By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Here in DC, presidential politics is all the buzz.  Earlier this week erstwhile Pennsylvania senator and sweater-vest supermodel Rick Santorum achieved impressive primary wins in Alabama and Mississippi.   Years ago a political guru famously quipped that Pennsylvania is Philly and Pittsburgh with a whole lot of Alabama in the middle.  Maybe this explains Mr. Santorum’s ability to connect with Southern voters.  Meanwhile Mitt Romney racks up delegates and the show goes on.

What else have we got?  Here’s an interesting piece of Pew research about how Millennials could be impacted by growing up “wired,” with near-instant access to all kinds of information.  I’m a Gen Xer, so while I’m vaguely inclined to write something about Millennials being impatient, I’m just too apathetic to get into it this morning.  I’d rather listen to some Liz Phair and be sullen.

Here is the week’s news:

• LSC has a new chief lobbyist;
• PBI says low bono ain’t pro bono;
• NYC’s plan for changes in indigent defense case assignment gets a court’s okay, but still controversial w/in the bar;
• An AmeriCorps VISTA writes about his work on Statesidelegal.org, an online resource for vets with legal needs;
• the Maine governor’s budget proposal includes a boost for legal services funding;
• Washington State’s high court will weigh in on indigent defense caseload woes;
• a new chief defender nominated in the Ocean State;
• the growing docket of the “Amvets” legal clinic run out of Chapman Law School;
• federal courts are busier, but also prepping for less funding;
• legal services layoffs in Kentucky;
• also on Cape Cod;
• where does one go for a pair of jeans, lingerie, and a foreclosure defense?;
• the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is staring at a $1.4million budget cut;
• show me a rise in pro se litigation;
• NY State sweetens the CLE pot for pro bono attorneys.

The summaries:

• 3.15.12 – from an LSC press release: “The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) announced today the appointment of Carol A. Bergman as Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs.  Beginning on March 19, Ms. Bergman will oversee LSC’s relationships with Congress, the Government Accountability Office and other government agencies.”  During her career Ms. Bergman has logged time on the Hill, in the White House, and in the nonprofit lobbying arena.  I suspect she will call upon all of that experience when the thorny business of FY13 budget wrangling gets underway.

• 3.15.12 – Pro Bono Institute prez Esther Lardent on why so-called “low bono” – or reduced-fee – legal services should not count as pro bono.  Lardent, while lauding the value of low bono as a way to deliver services to those who otherwise could not afford representation, writes: “Although [low bono services] are tools that help broaden access [to the justice system], they are primarily designed to broaden the market for legal services.”

• 3.15.12 – From Thomson Reuters: “New York City’s plan to shift tens of thousands of cases involving indigent defendants from private lawyers to the Legal Aid Society and other legal aid groups can go forward, a divided appeals court ruled Thursday. The disputed plan, which had been stayed pending the appeal, would only affect cases in which the initial legal aid group assigned to a case cannot provide representation due to a conflict. Five city bar associations had argued that the city’s proposal required their consent under the statute that governs the assignment of indigent defense cases, Article 18-B of the County Law. But in a 3-2 decision, the Appellate Division, First Department, said the plan was valid under 18-B and did not “improperly usurp the role of the County Bars.”

• 3.15.12 – writing in the Bangor Daily News, AmeriCorps VISTA member Peter MacArthur explains his work on a legal services project for vets: “I have worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Pine Tree Legal Assistance on its veteran and service member specific website www.statesidelegal.org since November…. With the vital help of many other individuals and organizations, Pine Tree Legal developed the Stateside Legal website as a clearinghouse of information on various legal needs, especially for low-income members of the military, veterans and their families. The website includes both original content on legal problems (such as foreclosure, divorce and service member Civil Relief Act issues) and links to quality legal content on other sites.”

• 3.14.12 – speaking of our country’s ruggedly beautiful northeastern corner, a budget proposal from Maine governor Paul LePage would boost state funding of legal services by $400K.  (Story from the Morning Sentinel.)

• 3.13.12 – in Washington State, the high court will weigh in on whether justice demands the imposition of public defender caseload limits.  Here’s the story from KEPR.

• 3.13.12 – Rhode Island looks to be getting a new chief public defender.  From the Providence Journal: “Governor Chafee on Wednesday named Mary S. McElroy as the state’s new public defender…. McElroy comes to the office from the federal public defender’s office…. McElroy will oversee an office of 93 staff, about 40 of whom are lawyers, that provides legal representation free of cost for Rhode Islanders who cannot afford a lawyer. McElroy’s appointment will need state senate approval.  If confirmed, the governor’s office said, McElroy would be the first woman to hold the position since it was established in 1941.”

• 3.13.12 – the growing docket of the “Amvets” legal clinic run out of Chapman Law School.  The clinic, which began helping vets with problems around housing, benefits, and other economic security needs, is now involved in a case about the employment termination of over 100 Air Force officers in what the clinic argues was a budget-cutting move that will strip the officers of their retirement benefits.  Here’s a press release with more information.  

• 3.13.12 – the federal courts are sorting out how to deal with increased caseloads in a time of budget austerity.  From the National Law Journal:  “The policy-making arm of the federal judiciary on March 13 discussed steps to reduce costs as workload increases and congressional budget cuts loom. The federal judiciary’s budget this year was funded at the same level as last fiscal year even as case filings increased, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said.”

• 3.12.12 – “Legal Aid of the Bluegrass has eliminated nine positions to make up for an unexpected cut in federal funding…. By year’s end, Kentucky’s four independent legal aid societies estimate they will have reduced their combined staffs by 40 positions, or 18.6 percent, since 2010…. Before the most recent cuts, Legal Aid of the Bluegrass was already turning away 7,062 people who requested help and were eligible in terms of income.”  (Story from Cincinnati.com.)

