By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  This week:

• Oklahoma prosecutors running their own probation program, which generates revenue…and controversy;
• a report from the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation reviews the economic benefits and efficiencies stemming from the legal services community’s work;
• is the NOLA public defender’s office going to lay off attorneys?;
• a Chicago high-school teacher is moonlighting as a legal aid lawyer (he’s licensed) and running clinics out of local schools;
• in Wisconsin, legislation proposed to increase prosecutor pay;
• a Canuck pro bono lawyer proposes to boost legal aid funding through a pay or play system.  Surprisingly, the “play” doesn’t involve hockey;
• Private-bar family lawyers in Texas disagree with efforts to make pro se forms available to low-/moderate-income people;
• the legal services funding crisis in the Grand Canyon State;
• at West Virginia Law, a new student clinic will sit at the intersection of land use and natural resource extraction/conservation;
• the legal services funding crisis in Atlanta.

And here are the summaries:

• 1.20.12 – here’s a teaser from a password-protected Wall Street Journal article: “As district attorneys nationwide try to cope with shrinking state budgets, Oklahoma prosecutors have seized on a novel—and increasingly controversial—money raiser: running their own probation programs. The state allows prosecutors to recommend that instead of going to jail or prison, offenders receive special supervision by district attorneys’ offices, which collect a $40 monthly fee from offenders. These programs, which have soared to 38,000 participants from 16,000 in 2008, are now larger than the state prison system’s traditional probation program, which often involves drug testing and mandatory counseling and covers 21,000 offenders.”  I don’t have a subscription, so I can’t read the rest of the article.  But I wonder what ever the potential problem could be…

• 1.19.12 – the economic case for supporting legal services: “Massachusetts civil aid programs generated an estimated $53.2 million in new revenue and cost savings to the commonwealth last year, according to a new report issued today by the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation. Of that amount, $27.7 million came in the form of new federal revenue, the report found. The state appropriation for MLAC in FY11 was $9.5 million. In addition to new federal revenue, MLAC estimated the work of its grantees saved the state millions of dollars in social services by keeping clients out of the emergency shelter system, courts and emergency rooms. The data was reported to MLAC by the 16 legal aid programs it funds in the commonwealth.”  (Report from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.)

• 1.19.12 – from the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “The Orleans Parish public defender’s office is in dire financial straits and will be forced to lay off about 26 employees in coming weeks and implement numerous other cuts, the agency’s head told New Orleans City Council members Wednesday. Derwyn Bunton said his office is faced with a budget shortfall of about $1 million and is reeling from a downturn in revenue. The office instituted a hiring freeze late last year, has suspended payments to its conflict panel lawyers and capital defense lawyers, and doesn’t appear to be able to make payroll by month’s end, Bunton said. He forecast that 14 full-time employees will need to be laid off, along with 12 members of the conflict panel.”

• 1.17.12 – a Chicago high-school teacher is also a lawyer, and he’s set up free clinics to provide advice and counsel to low-income clients.  From the Chicago News Cooperative: “Soon after Dennis Kass started teaching history at a small Little Village high school four years ago, he put his law degree to use dispensing free legal advice to students and their families after school. That modest beginning has evolved into the Chicago Law and Education Foundation, a free clinic that operates monthly at eight other city high schools.”  The foundation has barely any operating funds, and “[m]uch of the clinic’s work is referrals. The foundation has partnerships with the DePaul Immigration/Asylum Clinic, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and First Defense Legal Aid.”  Kass hopes to raise enough funds to hire one staff attorney.

• 1.18.12 – companion bills in the Wisconsin legislature to boost prosecutor pay and stem attrition.  But there’s a hitch.  From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Last year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs surveyed 146 current and former assistant district attorneys and concluded that many leave the job – or plan to – because of the prospect of being stuck for years at entry-level salaries. The report called the turnover rate among prosecutors ‘alarming.’  The bills would establish a 17-step plan, with each step representing one-seventeenth of the difference between the starting pay and top pay for the job.”  And here comes the hitch: “The proposals don’t, however, provide money for the raises desperately sought by the state’s 330 or so prosecutors.”  The story goes on to recount the battle between prosecutors and the governor’s office about attempted furloughs, and provides some data on prosecutor pay.

