By: Steve Grumm

One of the more interesting post-recession trends in the public interest legal arena has been the growth of full-time volunteer attorney
positions within nonprofit and government agencies. It has not been unusual, historically, that public service law offices would recruit volunteers to bolster their staffs amid swollen caseloads. But in the recession’s wake we’ve seen larger-scale efforts to recruit un- or under-employed attorneys for full-time stints ranging from 6 to 18 months. Budget cuts and caseload pressures felt by employers have given birth to creative staffing solutions, while the anemic legal job market has left thousands of recent law graduates
looking for ways to gain practice experience. Although there are certainly some upsides to this trend, some worry that these unpaid positions could become institutionalized, leaving some debt-laden, public service-minded law grads with a rocky financial path to traverse immediately out of law school.

Over the coming months I will look at the emergence of volunteer attorney positions in different types of public service law offices.   I began in this month’s NALP Bulletin with a piece on the rise of the “Uncompensated Special Assistant U.S. Attorney.”

[W]ith Uncle Sam poised to squeeze his fiscal belt even more tightly, federal prosecutors across the country are looking for creative, effective, staffing solutions.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented a hiring freeze in January of this year.  Given the current political climate, in particular the recent passage of sweeping federal deficit-reduction legislation, federal prosecutors’ budgets are likely to, at best, hold fast.  According to one Assistant U.S. Attorney whose office has recruited for uncompensated Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys (SAUSA), given the circumstances it makes perfect sense for U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to mine a talented – and nearly free – source of labor.

 A review last month of several “SAUSA Uncompensated” job listings on the DOJ’s Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management website was helpful in sketching out the nature of uncompensated SAUSA positions and applicant eligibility criteria…

MFY Legal Services, Inc., a 48-year-old nonprofit public interest law firm is looking for a staff attorney for its Neighborhood Preservation Project (NPP) to represent low-income New Yorkers in eviction prevention and tenant rights matters. Caseload will balance advice and individual representation with law reform advocacy and impact litigation on issues affecting affordable housing and tenants’ rights.

MFY Legal Services, Inc. provides free legal services to low-income residents of New York City in the areas of housing, public benefits, civil and disability rights, employment, consumer, foreclosure and family law.

MFY Legal Services has a 45-person staff comprised of attorneys, paralegals, social workers and support staff. It is a diverse, unionized, and collegial workplace.

For more information on MFY’s staff attorney position or to find out how to apply, check out the complete listing on PSLawNet.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Greetings from a rainy, gloomy Washington, DC.  This is perhaps appropriate, as most everyone inside the Beltway is mindful that almost 10 years have passed since the September 11th attacks.  Things here livened up a little bit this week with the Republican presidential candidates’ debate and last night’s presidential address, the combination of which suggests that the 2012 election season is already upon us.  Thirteen months of this.  Oh, what unmitigated joy. 

This week in public interest news: the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau hits the century mark; a handful of law schools create “incubation programs” for aspiring solos, and at least two of them are serving low-income clients; some much-needed matching funding for Pisgah Legal Services; an eleventh-hour layoff aversion in the Sacramento D.A.’s office; Vermont Law School’s doing its part to aid flood victims; the Mass. Bar Association goes all medical-legal partnership on us;  UVA Law’s Innocence Clinic scores some big wins;  read about a not-so-good proposal to change Tennessee’s indigent defense system; an in-depth look at pro bono programs within large, Windy City law firms; Utah prosecutors support bolstering indigent defense; how a huge, potential LSC $ cut will impact Legal Services of Southern Missouri; an anonymous, non-lawyer drops $2 million on the Maine Bar Foundation’s’ doorstep (metaphorically).  My money’s on Steven King. 

• 9.8.11 – I’ve been feeling my joints creak since I turned 35 in August, but the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau is 100.  That’s really old.  WBAL has details on the community birthday party that MDLAB is hosting in Charm City tomorrow.

• 9.7.11 – the National Law Journal looks at a handful of law schools that have created “incubation” programs which provide in-kind support and mentoring for recent grads who aspire to solo practice but want to hedge against the insecurity of going it entirely alone.  Why am I mentioning this?  Two of the schools, the Univ. of Maryland and CUNY, have built a public interest dimension into their programs: “At CUNY, incubator participants do a significant amount of…”low bono” work. They earn $75 an hour for providing legal representation to underserved communities…, paid for by contracts with New York City. The work provides the new attorneys with experience and exposure, and provides representation to people who otherwise could not afford an attorney….  The University of Maryland’s solo incubator…also promotes civil justice. Participants…assist on grant-funded cases through Civil Justice Inc., a nonprofit law office that serves low-income clients….”  