• 3.12.12 – “The same recession that caused many low-income and elderly persons to seek free legal help with their worsening problems is undermining the very agency that is supposed to be there to help them. South Coastal Counties Legal Services Inc., or SCCLS, which once had offices throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, has been forced to lay off 10 attorneys, secretaries and paralegals and close three offices, including the one in New Bedford, Executive Director Richard McMahon told The Standard-Times.”  (Here’s the full Standard-Times story.)

• 3.12.12 – much has been made of the paucity of affordable legal services for those of moderate means.  In response, and in the wake of an unprecedented foreclosure crisis, one Florida attorney provides low- and reduced-fee services from a booth in a shopping mall.  From Huffington Post: “In November, [Melva] Rozier founded a new type of law firm — or rather, a law store — inside the Boynton Beach Mall near West Palm Beach, Fla. The Law Booth counsels walk-in clients on divorce, foreclosure and other legal topics at discounted rates from a kiosk planted between American Eagle Outfitters and Victoria’s Secret shops.”

• 3.11.12 – the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland has fought hard in the recession’s wake to serve increasing numbers of clients, but the inevitable has caught up.  From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, which until now has weathered the economic downturn by tapping reserves, must cut $1.4 million from its budget in the coming year — at a time when poor clients are in greatest need of legal assistance.”
  • More recently this week a Plain Dealer editorial called on the local community to support the Legal Aid Society: “It falls upon the private sector to step up. Leaders in the local corporate community should consider giving preference to firms whose lawyers volunteer their time and effort to Legal Aid. Voters should contact their congressional representatives to demand restoration of funding for the Legal Services Corp…. The local United Way, which helps to support several Legal Aid programs, also ought to consider increasing its contribution.”

• 3.11.12 – a piece in the Missourian looks at the trend of increased pro se litigation – which has seen litigants initiating their own lawsuits in addition to representing themselves in defensive postures – and the legal industry’s response to it.  The piece highlights the challenges faced by pro se litigants and court systems as they adjust to litigation driven by non-attorneys.

• 3.9.12 – New York State is sweetening the CLE pot for lawyers who do pro bono work.  From the New York Law Journal: “Experienced lawyers now can earn more than 40 percent of the continuing legal education credits they must complete every two years by providing pro bono services to low-income New Yorkers. The four presiding justices of the Appellate Division departments recently voted to increase to 10 from six the credits for uncompensated work in family and other civil courts that lawyers with more than two years of experience can apply to their 24-hour CLE requirement.”

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Along with teaching us to embrace and cultivate a sense of searing guilt for the remainder of our earthly days, the nuns in my Catholic elementary school imparted to their pupils much common-sense wisdom.  One such bit of wisdom is “fall back, spring forward”, a phrase which reminds me what I’m supposed to do with my clocks twice a year.  So, a reminder to spring your clocks forward by one hour tomorrow night.

Speaking of our earthly days, this afternoon I’m joining my family at Arlington National Cemetery to bury a great aunt and uncle, the latter having been a retired Air Force pilot.  This will be a solemn, but not a sad, event.  Aunt Kay and Uncle Jim, who were married, died late last year after long, happy lives together.  Uncle Jim was one unique cat, and his life story offers an object lesson in cherishing every waking moment.  I knew him as an older man who sky-dived, scuba-dived, and bungee-jumped into his 70s.  My dad knew Uncle Jim as his mom’s gregarious younger brother who, on holiday leave from the military, would sweep into their house like a hurricane – showering gifts on the kids and ribbing my grandfather, a Philadelphia fireman whose German-American roots left him wanting quieter, more sedate family interaction.

Uncle Jim knew what sacrifice in life meant, and he endured hardships.  But I can truthfully write that only once did I see him without a smile on his face for any more than a few seconds.  That was at his wife’s funeral last October.  He died weeks later.  Throughout his life Uncle Jim seemed to know better than most that, come what may, our clocks spring forward faster than we may wish.  So we must seize every single moment as they try to pass us by.   

This week:

• Maryland’s public defender law getting a rewrite, but litigation about the right to counsel still likely to follow;
• Kentucky prosecutors and public defenders might need a stiff bourbon to deal with the next state budget;
• Badger student pro bono gets a boost;
• why mandatory pro bono ain’t the solution;
• in the U.K, proposed legal aid cuts run into a House-of-Lords buzz saw (a phrase that is fun to write and not often written, I’d wager); 
• chickens coming home to roost in battle between U. Md. legal clinic & state lawmaker;
• pardon this! A proposed law school clinic on executive pardon power;
• Presidential Management Fellows application snafu draws attention of lawmakers;
• show me more funding! LSC cuts will impact Legal Services of Eastern Missouri;
• juvenile justice developments in the Buckeye State. 

The summaries:

• 3.9.12 – “Lawmakers have reached a compromise to rewrite Maryland’s Public Defender Act to accommodate a Court of Appeals decision that found criminal defendants weren’t given proper access to attorneys.  The consensus amendments, if passed early next week, would not require judges to work weekends and would dramatically reduce the number of people arrested for crimes with shorter jail terms.  Lawmakers are looking at changing the law ahead of a mandate from the Court of Appeals that would require public defenders to be available within 24 hours after an individual is arrested.”  (Story from the Gazette.)

• 3.8.12 – in the “just because it could have been worse doesn’t mean it’s now good” department,” Kentucky’s next biennial budget isn’t likely to please local prosecutors or public defenders.  From Gannett: “The proposed state budget pending in the General Assembly has local prosecutors…concerned.  The House of Representatives in the Kentucky General Assembly passed a proposed budget…that would cut most state agencies by 8.4 percent… The Senate will take up the budget next week and will likely make some changes.  The House’s budget opted not to make the further cuts proposed by Gov. Steve Besher to prosecutors and public defenders but also won’t restore their funding cut out of this year’s budget. If this budget passes…it will mean a further backlog of cases and potential reduction in staff, prosecutors said.”

• 3.7.12 – the University of Wisconsin Law School will bolster pro bono programs through two grants from the state bar.  One grant will help launch a free, law-school staffed legal clinic for veterans.  The second will support the law school’s new Pro Bono Society, which will engage law students and alumni pro bono efforts.  Here’s more from the State Bar of Wisconsin.  

