By Lauren Forbes

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) announces its annual fellowship for an outstanding recent law school graduate.

The Institute: ELI envisions a healthy environment, prosperous economies, and vibrant communities founded on just law and policy. To this end, we develop creative and practical law and policy solutions to enable leaders across borders and sectors to achieve environmental, social, and economic progress. ELI builds the skills and capacity of tomorrow’s leaders and institutions; researches and analyzes complex, pressing environmental challenges; promotes and disseminates the best thinking through dialogue and print and electronic media; and convenes people with diverse perspectives to enhance understanding through debate. ELI works with partners across the United States and around the world. We are independent and non-partisan.

The Position: The law fellowship program is a longstanding component of ELI’s Research and Policy Division. The law fellow works closely with ELI attorneys and other professionals, including ELI’s international partners, to advance environmental protection by analyzing existing legal tools, developing new ones, and crafting innovative approaches to implementation. This may require considering how environmental protection is affected by other laws and policies that are related to environmental laws—e.g., those governing energy, taxation, and land use. Assignments include legal research and writing tasks across all ELI project areas, and the law fellow may be asked to make public presentations and assist in facilitating training activities. The law fellow is expected to assume significant responsibility.

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By Lauren Forbes

The Southern Poverty Law Center is seeking a managing attorney for its Miami office to litigate cases related to education and juvenile justice reform throughout the state.  The Southern Poverty Law Center works to reduce the imprisonment of children by advocating for juvenile justice and educational reforms.  SPLC works to end school disciplinary practices that exclude students from public schools and to reduce the over-incarceration of children.  The Miami office has a leadership team which includes the Managing Attorney, Director of Advocacy, and the Policy Director.

Responsibilities of the position include:

• Directing and developing litigation from the Miami office to achieve systemic reform of Florida’s juvenile justice and education systems;
• Along with the Director of Advocacy, managing the day-to-day operations of an office of approximately 10 people;
• Coordinating litigation with advocacy campaigns developed jointly with the Directors of Advocacy and Policy;
• Providing supervision and mentorship to staff attorneys and advocates;
• Communicating regularly with SPLC staff across the southern region about the litigation docket;
• Representing SPLC in various forums, including before community groups, legislators and state agencies.

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By Jamie Bence

The National Law Journal reports today on the House of Representatives’ proposed 26% cut to Legal Services Corporation funding, following a 4% reduction in April. As we had previously reported, LSC definitely seems to be on the discretionary-spending chopping block in the House:

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the LSC, describes himself as a supporter of its work. At a July 13 hearing, Wolf didn’t directly address the LSC, instead speaking generally about the need to reduce the federal budget deficit. “In this austere budget climate, we have had to make some tough choices in order to preserve at a freeze level the funding for core federal law enforcement functions,” Wolf said.

Still, the proposed 26% cut to LSC is much deeper than the 6% cut to all programs that fall within Wolf’s subcommittee. Those programs include such popular initiatives as the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Commerce Department trade promotion.

The impact of such cuts on the ground will likely be drastic. Providers have already seen cutbacks in staffing, resources and the types of services they are able to provide:

“How do you choose between, for example, somebody who’s being evicted and someone who’s the victim of domestic violence? And yet those are the kinds of choices we have,” said Melville “De” Miller Jr., president of Legal Services of New Jersey. “None of them are satisfactory. They all deny equal access to justice.”

Miller said his state had 720 legal services workers at the beginning of 2008, but the number has since dropped to 490 and will likely continue to fall. An array of other cuts are under consideration, he said: closing offices, restricting the types of cases handled and lowering the income ceiling to be eligible for services.

While this proposal would likely pass in the House, there are several other players yet to weigh in. While LSC requested $516.5 million, the Obama administration has requested the same appropriations made in 2010. The Senate appropriations will likely be higher than the House numbers, but in these early stages, it remains unclear how deep the cuts will run.  One certainty is that access-to-justice advocates are going to be gearing up for a fight to ensure that LSC doesn’t suffer too large a cut.

By Lauren Forbes

Oregon Consensus (OC) is seeking an experienced professional to fill a full-time Project Manager position. The position is in Oregon, but the region is flexible depending on the successful applicant. Starting date for the position is August 2, 2011.