• 9.7.11 – some good news for Pisgah Legal Services in North Carolina.  It may not seem that having $17K in county grant money restored is newsworthy.  But the money constitutes matching funds for domestic-violence grants.  So it’s important.  The Times-News reports: “The Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to give Pisgah Legal Services money it needs to match domestic-violence grants, essentially reinstating the funding that they denied the regional nonprofit in June.  While the grant was requested by Pisgah Legal Services Executive Director Jim Barrett to match domestic violence prevention grants his organization has secured through the Governor’s Crime Commission, it is nearly the exact same amount — $16,833 — that Barrett previously asked the board for during county budget talks.”

• 9.6.11 – layoffs averted in the Sacramento DA’s office.  And we can thank Big Oil.  Sort of.  KCRA reports:  “Three months ago, [District Attorney Jan] Scully said budget cuts were forcing her to lay off 64 people, eliminate several units and stop prosecution of most misdemeanor crimes.  Now, Scully said a $24.5 million settlement in a lawsuit against Chevron for violating the state anti-pollution laws is making the difference.”  The DA’s office will get 6.5 million from that pot of money.

• 9.6.11 – news from the Great Wet North.  Vermont Law School, which itself fell victim to post-Irene flood damage, has been doing its part to help its neighbors, according to the National Law Journal: “The law school’s land use clinic and its South Royalton, Vt., legal clinic have teamed up to assist residents in filling out applications for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Students are on hand daily in the school’s law library to help people complete emergency paperwork.  The law school has designated two staff members to work full time on relief efforts and is allowing staff members to receive full pay while volunteering.”

• 9.6.11 – the Massachusetts Bar Association has gotten into the medical-legal partnership game with a new pro bono initiative, according to a piece in The Republican:  “To address the intertwined health problems and legal needs of such vulnerable patients, the Massachusetts Bar Association and Massachusetts Medical-Legal Partnership network have joined forces to launch the MBA Pro Bono Prescription.  This pioneering effort unites health-care teams and lawyers toward a shared goal of strengthening struggling communities. The MBA Pro Bono Prescription aims to increase the supply of lawyers who can prescribe legal remedies to help avert both legal crises and health emergencies.”  (For the law students in our readership, you can learn much more about medical-legal partnerships, which have been steadily increasing in number across the country, via the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnerships.  The basic goal is for poverty lawyers to work with other social services providers in providing more holistic services to clients, and ideally addressing root causes of medical and legal problems to avoid their recurrence.)

• 9.6.11 – the Cavalier Daily reports that the University of Virginia School of Law’s Innocence Project has done well in the overturned conviction department, first removing a man from Death Row and then having his other, related convictions tossed: “Twelve University Law students helped overturn the wrongful drug and weapon conviction of Northern Virginian man Justin Wolfe last week, bringing an end to a decade-long struggle for freedom. The decision comes more than a month after the students, as part of the Law School’s Innocence Project Clinic, helped convince a federal judge to dismiss Wolfe’s murder-for-hire conviction and death sentence.  The clinic, part of the Innocence Network, is an organization which works to overturn wrongful convictions of prisoners in Virginia who could be proven innocent — many of whom are convicted as a result of ineffective legal counsel or flawed police techniques.”

• 9.4.11 – an op-ed in The Tennessean appropriately skewers a really bad idea for saving cash on the state’s indigent defense funding:   “The state’s indigent defense fund’s cost has grown from $19.9 million to $37.5 million since 2004. There were 126,000 legal bills submitted by attorneys to represent poor clients last year. Lawmakers cried “whoa!” and asked the courts’ administrative office to figure out how to save money.  What they came up with is a proposal that has been widely poo-pooed by attorneys, judges, experts and professional groups. It would set up a bidding system in which attorneys or law firms would get the right to represent the indigent for a flat fee if they are the lowest bidder. All the sudden, in Tennessee, justice would be akin to road contracts or buying computers.”  (“Poo-pooed” did not pass spellcheck, but frankly I have no interest in learning how to spell it.) 

