By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  Depending on whom you speak to, it’s the beginning of winter or the end of the world.  I’m hoping for the former.  I’m one of the weirdos who loves our coldest season.  With that said, I’ve realized that embracing the Mayan doomsday scenario has considerably eased the guilt I feel in consuming the holiday junk food that seems to follow me everywhere I go.  So I’ve been an end-of-the-worlder for purposes of cookies.  Though I suspect there will soon be a reckoning.

Cookies aside, I wish you all a joy-filled, relaxing holiday season.  Travel safely if you are on the move, and enjoy time with family and friends.

We’re light on access-to-justice news this week.  In very, very short:

• salary differences between an Ohio county’s prosecutors & public defenders;
• improvements in Sin City’s indigent defense program;
• a call for pro bono as a requirement for a bar license;
• the continuing saga of Missouri’s indigent defense program;
• $1 million supplemental approp. to LSC for Sandy relief work?.  

This week:

• 12.20.12 – “Sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom, employees of the Clinton County [Ohio] Public Defender’s office and the Clinton County Prosecutor’s office often square-off judicially. Some of the attorneys, all employed by the same county, have much in common — knowledge of local cases, law degrees, years practicing — but in other ways, such as their salaries, they are treated very differently. ‘It’s almost universal across the state in terms of salary and resources available,’ said Tim Young, director at the office of the Ohio Public Defender. ‘Public defenders regularly make 10 to 30 percent less [than prosecutors] when they have the same amount of time in practice of law, and essentially the same work on opposite sides of the room’.”  (Story from the News Journal.)

• 12.20.12 – an op-ed looks at recent improvements in the Clark County (i.e. Las Vegas area) NV public defense program, particularly its juvenile defense unit, which was once seen as emblematic of a failed indigent defense system.  (Piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.)

• 12.17.12 –  UC Irvine Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky wants pro bono as a precondition for attorney licensing: “New York’s new requirement for pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar should be a model for other states to copy. Last May, Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of New York, announced this proposal. On September 12, the New York Court of Appeals adopted a requirement that, effective January 1, 2015, admission to the New York bar will require an applicant having completed 50 hours of pro bono service. This is to be applauded: Pro bono work helps to meet the enormous unmet demand for legal services, provides law students valuable legal training and hopefully instills a lifelong habit of public service.  At a recent meeting, an American Bar Association committee considering possible changes to accreditation standards seemed unreceptive to the idea of requiring all law schools to insist on 50 hours of pro bono work from their students. But that won’t matter if states follow New York’s lead and require pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar.” (Full piece in the National Law Journal.  For some more background on the recent, unsuccessful push to have the ABA’s law school accreditation body include a pro bono requirement in accreditation standards, feast your eyes on this here hyperlink.)

• 12.14.12 – the latest in the ongoing controversy surrounding Missouri’s indigent defense system: “State lawyers have joined forces with private attorneys in the dispute over being involuntarily assigned criminal cases to lessen the burden on Missouri’s overworked public defenders.  Attorney General Chris Koster is asking judges in Boone and Callaway counties to waive several court orders appointing state workers as pro bono lawyers for criminal defendants facing jail time and unable to afford their own legal counsel. Koster’s office is representing at least six state employees opposed to the move, court records show.  The Associated Press obtained the public court filings from attorneys concerned about the practice.  (See the full AP story here.)

• 12.19.12 – “This week, the Senate is considering a $60.4 million emergency disaster supplemental funding bill to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy in the recovery efforts. The bill includes $1 million for [the Legal Services Corporation], to support LSC grantees in the areas significantly affected by Hurricane Sandy for storm-related services. The funding for LSC matches the request submitted by the White House on December 7.  This is the first time since 1993 that a supplemental appropriations bill has included funding for LSC after a disaster. If passed, the supplemental funding would be used to give programs the necessary mobile resources, technology, and disaster coordinators to provide storm-related services to eligible clients.  LSC-funded programs in the areas most severely affected by Hurricane Sandy reported significant office damage and prolonged power outages. They are struggling to provide legal assistance to thousands of storm victims.  Supplemental disaster funding will help LSC’s grantees provide essential legal aid to low-income individuals and families.”  (News from LSC.)

Music!  Since winter is upon us, let’s go north to listen to my favorite Nova Scotian rock band.  This is Sloan with “Losing California.” 

Texas Defender Service (TDS) is a private, non-profit law firm recognized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Founded in 1995, TDS’s mission is to help improve the quality of representation afforded to indigent Texans charged with a capital crime or under sentence of death.

