by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! Lots going on this week — especially here in DC. And it’s also summer intern time. Check out PSJD’s Having Fun on the Cheap for tips for exploring and enjoying your internship city.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Connecticut experiments with legal advocates for abused animals in court;
• New grant helps Ohio’s Community Legal Aid take community lawyering approach;
• Maine appointed counsel working without pay as legislators debate;
• Georgetown Law program offers fellowship for young DC police officers;
• Opinion: the legal profession is failing low-income and middle-class people, proposes solution;
• LA County drops $50 public defender fee for criminal defendants;
• Opinion: why student loan forgiveness is a social justice issue;
• New Mexico’s top court should acknowledge excessive PD workloads and craft remedy, ABA says;
• DOJ ends settlement practice that funded community organizations;
• Virginia State Bar proposal would encourage pro bono by retired lawyers;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

June 2, 2017 – “Many states have victim’s advocates or child advocates, people in the judicial system who represent those affected by crime or abuse. Now, one state has created legal advocates for abused animals, an experiment being watched across the nation for signs of success. There are eight approved volunteer advocates across Connecticut — seven lawyers and a UConn law professor, working with her students. It’s up to a judge to decide whether to appoint one, but they can be requested by prosecutors or defense attorneys. In the first six months of the law, advocates have been appointed in five cases.” (Fox News)

June 2, 2017 – “Community Legal Aid Executive Director Steven McGarrity has big plans for a new Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation neighborhood stabilization grant. The grant, which is for up to $1.3 million over four years, will support community redevelopment legal assistance. ‘I’m beyond thrilled,’ McGarrity said. ‘The money is going to allow us to put in place a team of attorneys who focus specifically on community redevelopment efforts, working within neighborhoods and with collaborative partners to make real and lasting change.’ OLAF board members voted in March to approve the grant, with $350,000 to be released this spring. ‘Future funding will depend on the success of the first year,’ said McGarrity. ‘Most of the money will go to Youngstown to improve the educational system there. We will also be doing some work in Akron, using leverage of banks to invest in low-income communities.’ McGarrity said the grant will allow Legal Aid to do more ‘community lawyering’ work that will give people access to other support including education, job training and financial help, rather than simply addressing one legal problem.” (Akron Legal News)

June 4, 2017 – “But a system welcomed by the state’s poor has found itself in the midst of a political spat as lawmakers debate a $6.8 billion, two-year budget proposal from Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who now only wants to fund the commission through January without back pay for lawyers. As a result of shortfall that lawmakers created in the last budget deal, court-appointed attorneys who provide indigent legal services throughout the state are working without pay. Funding ran out last month, and several attorneys say it’s causing stress and uncertainty.” “LePage is calling for an overhaul of a system that he says doesn’t fully meet American Bar Association standards such as caseload limits, training, expertise and oversight over attorney quality. Lawmakers and lawyers have rebuffed his efforts to create a contract-based system, and the governor says he’s fighting back against an ‘inefficient status quo.’ ‘The right to counsel exists to ensure they receive a fair trial, it is not a ‘make work’ program for lawyers,’ his original budget proposal reads. But skeptics of LePage’s effort say funding is the issue. Maine Indigent Defense Center founder Robert Ruffner is calling for a state public defender representing indigent defense lawyers, and more resources for oversight, training and guidance. ‘There aren’t any improvements to the system that will have any effect, any meaningful effect, that are free,’ he said. At least one attorney is declining to volunteer as a lawyer of the day to send a message to lawmakers.” (McClatchy DC Bureau)

June 5, 2017 – “A select group of rookie D.C. police officers and some civilian employees are embarking on a two-year fellowship program through the Georgetown University Law Center aimed at identifying and training the next generation of police leaders. The program launched Monday. The 19 participants will join monthly workshops and community activities and will be expected to develop a special project. They also will have one-on-one mentoring with some top police officials.” “Workshops and other activities will center on various policing strategies, including changes being made in light of police shootings and other incidents that have angered neighborhoods.” “‘This is a unique opportunity for fellows to build critical connections and thoughtfully explore some of the toughest issues confronting both the police and the community,’ William H. Treanor, the dean of Georgetown Law, said in a statement. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, also in a statement, said the program is to ‘not only to strengthen our officers’ credentials and experience, but also the bond we have with the communities we serve.'” (The Washington Post)

June 5, 2017 – ” We do not expect charities and generous doctors to provide 80 percent of the medical needs for low-income patients, so why do we think this is possible for our legal needs? As law schools become increasingly unaffordable — resulting in plummeting enrollment and debt levels that make it impossible for graduates to offer legal services at affordable prices — the legal profession needs some major changes. Professionals must first acknowledge that not every legal task must be performed by a licensed lawyer. Instead, we need to adopt a tiered system of legal-services delivery that allows for lower barriers to entry. Just as a pharmacist can administer vaccines and a nurse practitioner can be on the front line of diagnosing and treating ailments, we should have legal practitioners who can also exercise independent judgment within the scope of their training. Such a change would expand the preparation and independence of the existing network of paralegals, secretaries and investigators already assisting lawyers.” (The Washington Post)

June 6, 2017 – “In response to growing concerns about fees that can burden poor people accused of crimes, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to eliminate the $50 registration fee charged to people who need a public defender because they can’t afford to hire their own lawyer. Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas spearheaded the effort to eliminate the fee, which was created to bolster the county budget. ‘Though this isn’t the biggest move ever, this is important’ to remove what can be a barrier to justice, Kuehl said before the 4-1 vote. San Francisco and Santa Barbara counties also have stopped charging the fee.” “The county has charged the fee since 1996, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states must provide criminal defendants legal counsel free of charge if they cannot afford an attorney themselves. The fee is supposed to be waived for people who can’t afford it. But that often doesn’t happen, according to officials with the public defender’s office.” (KPCC)

June 6, 2017 – “The budget proposal recently released by the Trump administration should greatly concern anyone who believes that higher education should be widely accessible, equitable, and premised on actualizing the American Dream.  Two components pertaining to student loan repayment and forgiveness are particularly troubling: the first would lengthen to 30 years the mandatory repayment window before graduate school loan debt can be forgiven; the second would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.” “For disadvantaged students, higher education is the surest path to socioeconomic advancement; but the path is fraught with risks.  These students must essentially gamble on themselves and on the chances that they will be able to repay their loans and reap worthwhile payoffs beyond their obligations.  Student loan forgiveness provisions are intended to spread some of these risks across society, given the reams of data confirming the broad public benefits of an educated citizenry. Some people argue that disadvantaged students should simply forego law school in favor of other pursuits.  This is where the notion of social justice becomes particularly important.  Lawyers from disadvantaged groups are more likely to represent other disadvantaged people and interests, thereby, broadening access to justice.   The salaries for these lawyers tend to be lower than others.  Without income-based repayment options and loan forgiveness, it would be very difficult for many people to justify taking on the risks of legal education.  The result would be a legal profession that remains aloof and unresponsive to the needs of large swathes of the population – namely, the poor and most of the middle-class.  These issues are transcendent, impacting most any profession for which its societal value is not fully reflected in the typical salaries – teaching and social work, for example.  Therefore, in order to ensure the preservation of our democracy, we should remain true to the social welfare origins of the federal student aid system.  Loan forgiveness options must be fortified as a matter of social justice and equity, not restricted.” (The National Jurist)

June 6, 2017 – “An amicus brief filed by the ABA says the New Mexico Supreme Court should acknowledge public defenders have excessive caseloads in Lea County and craft a remedy that considers lawyers’ ethical obligations. The ABA brief (PDF), filed on Monday, says excessive workloads can force public defenders to choose among the interests of their clients. ‘The public defenders are in a classic Catch-22: competent work for one client inevitably results in unreasonable delay or lack of work for other clients,’ the brief says. If the state supreme court decides to impose caseload limits, the number should be determined using methodology that relies on the expertise of defense lawyers to establish the time needed to provided effective assistance of counsel, the brief says. The brief also says the state supreme court should order lower courts to allow the public defender to decline cases in the county until a workload study can be completed to determine the appropriate workload. If a study isn’t undertaken, courts should rely on the public defender to determine when workloads are manageable, the brief says. The ABA filed the brief in a petition filed with the court by the state public defender’s office. The PD is asking the court to order private lawyers to represent indigent defendants for free or to order court clerks to stop accepting new cases for minor crimes after a certain number has been reached, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported in March. The office also suggests the court appoint a special master to find long-term solutions.” (ABA Journal)

June 7, 2017 – “The Trump Justice Department is banning federal attorneys from reaching settlements in criminal and civil cases that direct defendants to give money to third-party organizations, a practice that Republicans criticized during the Obama administration. A June 5 memo from Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the DOJ would no longer reach settlements requiring payouts to ‘third-party organizations’ that were ‘neither victims nor parties’ to the lawsuits. In a statement, Sessions said funds ‘should go first to the victims and then to the American people ― not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends’ of the party in power. ‘Unfortunately, in recent years the Department of Justice has sometimes required or encouraged defendants to make these payments to third parties as a condition of settlement,’ Sessions said. ‘With this directive, we are ending this practice and ensuring that settlement funds are only used to compensate victims, redress harm, and punish and deter unlawful conduct.’ The memo will hurt nonprofit groups that provide services to communities hurt by corporate wrongdoing like mortgage fraud and environmental abuses. Republicans have called out groups like La Raza, a Latino advocacy group; the Urban League, a civil rights group; and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which works to expand access to financial services in poor neighborhoods. Habitat for Humanity has also benefited, although that organization hasn’t come under criticism.” (Huffington Post)

June 7, 2017 – “A Virginia State Bar panel is hoping to boost the number of retired lawyers who qualify for special status to provide pro bono services for needy clients. Bar rules allow for so-called ’emeritus members’ to provide no-cost legal service under specified conditions, even though they pay no bar dues and may not otherwise practice law. Participation has lagged. In fact, there is only one such member in the state, according to VSB records. Members of the VSB Special Committee on Access to Legal Services hope to remove an impediment by dropping a requirement that the work of an emeritus lawyer be under the ‘direct supervision of a supervising attorney.’ Under the revised rules, the chief requirement remains that an emeritus member must provide services only through ‘Qualified Legal Services Providers,’ which include legal aid offices and law school clinics. Qualified providers also would include the online service virginia.freelegalanswers.org, according to Karl A. Doss, the VSB director of access to legal services.” “The proposed amendment provides that to receive emeritus status, retired attorneys must submit to a competency review and provide the VSB Executive Committee with a letter from their physician certifying the applicant’s competency. Retired and associate attorneys applying for emeritus status must also fulfill any outstanding MCLE obligations, Doss said. The VSB Access Committee unanimously approved the proposed amendments May 9. The proposed changes are up for comment through June 30.” (Virginia Lawyers Weekly)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday!

