Greetings, dear reader. There’s lots to share this week including:  federal hiring reform stats; ACLU criticizing Michigan’s public defender system; the federal hiring freeze and its effect on DOJ hiring;  legal services funding woes; Connecticut Bar Foundation Distinguished Service Awards; an update on the success of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program; how budget cuts are impacting foreclosure assistance groups in New York City;  Charleston School of Law’s student pro bono requirements; a unique partnership between the Texas Tech School of Law and the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to improve legal representation for low-income populations; good news about Chicago Bar Foundation’s fundraising efforts;   Maine resident Cushman Anthony honored for his life’s work;  and breath testers in doubt in Vermont, affecting dozens of DUI cases.

This week:

• 5.18.11 – Government Executive’s FedBlog reports on federal hiring reform stats provided by the Office of Personnel Management this week.  Uncle Sam’s been making progress!  OPM reported that “91 percent of federal jobs are now filled based on resumes and cover letters (without a requirement for lengthy essays), up from 39 percent in 2009 … 96  percent of announcements no longer include a requirement to fill out knowledge, skills and abilities statements, [and] the governmentwide average time it takes to fill a position is now 105 days.”

• 5.18.11 – An article in Michigan Live reports that the ACLU is blasting Michigan’s public defender system, citing a 2002-03 Muskegon County armed robbery case as a prime example of the failure of Michigan’s system of court-appointed lawyers for criminal defendants who can’t afford to hire their own.  The ACLU claims that “evidence points to (the) innocence” of Alphonso Sones Sr., who is currently serving two multi-decade terms.  The ACLU recently released a report calling Michigan’s public defender system one of the worst in the nation, criticizing the state for leaving funding and oversight of criminal defense of the indigent to the 83 counties, many of whom leave their systems underfunded and badly run.  Sones’ attempts to overturn his conviction on the grounds did not represent him effectively have failed, but the ACLU seems unlikely to let Michigan public defenders off the hook any time soon.

• 5.16.11 – On Monday, the PSLawNet Blog featured a piece about the federal hiring freeze.  As the Federal Times reported, the Department of Justice is no exception.  The Justice Department’s hiring freeze — which was imposed earlier this year and even prevents the department from hiring to replace most attrition — remains in effect, and spokeswoman Jessica Smith said Justice isn’t sure when it will be lifted. Justice earlier this year said the freeze was necessary to avoid a sudden, dire budget crunch that would force employee furloughs. Smith said those concerns remain.

• 5.16.11 – Legal needs for the low-income are growing, but funding is shrinking for legal services.  The ProPublica Blog featured a piece on providers of civil legal services to the low income having to furlough their staff, triage their clients, and turn away more people in need as a result of the congressional budget compromise reached last month. The umbrella nonprofit group Legal Services Corporation had its funding cut by $15.8 million—about 4 percent of its most recent budget—as a result of last month’s budget compromise. You do reach a point where you can no longer absorb” the cuts, Edwina Frances Martin, said a spokeswoman for Legal Services NYC.  Martin said her organization gets about 14 percent of its budget from Legal Services Corporation and lost about $720,000 in the final federal budget. It’s planning cutbacks large and small—cutting the budget for food at trainings, leaving some empty positions unfilled and implementing furloughs in some field offices.  ProPublica goes on to discuss how Idaho, Virginia, New Jersey, and Maine are facing similar circumstances.

• 5.16.11 –  Featured in the Connecticut Law Tribune,  James Bowers,  Kate Stith and Hugh C. Macgill received Distinguished Service Awards from the Connecticut Bar Foundation last week.  While Bowers, Macgill and Stith have all followed different career courses as practitioners and professors of the law, their journeys began with the realization that justice is not free and access to it is not equal.  “For Bowers, a partner at Day Pitney who has defended high-powered people accused of white-collar crimes, that awareness began when he grew up in the South as a black man in a system built for white people.  For Stith, a Yale University professor and former assistant U.S. attorney in New York, it began with a research paper she wrote as a student at Dartmouth College on the first legal aid program in New Hampshire.  For Macgill, a professor and past dean of the University of Connecticut School of Law, it began early in his career and continues today.” The event also featured an impassioned speech about the need to fund legal services for the poor by New York Judge Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of that state’s highest court, who said, “No issue is more basic to our constitutional reason for being than providing equal justice for all.”

