionary courts have helped veterans to avoid getting into criminal trouble.  But many Ohio vets  have unmet civil legal aid needs.  With grants from Walmart Foundation and Ohio State Bar Foundation, the Ohio Veterans and Military Legal Assistance Project is starting now.  “The project will connect low-income veterans to lawyers who are willing to help them with landlords, credit-card companies or some family-law cases.”  (Article in the Columbus Dispatch.)

• 9.17.12 – “Warren County (NY) officials are protesting a change to the way the state funds legal services provided to the indigent [criminal defendants].  The county Board of Supervisors Mandate Relief Committee plans to contact the state Mandate Relief Council about the change.  The new policy requires the county Public Defender’s Office to add or improve services each year or risk losing a quarter of its $213,000 annual state funding.” (Article in the Post-Star.)

• 9.17.12 – educating nonprofit funders about civil legal aid’s importance.  From the Lawscape blog: “The Public Welfare Foundation has been making important grants in the area of access to civil justice.  Mary McClymont, PWF President, has also been making a major effort to talk to her foundation colleagues about the importance of supporting civil legal aid. She was interviewed recently by Tamara Lucas Copeland, president of Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, about the needs of low-income people and what private funders can do to help. This video, aimed at the funder community, is available on the PWF’s website, www.publicwelfare.org . It’s also found on YouTube here.”

• 9.17.12 – a Legal Services Corporation staffing announcement: “Amid continuing tough times for the Legal Services Corp., the group has announced a new vice president.  Lynn Jennings joins the LSC, the largest source of funding nationwide for civil legal aid, as vice president for grants management. Her duties include overseeing programmatic operations, the competitive grant process, and assessment and oversight of grantees.” (Story from the National Law Journal.)

• 9.17.12 – The 2013 Equal Justice Conference Law School Pre-conference planning team invites you to submit program recommendations for this year’s pre-conference.  Please refer to the proposal guidelines and complete the training proposal submission form online.  If you have questions about filling out the online form, please contact Adrienne Packard at adrienne.packard@americanbar.org.  Training proposals are due no later than October 15, 2012.

• 9.14.12 – the continuing rise of self-help centers for litigants who represent themselves in civil matters (in most cases b/c they can’t afford a lawyers and legal aid doesn’t have the resources to handle the case): People in Macoupin County [Illinois] who can’t afford to hire an attorney soon will be getting online help through the efforts of the court system and the Carlinville library.  A free online legal self-help center will be accessible to anyone with a computer connected to the Internet….  The Macoupin legal self-help center is one of 91 throughout Illinois, each in a separate county.  Start-up funding for the legal center is provided by the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation through a state appropriation.” (Story from the State Journal-Register.

• 9.14.12 – The Recorder recognizes the outstanding pro bono efforts of 10 law-firm offices in Northern California.

• 9.14.12 – this news items contains a good lesson for law students about a very, very inappropriate use of social media.  “A Miami-Dade judge declared a mistrial in a murder case Wednesday after a defense lawyer posted a photo of her client’s leopard-print underwear on Facebook.  [Defendant Fermin Recalde’s] family brought him a bag of fresh clothes to wear during trial. When Miami-Dade corrections officers lifted up the pieces for a routine inspection, Recalde’s public defender Anya Cintron Stern snapped a photo of Recalde’s briefs with her cellphone, witnesses said.   While on a break, the 31-year-old lawyer posted the photo on her personal Facebook page with a caption suggesting the client’s family believed the underwear was ‘proper attire for trial.’  Although her Facebook page is private and can only be viewed by her friends, somebody who saw the posting notified Miami-Dade Judge Leon Firtel, who declared a mistrial.  And Cintron Stern was immediately fired, according to Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez, whose office represents clients who cannot afford a private attorney.”  (Article from the Miami Herald.)

• 9.13.12 – “The Ford Foundation…announced plans to place as many as 100 students from Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, New York University School of Law and Yale Law School in public interest summer jobs in 2013.   Public interest fellowships typically pay stipends just large enough to cover basic costs. By contrast, the Ford fellows will receive $15,000 for summer work at an array of high-profile public interest organizations, including the Brookings Institution, the Environmental Defense Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The foundation has committed $1.75 million for the inaugural year.”  (Article in the National Law Journal.)

• Music!  A few weeks ago I went to a great concert featuring punk-rock legend Bob Mould.  Mould’s had a fascinating music career trajectory.  He started off as the front-man in legendary punk band Husker Du, moved into indie rock, then electronica, then back to rock.  Now one never knows quite what he’s going to get into.  But he played a great rock show here in DC a couple of weeks back.  So here’s “See A Little Light,” a lighter song from his 1989 s0lo debut. 

by Ashley Matthews

Last Friday, the legal academic world lost a civil rights pioneer in Joshua Morse III, former dean of both University of Mississippi School of Law and Florida State University College of Law.

As dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law in the 1960s, Joshua Morse III ushered in a new era of diversity in the state’s legal profession and judiciary by admitting the school’s first black law students. Morse rebelliously defied segregation at the height of the African-American civil rights movement, fighting against Mississippi’s legal establishment. This bold move led to an unprecedented six-year progressive period for the University of Mississippi School of Law.

 From The New York Times:

Mr. Morse admitted Ole Miss’s first black law students in 1963, a year after James Meredith became the first black to enroll at the university, a watershed event in the civil rights struggle. By 1967 black enrollment at the law school had expanded to about 20 in a student body of 360.

Black graduates were soon admitted to the state bar, joining a legal fraternity defined by alumni of Ole Miss, the state’s only law school, which Time magazine called the “prep school for political power in Mississippi.”

Reuben Anderson, the first black graduate of the school, in 1968, went on to become the first black appointee to the State Supreme Court and the first black president of the Mississippi bar. The school’s first black woman to graduate, Constance Slaughter-Harvey, in 1970, became the first black woman to be named a judge in Mississippi.

Mr. Morse’s achievements remain legend in legal education circles. John Egerton, in his 1991 book, “Shades of Gray: Dispatches From the Modern South,” wrote: “The Ole Miss Law School’s six-year orbit into activism was a spectacular aberration, a reversal of form that briefly turned a conservative institution into one of the most progressive and experimental in the nation.”

While dean of Ole Miss Law School, Morse used a $437,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to recruit minority law students and bring in more Ivy League law professors. Under his leadership, professors prepared federal lawsuits on voting rights and civil liberties, and also recruited law students to participate in legal clinics offering assistance to the poor.

In 1969, Morse stepped down amid rising political pressure that forced Ole Miss professors to choose between teaching and helping those who faced poverty and oppression. Morse chose to leave, and spent the rest of his years as a professor and Dean of the College of Law at Florida State University. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, three children, and six grandchildren.

 We now have some details on how the 50-hour requirement/rule will be rolled out.  Here’s the New York Law Journal piece.  A couple of important points:

• “The…requirement will take effect immediately for first- and second-year law students, who will have up to 34 months to fulfill the mandate. Current third-years are exempt….  Starting Jan. 1, 2015, every applicant to the bar will be required to fulfill the requirement.
• “Participation in law school clinics for which students receive credit would count [toward satisfying the rule].”

Also, we’ve hosted on PSJD some handouts from the press conference at which the details were announced:

1. an FAQ sheet;
2. a press release;
3. a report from the committee tasked with crafting the rule.