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Lawyers groups seek pay increase for lawyers taking public defender cases in Wisconsin;
• New York health system forges new partnership to offer free legal services to patients;
• Iowa Supreme Court approves grants for nonprofit legal assistance programs;
• Gift creates Robert B. Kent Public Interest Fund at Cornell Law School;
• Southwestern Law School establishes a public interest postgraduate fellowship program;
• Prairie State Legal Services celebrates 40 years of service to community;
• A high-tech helping hand: the marriage of pro bono and technology;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

May 25, 2017 – “A group of Wisconsin lawyers filed a petition Thursday asking that the state Supreme Court increase the pay rate for private lawyers representing indigent clients through state Public Defender appointments, because a crisis is looming that could find criminal defendants deprived of their constitutionally guaranteed right to counsel. The petition is another attempt to raise the $40-per-hour rate — the lowest in the nation — which the Office of the State Public Defender has sought in each of its biennial budget requests since 1995. The petition, which seeks to increase the rate to $100 per hour, also asks that the Supreme Court ban flat fee arrangements to private attorneys on public defender cases, which are currently allowed, arguing that they pit a lawyer’s financial interests against a client’s right to effective counsel. But even if the state Supreme Court agrees to amend its rule that governs pay for private attorneys accepting public defender cases, the Legislature would have to agree to the funding increase, which supporters concede could be difficult, given the lack of success of past attempts to raise the pay rate for appointed lawyers.” (Wisconsin State Journal)

May 25, 2017 – “Mount Sinai Health System, an integrated health system with seven hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, recently launched the Mount Sinai Medical-Legal Partnership (MSMLP), an independent nonprofit organization, to address unmet needs of their patients who live well below the poverty line. It was created to enhance legal services already provided by lawyers from LegalHealth of New York Legal Assistance Group, Legal Aid and Youth Represent. Although these patients receive high-quality medical care at the hospitals, in many cases they have legal issues that actually are barriers to good health, explained Beth Essig, executive vice president and general counsel, Mount Sinai Health System, in an interview with FierceHealthcare. Unless these legal issues are tackled, the patients will continue to have health problems, she said. Essig said the partnership harnesses the support of legal talent in New York City to integrate it into the health delivery system. The population health management initiative aims to prevent and remedy the social and environmental conditions that are rooted in legal issues, such as housing, education, personal safety and access to healthcare.” (Fierce Healthcare)

May 30, 2017 – “The Iowa Supreme Court has approved $240,101 in grants to nonprofit programs that provide legal assistance to low-income Iowans with civil legal problems. The court awarded grants to 14 organizations throughout Iowa. The grants are funded by the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) program. With this year’s grants, the Supreme Court has awarded more than $24.6 million in IOLTA grants since the program began on July 1, 1985. The grants include $145,657 for legal staff in Iowa Legal Aid regional offices, $31,656 for staff for a volunteer lawyer referral service in Polk County serving the low-income community, and $8,876 for Drake University Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law for a clinical law program in which upper-level law students intern with legal assistance providers throughout the state.” (Business Record)

May 30, 2017 – “The Robert B. Kent Public Interest Fund will be established through a $1 million gift made possible by Robert D. Ziff, J.D. ’92. The fund is named in honor of Kent, a professor at Cornell Law School from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. The fund will support a distinguished post-graduate public interest fellowship to be known as the Robert B. Kent Public Interest Fellowship. The fellowship will be competitively awarded to a new or recent Cornell Law School graduate who demonstrates exceptional commitment to the field of public interest law. It will provide an opportunity for new attorneys to gain experience in work that will improve the quality and delivery of legal services to the poor, the elderly, the homeless and those deprived of their civil rights. The new fund will also support other public interest priorities, such as summer Public Interest Fellowships and the Law School’s loan forgiveness program, both of which enable Cornell Law School students to consider employment opportunities with nonprofit and government employers.” (Cornell Chronicle)

May 31, 2017 – “Southwestern has established a Public Interest Postgraduate Fellowship program. It will offer recent graduates committed to pursuing a public interest law career exposure to direct legal services under the mentorship and supervision of staff attorneys at designated non-profit, public interest firms and legal aid agencies serving underrepresented, low-income client populations in the Los Angeles community. The first two fellowship recipients, Natasha Roland ’16 and Damaris Santamaria ’16, are continuing to uphold the legacy of Southwestern’s dedication to public service through their continued work in providing legal access to underserved communities as yearlong postgraduate fellows hosted by Inner City Law Center and the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice.”(SWLaw Blog)

May 31, 2017 – “An agency that provides legal aid to the region’s neediest clients is turning 40 amid a challenging time to continue its mission. Prairie State Legal Services begins its fifth decade under the looming threat of losing 60 percent of its annual $12.3 million in funding. The potential loss, Executive Director Michael O’Connor said, is the result of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which would eliminate the agency’s federal funds. ‘We never dreamed that when this year came we would be facing a threat to our very existence,’ O’Connor said. ‘What that would mean would be devastating reductions in services and legal aid, not only here in Rockford but across the nation. While we celebrate, we also prepare to look for a future where we are going to need the support of not only the legal community, but the entire community to make sure that our services are available to those in need,’ O’Connor said.” (Rockford Register Star)

May 31, 2017 – “Bar associations across the country are seeking technology platforms to help mobilize attorneys and create a more resilient legal assistance community.” (Legaltech News)(subscription required)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! The big news again is the proposed federal budget and the cuts to key domestic programs, including the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). And the ABA moves for summary judgement in its suit over Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligibility.

In lighter news — good luck to Florida attorney Mike Reed, who will run the equivalent of a marathon each day for 6 days to raise money for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. You read that right – 6 marathons in 6 days! You can read more about this incredible feat below.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Legal Aid Ontario to suspend some refugee services July 1;
• London Legal Walk raises record amount for legal services;
• Michigan Indigent Defense Commission minimum standards approved;
• Florida lawyer to run 6 marathons in 6 days to raise funds for legal aid;
• Equal Justice Works announces Class of 2017 Fellows;
• Nebraska Supreme Court appoints an Access to Justice Commission;
• WWL Pro Bono Survey 2017 analysis released;
• Thirty-two Attorneys General urge Congress to oppose elimination of Legal Services Corporation funding;
• Some Republicans oppose defunding LSC;
• Law firm leaders again urge Congress to fully fund LSC;
• San Francisco public defender launches new immigration court unit;
• Measures for Justice launches data analysis of justice system;
• ABA moves for summary judgment in suit over PSLF;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

May 19, 2017 – “A good chunk of the legal aid services for refugees will be suspended starting on July 1 as Legal Aid Ontario struggles to find 40 per cent in budget savings from serving the vulnerable group. It is too early to confirm what services would be cut from the refugee law program as a province-wide consultation is set to begin on Thursday, but three options are under consideration: suspending all refugee and immigration services when funding runs out in August and September; restricting the coverage to the representation of asylum-seekers in their refugee proceedings, such as filing claims and preparation for and attendance at hearings; or limiting coverage for asylum-seekers to the preparation of the claim only, but continuing to represent clients at the refugee appeals tribunal and federal court. ‘LAO has supported over-expenditures in the refugee program for a number of years and cannot do so any longer, given the increase in demand for services and LAO’s budget challenges in other programs,’ the agency said in the consultation paper posted on its website Friday. ‘LAO recognizes that this will have a serious impact on vulnerable clients and that difficult choices will regrettably need to be made to achieve a balanced-budget plan.'” (Toronto Star)

May 22, 2017 – “A record 700 teams took part in the biggest Legal Walk ever last night, before descending on Carey Street and the Law Society HQ in Chancery Lane for a party afterwards. Flanked by Society president Robert Bourns, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd told walkers enjoying a well-deserved drink in the Reading Room that they had helped to raise £800,000 towards free legal advice services — beating last year’s £740,000. Yesterday’s efforts ‘shows what lawyers can do for those who do not have access to justice,’ the Lord Chief Justice said.” (Law Society Gazette)

May 22, 2017 – “[Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs] Director Shelly Edgerton has approved the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission’s (MIDC) first set of minimum standards for indigent defense delivery systems. The minimum standards involve education and training, the initial client interview, experts and investigators, and counsel at first appearance in front of a judge or magistrate and other critical stages. Edgerton’s approval follows a thorough review and a public comment period. ‘This is an important step towards Michigan meeting constitutional requirements for the right to counsel and implementing an equal system of justice for everyone,’ said MIDC Executive Director Jonathan Sacks. Every court funding unit in Michigan is now required to submit a plan for compliance with the standards and a cost analysis to the MIDC within 180 days. The MIDC has regional managers located throughout the state, who will work with local court funding units to create plans to comply with the minimum standards. A second set of draft standards was recently published for comment. The next set of standards addresses independence from the judiciary, defender workloads, and qualification and review of attorneys accepting assignments in adult criminal cases. A standard on compensation is being developed and will be published for comment later this year.” (UPMatters.com)

May 23, 2017 – “Starting this Sunday, a Florida lawyer will run six marathons in six days to raise funds for legal aid. Mike Freed, a business attorney with the law firm Gunster, will be attempting this feat to support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (JALA). Though funding legal aid is something Freed feels passionate about, the Freed-to-Run event had its beginnings in a friendly competition between him and his wife. Last year, human rights attorney Crystal Freed raised $40,000 for victims of sex-trafficking in India by holding a Bollywood-themed benefit. Mike Freed started to think about how he could out fund-raise his wife. He’s had a long-term connection to JALA, for whom he does pro bono work. Since the Great Recession, the need for legal aid assistance among lower and middle-income families in the area has risen sharply. JALA estimates that 48 percent of Jacksonville residents qualify for civil legal aid. Meanwhile, Florida is one of three states that provides no state funding for legal services. ‘Frankly I was just overwhelmed by the need that’s there,’ Freed says.” “Every morning for six days, Mike will start at a different courthouse—cheered on by anyone who manages to make it to the courthouse by 7:30 a.m.—and run his 26.2 miles. On Sunday, May 28, he will begin his journey at the Florida Supreme Court Building in Tallahassee. On Friday, June 2, he will finish at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, with the opportunity for friends, colleagues and well-wishers to donate $100 and run the final 5K with him. On the courthouse lawn from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. will be an event titled ‘The Finish Line—Celebrating Pro Bono Attorneys,’ with free barbecue and beer provided by sponsors.” (National Jurist)