• 5.15.11 – Last month, the PSLawNet Blog highlighted the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program, an effort by law students to help Iraqis seek refugee status.   This week, The Associated Press also featured the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), highlighting  law students who are helping to resettle Iraqi refugees refugees.  “I think it’s an excellent initiative,” said Larry Yungk, senior resettlement officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington.  Yungk also praised IRAP’s success.  “They’ve been effective. Certainly refugees are here in the United States because of work they did.”  IRAP has been especially effective in handling appeals of cases involving refugees rejected for resettlement in the U.S., having won 90 percent of them.  IRAP’s founder, Becca Heller, is especially proud of the case of a family resettled last fall in New Haven. The family’s application was originally rejected for failure to prove persecution, but IRAP appealed. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security overturned the decision based partially on a medical emergency involving a girl in the family suffering severe seizures, Heller said.  Since then, IRAP arranged for the girl to receive free medical treatment from a specialist and provided car pools to get the family to doctor’s appointments.

• 5.14.11 – The New York Times featured a piece about how budget cuts threaten foreclosure assistance–a dismal outlook.  In New York City, foreclosure-prevention programs have helped more than 3,000 homeowners facing foreclosure over the past three years.  The programs have been financed since 2009 by federal stimulus spending, but that money will run out by the end of this year. That has left lawmakers scrambling to try to find new state financing, while the small army of pro bono lawyers fighting foreclosures waits and worries.  “We are hardly at the end of the foreclosure tsunami,” said Vicki Been, co-director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at the New York University School of Law.  “There continue to be a lot of people losing their homes. The numbers have softened, but the crisis is not over.”

• 5.14.11 – a short piece the Post & Courier catches us up with the progress of the provisionally accredited Charleston School of Law, which has placed public service at the core of its mission.  The school, which opened in 2004 and is on the cusp of full accreditation by the ABA, requires students to perform 30 hours of public service before graduating.   Some students well exceed that mark.  Graduating student Allison Roberts performed 100 hours of pro bono work during here law school career, including a stint gathering facts about Khmer Rouge crimes in Cambodia.

• 5.13.11 – a unique partnership between the Texas Tech School of Law and the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to improve legal representation for low income populations in the state’s far flung, sparsely populated counties.  The Dallas Morning News blog reports that the Caprock Public Defender Office is the first of its kind in Texas, said Bryan Wilson, grants administrator for the Task Force. The project pairs a law school professor and students in a law school clinic with counties that have few if any attorneys available for court appointments.  “About a dozen counties in the Lubbock area covering a 40,000 square mile area, have signed up for the office to provide representation for misdemeanor and juvenile defendants.”  In Texas, like so many other states, the need is great.  PSLawNet Blog applauds partnerships like this one!

• 5.13.11 – In the Windy City, a piece in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin discusses Chicago Bar Foundation’s fundraising efforts. The efforts have yielded positive results.  “Organizers of the Chicago Bar Foundation’s Investing in Justice Campaign said they are seeing ‘record-breaking success’ in this year’s effort to increase financial support for area providers of legal services to the poor.  During the fundraising campaign, which marked its fifth year with a kickoff in early March, more than 3,300 individual attorneys and legal professionals from 110 participating law firms, corporate legal departments and other law-related organizations contributed more than $1.3 million toward the effort, organizers said.”

• 5.13.11 – Last week, Cushman Anthony, who helped found Michigan Law School’s legal aid clinic, was honored for his life’s work.  Maine’s  Portland Press Herald described his 40-year career that focused on ensuring the rights of people who might not have the resources to hire their own attorneys or take on established power structures. “I went into law because I viewed that as a way to make the world a better place,” Anthony said recently. “I knew I was going to be trying to improve the world.”  Anthony succeeded, according to the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation, which on Thursday night presented him the 2011 Justice Louis Scolnik Award at a ceremony at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport.  In his varied and accomplished career, Anthony was not only a clinician, he was a family law practitioner, a  state representative, and a lobbyist for Native American affairs.  Anthony  sums best sums up his life’s work in his own words: “I’ve always identified with the little guy.”

• 5.13.11 – The Vermont Digger reports that with breath testers in doubt, Vermont prosecutors are set to toss dozens of DUI cases after an investigation found a long list of alleged problems with breath testers. David Sleigh, a criminal defense attorney based in St. Johnsbury is partnering with Burlington lawyer Frank Twarog to use a client’s case and those of two other DUI clients to attack the credibility of DataMaster breath testers. The DataMaster breath testers are used by police and the state health lab that certifies and maintains them. Sleigh has witnesses prepared to testify that the health department used unorthodox methods to repair damaged DataMasters and to get them to “pass” routine performance checks over a period of years. The compromised testers raise legitimate questions about whether innocent drivers have been convicted ed of DUIs based on faulty evidence. Equally troubling, though, is the prospect of dangerous drunk drivers getting off the hook and back behind the wheel.