The Austin office is currently accepting applications for a staff attorney. From the PSJD job listing:

Texas Defender Service (TDS) seeks an experienced attorney with excellent legal skills and a demonstrated commitment to indigent defense to represent inmates in capital post-conviction proceedings in Texas.  The attorney will be responsible for developing and litigating claims in both state and federal habeas corpus proceedings, conducting evidentiary hearings and participating in litigation on behalf of inmates under warrants of execution. Given the nature of capital representation, the attorney should expect to work some evenings, weekends and holidays.  Travel throughout Texas is required.

TDS is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the Texas criminal justice system by reducing unfair use of the death penalty and by implementing an effective indigent defense system. In addition to providing quality direct representation, the TDS Capital Post-Conviction Project tracks the cases of death-sentenced inmates in Texas, assists and trains capital habeas attorneys and provides crisis assistance to defense teams whose clients are facing execution dates.  Attorneys are fortunate to work with the larger capital habeas community, which is composed of highly committed and talented lawyers.

This is a full-time position and the attorney hired may choose to live in Austin or Houston.

TDS will consider applicants with little experience if they have superior legal skills, a strong work ethic and a willingness and ability to learn quickly. The application deadline is January 15, 2013. For more information on qualifications and application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency that protects the rights of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions. NLRB is currently accepting applications for a staff attorney in its Washington, DC office.

From the PSJD job posting:

The National Labor Relations Board’s Contempt Litigation and Compliance Branch (“CLCB”) seeks a full-time attorney, preferably with litigation experience, to join the Branch immediately. The Branch typically hires attorneys at the GS-11, 12, or 13 level.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created in 1935 to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB conducts secret-ballot elections to determine whether employees want union representation and investigates and remedies unfair labor practices by employers and unions.

The CLCB’s principal function is to conduct civil and criminal contempt litigation in the U.S. Courts of Appeals to coerce compliance or to punish non-compliance with judgments enforcing orders of the Board. The CLCB initiates civil contempt proceedings in the court of appeals that issued the underlying judgment, and typically prosecutes such proceedings, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, before special masters (generally senior United States district court judges or magistrate judges) appointed by the courts of appeal. These matters entail the full gamut of federal litigation, including pretrial discovery and motions practice followed by a formal trial before and briefs to the special master. Absent settlement, the special master files a report and recommendation with the relevant court of appeals, and briefing and oral argument follow. In situations involving egregious or repeat violations, the CLCB may seek criminal sanctions, in which case the CLCB attorney assigned to the case is appointed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney to prosecute the criminal contempt action.

…

The Branch’s hiring decisions are based on the consideration of many factors, including interest and experience in labor relations, labor law and litigation practice, academic achievement, and law journal, judicial clerkship or other substantial writing experience.

For more information, view the full job listing on PSJD.org (log-in required).

Loevy & Loevy is a nationally recognized litigation boutique practicing in the public interest. The firm prides itself for employing leaders in civil rights cases, whistleblower and False Claims Act lawsuits, and—in connection with their Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School—post-conviction criminal proceedings. They have won dozens of jury trials and secured more than $250 million in settlements and verdicts for their clients. Loevy & Loevy lawyers include some of the best trial lawyers in the nation, and they are passionate about obtaining justice.

Loevy & Loevy is currently accepting applications for paid summer associates. From the PSJD listing:

It is our pleasure to invite you to apply for a summer position at Loevy & Loevy, a nationally recognized civil rights litigation boutique practicing in the public interest. Our firm is committed to fighting for justice and redressing wrongs, particularly in the areas of police misconduct and police brutality, and we work tirelessly to vindicate the rights of individuals whose constitutional rights have been violated – in Chicago, and nationwide.

Our summer positions offer law students the opportunity to do substantive legal work, to observe court proceedings, and to work alongside a cadre of talented and experienced lawyers, all in a casual and fun environment.

If the prospect of working on federal civil rights litigation excites you, please visit our website at www.loevy.com to learn more about who we are and what we do.

…

Loevy & Loevy is accepting applications for Summer Associate positions from 2Ls and also from 3Ls who plan to begin clerkships following their graduation from law school. The ideal candidate is a person who is passionate, intelligent, and is committed to civil rights and achieving justice. Strong writing and research skills and an ability to work independently and efficiently are essential.