May 23, 2017 – “Equal Justice Works today named its 2017 class of Equal Justice Works Fellows. Seventy-seven recent law school graduates, the largest class of Equal Justice Works Fellows ever, will launch their public interest law careers through this two-year Fellowship. These Fellows were selected from over 450 applications, which marks a 25% increase over the number of applications from the previous year. Each applicant teams up with a host organization, to apply for an Equal Justice Works Fellowship by designing a unique project to address an unmet legal need. Fellows in the class of 2017 will be working across the country to serve communities including veterans, immigrants, refugees, children with special education needs, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, minorities, and victims of abuse. The Equal Justice Works Fellowship Class of 2017 includes graduates from 41 law schools who will serve at 68 nonprofit legal services organizations thanks to 75 law firm, corporate, and foundation sponsors, as well as hundreds of individual supporters.”(PR Newswire)

May 23, 2017 – “Our judicial system is based upon the principle that all those coming before the courts are entitled to equal justice. The Nebraska Supreme Court’s Strategic Agenda identifies ‘providing access to swift, fair justice’ as the first of six overarching goals of the Nebraska Judicial Branch. To further that goal, the Court has approved creation of the Nebraska Access to Justice Commission. The phrase ‘access to justice’ describes the ability of any person, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age or language, to access and efficiently navigate our court system. The 24-member Nebraska Access to Justice Commission brings together representatives from all three branches of government, as well as community members, attorneys and legal organizations, educators, and representatives from organizations serving low-income Nebraskans and those with disabilities.” (KRVN)

May 23, 2017 – “Who’s Who Legal is pleased to present the results of its fourth pro bono survey. Once again, the survey was open to firms around the world of any size, and its goal was to provide insight into the efforts firms go to give back to the jurisdictions and communities they work in. Firms were invited to fill in a questionnaire detailing, among other things, the size of their pro bono departments; the overall engagement of partners, non-partners and trainees in the firm; the average number of pro bono hours conducted by fee earners; as well as details of the most significant projects firms took part in during the survey period.” “[W]e received strong participation from Latin America and Asia, but less from international firms, or those in Europe or the USA.” See the link for summary results. An analysis of the 10 top firms in the survey this year is available here. (WWL News)

May 23, 2017 – “Highlighting the need for legal services in low-income communities across the country, Attorney General Lisa Madigan yesterday joined with 31 attorneys general in urging Congress to oppose the Trump Administration’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The letter, sent to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committees, notes that for more than 40 years, the LSC has provided critical funding to civil legal aid organizations that help residents across the nation to access vital legal assistance. LSC funding helps veterans and military families secure important benefits, supports survivors of domestic violence seeking safety, and assists families facing foreclosure and victims of natural disasters. LSC funding also fosters longstanding public-private partnerships between legal aid organizations and private firms and attorneys nationwide who donate their time and skills to assist low-income residents.” “Joining in sending today’s letter were the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.” (eNews Park Forest)

May 23, 2017 – “As the Trump administration pushes ahead with a proposal to get rid of the Legal Services Corporation — a federal agency that provides millions of dollars in grants each year for legal aid for low-income Americans — the White House faces opposition not only from Democrats, but from Republicans and corporate America as well. The president’s proposed budget released by the White House on Tuesday calls for a complete defunding of the Legal Services Corporation. The agency, which received $385 million this year from Congress, gives grants to 133 legal aid organizations across the country. Trump’s 2018 budget would provide $33 million to wind down its operations. The fate of the agency’s budget ultimately lies with Congress, though, and several Republicans in the House and Senate have already joined Democrats in opposing the cut. In a May 18 letter obtained by BuzzFeed News, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn — the second ranking Republican in the Senate — and two other Senate Republicans joined Democrats in urging the Senate Committee on Appropriations to provide ‘robust funding’ for the agency. ‘Recent research shows that civil legal aid is a good investment of taxpayer dollars, as it reduces clients’ reliance on other types of governmental aid and enhances their ability to participate in the marketplaces,’ the letter says. The other Republicans who signed the letter were Alaska Sen. Daniel Sullivan and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds.” (Buzzfeed)

May 23, 2017 – “Heads of more than 165 BigLaw firms — including Dentons, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP — urged Congress on Monday to appropriate $450 million to the Legal Services Corp. for fiscal year 2018, even as the Trump administration has said it plans to shutter the organization. The letter came the same day as President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal.” (Law360)(subscription required)

May 23, 2017 – “A newly created unit of defense attorneys dedicated to representing immigrants faced with deportation began work in San Francisco’s federal immigration courts Tuesday. The new Immigration Unit in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, one of only three such programs in the country, is the result of a deal negotiated by Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer in March. Mayor Ed Lee agreed to authorize the use of $200,000 in salary savings in the public defender’s budget to hire three deputy public defenders and a paralegal through the end of this year. Unlike in criminal court, immigrants are not automatically entitled to legal representation in deportation proceedings. However, studies have shown that detained immigrants with attorneys are six times more likely to win their cases. While San Francisco also provides funding to nonprofits specializing in legal aid to immigrants, the public defender’s office is intended to serve those already in detention, a demographic the nonprofits generally don’t serve. The unit’s attorneys are each expected to handle around 50 clients per year — a small portion of the estimated 1,500 detained immigrants who currently have court dates in San Francisco, around 85 percent of whom do not have attorneys.” (NBC Bay Area)

May 23, 2017 – “Measures for Justice launches today with deep data dives on more than 300 county court systems in Washington, Utah, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida, with plans to expand to 20 states by 2020. It pulls together the data that has traditionally remained hidden in ancient databases and endless Excel spreadsheets. Even with just six states included, the comprehensiveness of the platform surpasses anything similar that currently exists. Measures for Justice compiles granular data for 32 different metrics that indicate how equitable a given county’s justice system might be. The portal shows, for instance, how many people within a county plead guilty without a lawyer present, how many non-violent misdemeanor offenders the courts sentence to jail time, and how many people are in jail because they failed to pay bail of less than $500. It offers insight into re-conviction rates and never-prosecuted cases. Users can compare counties or filter information based on how certain measures impact people of different races or income levels.” (Wired)

May 25, 2017 – “The ABA filed a motion for summary judgment on Wednesday in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for its decision to drop some lawyers from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The federal suit alleges the department failed to follow statutory requirements and violated due process rights of the four individual plaintiffs, including two former ABA employees whose participation in the program was revoked. The summary judgment motion asks a judge to require the department to stop issuing retroactive denials and to restore the individual plaintiffs’ eligibility for the program. ‘The department’s arbitrary and capricious reversal of its prior eligibility approvals must be set aside,’ the motion says.” (ABA Journal)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! The big news is the proposed budget for DOE, which includes eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and other deep cuts to financial aid.  Coverage is below.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• New York county public defender’s office receives $750,000 grant;
• Venable Foundation’s public interest fellowship program celebrates its 9th year;
• ABA advocates for $450 million budget for Legal Services Corporation;
• Northeastern University School of Law launches Pro Bono Collaboration;
• New York state senator allocates funding to Her Justice for immigration legal assistance;
• PSLF is in danger — but we knew that;
• Judge blocked nationwide enforcement of rule preventing nonprofits from providing legal assistance to detained immigrants;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

May 13, 2017 – “The state Office of Indigent Legal Services has awarded Cattaraugus County another counsel on first appearance grant for $746,125 to keep the program. The goal is to provide an attorney when a police officer arrests someone and brings them before a judge for arraignment. In the past, these defendants were often jailed in lieu of bail. Public Defender Mark Williams, whose office applied for the grants, said the first grant allowed his office to hire an additional attorney, another investigator and clerical staff.” (Olean Times Herald)

May 15, 2017 – “Continuing its commitment to advancing legal support for the public sector, Venable LLP has awarded four public interest fellowships to students from Fordham Law School, New York University Law School, and Columbia University School of Law who are undertaking public service internships this summer with nonprofits or government entities. Launched by the firm’s New York office in 2008, the Venable Foundation Public Interest Fellowship provides financial support to first-year law students in New York who are pursuing public service internships in New York City or in other cities where Venable maintains an office. The Fellowship recipients are chosen on the basis of their academic performance, demonstrated qualities of leadership, and commitment to the use of the law to further the public good. ” (Venable News & Insights)

May 15, 2017 – “ABA President Linda Klein submitted a statement to the U.S. Senate on Friday urging them to set the Legal Services Corp. budget to $450 million for 2018. Klein’s statement is largely similar to her testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives in early May. It echoes the lobbying which the ABA has been doing on the LSC’s behalf since President Donald Trump’s proposed budget was announced, one which would eliminate all LSC funding. The LSC is the largest provider of civil legal aid in the nation. ‘Funding for equal justice under federal law cannot be shouldered by state and local governments as an unfunded mandate,’ Klein wrote in her statement. ‘The federal government should contribute its fair share. That can only be accomplished through funding the Legal Services Corporation.’ Lawmakers struck a budget deal at the end of April which includes funding for the LSC at the current level of $385 million through the end of the fiscal year in September. But there has not yet been an agreement on what level of funding — if any — will be appropriated for the LSC in Fiscal Year 2018.” (ABA Journal)

May 15, 2017 – “Northeastern University School of Law has seen an increased need for volunteers in the legal arena thanks to changing federal priorities — to help defeat recent federal executive orders and proposed changes that would cut back on individual rights and freedoms. That’s why it has recently launched a new Pro Bono Collaboration, so students can fill that need. The new program provides law students with the opportunity to provide pro bono legal research and assistance to organizations such as the ACLU, Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project, Greater Boston Legal Services, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the National Lawyers Guild and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, among others. ‘The reaction to the election inspired many people to increase their involvement in representing immigrants, refugees and LGBTQ individuals,’ said professor Lucy Williams, faculty director for public interest and pro bono initiatives. ‘The law school wanted to create an outlet for that energy. We hope the Pro Bono Collaboration will provide a permanent benefit to the community.’ Professor Wally Holohan will lead the new collaboration. Student volunteers will handle a wide range of responsibilities, including meeting with immigrants being held in ICE detention facilities, conducting research and discovery, performing intake for hate incidents, harassment and intimidation and organizing trainings. Students in the NUSL Pro Bono Collaboration will spend approximately 10 to 15 hours per week volunteering over an 11-week academic quarter.” (National Jurist)