Oregon Consensus (OC) is a national leader in collaborative governance and is Oregon’s official program for public policy collaboration. OC provides conflict assessment, consensus building, facilitation, mediation and other alternative dispute resolution services to public entities and their stakeholders throughout Oregon. OC is a program of the National Policy Consensus Center in Portland State University’s Hatfield School of Government. For additional information about OC, visit www.orconsensus.pdx.edu

This position is responsible for the following:

• Provide neutral assessment and mediation/facilitation of public policy collaboration projects
• Manage assigned projects and budgets, including supervision of multiple staff and contractors
• As needed, work on projects for other programs in the National Policy Consensus Center
• Incorporate student interns into assigned projects and mentor these interns
• Provide technical assistance and consultation to public bodies and their constituents in regard to the potential for collaboration
• Engage in entrepreneurial activities aimed at attracting potential projects
• Actively participate in staff meetings with the aim of contributing to a collaborative and supportive work environment
• Conduct (as part of a team) public policy collaboration training programs
• Develop agreements with funding sources for projects
• Support the ongoing development of project evaluation, data gathering and research
• Participate in academic scholarship related to the field of public policy collaboration

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers!  This week’s edition is fairly short, but includes a great deal of content related to legal services funding (or, rather, lack of).  Featured: the LSC’er-in-chief on the legal services resources crunch and the value of pro bono; the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent puts recently reported pro bono figures in context; MoJo looks at the House proposal to slash LSC funding; better job protections for law school clinicians?; the controversy surrounding cuts in state funding to New Jersey legal services programs; two Massachusetts legal services programs tie the knot.

• 7.14.11 – Legal Services Corporation president Jim Sandman did an interview with the Pro Bono Institute about the widening justice gap that results from more and more poor people seeking help from LSC grantees at a time when funding is so strained, and the “essential” part that pro bono plays in stopping the justice gap from further widening.  Quotable Sandman: “The biggest challenge facing legal services today is lack of funding.”  Pro bono, Sandman went on to note, is a “critical supplement” to the work that legal aid lawyers do, even if it cannot be a substitute for it.

• 7.12.11 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent reacts to AmLaw numbers showing a marked drop in Biglaw pro bono hours in 2010, taking issue with the “melodramatic headlines” used in reporting those numbers.  From her Nat’l. Law Journal piece: “The “doom and gloom” headlines overlook some important facts and figures….  Although it is true that major firms contributed significantly fewer hours of pro bono service in 2010 than in the previous two years, it must be noted that 2010’s law firm pro bono hours were still the third highest in history. That — after the worst recession in living memory and profound, destabilizing and continuing changes in virtually every aspect of the finances and operations of major law firms — is, in context, an accomplishment.”  Esther is right.  The pro bono number changes are largely a function of fluctuations in staffing and fee-paying business at law firms.  The real story about delivering legal services to poor people has to do w/ the threatened underfunding of Legal Services Corporation grantee organizations – which, importantly, need funding to help pro bono volunteers efficiently handle cases – as well as the continued slumping of non-LSC sources (chiefly IOLTA). 

• 7.12.11 – commy-pinko-tree-hugging-liberal outlet Mother Jones breaks down the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed 26% cut to LSC’s budget, noting that a cut couldn’t come at a worse time for legal services providers and their low-income clients.  The article highlights the fact that non-federal funding streams, including IOLTA and state appropriations, have already tapered off.  (To MoJo’s mention of Florida as a state that’s cut funding, we’d add NH, NJ, PA, and WI, among others.)  The article also hits on an important point that was tucked into the end of an LSC press release about the proposed cuts: while a record 63 million people qualified for legal services last year, LSC grantees have been forced to shed staff; 200 more lawyers could vanish from LSC programs by the end of 2011.
• And while we’re over on the left side of the political spectrum, the Daily Kos issues a rallying cry to preserve LSC funding.

• 7.11.11 – Better job protections for law school clinicians?  The ABA is pondering a step towards solidifying the employment relationships between nontraditional faculty and their schools, stopping just short of tenure.  From the National Law Journal: “The Standards Review Committee on July 10 voiced initial support for a proposal to require that schools at least provide full-time faculty members with a ‘program of presumptively renewable long-term contracts that are at least five years in duration after a probationary period reasonably similar to that for tenure-track faculty members’.”  Huzzah!  Clinicians have long felt like second-class citizens in the Ivory Tower.  And their role will arguably – hopefully, in my view – become more important as schools incorporate more experience-based learning programs into their curricula.