• 3.7.12 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent makes the “pragmatic and philosophical” case against mandatory pro bono as a solution to our country’s access-to-justice crisis.  Here is Lardent’s blog post on the Association of Corporate Counsel website.  

• 3.7.12 -House of Lords = Radical Progressive Revolutionaries(?)  Civil legal aid advocates in the U.S. are not the only ones facing waves of government funding cuts.  The present UK government is trying to push through measures that would considerably slash legal aid funds.  But the House of Lords, which hitherto I’d thought was a legislative body preoccupied mainly with things like croquet and ascots, is pushing back.  They are dealing blow after legislative blow to the government’s justice bill, as reported by the Independent. 

• 3.6.12 – a Maryland lawmaker opposed to the work of the U. of Md.’s law school environmental clinic has thrown down the funding gauntlet.  We’ve covered the particulars of this ongoing battle before (see my colleague Kristen’s great summary here, and more here).  This is the latest from the Nat’l. Law Journal: “State Sen. Richard Colburn has proposed a budget amendment that would pit the state’s two public law schools against each other, transferring $500,000 from the University of Maryland, which houses an environmental law clinic that has angered some Republican lawmakers, to the University of Baltimore School of Law, to start a law clinic that would represent farmers.   Colburn and state leaders including Gov. Martin O’Malley have spoken out against the environmental law clinic for representing plaintiffs in a pollution lawsuit against a local chicken farm that supplies Perdue Farms Inc. They contend that publicly funded law clinics should not file suits that hurt state businesses.”  It’s a fascinating story raising questions around academic free expression, use of state education funds, combating pollution, and the power of local business interests large and small.    

• 3.5.12 – Pardon this!  A novel idea for a law school clinic. From Pro Publica and the Wash. Post: “For years, lawyers, faith-based groups and students have helped file petitions for inmates seeking to cut short lengthy prison sentences. But there have been no comparable resources for felons who sought pardons after serving their time.  That may soon change. In response to stories published in December by ProPublica and The Washington Post, former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich (R) plans to launch the nation’s first law school clinic and training program devoted to pardons.  Ehrlich’s proposal takes aim at the inequities identified by ProPublica’s investigation into the dispensation of presidential pardons over the past decade.”  [The investigation showed disparities in pardons granted based on race and whether a petitioner had congressional support.]    

• 3.5.12 – a snafu with the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program application process has raised larger questions for Republican lawmakers.  From Government Executive: “The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked Office of Personnel Management officials to explain a recent [PMF] program mishap.  In a March 1 letter to OPM Director John Berry, Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Dennis Ross, R-Fla….sought more information related to a Jan. 23 incident when OPM mistakenly sent acceptance emails to 300 semifinalists who hadn’t qualified for the [PMF] program. About a quarter of the 1,186 semifinalists received the erroneous letters. Later that day the same applicants received another email informing them there was an error in the system.  In the letter, Issa and Ross expressed concern that the notification mistake was ‘indicative of larger IT failures at OPM,’ including the agency’s recent troubles with retirement processing and USAJobs.gov.”  A Washington Post commentator wonders if the PMF issue is a mole hill rather than a mountain. 

• 3.3.12 – the Missourian looks at the impact of recent Legal Services Corporation funding cuts on Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.  [Nitpick: the article misstates the latest LSC funding cut, by saying LSC’s appropriation was chopped from $350m to $210m.  In fact the appropriation now stands at just under $350m, having been cut last November from about $404m.] 

• 3.3.12 – juvenile justice developments in the Buckeye State.  From the Dispatch: “Juveniles in Ohio who are arrested for offenses that could land them in a detention center or youth prison can waive their right to legal representation without ever speaking to a lawyer.  That will change if a proposal by the Ohio Supreme Court goes into effect. The new rule would require juvenile defendants to meet with a lawyer before choosing not to use one.”

And since we’re closing with Ohio, I leave you with Mark Kozelek’s achingly beautiful Carry Me, Ohio.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  This week:

• Maryland legislation would counteract state high court ruling requiring counsel for defendants at bail hearings;
• AIG’s in-house department launches pro bono program;
• How funding constraints slow the wheels of justice in Washington State;
• the dire funding straits of Tarheel State legal services providers;
• pro bono in Arkansas?  There’s an app for that;
• promoting volunteerism by professionals in Corporate America;
• Massachusetts governor Patrick’s plan to revamp public defense program runs into roadblocks;
• SUNY Buffalo law clinic puts the focus on harmful consequences for pets in households with domestic violence;
• what law-firm pro bono can learn from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Here are the summaries:

• 3.1.12 – “the Maryland Senate and the House of Delegates on Thursday passed measures to repeal a Maryland law requiring poor defendants to have a public defender present when they appear before district court commissioners, who decide bail and whether a defendant is detained after arrest….  Lawmakers are working to address a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling earlier this year that defendants must have an attorney present during appearances before court commissioners. Compliance with the ruling could cost tens of millions of dollars, if the law isn’t changed.”  The measures also try to cut down on the number of suspects who would be detained by allowing law enforcement officers to issue citations in lieu of arrests for some minor crimes.  Still, the issue of the constitutionality of some defendants not having counsel at bail hearings will likely be litigated again.  (Story from the Washington Post.) 

• 2.29.12 – Multinational insurance company AIG, which has about 500 in-house attorneys, is launching a pro bono program.  AIG general counsel Thomas Russo spoke to Corporate Counsel: “ ‘You want to give people the opportunity to contribute to the community, and you want to be supportive of that in a lot of different ways,’ says AIG general counsel Thomas Russo. ‘We wanted to do it right, and that took time.’  With the wholehearted blessing of Russo—who used to defend, pro bono, New York City street musicians accused of violating city ordinances—AIG joins a growing pro-pro bono trend among corporate law departments. But establishing the program is also a big part of how Russo conceives of the company’s comeback, after receiving the largest government bailout in U.S. history during the 2008 financial crisis.”