• 9.4.11 – the Chicago Lawyerhas a long, detailed piece surveying the pro bono models at several of the Windy City’s large law firms: “In recent years, as pro bono leaders in Chicago law firms worked to increase pro bono participation, they began to integrate pro bono…into the operations of their firms. Many of these programs now serve as separate practices, often with their own staff and policies….  While some…firms still encourage lawyers to select their own projects, other firms take a more focused approach, searching for specific opportunities to help those in need while training young associates. They also adopt and offer holistic services to nonprofit organizations and secure finance or real estate matters for transactional lawyers.”  Firms highlighted in the article include Katten, SNR Denton, Holland & Knight, DLA Piper, Winston & Strawn, and Mayer Brown, among others.  Chicago Bar Foundation executive director Bob Glaves, a friend of the PSLawNet Blog and a superb advocate for the local public interest community, is quoted in the piece.  This provides an opportunity for me to note that the Cubs record is 62-81.  Hi, Bob!

• 9.2.11 – three county prosecutors in the Beehive State take to the pages of the Salt Lake Tribune to argue, wait for it, for bolstering Utah’s patchwork of county indigent defense systems:  “Because prosecutors are committed to doing justice, we support a strong and vigorous indigent defense system. We stand ready to work together with all interested parties to meet our constitutional obligations to do justice as effectively and efficiently as possible.”  But there’s a catch, of sorts.  The authors are writing in the wake of an ACLU of Utah Report, Failing Gideon, which called for a statewide fix for what is now an uneven county-by-county system.  The three prosecutors prefer a local approach, as they don’t think a statewide solution is feasible in the present economic climate. 

• 9.1.11 – the Ozarks First website looks at how the House’s proposed 26% cut to Legal Services Corporation will impact the local LSC grantee, Legal Services of Southern Missouri.  LSSM executive director Douglas Kays “says proposed federal cuts would translate to about $500,000” lost.  “‘We help about 2,500 people a year [out of 10,000 applications for assistance, on average],’ says Kays. ‘We’d probably have to reduce that by 500 or 600’.”

• 9.1.11 – Ready, set, $2million.  The Bangor Daily News reports unexpected good news on the legal services funding front in Maine: “The Maine Bar Foundation has announced the receipt of a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor. The endowment, the first of its kind for the foundation, is dedicated to providing support for people in need of legal assistance in Washington and Hancock counties, according to a press release issued Thursday…. The foundation will set up an endowment with the gift and use the interest to pay for legal services.”  This has got to feel good for the bar foundation after some disappointing IOLTA years.

By Lauren Forbes

Calling a Managing Director! As a national immigrant youth-led organization, United We Dream Network (UWD)’s mission is to achieve equal access to higher education for all people, regardless of immigration status. We aim to address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and to develop a sustainable, grassroots movement led by immigrant youth, documented and undocumented, and children of immigrants. We use leadership development, organizing, policy advocacy, alliance building, training, and capacity-building to pursue our mission at the local, state, and national levels.

UWD’s mission is to build power through local, regional, and national convening and leadership development opportunities; to provide the tools and resources to immigrant youth leaders to organize and grow their movements at every level; to create meaningful alliances with other national immigrant and education rights organizations and ensure there is a voice for immigrant youth at the national level; to strengthen anchor organizations of UWD; and to support emerging groups and provide capacity where organizing is needed but nonexistent.

This position includes full benefits as provided by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the fiscal sponsor for UWD. The Managing Director will be an employee of NILC working for UWD. Organization policies and benefits packages are subject to change during annual open enrollment at NILC and/or when this position transitions to employment directly by UWD.

The position is expected to be based in the Washington, DC, area. However, the location may change depending on outcomes of upcoming UWD strategic planning processes.

Click into the listing on PSLawNet for application instructions (login required).

The Law School at the University of Chicago is seeking qualified applicants for a full-time position supervising law students and representing federal criminal defendants as a Fellow, appointed with the rank of Lecturer, in the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic. The position will begin in the 2011-2012 academic year and will last through June 2014. Working with the clinical faculty, the successful candidate will supervise clinic students in pretrial federal criminal cases, representing defendants from arrest through trial or guilty plea and sentencing, and possibly on Seventh Circuit appeals, and will also be expected to assist in teaching clinical pre-trial and trial skills courses. One goal of this Fellowship is to train aspiring clinical teachers and federal public defenders.