• 1.16.12 – Canada!  A “pay or play” proposal to support access to justice in the Great White North (as reported by S-law): “As part of his or her annual professional membership fees, a lawyer pays a $300 ‘A2J Contribution’ (an amount roughly equivalent to the average hourly rate among Canadian lawyers) that is earmarked for direct funding of the province’s legal aid and public interest legal organizations. If a lawyer provided and recorded one or more hours of legal aid, pro bono or public legal education service in the previous year— as administered and verified by specific organizations— then his or her A2J Contribution is waived. Thus lawyers “pay or play” to promote access to justice.”  The proposal’s author, Jamie MacLaren, is an active pro bono lawyer and AtJ advocate in British Columbia.

• 1.16.12 – it occasionally happens that solo and small-firm lawyers, who do fee-paying work for low and moderate income clients, butt heads with the public interest community about which clients are able to pay for services and which aren’t.  Something along these lines is playing out in Texas, but with a focus on pro se forms intended for low-income Texans.  From the Texas Lawyer: “The State Bar of Texas Family Law Section wants to put the brakes on draft forms for pro se divorce litigants and is calling for the State Bar to rein in the Texas Access to Justice Commission (TAJC). With both sides claiming to speak in the interests of litigants — and rumblings about protecting lawyers’ livelihoods — the Texas Supreme Court will have to take sides.  In one corner are the TAJC and the high court’s Uniform Forms Task Force, which believe the forms will help people — especially low-income individuals who cannot afford lawyers — obtain divorces on their own. The forms will be a better tool for people who already use forms from the Internet and elsewhere, they say.  In the other corner are the Family Law Section and the Texas Family Law Foundation, which oppose the forms and claim their use: could hurt the interests of people who use them to file for divorce; will not be limited to low-income Texans; could harm the livelihoods of solos and small-firm family lawyers; and may expand into other practice areas besides family law.”  

• 1.16.12 – From the Tucson Citizen: “At a time when the demand for legal assistance is on the rise, Arizona’s legal aid organizations are preparing for one of the largest funding losses in decades. In mid-November, Congress agreed to a 14.8% reduction to Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funding that will result in a $1.6 million loss to Arizona’s three legal aid organizations. Arizona’s legal aid organizations, Community Legal Services, DNA People’s Legal Services and Southern Arizona Legal Aid, have been on the front lines of the State’s economic battles since the recession’s beginning…. According to a report released this week by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education, legal aid, for some, has meant assistance in preventing foreclosure, defending against predatory lenders, or victims of domestic violence needing help in obtaining an order of protection. The report is the culmination of a six month long public survey hosted by the Foundation to better understand the legal needs of Arizona’s population. The Foundation’s Executive Director, Dr. Kevin Ruegg, explains, ‘Our intent for the report, before the news of the federal funding reduction, was to help the general public understand the meaning of legal services. Since the news of the cuts, the report has taken on a whole new meaning – It isn’t just the meaning of legal services that was defined. The report clearly explains the impact in this loss of funding’.”  Here’s a link to the report.

• 1.16.12 – at West Virginia Law, a new student clinic will sit at the intersection of land use and natural resource extraction/conservation. From the Register-Herald: “A new law clinic at West Virginia University, funded by millions of dollars in legal settlements between environmental groups and coal companies, will focus much of its effort on the New and Gauley river watersheds.  The first four law school students at the Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic in Morgantown begin their work this week…”

• 1.13.12 – the Atlanta Legal Aid Society’s board president pens a Journal-Constitution op-ed capturing the group’s dire financial straits: “Every day, Legal Aid lawyers solve problems that threaten their clients’ lives. Last year, the client caseload totaled 26,283, a 21 percent increase since 2007.  But…a tragedy is brewing. The money needed to provide this all-important ‘hand up’ is disappearing. In the case of Atlanta Legal Aid, two major funding sources have decreased dramatically. The first is Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, or IOLTA.  Second, Atlanta Legal Aid recently learned that the federal funding that represents close to one-third of its budget is decreasing nearly 15 percent.  Atlanta Legal Aid has already cut costs to the bone. Staff is leaner; benefits have been reduced. Salaries remain a fraction of those paid to lawyers in private practice. And less than 10 percent of Atlanta Legal Aid’s budget goes to administration and fundraising…. Unless other sources of funding are found, Atlanta Legal Aid will be forced to cut attorneys and staff. Legal Aid will have no choice but to turn away more individuals and families in dire need of their legal services.” 