The Pacific Northwest is calling! The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) seeks a Directing Attorney for its Granger Office. NWIRP promotes justice for low-income immigrants by pursuing and defending their legal status. We focus on providing direct legal services, supported by our education and public policy work.

NWIRP is an exciting and dynamic nonprofit immigrant rights organization that has been in operation for more than 27 years. NWIRP provides services at four sites in Washington State: Seattle, Granger, Moses Lake and Tacoma (serving the Northwest Detention Center).  NWIRP’s Granger Office is located in Granger, WA, a city of more than 3,000 people located in a rural area 25 miles southeast of Yakima.  From this location, the office serves clients from across Central and Eastern Washington.  The office currently has a staff of eight and serves a client base consisting largely of farmworkers and their families.

Basic responsibilities: Oversee and supervise operations of NWIRP’s Granger office. Provide mentoring, support and supervision to attorneys, accredited representatives and legal advocates in the office.  Maintain own caseload of immigration matters.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeks an Attorney Advisor to perform attorney services for the various realty functions and activities of the district such as real property condemnation matters in Fort Worth, Texas.  If determined condemnation is necessary for title defects, the staff attorney will prepare the attorney’s opinion and the required pleadings, witnesses and court exhibits; attend pre-trial hearings and trials; participate in negotiations for settlement and recommend settlements. He or she will be responsible for preparing complex deeds of conveyance and donation involving large sums of money and affecting large segments of public and private interests.

The attorney will be designated closing attorney and make payments for land or interest therein. He or she will examine title certificates for compliance with contract terms. Uses judgment to determine what documents are necessary to cure outstanding title defects which requires extensive research and analysis of complex factual and legal issues. The attorney advisor will prepare and present orally and in writing, legal opinions, advice and guidance to District contracting officers and their representatives in regard to matters of procurement law in connection with construction supply, services and architect-engineer contracts.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking a paid summer intern! The CPSC is an independent federal regulatory agency charged with protecting the public against unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with consumer products.

The agency enforces the Consumer Product Safety Act and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, among others. The Office of General Counsel consists of four divisions: Compliance, General Law, Regulatory Affairs, and Enforcement and Information. The Legal Intern would perform work for each of those divisions. Depending on the division, duties include conducting legal research, drafting letters, memoranda, and regulations, and assisting in investigations and case development.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) is seeking applications for a staff attorney in its Environmental Justice Program. NYLPI approaches its work from a community lawyering perspective and the position will include legal, policy, and administrative advocacy, as well as community organizing and coalition-building.

The Environmental Justice Program takes on issues ranging from the overburdening of low-income communities of color with garbage facilities, to the presence of dangerous toxins in public schools, to environmentally just community development. The attorney will take on existing advocacy and have ample opportunity to lead and collaborate upon new campaigns.

NYLPI pioneered the practice of community lawyering in the five boroughs of New York City. With every case and every campaign, we continue to elaborate an approach to working with marginalized communities that is ambitious, participatory, and dynamic. Our work draws on a range of strengths: community trust; proficient organizing; media savvy; effective legislative advocacy; and bold, creative approaches to litigation. The attorney will work both independently and in collaboration with other attorneys, community organizers, and media and lobbying consultants.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

FYI–NYLPI is also hiring staff attorneys for its health justice, disability rights, and education and disability rights programs.  Definitely not to miss!

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management seeks a Chief Counsel in the fabulous city of Cincinnati.

The incumbent of this position serves as the Chief Counsel for the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). The incumbent is responsible for providing legal services on all matters arising from the activities of the EMCBC and its serviced sites, including procurement law, litigation, environmental law, atomic energy laws, environmental compliance, and closure of government-owned, contractor-operated facilities, employing thousands of contractor employees and having projects/programs valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The incumbent reports to the Director, EMCBC and also reports functionally to the DOE HQ General Counsel.