• 7.8.11 – in the Garden State, the Star-Ledger’s editorial board sounds a truculent note in opposing Gov. Chris Christie’s surprise $5 million legal services budget cut:  “[T]hanks to Gov. Chris Christie’s recent budget slashes on services for the poor, no matter how compelling your case is, you may be forced to argue it alone.  If you’re being beaten by your spouse, it may be much more difficult to get a divorce or restraining order. If you’re seeking custody of your kids or visitation rights, your case might be too time-consuming for a pro bono lawyer to take on. You may have no way to force a delinquent boyfriend to pay child support, or fight your unjustified eviction…. A loss of $5 million means Legal Services must cut at least 50 staffers and serve at least 5,500 fewer clients. This, at a time when so many more people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Our democracy promises access to equal justice. But without the funding to back that up, it’s justice based on your bank account.”  UPDATE: the cuts are final, as the Senate failed to muster enough votes to legislatively override the budget plan (according to a 7.13.11 piece in Bloomberg Businessweek).

• 7.8.11 – Two Massachusetts legal services programs have merged.  A short blurb in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports:  Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts Legal Services have combined to become Community Legal Aid, providing free legal help to low-income and elderly people in Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties.  Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts has traditionally operated in the central part of the state, with Western Massachusetts Legal Services operating in the state’s four western counties, the organizations reported in a news release. Together they will have more than 50 staff members and multiple locations.”   And here’s a similar blurb in the Worcester Business Journal.  (Community Legal Aid is not an LSC grantee, as neither of its two parent programs were.)

By Lauren Forbes

It is about time we head back down south! The Mississippi Center for Justice seeks to hire a Managing Attorney for our soon to be opened Delta office in Indianola. The Managing Attorney will lead the launch of the new office and will supervise an initial staff of four. The Center seeks an experienced leader, manager and attorney whose substantive law focus will be educational opportunity.

The Center is a nonprofit, public interest law firm committed to advancing racial and economic justice statewide. Our lawyers work with community leaders to support their social justice campaigns and to channel the energies of the legal community to combat discrimination and poverty. With offices in Jackson and Biloxi and a third office soon to open in Indianola, we seek systemic solutions that promote educational opportunity, protect the rights of consumers, secure access to health care and child care, and put affordable housing within the reach of all Mississippians.

Job Responsibilities:
As a full-time employee, based in Indianola and reporting to the Advocacy Director, the Managing Attorney will lead and oversee the operations of the Delta office and will supervise an initial staff of four. The Managing Attorney will lead the office’s work in all of the Center’s program areas, with a particular focus at the outset on the Center’s work in the areas of educational opportunity and access to health care. The Managing Attorney’s substantive law concentration will be on improving public education statewide, with goals and activities that include:

• Narrowing the achievement gap and racial and economic class disparities in Mississippi’s public education system;
• Increasing parental and community engagement in the public school system;
• Using legal, policy and media advocacy to combat inequitable practices regarding special education and school discipline;
• Tracking school closings around the state and targeting high performing, predominantly African-American schools for organizing and advocacy strategies; and
• Providing legal and policy support to statewide coalitions advocating for adequate and equitable school funding.

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By Lauren Forbes

Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT) is seeking a talented and experienced professional to join the team as the Women’s Program Coordinator. Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, the Women’s Program Coordinator will be a key member of LIFT’s team with the following responsibilities: (1) coordinate legal and social services for women participants; (2) systematize infrastructure and operations for women’s programming; (3) facilitate curriculum-based evening support group sessions, workshops, and classes; (4) conduct participant screenings; (5) identify and build organizational relationships with social service providers to ensure high impact referrals for LIFT’s participants and families; (6) serve as an ambassador for all LIFT programs; and (7) facilitate trainings for LIFT team members. The LIFT Team is collaborative, fast-paced, and maintains a sense of humor.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree, including LCSW/MSW;
• Self-starter, motivated, and committed to empowering women and improving the lives of children and families;
• Demonstrated successful program operations experience;
• Knowledge of organizations serving women citywide and public benefits mosaic;
• Proven success working with women, especially single mothers and grandmothers;
• Excellent communication skills, energy, and enthusiasm;
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, work independently and in a team environment;
• Interest and experience in Family Court, family law, child welfare and/or providing services to families;
• Proficiency in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; and
• Fluency in Spanish a plus – multilingual candidates are encouraged to apply.

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By Jamie Bence

Today’s job comes to us from Philly!

Mazzoni Center, a comprehensive LGBT Health & Wellness Center located in Philadelphia, is seeking to hire a dynamic and knowledgeable lawyer to head its legal department. The legal director reports directly to the executive director and their duties involve: (1) direct legal representation, (2) supervision of legal staff and management of legal clinic, (3) assistance in grant writing and associated activities, and (4) publicity and community outreach.