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) works to reduce animal suffering and promote the welfare of all animals, including animals in agriculture.

As a part of its mission, AWI promotes humane farming systems and works to advance legislative and regulatory efforts to improve the conditions of farm animals.

During the summer of 2012, one promising student will have the opportunity to learn more about farm animal law and policy as a law clerk or intern Responsibilities include legal research and writing, tracking legislation and regulations, and drafting public policy comments.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

New Mexico Appleseed is offering a two-year fellowship beginning in the fall of 2012 to work on poverty issues plaguing New Mexico. The fellow will do extensive research, writing, and policy/community advocacy on issues pertaining to poverty. Topics include hunger policy issues (school and afterschool meals, summer food, Native American hunger, and SNAP), economic development, and housing and homelessness.

New Mexico Appleseed crafts and advocates for high-impact policy solutions to problems affecting the poor and underserved. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and part of the national Appleseed network of 17 public interest justice centers in the United States and Mexico. Because New Mexico Appleseed is a trusted knowledge base on the law, best practices elsewhere, and the financial impacts of the policies it proposes, it has been able to make major changes in how schools and the state do business on issues that matter to it.

To learn how to apply, see the full listing at PSLawNet!

Legal Aid of Western Missouri (LAWMo) has been providing essential legal services to low-income citizens since 1964. LAWMo staff attorneys, paralegals and volunteers assist over 20,000 people each year with problems that seriously affect their ability to provide for themselves and their families. With that level of service, it is important that the community be aware of the organization’s mission and activities.

The Attorney/Director will continue an extensive public awareness campaign targeting the English as a Second Language (ESL) and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) population of our 40 county service area to provide info/workshops about ITINs, W2 and Earned Income Tax Credits.

Additional duties include but not limited to handling relatively straightforward tax controversy cases, recruiting volunteer attorneys to handle tax controversy cases and overseeing the implementation and enhancement of Legal Aid’s policy for serving clients with Limited English Proficiency.

To find out how to apply, see the listing at PSLawNet!

The Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ) is accepting applications for its spring semester internship program.

CFYJ seeks interns interested in being introduced to the “nuts and bolts” of juvenile and criminal justice reform and issue campaign organization and management. This may include everything from poring through government reports, statistics, records, and data to working on the communications strategy associated with a state-based campaign/ initiative or analyzing legislation with clear policy implications.

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday the 13th, dear readers.  This week’s horrific development was the Hostess bankruptcy – the company’s second in recent years.  The very idea of Ding Dongs and Suzy Q’s – to say nothing of Twinkies – succumbing to capitalism’s merciless machinations is heartbreaking.  If government can subsidize public transportation, the arts, and other “important” societal goods, government can damn-well subsidize Ho-Ho’s.  Si tu puedes, Obama. 

In light of it being Friday the 13th and as a lamentation on the Hostess news, I offer this sonic gem by punk rock legends Social Distortion.  Social D is the second-best thing to come out of Orange County, California – the best thing being whatever road gets you out of Orange County the fastest.   