Qualifications
Candidates must have a J.D.; must be a member in good standing of the bar of Illinois or another state; and must have at least three years of experience representing criminal defendants. Excellent writing, editing, advocacy, and supervision skills are required. Some experience representing criminal defendants in federal court, as well as familiarity with the United States Sentencing Guidelines and the current federal sentencing regime, are a plus. A demonstrated commitment to criminal defense and/or indigent populations is also a plus. The Fellow must be eligible for and able to obtain the following bar admissions/memberships: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar; Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Federal Defender Panel for the Northern District of Illinois.

Click into the listing on PSLawNet for application instructions (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday/Labor Day Weekend/September, dear readers.  As summer is (unofficially) winding down this week, we wish you all a happy Autumn, and we wish the best of luck to law students, clinicians, and law school administrators who are beginning a new academic year. 

This week: the first months of the Last Resort Exoneration Project; indigent counsel reform in Tennessee(?); USAJobs due for some downtime in October; AtJ news in the Mountain State; a dispatch from the ABA’s oval office; reaction to an ACLU report about Utah’s rickety indigent defense infrastructure; in NOLA, physical altercations and officers of the court and lawsuits, oh my!; unpaid legal internships raise eyebrows across the pond; USA Today presents the short version (as always) of legal services funding struggles nationwide; changes (and hiring!) in the Massachusetts indigent defense system; pro bono on a DLA Piper salary ain’t so bad.    

• 9.1.11 – the new Last Resort Exoneration Project, housed at the Seton Hall University School of Law, is complementing the work of the Innocence Project.  While the Innocence Project operates nationally and primarily uses DNA evidence to free the wrongfully convicted, Last Resort operates only within the Garden State and focuses on cases in which DNA evidence is not in play.  Check out this profile of Last Resort, which began operations this past February, on MyCentralJersey.com.

• 8.31.11 – is change afoot in the way that Volunteer State public defenders are assigned?  The Tennessean reports on a proposal being kicked around by the Tennessee Supreme Court: “To rein in the state’s fast-growing indigent defense fund, the court has drafted an amendment to its rules that would allow the cash-strapped state Administrative Office of the Courts to solicit bids and award contracts to lawyers or firms ‘to provide legal services to indigent persons for a fixed fee.’ The proposal has come under a barrage of criticism from lawyers, judges and state and national legal organizations who warn that flat-fee contracts will put many lawyers out of work, undermine the authority of local judges and deny poor people the effective assistance of legal counsel.”

• 8.31.11 – heads up, federal job seekers!  Government Executive reports that USAJobs will go down temporarily in October while Uncle Sam readies a new version of the website: “The Office of Personnel Management will take the government’s job application platform offline in October to transition to a new system. USAJobs 3.0, designed to make the process smoother for potential hires and federal recruiters alike, will debut on Oct. 13. Agencies will have to close all open job announcements before Oct. 6, when the system will be made unavailable to all applicants for nearly a week. The downtime will allow agencies to transition data to the new platform built by OPM and create a level playing field for job seekers and human resources staff, said Angela Bailey, the agency’s associate director of employee services.”

• 8.30.11 – two access-to-justice developments in West Virginia. 
• First, the Journal reports on hearings held by the state’s 2 year-old AtJ Commission to explore the problems that low-income West Virginians confront in navigating the justice system: “A shortage of funding for more Legal Aid attorneys [and] the difficulties citizens face when trying to hire an attorney…were among several issues discussed Monday night in Martinsburg during the second of six statewide public forums on the issue of access to the state’s civil justice system. The forum was held by the West Virginia Access to Justice Commission, which was formed two years ago.”  Here’s a troubling statistic (emphasis mine): “There are only 52 Legal Aid attorneys for the state’s 55 counties.”  And of course many of those attorneys are concentrated in population centers, which makes things very difficult for would-be clients in rural locales.
• Second, on a more positive note the Record reports that Legal Aid of West Virginia has launched a LawHelp site to empower litigants with self-help resources.