The firm is selecting 2 candidates, who will each be paid $5,000 for the summer. If you are a 1L, they are also hiring summer law interns – these positions, however, are unpaid. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE)  is a California statewide organization dedicated to helping grassroots groups attack head-on the disproportionate burden of pollution and environmental health hazards borne by poor people and people of color. A project of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, CRPE was created in 1989 to fill the gap between campaigns for social change and environmental advocacy efforts. CRPE has a three prong mission in its environmental justice work. First, CRPE seeks to empower individual rural residents so that they leave a particular environmental fight with more skills than when they entered it. Second, CRPE ensures that the community involved is more united and has a greater voice in decisions that affect it than prior to the environmental struggle. Finally, CRPE works to address the environmental danger the community faces.

CRPE is currently seeking applicants for a full-time Staff Attorney position in its San Joaquin Valley office in Delano, California:

CRPE is a non-profit environmental justice organization with offices in San Francisco and Delano (Kern County, California). Our mission is to achieve environmental justice and healthy sustainable communities through collective action and the law. CRPE lawyers work closely with our Organizing Department to combine advocacy and organizing in our successful community-based approach. CRPE strongly believes in the maxims that communities should speak for themselves, and that advocates for environmental justice should be on tap, not on top. Our attorneys and organizers share a deep commitment to social and racial justice.

This is a rare opportunity to join the nation’s leading environmental justice legal team. The Delano staff attorney will work closely with Valley community groups to address the disparate impact of air pollution, water contamination, pesticides, waste facilities and poor land use planning on low income communities of color.

Visit our website at www.crpe-ej.org for background on our work.

For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required)!

Georgia Legal Services Program is a statewide, primarily federally funded civil legal services organization with 11 regional offices around the state and a migrant project which handles migrant and seasonal farmworker cases for the state. Each office handles cases depending on the legal needs of the low-income people in the community it serves, and has a strong training program for attorneys and statewide task forces.

The Savannah regional office is currently accepting applications for a vacant staff attorney position:

The attorney will handle a varied caseload in state and federal court and in administrative forums. The attorney will circuit-ride to counties; engage in issues advocacy; conduct outreach activities; and work on various projects with other attorneys and advocates.

QUALIFICATIONS: Graduate of accredited law school, member of Georgia Bar or willing to take next exam; demonstrated interest or experience in working with low income persons. Fluency in Spanish is a grant requirement for this position.

The salary is $43,000.00 plus when licensed, depending upon experience and qualifications, with excellent fringe benefits. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  It’s a beautiful, quiet December morning here in DC.  But it won’t be quiet for long.  It troubles me that the beginning of the holiday season is consumed with so much hustle and bustle.  There are gifts to buy and cards to sign.  There are end-of-year deadlines to meet.  Our law student readers have finals to take.  Our national policymakers have a fiscal cliff towards which to hurtle.  And so on.   The storms before the calm, I suppose.  In any case I’m delighted when a few quiet minutes turn up.  I hope you find some as well.

Before turning to the week’s access-to-justice and public interest news, three other items that have caught my attention this week:

• Fiscal cliff dispatch: “The White House and the nation’s most prominent charities are embroiled in a tense behind-the-scenes debate over President Obama’s push to scale back the nearly century-old tax deduction on donations that the charities say is crucial for their financial health.”  (Full article from the Washington Post.)

• Homeless vets: “The number of homeless veterans in the United States counted on a single night this year declined 7.2 percent from the previous year, a reduction significantly higher than that seen in the general population, according to figures released Monday.  Overall, the number of homeless people in the country declined only slightly, to 633,782 counted on a single night in January, about 0.4 percent lower than the previous year. The figures included a 1.4 percent increase in homeless people who are part of households that have at least one adult and one child…. The decline in veterans’ homelessness, from 67,495 in January 2011 to 62,619 in January 2012, followed a 12 percent reduction between 2010 and 2011.”  (Full story from the Washington Post.)

• 12.11.12 – big news on the legal education front: “The Arizona Supreme Court gave the green light December 10 to an experimental proposal allowing third-year law students to take the bar exam before they graduate, a move law school officials hope will give students a leg up in the job market.  Under the revised rule, 3Ls who meet eligibility requirements can take the bar exam offered in February, several months before graduation. The proposal was approved as a temporary pilot project from January 2013 until the end of December 2015. Law school officials and other stakeholders will have to file a report with the court by November 1, 2015.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.) 