Mazzoni Center Legal Services receives approximately 400 requests for assistance each year. Traditionally, our largest practice areas included employment discrimination, discrimination in public accommodations, and family law. Our work is challenging, as PA lacks statewide protection against discrimination based upon LGBT status, and much of our work involves the enforcement of local county and municipal anti-discrimination ordinances. Our work has also involved an interesting mix of both “direct service” and “impact” litigation, and we are the home of Temple Law School’s “Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law Clinical Course” which is taught on-site by the legal director. Legal Services also has standing relationships with both the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Rutgers School of Law – Camden.

To view full listing, visit PSLawNet (login required).

By Jamie Bence

For our friends north of the border and aspiring Canadians, today’s job comes from Legal Aid Ontario.

Legal Aid Ontario has a need for Staff lawyers with family law experience to fill a 3 to 6 month contract positions in our Client Service Centre. In this Staff Lawyer role, the incumbents will be required to work on the phone giving summary legal advice to individuals interested in pursuing legal aid assistance.  Work hours are flexible and  telecommuting is a possibility.

Following the conclusion of the contract, successful applicants will also have the opportunity to apply to join Legal Aid Ontario’s Lawyer Workforce Strategy – a talent management program that provides lawyers with an opportunity to learn and work in a number of Legal Aid Ontario’s practice areas and departments. This program not only offers Legal Aid Lawyers with a varied, challenging career, it also provides our clients with highly skilled, well-rounded lawyers.

For complete listing, visit PSLawnet (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

Greetings, readers!  The big news this week is a House proposal to take a big chunk out of LSC funding in FY12.  Other news items will carry us from Vermont to Pennsylvania (home of the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise, presently the best team in the majors – FYI) to Mississippi to California to Hawaii, with stops at various points between. 

This week: Have Justice Will Travel up against the ropes financially; House proposes 25% cut in Legal Services Corporation funding (yikes!); IOLTA funds distributed in Mississippi; in PA, state funding for legal services cut; a new CO pro bono program for appellate-level cases; from multiple-time drug offender to assistant district attorney – that’s taking a new career path; is this man the “face of bad court-appointed lawyers”?; Aloha State legal services programs to benefit from filing fee bump-up; AmLaw’s pro bono report is out, numbers are down; foreclosure defense funding in the Bay Area.   

• 7.7.11 –Have Justice Will Travel, an organization that represents domestic violence victims in Vermont, is hurting for cash.  Vermont Public Radio has the story: “Wynona Ward of Vershire founded Have Justice Will Travel in 1998. Raised in a violent household herself, Ward eventually became a lawyer dedicated to helping others in that plight.  Her organization is the only one in Vermont that specializes in legal representation in divorce, child custody and similar cases. But now Ward has had to lay off five of her six employees. Ward hopes the situation is just temporary.”  What’s really hurt the group is the loss of DOJ grant funding.  (VAWA funding, probably.)  Props to John Lamson, an attorney who was laid off by HJWT, but who has taken the time to continue representing DV victims at no charge, hopeful that a new funding stream will put him back on salary.  (Faithful Bulletin readers – all six of you – will recall that HJWT got some similar press attention in early June.)

• 7.6.11 – a House of Representatives proposal would slash Legal Services Corporation funding by over 25% in FY2012.  From an LSC press release: “The [House Appropriations] Committee bill proposes a $300 million budget for LSC [which now stands at just over $400 million] —rolling back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999.  LSC’s preliminary estimates show that about 235,000 low-income Americans eligible for civil legal assistance at LSC-funded programs would be turned away if the Committee proposal were enacted.”  The House proposal is frightening, but is hardly the last word.  The Obama Administration had proposed a $450 million LSC budget, while LSC itself is shooting for $515 million.  And the Senate hasn’t weighed in with a figure yet, but it will undoubtedly not be as low as the House’s. 

• 7.5.11 – the Mississippi Center for Legal Services received 96,000 in IOLTA funds, according to the Sun Herald.  According to its website, MCLS receives 90% of its funding from LSC.  Given the potential for a considerable drop in LSC field grants whenever a federal budget gets passed for FY12, other funding streams, such as IOLTA, are going to become increasingly important.  With respect to IOLTA funding in the Magnolia State, you can view a list of 2011-12 funding recipients here.