The incumbent directs, manages, and supervises the work of the staff with full organizational and personnel authorities for assigned programs and provides leadership to approximately 20 professional and administrative employees ranging in grade from GS-7 to GS-15. The incumbent takes appropriate legal action to protect the interests of the Department in litigation and administrative proceedings, supervises the conduct of litigation and oversees lawsuits, represents the DOE and the United States in selected cases in Federal district courts.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

This week: cutbacks at Idaho Legal Aid Services; an interview with Disability Rights Advocates’ ED; Biglaw partners can play bigger role in funding legal services; in one Ohio county, a debate about a debate about creating a public defender’s office; gloomy, gloomy news on law school debt; shakeups in Shasta County’s (CA) prosecutor’s office; the nonlawyer at Legal Aid of West Virginia’s helm.

• 5.12.11 – funding woes are affecting Idaho Legal Aid Services, and more cuts are coming.  From a short AP story on the KMVT website: “Idaho Legal Aid Services, which has already cut hours of its staff and 21 attorneys, has a $250,000 hole in its $2.6 million annual budget. Leaders say employees across the state will take forced days off without pay starting on May 27. The move comes after a bill failed in the 2011 Idaho Legislature that would have shored up its coffers.”

• 5.11.11 –  The National Law Journal recently interviewed  Disability Rights Advocates’ Executive Director Ben Foss about the hot issues in disability law, his decision to become a lawyer and his appearance in a film documentary called Journey Into Dyslexia, now showing on HBO2. For Foss, a former director of access technology at Intel Corp, his recent transition hits home: “I’m severely dyslexic. I was in special ed all through school. My mom used to read out loud to me as a kid. When I went to college, that’s when it all caught up to me. I had to fax term papers home to my mom to have her read aloud to me so I could find my spelling mistakes. As a result, I’ve been part of the disability community for a long time….  [At Intel,] I decided I wanted to build technology for people with disabilities, which is something Intel hadn’t done before. I invented a device called the Intel Reader, which takes a photograph of any printed material and reads it aloud to you right on the spot. I invented it so that I don’t have to call Mom every time I run into syntax.”  Foss also highlighted a few pressing challenges in disability law right now that include access to the virtual world and all transportation systems and veterans with disabilities.

• 5.11.11 – On Wednesday, the PSLawNet Blog looked at a proposal, featured in The American Lawyer, to create a private-bar-funded “Lawyers Foundation” to support civil legal services.  In the piece, Aric Press argues that Biglaw partners could greatly advance the cause of access to justice by endowing and supporting a foundation to help fund both the Legal Services Corporation and other legal services projects.  Press notes that LSC’s funding outlook in Congress is uncertain, but particularly dire given the current fiscal state of affairs and the fact that the federal funder of legal services has enemies on the Hill. While this is a thoughtful proposal, and certainly an attempt to think creatively (which the PSLawNet Blog applauds), the private sector can’t let Congressional appropriators off the hook with respect to funding LSC.

• 5.11.11 – A little less conversation, a little more action? In an article by The Morning Journal, Ohio’s Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office said commissioners need to rethink how to study the pros and cons of whether the county should have a public defender’s office.  Discussion began last month between commissioners and the state public defender’s office to explore if there would be a cost-savings, as compared to paying court- appointed attorneys for indigent criminal defendants. Commissioner Ted Kalo has argued there would be a savings, but Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Gerald Innes is sticking to his guns, contending that some sort of commission should weigh the cost saving options.

• 5.9.11 – Reader warning: the following news is frightening for those concerned about student debt.  An article in the ABA Journal reports that annual law school loans borrowed has jumped 50 percent since 2001. In the last academic year, law students borrowed an average of $68,827 for public schools and $106,249 for private educations.  Compare this with $46,499, or the average amount borrowed for the public school, and $70,147, average for a private school in the 2001-2002 academic year.  For many of us–PSLawNet Bloggers included, these are not just staggering numbers, they’re lived experiences. Wow-zah.

• 5.9.11 – In the Shasta County, California district attorney’s office, many prosecutors are not amused with recent office/case shuffling. And, as a result, The Record Searchlight reports that the restructuring of sorts have prompted one of its senior prosecutors who specialized in homicide cases to leave the office.  Stewart Jankowitz, who lost only one murder case in his approximately 15 years with the office retired last week.  Prosecutors are required to handle an assortment of cases, although some do have specific assignments, such as sex crimes, felony DUIs and white-collar crime, such as embezzlement.  Jankowitz stated that he did not delight in the idea of handling non-homicide cases after his many years of legal experience.  While many will miss him, it’s time to go.