• 2.29.12 – from the Seattle Times: “Guest columnists Richard McDermott, presiding judge of the King County Superior Court, and Barbara Madsen, chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court, voice concern that at a time of increasing legal needs for low-income residents, legal aid resources are facing cuts.”  McDermott and Madsen highlight both the financial woes confronting courts (even as more and more pro se litigants seek help navigating the system) and the legal services community.

• 2.28.12 – the Public News Service looks at the dire financial straits of North Carolina legal services providers: “In the last 10 years, there’s been a 60 percent increase in the number of people eligible for free legal aid…. Legal Services of the Southern Piedmont saw a 25 percent state funding cut, as well as a serious reduction in contributions from lawyers who are also struggling in this economy…. Another free legal nonprofit, Legal Aid of North Carolina, had to close four offices and lay off 30 lawyers after last year’s budget cuts. 

• 2.28.12 – pro bono in Arkansas?  There’s an app for that.  From the Arkansas Business Journal: A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law recently developed a mobile app for Arkansas pro bono attorneys.  According to a news release, Stewart Whaley graduated from the law school in 2008. He and his team created the free app, called iProBono, and released it on the iTunes app store…. The program lets licensed Arkansas attorneys view pro bono cases representing low-income Arkansans. Attorneys can sort the cases based on legal topic and county. Cases can be requested through the app.

• 2.27.12 – speaking of the pro bono, Senator Mark Warner (D – VA) writes on the value of volunteerism in Corporate America.  From the Huffington Post: In tough times, when reaching for the checkbook isn’t as easy as it once was for individuals or businesses, we need to find more creative ways to help. And for a growing number of American businesses, the answer is clear: many have agreed to partner with their employees to donate pro bono services, leveraging the extraordinary talents of their workforce to help support community needs.” 

• 2.26.12 – “The state agency that oversees legal representation for the poor is raising some serious doubts about Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s legislation to overhaul the state’s system of indigent defense.  Saying he wants to save costs in a tight budget, the governor submitted legislation last month to hire 240 additional full-time state lawyers at the agency in order to replace some of the work currently done under contract by 3,000 private lawyers for the poor across the state.” In a battle of dueling reports, the executive branch and the Committee for Public Counsel services differ on whether Gov. Patrick’s plan is s money-saver or not.  (Story from The Republican.)

• 2.26.12 – an interesting new legal clinic out of SUNY Buffalo.  From a news release: “Domestic violence victims often remain in abusive relationships to prevent their partner from harming or killing their pets. The University at Buffalo Law School Women, Children, and Social Justice Clinic’s new project, Animal Shelter Options for Domestic Violence Victims, is designed to remove this barrier to safety for individuals and their pets.  With funding from Verizon and collaboration from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), law school faculty and students are working to provide individuals seeking emergency shelter with resources to help protect their pets as well as raise awareness about barriers escaping domestic violence faced by victims who have animals.”  

• February, 2012 – Pro Bono Institute prez Esther Lardent on what the legal pro bono world can learn from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) structures. Lardent reviews several key CSR components which are transferable to legal pro bono, including professional development practices, accounting and reporting of activity, and the importance of aligning pro bono work with a company’s strengths and goals. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday Monday, dear readers. This is a special “72 Hours Late” bulletin edition.  The reason, of course, is that I spent the better part of last week preparing for the sublime glory of the Academy Awards.  I simply need to know whom Joan Rivers adores as Hollywood’s most glamorous promenade upon the red carpet.  This week we’ll return to the every-Friday schedule.  While we’re running with the movie theme, here’s a list of the all-time 10 best legal movie lines (from the people at Bloomberg Law).  And as for the public interest news:      

• A  proposal in the Buckeye State to move toward more state funding of the indigent defense program;
• Large-scale public defender layoff in NOLA forces legal luminaries into indigent defense roles;
• In Washington State, a class action alleging unconstitutionally overburdened indigent defense programs goes forward;
• Pay raises for Wisconsin prosecutors (and maybe public defenders) to support attorney retention;
• Yale Law School clinic files a federal suit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers;
• the boom in pro bono work by corporate counsel offices;
• plumbing the depths of Florida’s legal services funding crisis;
• continuing a national trend, a new veterans diversionary court in PA;
• to address swelling demand for legal services, stakeholders in Tennessee are serving clients by answering legal questions online;
• a Baltimore legal services provider partners with a social work school to provide more holistic services to clients.    

The summaries:

• 2.26.12 – a move to change the Buckeye State’s indigent-defense funding system.  From the Columbus Dispatch: “The County Commissioners’ Association of Ohio again has on its legislative agenda the issue of transferring the responsibility of providing indigent defendants with legal representation from the counties to the state…. Currently, counties set up their own ways of providing lawyers for indigent defendants, and they allocate money. The state then reimburses all counties at the same rate, which last year was about 35 percent. That’s down from the 50 percent the state promised when the system was set up in the early 1970s.

• 2.24.12 – a not-so-subtle message from the bench? It’s all hands on deck in the NOLA legal community as one judge calls upon high-profile lawyers for public defense work.  From the Times-Picayune: “Politicians, local media leaders and on-air pundits filed into a New Orleans criminal courtroom on Friday, under orders from a judge to take on the cases of poor defendants left without lawyers. Criminal District Judge Arthur Hunter, in a splashy move aimed at drawing attention to a wave of layoffs at the Orleans Parish public defender’s office, handpicked some of the city’s best-known lawyers to represent 32 defendants abandoned by the cuts.”  Those called into service included the state bar association president and the Times-Picayune’s publisher.

• 2.23.12 – from the AP: “A federal judge in Seattle says a lawsuit challenging the public defense systems in the cities of Mount Vernon and Burlington can proceed. Judge Robert Lasnik also granted the case class-action status Thursday.  The American Civil Liberties Union alleges that two part-time attorneys contracted by the cities fielded more than 2,100 cases in 2010. That’s although Washington state Bar Association guidelines specify full-time public defenders shouldn’t surpass 400 cases a year. The lawsuit alleges the cities fail to provide adequate resources to the public defender system.”