May 15, 2017 – “State Senator Jose Peralta announced a $50,000 state allocation to Her Justice, an organization that provides legal services to women in need. Her Justice, with the assistance of law firms, helps hundreds of women who have been victims of crime to obtain ‘U’ visas. Peralta and Her Justice are partnering with other nonprofits to assist immigrant families and hold ‘Know your Rights’ forums.” “Her Justice is a non-profit organization that takes a ‘pro bono first’ approach to the provision of legal services to low-income women in crisis in all five boroughs of New York City. The staff of 18 lawyers and legal assistants trains, recruits and supervises volunteer attorneys from over 80 law firms to ensure that more than 3,000 vulnerable women every year receive free legal assistance in family, divorce and immigration matters.”(Queens Gazette)

May 17, 2017 – “Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.” “The administration is also seeking to overhaul key elements of federal financial aid. The spending proposal would maintain funding for Pell Grants for students in financial need, but it would eliminate more than $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students; nearly halve the work-study program that helps students work their way through school, cutting $490 million; take a first step toward ending subsidized loans, for which the government pays interest while the borrower is in school; and end loan forgiveness for public servants. The loan forgiveness program, enacted in 2007, was designed to encourage college graduates to pursue careers as social workers, teachers, public defenders or doctors in rural areas. There are at least 552,931 people on track to receive the benefit, with the first wave of forgiveness set for October. It’s unclear how the proposed elimination would affect those borrowers. The administration also wants to replace five income-driven student loan repayment plans with a single plan. That change would likely benefit many undergraduate borrowers, who currently can have the balance of their loan forgiven after paying 10 percent of their income for 20 years. Trump’s proposal — which makes good on a campaign promise — would raise the maximum payment to 12.5 percent of income, but shorten the payment period to 15 years. The proposal is less sweet for borrowers who take out loans to earn advanced degrees. They currently pay monthly bills capped at 10 percent of income for 25 years. Under the new plan, they’d pay more (12.5 percent of income) for longer (30 years). There were no estimates on how much the government would save by eliminating public-service loan forgiveness, overhauling the income-based repayment plans and ending subsidized loans.” (Washington Post)

Additional coverage and a breakdown of programs with proposed funding cuts or elimination. (Forbes)

And Slate has a good summary article. (Slate)

May 17, 2017 – “A federal judge in Seattle has blocked nationwide enforcement of a rule to prevent nonprofits from providing legal assistance to detained immigrants. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones found the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and other legal assistance groups would suffer ‘significant harm’ if the Justice Department enforced a 2008 rule designed to prevent victimization of detained immigrants by people who pretend to be attorneys. The group sued May 8, after receiving a cease-and-desist notice from the Justice Department saying it must commit to full legal representation for every immigrant it advises or refrain from giving any legal advice whatsoever. Calling the order ‘a new and novel’ interpretation of the rule, the group says it violates attorneys’ First and 10th Amendment rights and would prevent many immigrants from receiving any legal assistance. At a Wednesday hearing, Jones ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the rule against the Seattle-based group and nationwide, saying the government had threatened to send similar cease-and-desist notices to other nonprofits providing legal aid to immigrants.” (Courthouse News Service)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms, Grandmoms, Mom figures, female role models, and just plain strong women stepping up every day to help the generations that follow. It seems there are so many forces at work right now trying to take us back, keep us down, make us less. Let’s take this weekend (and every other day) to celebrate and appreciate ALL females!!

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Sacramento to provide city-funded legal services to immigrants;
• Saskatchewan to explore letting non-lawyers provide some legal services;
• Harvard Law Review establishes public interest fellowship;
• Texas Access to Justice Foundation establishing endowment to assist veterans;
• Montana lawyers provided $18 million in pro bono legal services in 2016;
• Advocacy group sues U.S. after being warned to stop providing legal advice;
• Columbia Law School receives $15 Mil gift for new scholarships for public interest students and clinical professorship;
• Governor’s appointment gives Oregon Supreme Court first female majority;
• ABA launches study of biases encountered by LGBT-plus and disabled lawyers;
• San Antonio to fund educational and legal aid services for immigrants;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

May 5, 2017 – “Undocumented immigrants in Sacramento will have city-funded legal services as soon as next month to fight deportation and ‘prepare for the worst’ as their fears grow about federal immigration enforcement. Sacramento City Council members voted unanimously late Thursday to set aside up to $300,000 for a network of legal, educational and faith-based nonprofit groups that will help residents with immediate immigration problems and advise them how to protect children and assets if parents are deported. The network also would educate them on their rights.” (The Sacramento Bee)

May 5, 2017 – “An 11-person team of law professionals and members of the public has been assembled to look at whether to allow non-lawyers to provide some legal services to Saskatchewan residents, as the provincial government explores expanding legal services. According to a government news release issued Friday, the project is a joint effort between the Ministry of Justice and the Law Society of Saskatchewan. ‘We know there’s interest in exploring new ways to access and provide legal services, and this task team is going to explore potential opportunities around that for us,’ Justice Minister and Attorney General Gordon Wyant said in Friday’s release. The task force is expected to make its recommendation within the next year year.” (CBC News)

May 8, 2017 – “The Harvard Law Review has announced the creation of a public interest fellowship, which will enable one recent Harvard Law graduate to spend a year following law school working in public service. The program’s inaugural fellow, who will be selected in the fall of 2017, will receive funding to support a year of work in a public interest-related role within a nonprofit organization, the government, or another institution. The fellow will have the opportunity to have a short piece relating to his or her work considered for publication in the Law Review’s online Forum at the end of the year. Said Assistant Dean for Public Service Alexa Shabecoff: ‘I’m thrilled that the Law Review will be funding a public interest fellowship. There is such great need for public interest lawyers but most organizations don’t have the budget to hire to meet the need.  At the same time, so many stellar HLS students want to do public interest work but are confronted by a scarcity of entry-level public interest positions. This new fellowship will help an amazing HLS student launch their public interest career while providing badly needed services.’ The fellow will receive a $65,000 stipend and healthcare benefits. A committee of Law School professors independent of the Law Review will select a student or recent graduate with a demonstrated interest in both public interest work and legal scholarship. Any person who will graduate from Harvard Law School at the end of the academic year in which he or she applies, or who has graduated from the Law School in either of the previous two years, will be eligible to apply for the fellowship.” (Harvard Law Today)

May 9, 2017 – “Hoping to help veterans get access to health care, housing and other needs, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation is establishing an endowment to pay for free legal services. The Joe Jamail Endowment for Veteran Legal Services will help Texas veterans ‘successfully integrate back into civilian life and secure the rights and benefits for which they risked their lives,’ the Justice Foundation said in a news release. Texas has 1.67 million veterans, the second-largest veteran population in the country, according to the foundation.” “Last year, the foundation helped about 8,000 veterans, and, with the endowment, foundation leaders are hoping to ‘one day have sufficient funding to be able to serve the legal needs of all veterans.'” (My Statesman)

May 9, 2017 – “The Montana Supreme Court and the State Bar of Montana announced Monday that in 2016 almost $18 million was reported in pro bono legal services for low-income families by attorneys across the state. According to the report, almost 1,600 Montana attorneys provided more than 120,000 hours of service to low-income Montanans.” (KTVQ)

May 9, 2017 – “A nonprofit fighting the Trump administration’s travel ban in court sued the U.S. Justice Department after being warned to stop offering legal aid to undocumented immigrants. The department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review demanded that the immigrants’ advocacy group refrain from advising people facing deportation if it isn’t formally representing them. The Northwest Immigrants Rights Project said the government’s sudden invocation of a 2008 regulation is a bureaucratic maneuver to stymie its assistance to poor people threatened with being returned to their native countries.” “The legal director of the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project said the 2008 regulation that requires it to enter formal notice any time it offers help to an undocumented immigrant creates an unrealistic paperwork burden for his 30-attorney staff. ‘It’s just not possible to talk to all of those people who need aid and file all of that paperwork,’ Matt Adams said. ‘Effectively, they’re trying to make it easier to successfully deport thousands of people a year.’ The group said that while it’s complying with the regulation for now, the Justice Department’s warning letter violates its constitutional right to free speech and Washington state’s Tenth Amendment right to regulate legal services. If upheld in court, the policy would ‘preclude that majority of people in deportation proceedings’ from receiving any legal assistance, according to the filing.” (Bloomberg)

May 9, 2017 – “Columbia Law School has received a $15 million donation from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation—a philanthropy established in 1978 by the late lawyer and real estate investor Jerome L. Greene and his late wife Dawn M. Greene. The funds will establish new scholarships for students interested in public interest, academic, and government careers, and create a new clinical professorship. “This pledge, for which the Columbia community is deeply grateful, significantly enhances access to Columbia Law School for the next generation of leaders and legal professionals through scholarships and critical core support for clinics,” said law dean Gillian Lester in an announcement of the donation Tuesday.” “The largest portion of the gift, $7 million, will establish the Greene Public Service Scholars program, which will furnish full-tuition scholarships to students who pursue government and public interest jobs. Another $5 million will create a matching scholarship fund that aims to prompt others to donate toward named, endowed student scholarships. The remaining $3 million will establish the Greene Clinical Professorship.” (New York Law Journal)

May 10, 2017 – “Governor Kate Brown announced Wednesday she will appoint Rebecca A. Duncan to the Oregon Supreme Court. Judge Duncan will be the seven-person court’s fourth woman member, making the court a majority of women for the first time in state history. Judge Duncan currently sits on the Oregon Court of Appeals and will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice David V. Brewer. The appointment will be effective immediately after Justice Brewer retires on June 30.” (KTVZ)

May 10, 2017 – “The ABA is launching a nationwide study to identify biases encountered by LGBT-plus and disabled lawyers in the legal profession. The study, to be conducted by the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, will help develop strategies to fight biases, according to an ABA press release that quotes President Linda A. Klein and was released Wednesday. ‘This study is integral to the ABA’s continuing efforts to promote the full and equal participation of all diverse persons, including LGBT-plus lawyers and lawyers with disabilities, in the association and the legal profession as a whole,’ Klein said. The plus after the acronym refers to other gender and sexual minorities. The study is part of the ABA Pathway to the Profession Project. Statistics from the National Association for Law Placement show differences in employment for openly LGBT and disabled lawyers, according to the ABA press release. Openly LGBT lawyers are more likely to work for public interest law organizations than law firms, when compared to other legal professional demographic groups. Law graduates with disabilities were less likely to be employed than other graduates, including minorities and LGBT graduates.” (ABA Journal)