• 8.30.11 – In a letter to editor of the New York Times, new ABA president William T. Robinson, III offers perspective on a recent NYT editorial which presented solutions to narrow the civil justice gap. The letter supports the Times’s view that LSC funding should be expanded, but takes issue with the Times’s call to deregulate the delivery of legal services.  Writes Robinson: “[A] rush to open the practice of law to unschooled, unregulated nonlawyers is not the solution. This would cause grave harm to clients. Even matters that appear simple, such as uncontested divorces, involve myriad legal rights and responsibilities. If the case is not handled by a professional with appropriate legal training, a person can suffer serious long-term consequences affecting loved ones or financial security. It also could lead to a violation of the law.”  (Personally I’d look at unbundling – i.e. limited-scope representation – innovations before farming traditional lawyer work out to nonlawyers.  In practice, those outfits that market to low-income clients by offering quasi-legal services have patchy records, and are certainly not substitutes for legal services providers.  Although I grant that it’s the people who are over-income for legal services but can’t afford to retain counsel who present a very difficult challenge.)

• 8.29.11 – in Utah, a Deseret News editorial reacts to a recent ACLU of Utah report on the state’s indigent defense system: “This week, the ACLU released an in-depth study of criminal defense for the poor in Utah, and found the state system woefully inadequate. Utah is one of only two states that doesn’t fund public defenders, requiring counties to foot the bill and resulting in a funding rate of $5.22 per capita, less than half the national average of $11.86.  Attorneys [in rural counties] are ‘chronically underfunded and overworked,’ according to the report, receiving an average of just $400 per case…. There are several things the state can do to remedy the situation, and not all of them require money. For starters, public defenders should be granted greater access to the state’s crime labs, on par with that of prosecutors. It should also institute statewide standards for selecting public attorneys, eliminating conflicts of interest, and provide more oversight of county justice systems. But ultimately, funding for public attorneys must increase.”  Here’s a link to the ACLU report: Failing Gideon.

• 8.28.11 – now this is an adversarial justice system.  A New Orleans Times-Picayune opinion piece looks at the recent, bizarre goings-on between NOLA public defenders and court staff.  “Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton was getting a bit worried a couple of years ago because his attorneys were coming back injured after appearing before Judge Ben Willard.  First Steve Singer had to have surgery for a torn ligament after Willard ordered sheriff’s deputies to kick him out of the courtroom. A few months later, Stuart Weg also needed medical treatment following a similarly unceremonious departure, and Bunton asked for a Judiciary Commission investigation.”  This quoted passage notwithstanding, it does not appear as if the defenders are entirely without blame.  They seem to take seriously their responsibilities as zealous advocates.  (On a related note, the PSLawNet Blog interviewed Mr. Bunton several months ago.  He struck us as one cool cat.  Let’s hope cooler heads prevail in the Big Easy.)

• 8.29.11 – a little legal internship hullabaloo across the Pond.  A piece in the Guardian laments the increased number of unpaid legal internships in both public interest and for-profit law firm settings.  The author argues that some “employers” may be skirting regulations that distinguish paid employment relationships from volunteer learning opportunities, and that blossoming lawyers are too vulnerable at this early stage in their careers to raise a stink.  The author further contends that the entities charged with regulating the legal profession are not paying sufficient attention to the issue.  It’s hard for me to draw parallels with the U.S market because it seems that our labor regulations may be a bit more permissive, particularly in allowing government and nonprofit entities to take on unpaid interns. Nonetheless, it’s an issue worth watching in the U.S. given the glut of law graduates looking for practice experience.

• 8.29.11 – a piece in USA Today highlights the deteriorating condition of the nation’s civil legal services infrastructure, especially as the Legal Services Corporation is threatened with a 25% funding cut by congressional appropriators.  Some notable data points:
• “The House Appropriations Committee has proposed slashing…$104 million [from LSC’s budget] for fiscal 2012, rolling back funding to $300 million — a level not seen since 1999.”
• “The number of people eligible, based on income levels, for LSC programs across the country has gone up 27% since 2007. About 64 million people qualify [according to LSC president Jim Sandman].”
• “Idaho Legal Aid Services has started unpaid monthly furloughs, and offices are closed one day each month. Several employees have been downgraded from full-time to part-time status.”
• “Legal Services of New Jersey plans to lay off 100 employees by the end of the year.”