Okay, this week’s access-to-justice news in very, very brief:

• volunteer lawyers roll in to help Sandy victims;
• report on legal aid’s impact on the Ohio economy;
• 2013 Equal Justice Conference registration open;
• class action on (in)adequacy of NY State’s public defense system marches on;
• CFPB chasing down alleged foreclosure legal aid scammer;
• law school clinics supporting social entrepreneurs;
• technology’s expanding role in communicating with legal aid clients;
• Super Music Bonus, Rod Stewart Edition! 

The summaries: 

• 12.12.12 – in Hurricane Sandy’s wake, legal aid and volunteer lawyers have literally rolled in to assist clients in crisis.  Pro bono lawyers have been instrumental in assisting clients with public benefits and housing problems among others.  This piece in the New York World, focusing on the response of legal aid and volunteer lawyers, notes some good timing in the Legal Aid Society’s acquisition of new wheels: “Legal Aid’s ongoing presence in Coney Island, and in the Rockaways before that, was made possible by the organization’s new Mobile Justice Unit, purchased earlier this year with the help of a grant from the Robin Hood Foundation.”

• 12.12.12 – “Legal assistance to low-income Ohioans is a significant economic driver and impacts more than just the individuals receiving aid, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation.  Ohio legal aid in 2010, the most recent year studied, saved almost 1,000 homes from foreclosure and helped obtain nearly 1,000 civil protective orders.  But the economic impact of these services goes far beyond those families helped, creating $106 million in total economic impact, including $5.6 million in state, county and municipal tax revenue.”  (Story from the Dayton Business Journal.  And here’s the OLAF report.)
  • also in Ohio, the Marion Star looks at the fiscal crunch pressing against the Legal Aid Society of Columbus’s Marion office.  Two of the office’s four attorneys are set to retire soon, and there is not presently funding to replace them. 

• 12.12.12. – registration for the 2013 Equal Justice Conference is open.  The EJC, which brings together a wide array of access-to-justice stakeholders, will take place in St. Louis from May 9-11.  (Pre-conference events, including the law school pro bono pre-conference, take place on May8.)  And don’t worry!  I already checked, and the Cardinals are hosting the Rockies of Colorado on May 10-12.

• 12.11.12 – “A settlement conference in a class-action lawsuit brought by civil rights attorneys, which seeks to remedy what they say is the state’s “persistent failure” to provide meaningful counsel to the poor, ended Tuesday with no settlement….  The suit was filed five years ago in the name of Kimberly Hurrell-Harring and 19 others charged with crimes in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties.  Each plaintiff was left to navigate the criminal justice system without adequate counsel, some spending months unnecessarily behind bars. But the “types of harm suffered” by these defendants are “by no means limited or unique” to those counties, the suit claims.  A 2006 report from The New York State Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services called the public-defender situation an “ongoing crisis” and concluded “nothing short of major, far-reaching reform” can bring the state into constitutional compliance. It recommended a state takeover to properly fund counsel for the poor and enforce standards.”  The plaintiffs favor a state takeover, as well.  (Full article in the Albany Times Union.)

• 12.11.12 – “For the second time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has gone after a legal services provider for allegedly offering bogus mortgage relief assistance to struggling homeowners.  The CFPB announced today that a California federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order shutting down the National Legal Help Center, which allegedly offered legal representation to consumers ‘even though the individual defendants are not attorneys and consumers received no actual legal representation,’ according to the CFPB…. In July, the CFPB filed a similar complaint against the Gordon Law Firm also in California’s Central District and won a temporary restraining order the following day. On November 16, the court entered a preliminary injunction order halting the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct and freezing their assets while the case proceeds.”  (Full post from the Blog of the Legal Times.)

• 12.7.12 – an interesting look at the increasing work that law school clinical programs do to support social entrepreneurs.  “Legal systems are just one of many such complex systems that social entrepreneurs must navigate in order to be successful, but increasingly, they do not have to do it alone. Law schools are joining the ‘collective impact movement by using their legal clinics to provide social entrepreneurs with much-needed legal support from some of America’s brightest law students. Collective impact is a powerful new concept: the idea that all actors that have a stake in a problem should work together to solve that problem.”  (Story from Forbes.com.) 