May 11, 2017 – “This week, South Side Councilman Rey Saldaña pushed through a request for the city to help fund educational and legal services for San Antonio’s immigrant and refugee population. At its Thursday meeting, City Council approved pulling some $150,000 from its $1 million emergency fund to pay for a range of services that include know-your-rights workshops, power of attorney legal clinics, and help on citizenship applications. Saldaña says the emergency funds, which are usually tapped for things like natural disasters, are sorely needed in light of immigration crackdowns at both the state and federal levels.” (San Antonio Current)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! Funding is the story of the week. Let’s take a moment to celebrate what these funds can do in the right hands. We’ll get back to the greater funding debate later.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Advocacy groups take British Columbia government to court over legal aid;
• Idaho Supreme Court allows ACLU class action public defense case to proceed;
• Seattle Mayor signs $1 million immigrant legal defense fund;
• Corporate Pro Bono publishes 2016 Benchmarking Report;
• Kentucky starts hotline for free legal help over custody and visitation issues;
• Foundation gives $500,000 to University of Maine School of Law’s immigration clinic;
• Pro bono reporting in Indiana draws mixed reaction;
• Michigan will soon be asked to pay more for indigent defense;
• Stop gap budget includes LSC funding, but crisis is not averted;
• South Texas College of Law Houston receives $1.27 million gift to launch criminal defense certification program;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

April 27, 2017 – “Three Vancouver advocacy groups say funding cuts to B.C. legal aid have made it harder for women fleeing abusive relationships to get help from lawyers. As a result, West Coast Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (West Coast LEAF) and the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BCPIAC), with help from the Single Mothers’ Alliance B.C., have filed a constitutional challenge against the province and the Legal Services Society.” “In their challenge, BCPIAC and West Coast LEAF say the financial eligibility criteria and the cap on legal hours imposed by the Legal Services Society is unconstitutional. The B.C. Government has not responded to a request for comment on the challenge.” (CBC News)

April 28, 2017 – “The Idaho Supreme Court today ruled that the ACLU’s class action lawsuit challenging Idaho’s public defense system statewide will proceed. In a unanimous decision, written by Idaho’s Chief Justice, the Court said that the Idahoans who brought the suit had raised systemic violations of fundamental constitutional rights. The case will now proceed for the courts to determine the extent of the violations. The lawsuit, called Tucker v. State of Idaho, was filed in 2015 by the ACLU, the ACLU of Idaho, and the global law firm Hogan Lovells.” “[The] Idaho Supreme Court opinion dismisses Idaho Governor Butch Otter as a defendant in the case, concluding that his connection to Idaho’s public defense system is too indirect for him to be held accountable for Idaho’s human rights violations regarding public defense. The class action lawsuit will continue, however, against both the State of Idaho itself as well as the members of its Public Defense Commission.” (ACLU News)

April 28, 2017 – “Mayor Ed Murray was joined by Councilmembers M. Lorena González and Tim Burgess in signing an ordinance creating a $1 million legal defense fund for Seattle residents and workers who cannot afford legal representation or services in immigration proceedings.” “The legal defense fund will be structured as contracts that eligible community-based organizations can apply for to hire immigration attorneys, legal staff, and services to aid immigrants who are detained, as well as those who are not detained but facing deportation and other complex cases. Unlike other courts, people in immigration proceedings do not have the right to a court-appointed attorney. The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs will administer the program, which will become available this summer.” (The Skanner)

May 1, 2017 – “CPBO is pleased to share the 2016 Benchmarking Report: An Overview of In-House Pro Bono. This report summarizes the responses of 55 legal departments, providing unique insight into current trends in in-house pro bono. Key hightlights:

• 87% of departments have pro bono committees
• 92% of departments have non-attorneys who participate in pro bono
• 91% of departments work with legal services providers that provide professional liability insurance
• 55% of departments enter into pro bono partnerships with other legal departments
• 29% of departments engage in global pro bono”

(Corporate Pro Bono)

May 1, 2017 – “A new telephone hotline gives qualifying parents free legal assistance related to their custody and visitation concerns. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) Office of Child Support Enforcement (CSE) has an agreement with the Legal Aid Society (LAS) to operate the ‘Custody and Visitation’ Hotline. The statewide service is for eligible parents, on an income-based scale, who have concerns regarding custody and visitation issues with their children. Steve Veno, Commissioner of the CHFS Department for Income Services, which oversees the CSE, said an LAS attorney will handle all hotline calls and provide legal advice or assistance to callers such as how to file a motion, how to file or change a child custody or visitation order in the appropriate court and how to work through visitation and custody issues.” (WKYT)

May 2, 2017 – “The Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Maine School of Law has received a $500,000 grant to offer legal services to immigrants over the next four years. The money comes from the Sam L. Cohen Foundation of South Portland, which provided the seed money to get the clinic started five years ago and has given some funding each year for its operation. But this is the first year the foundation has underwritten the program’s entire cost — and comes at a time when requests for legal help at the clinic are on the rise.” (Bangor Daily News)

May 3, 2017 – “The first round of data collected from Indiana’s new pro bono reporting rule invoked opposing reactions among the members of the Coalition for Court Access who recently reviewed the numbers. Some thought the amount of time and money lawyers donated to legal aid was shameful, while others were thrilled with the level of giving.” “Being just the first year, drawing inferences from the numbers is difficult, but Scott Wylie, member of the CCA pro bono working group, said the numbers provide a start.” “The numbers show less than 50 percent of Indiana attorneys in 2015 gave their time to helping clients who either could not pay anything or could only pay a greatly reduced rate. Of the 15,544 Hoosier lawyers covered by the reporting rule, 41 percent donated only their time. Adding in the 896 attorneys who gave both time and money, that total bumps up to 47 percent.” (The Indiana Lawyer)

May 3, 2017 – “Lawmakers’ years-old promise to invest in criminal defense for poor people is about to be tested as a state panel proposes new limits on court-appointed attorney caseloads. The Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, created under a 2013 law that came with a legislative promise that the state would pay for reforms, has proposed three new standards for Michigan’s county-run court-appointed attorney systems. The standards would limit attorneys to no more than 150 felonies or 400 non-traffic misdemeanors per year, forbid judges or judicial employees from choosing or paying the attorneys who argue in their courtrooms, and set new minimum qualifications for attorneys who represent criminal defendants who can’t afford their own lawyer.” “The commission will accept public comment on the new standards through October, with a public hearing to happen in late summer or early fall, before final proposals are sent to the Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs for approval. The first batch of standards, which were unveiled in 2015, haven’t yet been approved. LARA spokesman Jason Moon said a decision should happen ‘in the next several weeks.'” (Lansing State Journal)

May 3, 2017 – Over the weekend, Congress reached a deal to keep the government open through September. “The spending agreement Congress brokered retains $385 million for Legal Services Corp., the national organization that funds services for low income, disabled and senior citizens. That measure restores the current year’s funding at budgeted levels.” However, that does not mean the danger has passed. Far from it, experts warn. “‘The crisis is not averted. Quite the contrary,” said Steve Gottlieb, executive director of Atlanta Legal Aid. ‘We will see all summer about what happens the next year.’ ‘[T]he budget the president proposed [for 2018] has no money in it for the Legal Services Corp,’ Gottlieb said.” As has been widely reported, the White House is gearing up for the bigger budget fight at the end of the summer. Pressure needs to continue on Congress to fully fund civil legal aid. (Daily Report)

May 4, 2017 – “South Texas College of Law Houston has received a $1.27 million gift aimed at launching a criminal defense certification program, which is meant to train defense lawyers to more effectively represent indigent defendants in the city’s courts. The money came from an anonymous donor, the school said in a statement, adding that it would be the first program of its kind in the state. The program would be geared toward preparing lawyers to meet the minimum experience requirements to be appointed as counsel for indigent defendants, the school said.” “Law students can join the program, which focuses on criminal law and procedure, in their second year. Students in the program also will participate in a yearlong Criminal Defense Clinic—an addition to the school’s Randall O. Sorrels Legal Clinics—in which they work alongside criminal defense attorneys on staff who are themselves included on the county’s indigent list. After graduation, the lawyers will be mentored by Houston-area criminal defense attorneys to help ease their transition into practice, the school said, adding that the mentorship program will produce attorneys who are prepared for defending indigent defendants in court.” (Texas Lawyer)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! What great week we had in San Francisco. As always, new ideas and energy flowed, and we were renewed. LSC this week announced the pilot states for their legal portal initiative, and we check in on a few access to justice projects.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Penn Law and Southern Poverty Law Center establish post-graduate fellowship;
• Legal Services Corporation announces pilot states for access to justice portal project;
• Indiana Legal Services celebrates 50 years of service;
• First participants in Texas Bar legal incubator program help close the justice gap;
• Update on the Alberta Limited Legal Services Project;
• Free legal advice to survivors of sexual assault through Newfoundland and Labrador pilot program;
• Bill regarding pro bono hours reporting passes California Senate Judiciary Committee;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

April 24, 2017 – “Penn Law and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have created a new, two-year, post-graduate fellowship for a new or recent graduate to work with the SPLC’s Special Litigation Practice Group. The Penn Law Civil Rights Fellow will serve as an integral member of the SPLC’s legal group, conducting legal research and analysis and developing theories to support new litigation projects and advocacy campaigns; drafting legal memoranda, pleadings, affidavits, motions, and briefs; interviewing witnesses and potential clients; participating in discovery and trial practice; and engaging in public speaking and attending meetings and conferences.” “‘Now, more than ever, we need public interest lawyers who are dedicated to representing those who face discrimination and injustice,’ said Arlene Rivera Finkelstein, Associate Dean & Executive Director of the Toll Public Interest Center. ‘Through this partnership, a Penn Law graduate will serve on the front lines of the fight for civil rights. It is an extraordinary opportunity made possible by the generosity of our alumni, and we are truly grateful.’ The fellowship is being funded through the combined efforts of several Penn alumni. They include: Todd R. Snyder, L’88 and Phoebe Boyer; The Joseph H. Flom Foundation; Mr. David J. Loo, WG’87; and The Harry Shapiro Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation, recommended by the Shapiro family.” (Penn Law News and Events)