• 2.22.12 – from the State Bar of Wisconsin: “A bipartisan bill intended to retain experienced prosecutors by improving their compensation…advance[s] in the Legislature….  The legislation, 2011 Senate Bill 394 and Assembly Bill 488, establishes a pay progression program for assistant district attorneys (ADAs), but does not fund it in the current biennium, leaving that issue for a future Legislature to address in the next state budget….  On Feb. 15, legislators introduced a bill to create a similar pay progression system for assistant state public defenders.”  The public defender bill is not out of committee yet.

• 2.22.12 – “An immigration law clinic at Yale Law School has filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging the use of detainers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and asked Wednesday that the suit be expedited now that ICE is rolling out Secure Communities in Connecticut statewide.”  (Story from the New Haven Register.)

• 2.21.12 – the Pro Bono Institute has gotten a lot of traction in American Lawyer Media publications of late.  Most recently, Corporate Counsel looks at the increase in pro bono work performed by, well, corporate counsel, with a focus on PBI’s work in the arena.

• 2.20.12 – a Miami Herald editorial plumbs the depths of the Sunshine State’s legal services funding crisis.  The state government does not fund legal services, so programs have long been dependent on IOLTA funds.  With the real estate market collapsed and interest rates at historic lows, IOLTA funding has been gutted by 80%.  This will lead to lawyer layoffs – “…some 120 of Florida’s 410 Legal Aid attorneys are expected to lose their jobs…” – and fewer clients served unless action is taken now to shore up funding.

• 2.17.12 – continuing a national trend, a suburban Philadelphia county is creating a veterans court to adjudicate some cases involving vets who run afoul of the law.  “Congressman Pat Meehan (R-7) hosted a roundtable discussion to iron out the details of Delaware County’s Veterans Justice Initiative. With representatives from the Veterans Administration…it was announced that a Veterans Treatment Court was ready to go in Delco…. The goal [is] the creation of a diversionary court track for non-violent offenders who served in the military.”  (Story from the Delco News Network.)

• 2.16.12 – “More than 100 low-income Tennesseans are receiving free legal assistance every month through the OnlineTNJustice.org website, but backers of the project want to serve more….  The initiative is a joint project of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the Tennessee Bar Association. The site allows clients to request advice about specific civil legal issues from volunteer lawyers and get their questions answered online.” (Story from the Tennessean.)

• 2.16.12 – a legal services office pairs with a graduate social work school to provide more holistic services to clients.  From the Public News Service: “The downtown Baltimore [Maryland Legal Aid Bureau] office has been trying something new: teaming up with social workers through the University of Maryland School of Social Work….  Legal Aid offices around the state want to replicate the Baltimore program, but it does require resources, and regular Legal Aid funding cannot be used for the social workers.”

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Below you will see a lot of news, from Florida, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere about crippling cuts in legal services funding. It can be easy, when reading reports that focus on dry items like IOLTA yields and budget lines, to forget that those dollar figures have real impacts on real people: low income individuals and families who are struggling to get by, to say nothing of legal services staffers who have lost their jobs in budget cuts.  

A story summarized below tells of Legal Services of Greater Miami’s work on behalf of a veteran of operations in Afghanistan whose wartime injuries have left him with physical, mental and psychological after-effects.  After a year of advocacy, LSGM secured $1000 in monthly benefits for their client, who is married with children.  Reading of this impacted me powerfully.  I often jog by the Dep’t. of Veterans Affairs headquarters.  Engraved in stone on the building are these words from Abraham Lincoln, spoken during his second inaugural address in the midst of the Civil War: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”

To me, this quote speaks to our shared obligation to provide support for those who sacrifice in service.  Sometimes it falls to legal services lawyers to ensure that that obligation is fulfilled.  So when I think of legal services funding cuts, I think of fewer veterans who access benefits.  I also think of fewer domestic violence victims who achieve legal protection from abusers, and fewer children who receive medical care.  There are tolls exacted on real human beings when figures on spreadsheets shrink. 

This week:

• Maryland’s high court considers the financial burden of ensuring that indigent defendants have counsel at bail hearings;
• New Mexico voters to decide if public defense program should become independent agency;
• an ACLU suit over allegedly over-burdened public defenders in Washington State;
• the Legal Aid Society of Orange County spins off a for-profit entity to help pro se litigants;
• the White House FY2013 budget proposal includes a $402 million LSC appropriation;
• the PA governor’s budget proposal would significantly cut legal services funding;
• to close or not to close the San Joachin County, CA public defender’s office;
• how last November’s LSC cuts are impacting programs in the DC metro area;
• funding woes for Alabama prosecutors’ offices and courthouses;
• federal employee retirements jumped by 24% in 2011;
• speaking of Uncle Sam, a Presidential Management Fellowship application snafu dashes the hopes of 300 candidates;
• Yale Law School cuts back on LRAP program;
• the impact of legal services funding cuts in Florida;
• ditto, West Virginia;
• ditto, Connecticut;
• ditto, Detroit;
• but closing with good news(!), $2 million to the Arkansas Access to Justice Foundation.  

Here are the summaries:

• 2.17.12 – Maryland’s highest court decided Thursday to wait for more information before issuing a mandate that would require lawyers to be available to a defendant within 24 hours of arrest, when it is decided whether he or she will be detained or released.  [T]he Court of Appeals decided to consider responses, due March 5, to motions filed by the Baltimore City District Court Commissioners and state Public Defender Paul B. DeWolfe Jr. before issuing a mandate to enforce its Jan. 4 decision.  DeWolfe, whose office would need an estimated $28 million more annually to make public defenders available at initial bail and bail review hearings, told the court in asking again for a stay of at least 180 days that his office does not have and is unlikely to quickly obtain the resources to comply.”  (Story from The Gazette.)