I didn’t really digress up there so much as I never got on topic.  Sorry.  Here’s this week’s public interest news in summary:

• Montana’s Office of the Public Defender facing criticism and may be short on resources at it tries to replace its retiring chief;     
• NOLA’s defender says they don’t have money to compensate outside counsel – judge not happy;
• Dayton’s pro bono clearinghouse feels the caseload strain;
• A report critical of indigent defense funding in PA is released; one county defender stops taking some cases;
• Brevard County, FL kicks $250,000+ to the local legal services program;
• A Charleston Gazette editorial looks at Legal Aid of West Virginia’s funding woes;
• a newly-created federal defender’s office, and a little bit of attorney hiring, in Northern Alabama 

The summaries:

• 1.12.11 – the Missoula Independent reports that the ACLU of Montana has kept up its criticism of the state’s Office of the Public Defender as, this month, OPD tries to settle on replacing its retiring chief.  One of OPD’s main problems seems to be a shortage of resources to build an effective program infrastructure.

• 1.10.12 – several days ago the New Orleans Public Defender announced that, due to fiscal woes, his office would not be able to pay outside counsel to handle cases that the PD couldn’t.  This has of course caused a stir within the criminal defense bar and the court system. From the Times-Picayune:  “The new austerity plan at the Orleans Parish public defender’s office has started to make waves, including one that lapped into a courtroom Tuesday on the eve of a death penalty trial. The plan, to cut off all payments to private lawyers hired by the office, drew a biting response from Criminal District Judge Lynda Van Davis, who upbraided Derwyn Bunton, the chief public defender.”

• 1.9.12 – the Dayton Business Journal looks at how the Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyers Project is contending with high-volume case referrals.  As is the story everywhere else, while financial resources are scarce, the legal services community is overwhelmed with client demand.

• 1.8.12 – in PA, a joint legislative committee issued a damning report last month about the state of indigent defense in the Keystone State.  Read “A Constitutional Default: Services to Indigent Criminal Defendants in Pennsylvania.”  Some related items:
  • the Luzerne County (PA) public defender’s refusal to take on some new cases makes his office one of several around the country which has put a foot down, saying they don’t have the resources to do their constitutional duties.  The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader looks at what’s going on across the U.S., and notes that prosecutors are facing similar dilemmas.
  • And here’s a Times Leader editorial highlighting the local defender’s caseload overload, and calling on county residents to contact local officials.)

• 1.7.12 – in Florida, Brevard County Legal Aid got some good funding news: “The county will pay $256,500 to provide low-income residents free legal services this year, but Brevard County commissioners want the majority of those services to benefit victims of domestic violence and children.”  Like a lot of providers, Legal Aid is seeing many more clients than it can help.  Legal Aid’s currently turning away 8 of every 10 who otherwise qualify for services, according to Florida Today.

• 1.5.12 – a Charleston Gazette editorial argues that with Legal Aid of West Virginia facing $650,000 in funding cuts ($500,000 of that being a cut in LSC funding), the state legislature and those in the justice system must find additional funding.

• 1.5.12 – the  Birmingham News reports that a new federal defender’s office is opening in the Northern District of Alabama, which had been “one of only four federal…districts, out of 94 nationwide, that didn’t have some form of public defender office…”  Federal Public Defender Kevin Butler, is looking to hire about six assistant defenders, along with investigators and support staff. “Butler said he will focus on hiring attorneys experienced in federal criminal defense work. But he said there will be room for hiring younger attorneys ‘who have shown a commitment to equal protection under the law’.”  

While this opportunity is unpaid, there is a possibility of permanent employment after the internship training. Check it out —

Eviction Defense Network (EDN) is a network of trial lawyers founded in 2003 that advocates for tenants. EDN is dedicated to defending the right to affordable housing and ensuring access to justice in housing matters to tenants in Los Angeles County. EDN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance and representation to tenants facing eviction.

Eviction Defense Network (EDN) is be expanding its services starting with a two-month training opportunity for four attorneys.

From January 28, 2012 through March 30, 2012, EDN is offering a training opportunity with possible salaried positions at the conclusion of the two-month training.

This is a two-month unpaid Internship Program for attorneys interested in then applying for 4 possible job openings at the conclusion of the training.

The training starts with a half day orientation on January 13, 2011 and 1 full day of classroom training on January 14 (Saturday).