• 8.28.11 – big news on the indigent defense front in Massachusetts, including some new public-defender hiring.  From the Milford Daily News:  “Leaders of the state’s public defender system will soon detail a plan to hire more staff attorneys to represent the poor and contract less of that work to about 3,000 private lawyers across Massachusetts. The cost of defending low-income people came under the spotlight on Beacon Hill this year when Gov. Deval Patrick proposed hiring about 1,000 new state attorneys and ending the use of private attorneys altogether….  After lawmakers offered less sweeping proposals of their own, Patrick ultimately signed a state budget last month that makes less ambitious reforms. It requires at least 25 percent of cases with indigent defendants to be handled by state attorneys by next July, up from about 10 percent now…. Lisa Hewitt, the committee’s general counsel, said the plan will likely require hiring 346 new full-time employees, including attorneys, support staff, social workers and investigators.  A final number is still in the works, she said. The state now has 252   public defenders on its payroll.”

• 8.26.11 – DLA Piper creates a pro bono immersion program of sorts for public-interest minded associates.  From AmLaw Daily: “DLA Piper unveiled a program…that creates what many first-year associates might call a dream job–the opportunity to work on pro bono cases while taking home a six-figure salary unheard of at most public service organizations.  Starting in January, two incoming DLA Piper associates each year will be selected to do exclusively pro bono work for a year as part of the firm’s DLA Piper/Krantz Fellowship Program.”

Autumn being my favorite season, I leave you with this pop music gem from one of the most unlikely songwriters to write a cartoon movie soundtrack.

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that combines expertise in research, technical assistance, and demonstration projects to assist leaders in government and civil society, examine justice policy and practice, and improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. Vera has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, and New Orleans, and its projects and reform initiatives, typically conducted in partnership with local, state, or national officials, are located across the United States and around the world. Vera is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace.

Vera’s Center on Immigration and Justice seeks a Program Analyst to work primarily on three federally-funded projects that aim to improve police-immigrant relations through researching the impact of cultural and language barriers, identifying promising practices, and training law enforcement. One of these programs specifically focuses on law enforcement relations with Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities in the post-September 11th environment. Vera has a long history of collaboration with community stakeholders and law enforcement to improve public safety. Vera is widely acknowledged as one of a few national experts on police-immigrant relations. Our work positions us at the forefront of the policing field’s growing interest in police-immigrant relations. The Program Analyst will have a key role in our currently funded projects, as well as in identifying gaps to be covered in future projects.

Click into the listing on PSLawNet for application instructions (login required).

Our buddy, and student debt expert, Heather Jarvis thinks so.  There’s no doubt the House will soon move forward on plans to trim cut the dickens out of federal spending.  But Heather thinks the College Cost Reduction & Access Acts’s loan forgiveness provision is safe.  Check out her blog post to find out why…

By Lauren Forbes

Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) is an innovative partnership among the Microsoft Corporation, Angelina Jolie and other interested philanthropists, law firms and corporate supporters. KIND is dedicated to providing both pro bono representation and positive systemic changes in law and policy to benefit unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. Launched in fall 2008, KIND is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Responsibilities: KIND seeks a in Washington, DC to help develop, maintain, and oversee the provision of pro bono legal representation to unaccompanied children through KIND’s network of major law firms and corporate partners.  This includes helping children to understand the immigration process and training volunteer attorneys to effectively represent individual child clients before immigration authorities.  The Pro Bono Coordinator’s role does not include direct legal representation. The Pro Bono Coordinator will have the following responsibilities:

1) Interview and screen individual child clients and help them prepare for their immigration hearings;

2) Match child clients with pro bono attorneys;

3) Recruit, train, and provide hands-on mentorship to volunteer attorneys representing unaccompanied children in immigration matters; and

4)  Assist in developing and managing KIND relationships with law firms and corporate counsel.

Click into the listing on PSLawNet for application instructions (login required).

Hey 2Ls and  3Ls: are you on the postgraduate fellowship hunt?  We’ve just updated PSLawNet’s database; there are over 300 new listings.  Go to www.pslawnet.org, log in, and run an opportunity search by selecting any or all of the four “fellowship…” options in the “Job Type” field. 

To help you keep track of application deadlines, we’ve put together a master calendar listing all the deadlines we could find.  

Good luck!  Let us know if there is other information you’d like us to provide by emailing pslawnet@nalp.org.