• 2.16.12 – the question of whether to separate the state’s public defense program from the executive branch so that it operates as an independent agency will be on the November ballot in New Mexico.  (Story from the Daily Times.)

• 2.15.12 – the ACLU is litigating over alleged over-burdened defenders in Washington State.  From the Seattle Times: “Attorneys for the cities of Mount Vernon and Burlington are sparring with the American Civil Liberties Union over allegations that the Skagit County cities knew their public defenders were overburdened with cases. In a federal lawsuit, the ACLU says the two part-time attorneys contracted by the cities fielded more than 2,100 cases in 2010, even though Washington state Bar Association guidelines say full-time public defenders shouldn’t surpass 400 cases a year.” 

• 2.14.12 – there has been much talk in the Great recession’s wake about the rise in pro se clients and the potential value of unbundling legal services delivery.  This SoCal development is interesting: the Legal Aid Society of Orange County is spinning off a for-profit entity, Legal Genie Inc., a “web-based program which combines the power of self-help technology with access to unbundled legal services, enabling self-represented litigants to complete and e-file legal pleadings.” Here’s a press release.

• 2.13.12 – the White House’s FY2013 budget proposal includes a request for $402 million in LSC funding.  This would be an increase over the current $348 million funding level.  For its part, LSC is asking Congress for a higher sum than the White House is: $470 million.  But LSC has also expressed its understanding concerning the White House’s lower proposal, according to the Blog of the Legal Times.  

• 2.13.12 – “Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget would keep general-fund money allotted to the judiciary the same as last year, but funding for civil legal services for the poor would be cut by $274,000….  Mr. Corbett has proposed that legal service s funded in a budget line within the state Department of Public Welfare be funded at $2.5 million, down from $2.74 million last year and down from $3 million two budget cycles ago.”  Story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• 2.13.12 –  in northern California, San Joaquin County is debating the financial efficiencies of a proposal to close the public defense office.  Here’s the story from the Record. 

• 2.12.12 – the Washington Post reports on how last November’s LSC cuts are impacting grantee programs in DC, MD, and VA.

• 2.12.12 – funding woes are plaguing Alabama courthouses and prosecutors’ offices, and there are more clouds on the horizon.  From the Ledger-Enquirer:  “District attorneys and court officials who rely on state funding are reeling from recent budget cuts that have strained Alabama’s judicial system. The squeeze is being felt in East Alabama counties and elsewhere, prompting circuit clerks to shrink their staffs and scale back hours of operation despite mounting caseloads.” As for Gov. Bentley’s new budget proposal, “District attorneys would [experience] 20 percent cuts. And while the courts requested increased funding next fiscal year, the governor’s plan would slash the total judicial system’s General Fund appropriation by some 26 percent, mitigated mildly by about a 9 percent increase in earmarked funds.”

• 2.10.12 – no attorney-specific numbers, but Government Executive reports that, “[f]ederal retirements increased 24 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to new statistics from the Office of Personnel Management…. The appeal of buyouts and early outs to agencies grew after the failure of the joint select committee on deficit reduction to agree on a plan to reduce spending by $1.2 trillion triggered across-the-board automatic spending cuts. Those cuts are slated to take effect in January 2013 unless Congress repeals sequestration. While there are no official figures available yet on how many employees accepted such incentives in 2011, tens of thousands were offered, and agencies en masse are likely to offer another round of buyouts heading into fiscal 2013.

• 2.10.12 – a glitch in the Presidential Management Fellowship program application process gave false hope to candidates before crushing said hope.  From Government Executive: “A prestigious postgraduate fellowship program run by the Office of Personnel Management has acknowledged it sent acceptance letters to about 300 applicants by mistake in January. The [PMF] program had 9,077 applicants, nominated for the program by their graduate schools, for 2012. Of those, 628 were ultimately chosen as fellows and 1,186 were semifinalists. All semifinalists were invited to conduct in-person interviews.  Approximately 25 percent of the semifinalists received erroneous acceptance letters, according to Fox News.”  Boy, it’s just never good to be one of The 300. 

• 2.10.12 – “Faced with increased enrollment and rising loan costs, the Yale Law School is scaling back its loan forgiveness program. The Career Options Assistance Program, which partially subsidizes tuition loan payments for Law School graduates should they enter relatively low-salary careers, will require a larger student contribution from members of…incoming…classes…. Under the previous policy, law school alumni who earn less than $60,000 [annually]…are eligible to have their loans payments fully subsidized by COAP, while those earning more than $60,000 are expected to contribute a quarter of their income above that baseline. The new policy sets the baseline salary lower, at $50,000, and expects participants to contribute varying percentages of their income toward loan payments, based on a sliding scale…”  (Story from the Yale Daily News.) 

• 2.10.12 – the Miami Herald reports on how legal services providers in Florida have struggled with federal and state funding cuts.  Florida’s IOLTA program was flush with cash and the envy of other states until the recession. IOLTA funds have taken an 88% hit since 2008.  The Herald article touches upon the work that legal services providers do to support veterans and their families.  To me, this powerfully humanizes what it means when we talk in much drier terms of “IOLTA” and budget appropriation lines. 

• 2.10.12 – legal services layoffs in West Virginia.  From the Charleston Gazette: “West Virginia Legal Aid executives announced Friday afternoon that they have laid off 15 case handlers and closed their Logan County office in response to federal budget cuts that promise to saddle the program with a $1.2 million deficit by 2013.”

• 2.10.12 – NBC Connecticut looks at the funding woes plaguing Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, which is the Nutmeg State’s sole LSC grantee.

• 2.10.12 – the impact of legal services funding cuts in the Detroit area, as reported by the Daily Tribune.