• 7.5.11 – the Legal Intelligencer reports on state funding for Pennsylvania legal services programs.  The bad news: Due to some last-minute budget reshuffling, state funding will drop by 10%, down from $3.04 million to $2.7 million.  ” ‘Right now ranks up right there with one of the most challenging years we’ve experienced in the nearly 40 years of the statewide legal aid system,’ [Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network exec. director Samuel] Milkes said. ‘It’s not only the cuts that we’re experiencing here but cuts in federal funding for programs, too. It’s just occurring everywhere’.”  The silver lining: “Another source of funding for both legal services and for the judiciary was passed by both houses of the General Assembly: a bill that will continue temporary filing fee surcharges until Dec. 31, 2014. One dollar of the $11.25 surcharge goes to civil legal aid and $10.25 goes to the judiciary. Milkes said that the legal services community is hoping that Harrisburg lawmakers will also extend a $2 filing fee that goes toward civil legal aid and which is slated to sunset Nov. 1, 2012.”

• 7.5.11 -the Denver Post reports on a Colorado pro bono program focused on providing assistance to low-income litigants at the appellate level.  “The program started as the brainchild of appellate court Judges Daniel Taubman and David Richman, who saw litigants representing themselves struggle with complex legal issues….  Until last year, there was no assistance for low-income people trying complex cases before the state’s appellate and Supreme courts, said Christina Gomez, who is chairwoman of the committee that screens applications.   So far, 27 people have asked for help and volunteer attorneys have taken on 10 cases, Gomez said…. The program accepts applications from people who make 125 percent of the federal poverty level or less, and handles cases involving property rights, contract disputes, family law, employment and others topics. Cases involving prison discipline, election appeals, unemployment compensation and post-criminal-conviction relief are excluded.
   
• 7.4.11 – arrested on drug charges, shot five times, and now a prosecutor in the Philly D.A.’s office.  The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the remarkable story of A.D.A. Kevin Harden, Jr.  Harden grew up in very difficult circumstances, made some critical course-corrections after serious run-ins with the law, and now supports himself and two younger brothers since both of his parents have died.  As also noted in the story, Harden’s been the subject of some criticism regarding his hiring. Harden has the strong support of District Attorney Seth Williams, however, and also gets high marks from Dean JoAnne Epps at his alma mater (and mine!), Temple Law.

• 7.4.11 – the Detroit Free Press checks up on court-appointed defense counsel Robert Slameka, who was profiled in 2009 NPR story focused on how poorly resourced many indigent defense systems are, leading to attorneys acting with little client interaction, little funding, and little oversight.   The Free Press, characterizing Slameka as having been “the face bad court-appointed lawyers” in the NPR story, hones in on his long disciplinary record.  However, the story also quotes some defenders of the defender, who note that anyone who has spent decades doing indigent defense work will be subject to some criticism.

• 7.3.11 -Aloha State legal services advocates have reason to be mahalo-ful.  From the Honolulu Star Advertiser: “Starting Jan. 1, the cost of filing a state lawsuit will increase under a measure approved by lawmakers this year to help fund nonprofit groups providing assistance to Hawaii residents who can’t afford to pay for legal services.   The legislation could generate an additional $1 million or more a year and was one of the key initiatives by the Access to Justice Commission, created by the Hawaii Supreme Court in 2007 after a study found that four of five low-income residents don’t get the legal help they need.”

• 7.1.11 – AmLaw issued its annual pro bono report this week, showing a drop-off in pro bono by the 200 highest grossing law firms between 2009 and 2010.  From the report overview: “Average pro bono hours for lawyers at Am Law 200 firms plummeted 8 percent in 2010 to their lowest level in three years, reversing a decade of steady growth. The overall average percentage of lawyers who did more than 20 hours of pro bono work dipped 5.2 percent.”  Context is important here.  In 2009, law firms were still “right-sizing” their attorney workforces, meaning that there were still many associates doing a lot of pro bono because of a shortage of fee-paying work.  In 2010, there were fewer attorneys and fee-paying work began picking up, which meant less time for pro bono.  This doesn’t explain the pro bono drop-off entirely, but in my view it’s a significant factor.

• 7.1.11 – foreclosure defense funding in the Bay Area.  From the San Jose Mercury News: “South Bay and Peninsula residents at risk of losing their homes got a boost Friday when the Silicon Valley Community Foundation awarded $511,000 to organizations who work to prevent foreclosure.  The foundation says the award will allow seven nonprofits in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to retain employees who were hired with previous grants from the foundation. That should allow the groups to provide housing counseling or legal services to more than 1,000 people.  [Among the benefiting organizations,] Bay Area Legal Aid, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto each received $75,000 to provide legal assistance to those facing foreclosure.”