April 24, 2017 – “The Legal Services Corporation (LSC), Microsoft Corporation, and Pro Bono Net have named Alaska and Hawaii as state partners in a pilot program to develop online, statewide legal portals to direct individuals with civil legal needs to the most appropriate forms of assistance. These portals will use cutting-edge, user-centered technology to help ensure that all people with civil legal needs can navigate their options and more easily access solutions and services available from legal aid, the courts, the private bar, and community partners.” “‘Many people find it difficult to access legal services,’ said LSC President James J. Sandman. ‘The goal of the portals is to simplify that process by providing a single, statewide point of access to effective help for people needing civil legal assistance. Each user will be guided to available resources based on the nature of the matter and the user’s personal circumstances.’ Alaska’s proposal was submitted by the Alaska Access to Justice Commission and Hawaii’s proposal was submitted by Legal Aid Society of Hawaii with support from the Hawaii state judiciary and other justice community partners. Alaska and Hawaii were selected because of their demonstrated track records in establishing new and collaborative resources for meeting civil legal needs; their embrace of technology’s potential to expand access to legal assistance; and their vision of partnering with allied non-legal networks such as social services, public libraries, and health care institutions to help people identify and resolve their legal issues and related social needs.” (Legal Services Corporation)

April 24, 2017 – “Saturday night’s gala marking the 50th anniversary of Indiana Legal Services had the feel of a family reunion. Former and current ILS attorneys, paralegals and staff along with lawyers who volunteer their services and friends of legal aid hugged, laughed and traded stories throughout the dinner held at the Indiana State Museum. Employees were recognized and standing ovations were given to former executive director Norman Metzger and longtime administrative assistance Ida Hayes.” “[Indiana Supreme Court Justice Steven David] praised ILS employees and alumni for having a commitment and work ethic that benefits not only the individual clients but improves the legal health of the entire state. ‘Everyone is better in Indiana because of Indiana Legal Services,’ David said.” (The Indiana Lawyer)

April 24, 2017 – “It’s the first day of the rest of the lives of 10 lucky lawyers who are the first group of participants in the State Bar of Texas’s new legal incubator. The participants in the Texas Opportunity and Justice Incubator, which opened this month, have emerged from an intense three-week boot camp that turbocharged the launches of their solo practices, which will at least in part serve poor and middle-income Texans. ‘They have an entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to build something for themselves while giving back to the community,’ TOJI Director Anne-Marie Rabago said. ‘A big piece of what these incubator programs work toward is making legal services available to those who don’t qualify for legal aid because of income or other reasons, yet can’t afford attorneys at market rates.’ In addition to helping to close the justice gap, TOJI, the main project of State Bar of Texas President Frank Stevenson, aims to help lawyers set up sustainable legal practices that serve modest-means clients.” (Legal Tech News)

April 25, 2017 – “The Alberta Limited Legal Services Project, a research effort looking at the effects of unbundling on access to justice, was formally launched on 18 April 2017. The project offers Albertans a roster of lawyers prepared to provide work on a limited scope retainer and aims to gauge lawyers’ and clients’ satisfaction with limited scope work and ultimately determine whether some legal help is better than no legal help at all. At present, the project boasts a roster of 49 lawyers with offices throughout Alberta, from Peace River to Medicine Hat, practicing in almost every area of civil law, including 39 whose services include family law matters. The project’s website is intended to link potential clients with participating lawyers. It promotes participating lawyers and their firms, and lists their contact information, the areas of law in which they offer limited scope services and the locations of their practices. Roster lawyers are also being promoted through the National Self-Represented Litigants Project.” “The data-collection phase will end in September 2018, following which the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family will analyze the results of the client and lawyer surveys and produce a report evaluating the project and its implications for access to justice in Alberta.

Some interesting observations may already be made.

• The concept of coaching as a legal service provided to litigants without counsel, which [the author] had thought was relatively new, is surprisingly popular among roster lawyers, 24 of whom will provide coaching for court appearances and other aspects of the ligation process, including disclosure and examinations for discovery.
• More than a fifth of roster lawyers will provide their services by telephone or online, disposing of the need for a physical office.
• Three-fifths of roster lawyers will provide help drafting pleadings and other court documents. Two-fifths will appear in court on behalf of a client, and half will provide advice on commencing or continuing court proceedings.

Lawyers may join, or leave, the project at any point during the data-collection phase of the project.” (Slaw)

April 25, 2017 – “Victims of sexual violence will soon be able to avail of free and independent legal advice in Newfoundland and Labrador following the announcement Tuesday in St. John’s of a sexual assault response pilot program. The federal government is funding the three-year program with an annual grant of $250,000. Details are still being finalized, but Justice and Public Safety Minister Andrew Parsons said he hopes the service will be available by the end of this year. ‘By offering free legal advice, the sexual assault response pilot program will help ensure survivors of sexual crime have access to justice,” Parsons said during a joint announcement alongside federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.'” (CBC News)

April 26, 2017 – “A bill by Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) to expand access to justice among indigent Californians by requiring attorneys to report to the State Bar the number of pro bono hours they have worked and the amount they have donated to legal aid organizations passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. SB 316 is a mandatory reporting, voluntary disclosure bill that gives attorneys the option of disclosing the information publicly on their State Bar profile. The public would be able to see if an attorney failed to report at all or chose to keep the reporting private.” (Union City Patch)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issues a yearly list of law firms who meet its “40 at 50” goal — firms where at least 40 percent of attorneys dedicated 50 or more hours to pro bono work the prior year. Seven firms made the first list in 2004, and by 2015, that number jumped to 33. It remained at 33 for 2016. For 2016, 11 firms had at least half of all their lawyers meet the 50-hour mark, compared to 14 firms for 2015. Of those, three firms had 60 percent or more attorneys meet the 50-hour mark in 2016: Jenner & Block and Miller & Chevalier, where more than 65 percent met the mark, and Ropes & Gray, where 75 percent of attorneys met the goal. View the complete list here. Congratulations to the firms and lawyers making a difference in their communities. (National Law Journal)

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! The big news – the federal hiring freeze has been lifted. See the coverage below and join the continuing conversation on NALPconnect.

And we are looking forward to seeing our members at the NALP Annual Education Conference next week.  Because we will be sharing our news in person, the Digest will not be published on April 21. We will return on April 28 with all the news and exciting updates from our programming and events.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• New York state budget contains some indigent defense funding for counties;
• Tennessee Indigent Representation Task Force presents report and recommendations;
• Federal hiring freeze lifted;
• Law Society of British Columbia issues report: A Vision for Publicly Funded Legal Aid in British Columbia;
• Canadian Forum on Civil Justice issues Justice Development Goals Status Report;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

April 10, 2017 – “The state will provide New York City and counties outside the city a measure of the relief they have been seeking for decades to pay for constitutionally mandated representation for New York’s indigent criminal defendants. While falling well short of a state takeover of the approximate $450 million annual cost of providing counsel as the Supreme Court mandated in Gideon v. Wainwright, the 2017-18 budget sets the stage for state assumption of a larger portion of localities’ indigent defense funding. The budget, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, obligates the state to reimburse counties for the improvements in indigent defense coverage promised to five counties through its 2014 settlement in Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York. Those improvements include having counsel at each defendant’s initial appearance in court, reducing caseloads for legal aid lawyers and improving the resources available to lawyers representing indigents. William Leahy, head of the state Office of Indigent Legal Services, said Monday the Cuomo administration estimates that extending Hurrell-Harring will cost about $250 million when fully implemented in 2023. In the budget, the state pledged to reimburse the counties and the city for those costs going forward. ‘This is less than whole, but it is what I have been saying since the day after the Hurrell-Harring settlement was signed, that the state has to make sure that all counties are in compliance with the constitution,’ Leahy said. When Cuomo vetoed a bill on New Year’s Eve that would have provided for a seven-year assumption of all local government costs to provide Gideon-mandated representation, he pledged to offer a more limited plan. The budget does not relieve the city and counties of the roughly $450 million spent each year to provide counsel to indigent defendants. Jonathan Gradess, executive director of the New York State Defenders Association, one of the legal services groups that have long advocated for Gideon improvements, said the indigent defense piece of the budget is ‘terrific’ and moves the state closer to assuming its rightful role as the sole funder of indigent legal services.” (New York Law Journal)

April 10, 2017 – “Almost a year-and-a-half after the Tennessee Supreme Court created it to review how Tennessee provides legal representation for poor criminal defendants, the Indigent Representation Task Force is presenting a set of recommendations Monday. Chief among them: Give District Public Defenders enough money to do their jobs and create another task force, one that would consider whether to create “an independent central commission to oversee” public defense in Tennessee. Although it avoids crisis language, the report makes it clear that the state’s criminal justice system, including the part of it designed to uphold the right to an attorney, is overloaded. ‘The information gathered by the Task Force established that there has been a dramatic increase in the ratio of cases to the justice system’s capacity during the past 20 years,’ the report says in an executive summary. ‘While the system has used its best efforts to manage the increasing caseload, its ability to continue doing so is not sustainable without additional resources.’ The task force’s report is extensive, at more than 200 pages, detailing the history of public defense in Tennessee, the system’s current architecture and the challenges it faces.” (Nashville Scene)

April 11, 2017 – “The White House will lift President Trump’s federal hiring freeze on Wednesday, following fire from critics who said it hampered the government from carrying out core functions. The end of the freeze is part of guidance ordering federal departments and agencies to submit restructuring plans to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the fall. ‘It does not mean the agencies will be free to hire willy-nilly,’ OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters Tuesday. ‘What we’re doing tomorrow is replacing the across-the-board hiring freeze that was put in place on day one and replacing it with a smarter plan, a more strategic plan, a more surgical plan.'” “The memorandum requires all agencies to ‘begin taking immediate actions’ to reduce the size of their workforces over the long term and achieve the savings called for in Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget. Agency heads must develop a plan to ‘maximize employee performance’ by June 30 and submit a final version of that plan to the White House budget office by September.” (The Hill)

“Mulvaney says under the new guidance, some agencies will wind up hiring more people, while others will end up ‘paring’ the number of employees ‘even greater than they would have during the hiring freeze.'” “Still, the impact of this latest move is likely to be limited too. It will be up to Congress to set actual spending levels for federal agencies, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were highly critical of Trump’s spending plan.” “Mulvaney also said the administration is asking agencies, along with members of the public, to submit suggestions for how to rebuild the executive branch ‘from scratch.'” “However, nearly every recent administration has taken on the same rebuilding task, whether calling it ‘reinventing government’ as the Clinton administration did, or appointing a blue-ribbon commission as Reagan did, or instituting the Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative, as Obama did.”(NPR)