• 12.7.12 –  “Like everyone else, lawyers for the poor are trying to do more with less, as government grants and private funding have dried up.  Increasingly, that means turning to tech, using new tools to deliver information to clients, support volunteer lawyers, and improve their own systems. They’re using text messaging, automated call-backs, Web chats, and computer-assisted mapping.  A crush of new clients is pushing the growing reliance on technology, as the old systems just can’t keep up. For years, people seeking help have called their local legal services offices, only to wait on hold for 20 minutes or more. If someone has a pay-by-the-minute cellphone, as many low-income people do, that gets expensive fast…. Text messages can also improve efficiency. If courts sent SMS reminders to litigants, that would help move along cases that get postponed over and over when one party doesn’t show up, says Glenn Rawdon. Rawdon runs the technology grants program at the Legal Services Corp., the federal program that funds legal aid groups. A text could also help people remember to bring documents to meetings with their overworked lawyers.”  (Full story on Slate.com.)  

• Music!  It’s the holiday season, so our thoughts turn naturally to Rod Stewart.  (It was a lot of fun to write that sentence.)  Well, even if that’s not where our thoughts are, I’ve lately been in the mood for Faces.  Faces was a rollicking 1960s British rock band whose members included Stewart – a very different version than the one we see today – and Ronnie Wood, who later joined the Rolling Stones.  They were known for terrific music, chaotic live shows, and booze.  Perhaps in that order.  Faces have a terrific back catalog, and I suppose they’re most popularly recognized song is “Ooh La La”, which a lot of people think of as the “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger” song.  Enjoy “Ooh La La.”      

The Virginia Indigent Defense Commission strives to enhance the quality of justice throughout Virginia by protecting the rights of the criminally accused through high quality, compassionate, and cost-effective legal representation.

The Franklin and Winchester offices are currently accepting applications:

The qualified candidate should be committed to advocating on behalf of indigent clients. The attorney will handle trial and appellate cases. The VIDC is committed to providing quality legal services for indigent defendants charged with criminal offenses. The Assistant Public Defender I reports to the Public Defender of the Franklin and is employed at will. A successful candidate is subject to a fingerprint based criminal background check.

Duties include conducting client and witness interviews, working with staff investigators to investigate cases, filing and litigating motions. The attorney will be responsible for trying cases in the General District, Juvenile, and Circuit Courts.

For more information, view the full job listings at PSJD.org (log-in required)!

By: Steve Grumm

Many public-service-minded 2Ls are presently balancing finals and the job search, positioning themselves to be in full job-search mode before 2012 goes to its grave.  1Ls should be focused squarely on finals, in my view, unless there’s a job application deadline before January.  But in the interest of helping summer job seekers get into gear, we hope that they will take advantage of the cover-letter and resume drafting tips we’ve assembled on our Career Central page.  Below are highlights from those resources and some editorializing from me. 

First, though, an important announcement: NALP (which runs PSJD) and Equal Justice Works will present a two-part “Summer Public Interest Job Search” webinar in early January.  The webinars, each 60 minutes long, will take place on:

• 1/15/13 – Noon Eastern – Cover Letters and Resumes
• 1/22/13 – Noon Eastern – Interviewing and Networking

We’ll circulate registration details in the coming weeks.  (In the meantime, you can view a version of this webinar we did last January.)

Okay, here are some cover letter and resume tips we’ve culled from resources on PSJD’s Career Central page:

• Distinguish a cover letter from a resume.  I like this intro from the Michigan Law’s “Creating the Public Service Cover Letter” handout:  “A cover letter is your opportunity to communicate confidence in your abilities, and to reiterate your commitment to, and enthusiasm for, public service work….  Tell [the employer]…the main things you want her/him to learn about you. You should write a letter which addresses the requirements listed by the employer in the posting, showing why you would be an asset to the organization. Letters that merely state your needs and wishes will not evoke an employer’s interest in you.”
  • The cover letter isn’t a reformatted version of your resume.  It’s a companion piece.  Through the cover letter you can tell the employer why this job is the right one for you and why you’re the right candidate for this job.  As noted above, you can pull out one or two of the resume experiences/skills that qualify you for the job and tell what  you did.  You can also express some passion in the cover letter (which is harder to convey in a resume, of course).  I like this very succinct statement about what a cover letter does, from Harvard Law’s Office of Public Interest Advising: “Your letter is an uninterrupted chance to tell an employer about yourself and to add depth to the credentials highlighted on your resume.”
• The cover letter for summer jobs should not exceed one page. (Unlike this blog post).   Employers will likely review many, many cover letters.  It always feels good on the reviewer’s end if a candidate can say what s/he needs to in one page.  (For postgraduate jobs, there may be reasons to go to a second page.  But even those instances are rare.  For a summer job, keep it to one.) 
• Be clear, concise, and conservative in the cover letter’s opening lines. 
  • DO: “I am a second-year law student at [school name] and I am writing to apply for a summer clerkship.”
  • DON’T: “My name is Steve Grumm and this job will be the first step on my path to becoming attorney general.”   First, you don’t need to waste space on your name because the reviewer is already able to find it from the email or letter envelope they received, from your letterhead, and from your signature line.  Second, this kind of attention-seeking bravado will do more harm than good in almost every instance.
• Need Experience to Get Experience(?) – as for resumes, many students confront the perceived “But I need experience in order to get experience!” conundrum.  They wonder how they’ll get consideration from an employer if they haven’t done similar work in the past.  A secret revealed: employers don’t expect you to have a ton of directly relevant public interest experience.  How could you?  Experience is what you’re trying to get, and you’re at the earliest stage of your legal career.  So the trick is to draw parallels and find related skills from past experiences that translate to the work described in a job listing.  An example:
  • A job listing for a summer internship with a group that advocates for migrant farmworker rights may read: “Interns will do outreach at migrant worker camps, interview clients, and educate migrant workers about their rights.”  Even if a law student has done no advocacy in the arena, s/he could draw from any of several past experiences that highlight closely related skills/experiences.  As examples, consider these possible resume bullet points, all of which would stand out to the farmworker employer:
    • “conducted rural outreach to over 75 households for 2010 U.S. Census”
    • “assisted in client interviews as a legal intern”
    • “tutored a class of 20 English as a Second Language (ESL) students”
    • “taught a ‘know-your-rights’ course to 35 high-school students”
• Ditch the “Objective” section.  If your college resume included the “My objective is to secure a position blah blah blah…”, ditch it.  Employers know your objective is to get a job.  Resume real estate is a valuable commodity.  Use that freed-up space for more valuable content.
• Use action verbs and numbers.  I like this tip from UVA Law about language choice: ” Use action verbs and specifically describe your prior work experiences to let a potential employer know what skills you have developed (i.e. drafted a motion to dismiss, deposed two witnesses) and don’t use acronyms when listing your activities (i.e. P-CAP).”
  • In addition to action verbs, numbers stand out, as in the above: “taught a ‘know-your-rights’ course to 35 high-school students.”  
• Bonus Resume Tip: always keep your resume current.  If you’re wrapping up a fall work experience, get that on your resume now even if you’re waiting until January to apply for jobs.  It’s much easier to update a resume when information is fresh in your head.  You can always go back and tailor the resume to specific jobs for which you end up applying.  But it’s best to at least have an up-to-date iteration of your resume.

We’ll share more tips and resources in the coming weeks.  And look out for a registration announcement for our 1/15 and 1/22 webinars.

The American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital (ACLU-NCA) is currently accepting applications for a vacant staff attorney position, focusing primarily on legislative advocacy and advancing criminal and racial justice in the District of Columbia. From the PSJD job listing:

This new position provides a unique opportunity for candidates who are committed to impact-oriented civil rights work and are passionate about equal protection under the law, racial justice, and the full range of ACLU issues.

Under the direction of the Legal Director, the staff attorney is expected to further the affiliate’s litigation program and legislative advocacy. In addition, the staff attorney will develop and execute an integrated advocacy approach combining litigation, legislative advocacy and public education in protecting and advancing civil liberties and civil rights, including racial justice and criminal law reform. The staff attorney will be encouraged to identify, lead, and carry out program activities and strategies to address discrimination, racial profiling, police practices, the problems of incarceration, and the over-discipline of public school children.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Litigation of ACLU cases in a broad range of areas in federal and D.C. trial and appellate courts (including the typical activities of research and writing on factual and legal issues, preparing memoranda of findings and recommendations, drafting briefs and other pleadings, engaging in discovery and motions practice, and appearing in court for all purposes);
• Working with pro bono co-counsel from private law firms;
• Working with senior management to create a strategic work plan to advance criminal and racial justice;
•  Serving as a resource in the affiliates’ legislative and policy work including legal analysis of proposed legislation and government policies and practice, and providing testimony;
• Advancing racial justice in the District of Columbia through administrative and legislative forums, including partnering and advising the local bar, other organizations and advocates;
• Developing new cases and non-litigation advocacy projects;
• Working closely with the public outreach and education staff on civil liberties issues;
• Supervising entry-level attorneys, legal fellows, paralegals and student interns.

Successful applicants will have had a federal judicial clerkship and/or significant federal court litigation experience, and a minimum of 3 years litigation experience. For more information on qualifications and application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).