• 5.8.11 – Charleston, West Virginia’s Gazette feature a piece about Adrienne Worthy, executive director of Legal Aid of West Virginia, oversees provisions for legal assistance for the low-income and disenfranchised.  Her story is about what motivates her: responsibility.  Legal Aid of West Virginia currently has 55 lawyers, a statewide staff of 120 and 12 regional offices, but Worthy is not a lawyer.  After graduating from undergraduate school, she answered an ad in a progressive ad bulletin looking for citizen activist canvassers, then for three years went  door-to-door every night from 4 until 9, five days a week, snow sleet or hail, to raise money and organize around environmental, consumer and utility issues.  She then worked at a library and for the WV Women’s Commission.  She knows she has marched to her own drummer in terms of jobs, but her commitment to find how she’s needed is unwavering.  “I am finding it harder to be motivated by the belief that real changes are going to happen,” Worthy says.  “I don’t understand the vision of what we are supposed to do with the changes proposed for the environment, our old and young people. I don’t know what’s going to happen to our clients here.”  She confesses that she’s thought about leaving, but gets inspired by clients who have overcome incredible odds and, through the help of legal services, have been able to make a difference.

Now is not the time to turn our backs on Haiti.  Serve as a Senior Gender Advisor for the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Since its inception in 1933, the IRC has been a global leader in emergency response and providing durable solutions for conflict- and crisis-affected populations. The IRC launched programs in Haiti immediately following the January 2010 earthquake, deploying its emergency response team to respond to survivors’ most critical needs. Since that time, the IRC has developed multi-sectoral programming addressing needs in and around Port-au-Prince. Currently, the IRC implements programs focused on child protection; protection and services for women and girls; access to justice; livelihoods development and Cash-for-Work; environmental health; and camp management.

IRC is currently preparing a proposal in response to a USAID-funded request for applications to improve safety and security for women, children and youth in Haiti through decreased incidence of human rights abuse and expanded access to treatment and care. The Senior Gender Advisor* will provide overall direction and guidance to all aspects of the Protecting the Rights of Children, Women and Youth Program with a focus on the protection of women and girls.
*This position is contingent on the IRC being awarded funding and is anticipated to begin around October 5, 2011.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

Las Americas’ Managing Attorney works in conjunction with the Executive Director to shape the legal vision and direction of the non-profit. The Managing Attorney supervises a staff of accredited representatives and paralegals. The Managing Attorney handles consultations with prospective clients at Las Americas’ office and at the immigration detention center to provide legal advice and to identify viable cases. The Managing Attorney files petitions for immigration relief and represents clients in immigration court in various cases, including victims of crimes, victims of domestic violence and refugees and asylum seekers. Finally, the Managing Attorney advocates for his or her clients and for immigrants in general.

Meet the qualifications?:

• Licensed attorney (preferably licensed in Texas)
• Experience with immigration law preferred but not required
• Fluency in Spanish preferred
• Demonstrated commitment to service
• Excellent organizational skills
• Must be willing to work on a tight budget and within the bounds of grants
• Public speaking

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan seeks a Staff Attorney!

Under the direction of the Legal Director, the Staff Attorney will both litigate cases and participate in non-litigation advocacy activities to advance civil liberties in Michigan. The Staff Attorney’s responsibilities include serving as lead and co-counsel on a variety of civil liberties cases; working in conjunction with National ACLU lawyers; investigating, developing and litigating cases at the trial and appellate level in state and federal courts. The Staff Attorney will also have non-litigation advocacy responsibilities including: public speaking, media interviews, outreach, and writing op-eds, newsletter articles and reports. The Staff Attorney will work with local legal committees and be responsible for recruiting and working successfully with cooperating attorneys.

Qualifications include:

• JD with litigation experience, preferably federal litigation raising civil liberties and civil rights issues.
• A strong understanding of, and demonstrated commitment to, civil liberties, civil rights and the mission of the ACLU. Experience in non-profit advocacy or other community-based groups is valuable.
• Exceptional writing and analytical skills is required. Judicial clerkship is a plus.
• The attorney must be a member of the State Bar of Michigan (or pass the next bar examination).
• Substantive knowledge and understanding of constitutional law and civil liberties issues.
• Demonstrated skills in litigating independently, jointly and under pressure.
•  Excellent communication skills to both legal and non-legal audiences.
•  Demonstrated skills in legal analysis, research, and strategic thinking.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).