BUT the State Department will maintain the hiring freeze for an undetermined time. “The State Department will maintain a hiring freeze even as other federal agencies lift their freeze. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly told his agency’s employees in a Wednesday memo that State will keep its freeze in effect. ‘Although the Office of Management and Budget lifted the federal hiring freeze effective April 12, 2017, the Department will maintain its hiring freeze in effect for the present time. Any change to this policy will be notified promptly,’ the memo said.” (The Hill)

April 11, 2017 – “Legal aid should be publicly funded and available to all members of a democratic society, particularly those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, says a new report from The Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC). ‘All people, regardless of their means and without discrimination, should have access to legal information and publicly-funded professional legal advice to assist them in understanding whether a situation attracts rights and remedies or subjects them to obligations or responsibilities,” says the report entitled: ‘A Vision for Publicly Funded Legal Aid in British Columbia,‘ issued by the LSBC Legal Aid Task Force. Nancy Merrill, who chaired the nine-member task force, said: ‘Everyone should have universal access in terms of a diagnostic service and be able to find what legal services are available.’ While the vision was designed to be inclusive rather than excluding sectors of society, Merrill said the task force did not ‘drill down’ to examine who should provide this advice. The advice would also consider the individual’s ability to access the free market for legal services. The task force, struck in Sept. 2015, was charged with developing a vision of legal aid for the LSBC that was in line with s.3 of the Legal Profession Act. For the past 15 years, the LSBC has been silent on the issue. The report, though, stops short of advocating for universal legal aid. Merrill said that the full range of fully funded legal services (advice through to court appearances) would go to a society’s more marginalized or at-risk individuals. The LSBC vision sets these out as legal issues involving the state where liberty or security of the individual is at risk; children whose security is at risk; people with mental or intellectual disabilities that impair their ability to access government or community services; family law where the physical, economic, or emotional security of a family is at risk; persons disadvantaged because of poverty, and immigrants and refugees. Merrill acknowledges these categories are similar to those that the Legal Services Society lists as eligible for legal aid. The difference, she said, in the range of problems that should be considered. The LSBC vision is broader.” (Canadian Lawyer Legal Feeds)

April 13, 2017 – “The Action Committee’s “Canadian Access to Justice Initiatives: Justice Development Goals Status Report” has been published and is available in both English and French. This Report uses the nine Justice Development Goals set out in the Action Committee’s ‘A Roadmap for Change’ report as a framework to explore current initiatives and to identify areas for future work in access to justice in Canada. The Justice Development Goals Status Report was produced by the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. In addition, the Forum has also published the ‘Status Report: Working Data Document’, which includes data from the ‘Canadian Access to Justice Initiatives: Justice Development Goals Status Report’, as well as raw data from the recent Justice Development Goals Survey that is not discussed in the Report.” The full reports are available at the link. (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice Action Committee)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

For you baseball fans in honor of opening day. On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number, 42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New York City’s Shea Stadium. Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired by all teams in the league. (History.com)

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! It’s a little over a week to the NALP Annual Education Conference.  We are excited to have our members join us in San Francisco for great programming and networking. And we are thrilled to host Julia Wilson, CEO of One Justice, as our Public Interest Luncheon Speaker.  You can read more about this amazing advocate below.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Iowa State Public Defender announces mandatory furlough days;
• New Mexico public defenders take funding battle to  Supreme Court;
• New York University School of Law expands pro bono opportunities for students;
• How to make in-house pro bono work;
• Lawsuit settlement to boost indigent defense in Suffolk (New York);
• ACLU sues over public defenders for children in Washington State;
• NYCLU asks legislators to spin “Wheel of Justice” to garner support for public defense funding;
• Montana Supreme Court Justices call for funding for civil legal services;
• New York State Bar devises new portal to find legal help for immigrants;
• National Law Journal Pro Bono Hot List 2017 announced;
• Report says legal aid put $10.5 mil in Maine economy;
• New York to set aside $10M of state budget for immigration legal services;
• Alberta access to justice study launched by Law Foundation of Ontario;
• Stanford Law School receives $7.4 million gift for public interest and public service work;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

March 30, 2017 – “In addressing a state budget shortfall, 223 Iowa State Public Defender employees have been informed they must take five unpaid furlough days before the end of June. State Public Defender Adam Gregg sent a letter to employees Thursday explaining the furlough days are mandatory due to the $457,481 reduction announced as part of a de-appropriation bill signed by Gov. Terry Branstad in February that cut $117.8 million from the state’s 2017 budget. Gregg said Thursday in a phone interview the decision was made late Wednesday about how the cut to his office would be handled. He said furlough days are to make up for the budget shortfall and that all employees, including himself, must participate in order to achieve the savings. ‘We ran a lean operation and we were under budget this year but when you have to make up for nearly a half million dollars in three months, it was best to do this,’ Gregg said. ‘A shared sacrifice is a better alternative than a permanent closure of one or more of the offices.'” (The Gazette)

March 30, 2017 – “The state Law Offices of the Public Defender, which for years has complained that it doesn’t have enough money to adequately represent New Mexico’s poorest defendants, is asking the state Supreme Court to step in and address the problem. The agency filed a petition Tuesday proposing that the Supreme Court order private attorneys to represent indigent defendants for free or order court clerks to stop accepting new cases alleging minor, nonviolent crimes after a certain number of cases has been reached. ‘Some of these are extreme solutions,’ Chief Defender Bennett Baur said Thursday. ‘None of them are perfect. But they are solutions to the problem.’ Baur also suggests in the court filing that the Supreme Court appoint a special master to find long-term solutions for the ongoing problem in New Mexico of too many accused criminals and too little money and lawyers to represent them.” (Santa Fe New Mexican)

March 30, 2017 – “NYU Law is partnering with Paladin — a tech start-up that connects lawyers with pro bono cases aligned with their interests. Current NYU Law students and alumni are able to utilize the service at no charge by signing up online. Paladin is the latest addition in the law school’s efforts to pair students with pro bono opportunities. According to Associate Director of the Public Interest Law center Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia, NYU Law already holds partnerships with several organizations such as New York State Courts, Asian American Bar Association, Legal Services NYC, Greenpeace and Sidley Austin LLP. This additional opportunity to connect NYU Law students with these cases is particularly important as the New York State Bar requires 50 hours of pro bono work for admission. According to NYU Law guidelines, this requirement can be satisfied both in the United States or overseas, as long as it is law-related, unpaid and supervised by an attorney or law school instructor.” (Washington Square News)

March 30, 2017 – Law360 has an interesting article on how companies see pro bono work, and how they make it a part of their legal department culture. (Law360)

April 2, 2017 – “Legal defense for poor criminal defendants in Suffolk County is getting a significant boost, thanks to settlement of a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The settlement sent $5.4 million to Suffolk, which will allow the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County and other assigned public defenders to have caseloads and resources more in line with what prosecutors and private attorneys have had. ‘It’s going to make a very big difference,’ said Laurette Mulry, Legal Aid’s attorney in charge. For the agency, it will mean reducing caseloads by hiring 23 lawyers to add to its staff of 100. All of those lawyers will work in Legal Aid’s District Court bureau, where some lawyers now handle up to 500 cases a year. The suit said the low quality of defense violated defendants’ constitutional right to adequate counsel. Another 42 new hires — investigators, interpreters, social workers and support staff — will boost the quality of the work Legal Aid does, Mulry said. The state made the money available to Suffolk as part of a settlement with the NYCLU, which sued the state over what it called inadequate legal defense for poor people in Suffolk and four upstate counties. In these counties, defense attorneys for the indigent often didn’t meet their clients before their first court appearances, had enormous caseloads and had little access to investigators and others who could help develop defenses in a case.” (Newsday)

April 3, 2017 – “The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is suing the state’s Office of Public Defense in an effort to get the state to do more to make sure children charged with crimes have good legal help. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Thurston County Superior Court, specifically challenges what the ACLU describes as the agency’s failure to protect juvenile defendants in Grays Harbor County on the Pacific coast, but the issues aren’t limited to Grays Harbor County, said Emily Chiang, the organization’s legal director. While the ACLU has previously sued several jurisdictions to improve representation for defendants who can’t afford lawyers — including a landmark 2013 federal court decision against the cities of Burlington and Mount Vernon — this case is about getting the state to enforce public defense standards on its own, she said. ‘There’s a very competent and well-run state agency here. It should be their job,’ she said. ‘I don’t think the ACLU should be in the business of managing public defense resources.’ The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare that Grays Harbor County is violating the constitutional rights of children charged with crimes and that the Office of Public Defense has the authority to require remedial measures.” (The Columbian)

April 3, 2017 – “The NYCLU broke out its ‘Wheel of Justice’ and asked legislators to give it a spin and test their fate in New York’s ‘broken criminal justice system,’ as a way to raise awareness and promote support for the Justice Equality Act. The bill, (A.1903) which would provide full state funding for public defenders, is sponsored by Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, and passed both the Assembly and Senate last session, but was vetoed by the governor in December. It has not yet been reintroduced in the Senate by last year’s sponsor, Senator John DeFrancisco, R- Syracuse.” “The Wheel of Justice was placed at the entrance of The Legislative Office Building during a recent busy day at the state Capitol to help raise awareness of the bill. Legislators and other passersby spun the wheel, which landed on various legal outcomes including ‘death,’ ‘ruined,’ ‘kids taken,’ ‘racism,’ ‘silenced,’ ‘eviction,’ ‘go to jail,’ ‘homeless,’ ‘beaten up,’ and ‘take the blame.’ Originally built to make their case in the case of Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York, which found that the state was negligent in funding public defense, the ‘Wheel of Justice’ features true stories of New Yorkers and their experience with the criminal justice system. The wheel made a comeback as a way to ‘educate legislators and the public,’ according to NYCLU’s Legislative Director Robert Perry.” (The Legislative Gazette)

April 3, 2017 – “All seven current justices of the Montana Supreme Court, along with eight retired members, are calling on Congress to continue funding two groups that help provide legal aid for people who can’t afford it. The justices sent a letter this week to U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, asking them to support maintaining current funding levels for the Legal Services Corporation and the Corporation for National and Community Service. President Trump’s budget proposal, released last month, eliminates federal money for both agencies.” (KTVH)