• 2.10.12 –  two million dollars from the recent blockbuster mortgage/banking industry settlement will go to the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission.  The Sun-Times has the story: “The Arkansas Attorney General’s office announced the news on Thursday, and funds distributed to the Commission will be used to provide access to civil justice for Arkansans affected by the mortgage crisis

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  I’m traveling home to Philadelphia, where I will eat soft pretzels, catch hometown band Marah, and see photographer Zoe Strauss’s Phila. Art Museum exhibit.  Before the public interest news summary, here are some other news items that have captured my attention of late:

• Here’s a Wash. Post piece on managing Millennial Generation (a/k/a “Gen. Y”) employees that cuts through the criticisms that some Boomers and Xers lob at their younger colleagues – “they’re entitled; they’re know-it-alls” – and provides concrete tips for boosting Millennials’ happiness – and their productivity – in the workplace.  Now that that’s solved, how do we stop Millennials from dressing like it’s the 1980s?  No one needs that again.
• Despite the relatively positive jobs numbers reported last week, the government sector is faring poorly.  From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:  “Over the past 12 months, the [government] sector has lost 276,000 jobs, with declines in local government; state government, excluding education…”  This doesn’t speak directly to lawyer jobs, and based on data from NALP’s recent public interest employment market report I don’t think lawyers bore the brunt of gov’t. job cuts.  But the lawyer-employment picture isn’t rosy.  For instance, over half of local gov’t. law offices (excluding prosecutors and defenders) which responded to our Fall, 2011 survey were in a hiring freeze.
• This Wash. Post piece on a mini-trend of Chinese language immersion programs in U.S. elementary schools makes me wish I’d reconsidered immersing myself in 4 years of high school Latin.   

Okay, this week’s public interest news:

• indigent defense reform in Massachusetts plods along;
• needed: indigent defense reform, plodding or otherwise, in NOLA;
• Maryland legal services providers facing bad funding news;
• 5 myths about pro bono;
• DOJ to put ~$2.4 million in grant funding toward improving indigent defense;
• a $200K gift for a Philly legal services provider;
• but an inland California provider is going month-to-month with expenses;
• in Wisconsin, low prosecutor pay = high prosecutor turnover;
• the 25-year evolution of clinical legal education is the focus of a new law review volume;
• survey results shed light on what kinds of pro bono cases law firm lawyers are taking. 

The summaries:

• 2.8.12 – indigent defense reform in Massachusetts plods along…kind of.  For the second straight year, Gov. Deval Patrick has called for public defenders to [represent more] indigent clients, but members of the board overseeing the state’s public defense system are pushing back, suggesting the plan may be too much, too soon.  The governor’s budget proposes to hire 281 new public defenders to handle 50 percent of the case work for indigent criminal and civil defendants. If adopted, the state would shift further shift away from a reliance on private bar advocates and Patrick believes the state will save nearly $10 million in fiscal 2013.”  The board is concerned that Patrick is pushing change too quickly.

• 2.7.12 – in New Orleans trial judges are figuring out what to do following the public defender’s announcement about layoffs which include senior lawyers with large caseloads. (Report from WDSU TV.) A few days back a Times-Picayune editorial put the NOLA PD’s financial straits into context: “Eight out of every 10 criminal defendants in New Orleans are poor enough to need a publicly paid defense attorney. That makes the severe budget cuts in the Orleans Parish public defenders’ office a crisis that threatens the progress in prosecuting crimes…. [The defender’s office] announced this week that a budget shortfall had forced [the] lay off [of] 27 employees, including 21 attorneys.”  That’s one third of the office’s attorneys. 

• 2.6.12 – bad news for civil legal service funding in Maryland.  The Baltimore Sun reports: “A major funder of legal services for the poor will shave its grants by at least 5 percent across Maryland — even after dipping into its reserves.  The 34 agencies that receive money from the Maryland Legal Services Corp. have been told to submit requests for grants next month that are 5 percent below current amounts because it is facing a ‘significant’ funding shortfall…. The…two main funding sources — the surcharge on court filing fees for civil cases and [IOLTA proceeds] — have been hit by the economy.

• 2.6.12 – writing in the National Law Journal, Pro Bono Institute prez Esther Lardent identifies and debunks “Five Myths about Pro Bono.”  The myths:
  •  Law firms only want “sexy” pro bono matters;
  • Pro bono at large firms is dropping precipitously;
  • In-house pro bono is a passing fad;
  • Pro bono can supplant legal aid;
  • It’s all about the hours.

• 2.6.12 – from the ABA Journal: “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced two new [DOJ] programs aimed at helping to bolster indigent defense services at the state and local levels….  [T]he National Institute of Justice…will begin…soliciting applications within the next few weeks for grants to support research on fundamental issues of access to legal services…at the state and local levels. He said the institute will commit up to $1 million to support these grants.  Holder also said that, later this spring, the…Bureau of Justice Assistance will solicit applications from state and local jurisdictions for grants that would support on-the-ground efforts to help assure that defendants have access to counsel at the earliest stages of criminal proceedings; provide support for members of the private bar in representing indigent defendants; reduce caseloads; and support oversight of public defender and assigned counsel systems. Up to $1.4 million will be dedicated to this grant program.”  Here’s some Nat’l. Law Journal coverage of AG Holder’s remarks on the importance of a solid indigent defense system, made at the ABA’s midyear conference.

• 2.6.12 – good – nay, great – funding news, for a change.  The Phila. Business Journal reports that Community Legal Services received a $200K gift from Philly law firm Raynes McCarty.  Congrats, CLS!

• 2.5.12 – a story about the work of the Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino included a troubling passage about LASSB’s funding: “[A recent grant ensured that LASSB] could make payroll one more week and have a little money left over….  The organization, with an estimated $2 million annual budget, almost constantly searches for money to pay 13 employees, operate its office and provide services throughout the county….  ‘We are living right now from paycheck to paycheck,’ [executive director Roberta] Shouse said. ‘My bookkeeper tells me that we do not have enough money to go until Dec. 31.’  Since 2007, Legal Aid’s number of clients has increased from 4,485 to 5,071. Meanwhile, the organization lost nearly $139,000 from 2010 to 2011. It expects to lose about $110,000 in funding this year.  (Story from the Press-Enterprise.) 