Is this position for you? Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

My friend and colleague Leeor Neta, Assistant Director for Public Interest Programs at Golden Gate University School of Law, has written a nice piece about the varying – and sometimes strange – paths he’s been on during his legal career.  The article is entitled “The Most Common Path to a Public Interest Career is Also the Least Discussed.”  In it Leeor draws a distinction between the better-understood-but-quite-narrow points of entry, such as postgraduate fellowships and judicial clerkships, and the path that most grads take: shaking every tree, making connections, and staying optimistic until the right opportunity comes along. And even at that stage, the first “right” opportunity generally won’t be the last one.  So one job may lead to another and another as a graduate is 1, 5, 10 years out of law school.

The article’s intended audience is law school career services professionals, but I’ve no doubt that public-interest minded students and grads can take much from Leeor’s recounting of his experiences.  Leeor begins:

There are ultimately three avenues to a public interest legal career. The first is a postgraduate fellowship with a public interest organization. The second is a judicial clerkship; clerkships demonstrate a commitment to public service that can attract public interest employers. While these paths to a public interest career are certainly desirable, it is probably fair to say that most future public interest lawyers pursue a third avenue: taking whatever comes, maintaining a long-term perspective, and doing one’s best to exemplify a commitment to public interest in the meantime.

…

How then do we counsel the countless law students who graduate each year without either a fellowship or a clerkship but still an abiding commitment to the public interest? CDOs need to broadcast the stories of the many people who took a long-term path to a public interest career. When possible, we need to speak from our own experiences. And if you will pardon a minor indulgence, I will do just that: I came to law school with little idea of what I wanted to accomplish with a law degree. All I knew was that I wanted to serve my community, especially those who did not have the same opportunities I’d had….

From there Leeor runs is through his own winding career path.   He’s done everything from capital defense to broader indigent defense work in Illinois, to running (after founding) a juvenile diversion program in California.  Also falling in there – in fact, his first job out of law school – was a stint doing non-public-interest-but-very-educational work in insurance law.  Now, of course, Leeor’s at Golden Gate where he helps students and alum to launch public interest careers.

Leeor’s a very sharp lawyer with some hefty academic credentials (certainly heftier than mine).  My hope in sharing his story is that all 3Ls and recent grads can take some solace from the fact that a few missteps and uncertainties along the way are far more the norm than you might think.  This post is edging into “too-long-didn’t-read” territory, so for now it must suffice to say that I never envisioned that I, as someone who wanted nothing but to work on public benefits cases in a legal aid office, would not touch a public benefits case during or after law school.  But I’m thrilled with the crazy, unforseen way that things have turned out.  It happens to most of us.

Here’s another opportunity to work at the NALP office!

We’re currently accepting applications for our NALP Street Law Legal Diversity Pipeline Project Fellowship! This two-year fellowship provides a wonderful opportunity for a public interest-minded law graduate who also has an interest in education and diversity in the legal profession.
The NALP/Street Law Legal Diversity Pipeline Program, a joint initiative undertaken by both organizations in 2008, is designed to provide information about the law and the legal profession to high school students and encourage them to pursue legal careers. In particular, the program targets students from minority groups that are underrepresented in the practice of law.

The Fellow will administer this program and support its growth. The fellow will have responsibility for providing training, curriculum development assistance, and planning support to participating law firms, law schools, and high schools. (To learn more about the program and current participants, click here.)

Interested in learning more? See the full listing at PSLawNet!

The Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center is currently seeking interns for the summer of 2012.

The mission of the Street Vendor Project is to advance economic justice and political power among the approximately 15,000 people who sell food and merchandise on the streets and sidewalks of NYC. Vendors, who are primarily recent immigrants and U.S. military veterans, have serious problems: they have been denied access to vending licenses and driven from their vending locations. Fines reach as high as $1,000 per ticket for trivial violations.

The Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center is a membership-based organization that provides legal representation and small business training to individual vendors while organizing them to speak together in one unified citywide movement for justice and respect.

Interns will have the chance to represent vendors in administrative hearings, where you can present evidence and cross-examine police officers. You will also attend organizing meetings and help plan demonstrations, rallies, and other events.

Sounds interesting, right? Find out more at PSLawNet!