April 3, 2017 – “A new online portal matching New York attorneys willing to provide pro bono legal services with immigrants who need them because of shifting federal immigration policies was announced Monday by the New York State Bar Association and its affiliated foundation. The state bar and its New York Bar Foundation are contributing $40,000 each toward creating the portal and hiring a pro bono fellow to help administer it. Once it goes live later this spring, the portal will put immigrant advocacy groups and the pro bono lawyers together, state bar president Claire Gutekunst said in a statement Monday. She noted that the success rates of immigrants seeking to establish or maintain residency in the United States are up to 14 times more successful when they have legal representation in residency proceedings.” (New York Law Journal)

April 3, 2017 – “In the past year, lawyers fought for the disabled, voting rights and women’s health. They volunteered their services for those who bravely serve our country — helping some secure citizenship and others maintain their right to religious freedom. They helped connect the community and law enforcement in Chicago and San Francisco, advocated for Texas foster children and worked to improve health care in South Dakota.” See the full National Law Journal 2017 Pro Bono Hot List at the link.  Congratulations to the firms and attorneys making such a difference in their communities. (National Law Journal)

April 4, 2017 – “Civil legal aid meant more than $105M in positive economic impact in Maine in 2015. That’s according to a report by Maine’s Justice Action Group, which says $13M in federal benefits reached people in need. Nearly $7M was awarded in child and spousal support to Maine families. More than $6M in earnings was realized by helping immigrant workers get the legal right to work. The report says $2.5M was saved by communities through helping folks avoid evictions, thus cutting spending on homeless shelters. ‘Anyone who commits time or money to an effort wants to know what’s happening in return. What’s the benefit? Is there a benefit to me? Is there a benefit to society in general? I think this study, to a large degree, answers that question. This is part of the benefit that you — meaning whoever has contributed to legal services — this is what the return is,’ said Andrew Mead, Maine Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice. The study found that providing free legal services brings cost savings to the state and puts money back into the local economy.” (WABI)

April 5, 2017 – “Looking to fight back against President Trump’s immigration policies, the state is set to dedicate $10 million in its emerging new budget for immigrant legal services, the Daily News has learned. The commitment, to be announced by Gov. Cuomo and the eight-member Senate Independent Democratic Conference, is said to be the largest of its kind in state history.” “The funding is designed to build on the Liberty Defense Project, a public/private partnership Cuomo recently announced that will offer pro-bono legal services and other resources to immigrants regardless of their status.” (Daily News)

April 5, 2017 – “A group of lawyers has launched the Alberta Limited Legal Services Project, an initiative to provide a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to access to justice — empirical research to test whether self-represented litigants actually benefit from unbundled services. The idea that limited scope work could improve access to legal help has been cited by many reports on access to justice, but no one has ever conducted any empirical research to test the idea, says John-Paul Boyd, executive director of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family in Calgary. ‘This project will test the hypothesis that providing litigants with some legal information is better than none and test clients’ and lawyers’ satisfaction,’ says Boyd. ‘It’s the first empirical study in Canada — if not elsewhere — to look at satisfaction.'” (Canadian Lawyer Legal Feeds)

April 6, 2017 – “Stanford Law School recently received an estate gift of $7.4 million that will be used to expand the support it offers to public interest and public service students, alumni, and the broader community. The gift, from an anonymous donor, will significantly expand the permanent endowment for the school’s public interest work and is among the largest gifts in the law school’s history earmarked for programs for students and alumni, not capital improvements. ‘The generosity of this gift is noteworthy,’ said Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean M. Elizabeth Magill. ‘But just as important is that this new endowment funding will allow us to expand our already strong support for students and graduates who wish to pursue careers in the public interest.'” (Stanford Law School News)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

We are so excited to have Julia Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of One Justice, as our keynote speaker for the Public Interest Luncheon during our Annual Education Conference.  As one of her colleagues said recently, “She is one of the hardest working women in public interest.” That is the truth! Read more about Julia here and here.  We are very excited to hear her thoughts and have her share the incredible work she is doing.

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday! The big news this week is the Department of Education’s answer to the ABA lawsuit regarding qualifying employers for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.  DOE’s position is there was no reversal because there were no prior approvals. Read on to follow the twists of logic used to come to this conclusion.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Access to Justice BC to receive $300,000 in funding;
• University of Arizona College of Law launches pro bono patent program;
• New York governor launches Liberty Defense Project that will provide pro bono legal services to immigrants;
• Ontario to increase legal aid eligibility threshold;
• In answer to ABA lawsuit, Education Department says it never changed loan forgiveness rules;
• In-house counsel add voices to fight to save Legal Services Corporation;
• Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants; and
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

March 24, 2017 – “Access to Justice BC [British Columbia] will be receiving a grant of $300,000 over three years from the Law Society of BC and the Law Foundation of BC. In an announcement issued on Tuesday, The Law Society of BC and Law Foundation of BC agreed to contribute $150,000 each to the fund. ‘Access to Justice BC is not about supporting a prescribed set of actions or an intellectual concept. The aim is to bring about a culture shift by aligning justice system stakeholders in taking user-centred, collaborative and evidence-based approaches to access to justice innovation,’ said Chief Justice Robert Bauman in a statement. Bauman is chairman of the group. ‘It is about producing the kind of collective impact that will transform users’ experiences with the justice system,’ he said. Established in 2014, Access to Justice BC consists of a board of 30 members and aims to improve access to justice for family, indigenous and civil law for all communities in British Columbia. The group has expanded its efforts over the years, which is why it needs the monetary assistance to help build its infrastructure. Access to Justice BC will receive $100,000 per year over the three years to fund initiatives.” (Canadian Lawyer)

March 24, 2017 – “The University of Arizona’s College of Law is launching a pro bono patent program for Arizona inventors. The Arizona Public Patent Program is designed to help financially under-resourced independent inventors, small businesses and startup companies obtain free legal counsel from local patent attorneys in filing patent applications and protecting their innovations. In 2015, nearly 3,000 patent applications were filed in Arizona, according to a UA news release. The complex legal process can cost up to $20,000. The UA is just one of four law schools in the country designated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a pro bono hub to serve inventors.” (Tuscon.com)

March 24, 2017 – “Gov. Cuomo on Friday announced the launch of The Liberty Defense Project, which will offer pro-bono legal services and other resources to immigrants regardless of their status. ‘During these stormy times, it’s critical all New Yorkers have access to their full rights under the law,’ Cuomo said. ‘The first-of-its-kind Liberty Defense Project will provide legal support to protect immigrants and ensure this state is living up to the values embodied by the Lady in our Harbor.’ The effort will be coordinated by the state’s Office for New Americans and team together 182 advocacy organizations, 14 law schools, 21 law firms and 14 bar associations.” (New York Daily News)

March 27, 2018 – “Ontario is providing more people with affordable access to legal services by increasing the financial eligibility threshold for legal aid by another six per cent. Effective April 1, 2017, about 140,000 more people will be eligible to receive the legal services they need, regardless of their ability to pay. This has been made possible by the province’s investments in Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) to increase access to legal aid services for low-income and vulnerable people province-wide. This is part of Ontario’s 2014 commitment to expand access to legal aid services provided by LAO to an additional one million Ontarians in ten years. With more than 500,000 additional people who will be eligible for legal aid, Ontario is now more than half-way to this goal. Improving access to justice is part of the government’s plan to keep communities safe and help people in their everyday lives.” (Ontario Newsroom)

March 28, 2017 – “In response to a lawsuit from the American Bar Association, the U.S. Department of Education appears to be arguing that it has never issued any approval to participate in its Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The ABA sued the DOE on Dec. 20, after the PSLF program began disqualifying ABA employees and other public interest lawyers who had previously been approved for participation in the program. But in its answer filed March 23, the DOE appears to argue that it did not change the terms of the PSLF program, because approvals issued by its loan servicer were tentative. Therefore, it says, there were never any approvals.” “Name plaintiff Geoffrey Burkhart, who at the relevant time worked for the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, alleged in the lawsuit that he’d received confirmation in 2014 that his ECF was accepted. Before taking the job, in fact, he confirmed eligibility with both the ABA and the loan servicer, FedLoan Servicing. FedLoan Servicing later sent him a letter accepting his ECF, which was attached to the lawsuit as an exhibit. But more than two years later, the complaint says, FedLoan Servicing sent Burkhart a letter saying the ABA ‘do[es] not provide a qualifying service,’ and therefore his participation in the PSLF program was revoked after ‘further research and after consulting with the department.’ That means Burkhart’s 2.5 years of loan payments will not count toward loan forgiveness, despite the initial assurances of FedLoan Servicing. The Department of Education’s answer denies that Burkhart’s ECF had ever been approved, or that its letter revoking his participation was a reversal.” The ABA is committed to holding DOE accountable on PSLF, and we will keep you posted as the case progresses. (ABA Journal)

March 28, 2017 – “Leaders of corporate legal departments—representing technology, pharmaceutical, media, entertainment, retail and manufacturing, among other industries— urged Congress in a letter on Tuesday to preserve the LSC at a funding level of $450 million, essentially the same amount it received in fiscal year 2010 adjusted for inflation. The LSC’s fiscal 2017 budget request was $502 million. Top in-house lawyers said the ‘minimal investment in LSC generates a significant positive return for business and the health of individuals and communities across the nation.’ And they said the agency creates a ‘level playing field’ for many lower- and moderate-income families who cannot afford a lawyer. The LSC’s national framework, they said, provides the basic structure for civil legal services and ‘supports the countless hours of pro bono representation provided by corporate legal departments and in-house attorneys.'” (Law.com)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:

Law students in action: Ten Vanderbilt Law students spent their spring break in Biloxi engaging in pro bono service work as a part of the Law Students for Social Justice organization. Three teams of students worked on education, expungement and other cases for low-income residents under the direction of staff attorneys at the Mississippi Justice Center. “All three groups made a real impact,” said Hannah Keith, the student organizer of the Pro Bono Spring Break program. “We made a dent in the attorneys’ workload.” (Tennessee Bar Association)

AND

It’s tax season, and many people are working with tax preparers.  But some preparers are giving away their services for free to elderly or low income clients.  They’re tax law students in the Pro Bono program at the University of South Carolina School of Law.  The Pro Bono program provides volunteer services to many causes year round: clerks for pro bono lawyers, research, wills and other areas of the law. Student Robbin Wilder says the program teaches her valuable skills working side-by-side with lawyers, and keeps her humble and grounded.  She and fellow student Reed Swearingen plan to keep doing pro bono work after they become lawyers, which program Director Pam Robinson says is part of the point – to help make a difference in people’s lives by giving back. Listen to the full story at the link. (South Carolina Public Radio)