• 2.4.12 – here’s a detailed report on the serious problem of low prosecutor pay and high prosecutor attrition – cause, meet effect – in Wisconsin.  One departing prosecutor, leaving after 5 years, referred to her “dead-end job.”  The low pay has led to a staffing reality that a lot of public interest organizations see: “There are newbies, potential retirees and not much in between in prosecutors’ offices.  Forty-two percent of assistant [DAs] have been in the field for fewer than five years and a third have more than 17 years of experience…”  Legislative proposals allowing for raised pay levels are in the works, but in the current fiscal climate few are counting on quick solutions.  (Article from the Appleton Post-Crescent.)    

• February, 2012 – the current edition of the New York Law School Law Review focuses on the evolution of clinical legal education over the past 25 years – 13 articles by my count.

• February, 2012 – some survey reporting from the folks at Pro Bono.net sheds light on what types of cases pro bono advocates are taking: “Family law and immigration were among the most popular areas for pro bono work in 2011, according to the 229 Probono.net members who took a recent survey on “Your Year in Pro Bono.” The survey, conducted during December 2011, looked at which areas of legal need were of interest, and why. Family law emerged as a top priority, with more than 27% of those responding having handled a family law matter as their last pro bono case. Following was immigration, at 15%. Other areas of interest included asylum, housing and military and veteran’s affairs. The survey showed a strong commitment to pro bono, with 52% of respondents having taken on their last case in the last three months, and 69% within the last six months. Awareness of the growing justice gap seems to be driving this activity.”

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers. We should take our wisdom where, and as, we find it.  This thought has reoccurred to me several times this week.  The reason: an astoundingly well-timed bit of wisdom emerged from unexpected quarters a few days ago.  It reminded me that when I am actively seeking wisdom, I tend to pursue the high-minded – hunting among the works of philosophers and poets for the perfect collection of words, constructed in perfect syntax.  But I wonder how much wisdom I miss in the everyday course – messages that evade me because I’m not listening, or too casually dismiss the messenger.

I should be more careful about judging messengers.  After all, I frequently must convince friends – and they tend to be highly sophisticated female friends in this particular case – of Yoda’s sublime brilliance.  (Yes, that’s a “d” and not a “g”.)  “His words are recitations of timeless wisdom,” is typically what I lead with.  Their counterpunch always goes, “How adolescent are you to invest anything at all in bumper-sticker distillations of Eastern philosophy as rendered through a muppet?  A muppet!!”  Well, stand by Yoda I do.

So I’ll remember the Yoda example, and I’ll remember what happened to me earlier this week.  The high-minded are not the only keepers of wisdom.  So whether from Epictetus (“Wealth consists not of having many possessions, but of having few wants”), or Anjelou (“Life loves the liver of it”), or Yoda (“Always in motion the future is”), or Yogi (“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours”), I will take my wisdom where, and as, a I find it.

***      

Oh, and as for the news: this week we’ve got several items about funding woes plaguing indigent defense programs.  Note too that NALP released our public interest employment market snapshot report, based on findings from a Fall 2011 survey of employers’ expectations about hiring law students and attorneys.  Here’s the rundown:

• new ruling requiring public defenders at bail hearings has Maryland PD’s office looking for $;
• layoffs at the NOLA defender’s office;
• keeping with a theme, the Delaware indigent defense program needs $ to pay appointed counsel;
• foreclosure prevention program in NY State may not be re-funded;
• just released: NALP’s public service employment market snapshot report (a fair amount of bad news, but also advice from employers about what they look for in job candidates); 
• Univ. of Detroit-Mercy Law clinical offices have new digs, and I really hope they kept the pole intact;
• Texas showdown over creating pro se forms for low-income people;
• continued uncertainty over indigent defense funding in the Bay State;
• scarce indigent defense resources again…this time…Nebraska;
• DC-based civil rights lawyers find work in nonprofits, government, and for-profit practices;
• disturbing numbers on veterans and homelessness;
• the impact of LSC cuts on Legal Services of South Central Michigan;
• ditto, this time Mid-Missouri Legal Services Corporation;
• Depressed yet by all this funding news?  Try this to lift your spirits;
• Mandatory pro bono in Minnesota?
• new graduate bridge program at Pace Law School.

Here are the summaries:

• 2.2.12 – downside: not enough public defenders in Maryland.  Upside: maybe they’ll hire more public defenders in Maryland.  From the Baltimore Sun: “The state would have to hire 284 new public defenders to comply with a recent Court of Appeals ruling requiring lawyers for indigent defendants at thousands of annual bail hearings, according to an affidavit filed Thursday by Maryland Public Defender Paul DeWolfe. ‘I have determined that the Office is unable to comply with the court’s mandate at this time in light of its current resource constraints,’ DeWolfe wrote in the eight-page, sworn document, filed in the state’s highest court. It accompanied a motion asking that the new requirement, outlined in a Jan. 4 opinion, be stayed for at least six months, until Aug. 1.  The Maryland Court of Appeals refused an earlier request to suspend the order, however, noting that judges ‘cannot declare that [defendants] have a statutory right to counsel at bail hearings and, in the same breath, permit delay in the implementation of that important right’.”

• 2.2.11 – bad news out of NOLA.  From the Times-Picayune: “Pleading poverty, the Orleans Parish public defender’s office has laid off about 10 percent of its staff of lawyers along with other employees in the latest move to trim a shortfall in the office’s $9.5 million budget The layoffs, accompanied by salary cuts for managers and supervisors, follow an earlier decision by Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton to cut off payments to private attorneys who work death penalty cases and conflict cases where the public defender’s office can’t represent a client, often because it already represents a co-defendant.

• 2.2.12 – cash needed from the Delaware legislature to pay appointed counsel.  From The News Journal: “The state’s public defender warned lawmakers Wednesday of an impending shortfall of funds to pay for private lawyers who represent defendants in cases where the public defender’s office has a legal conflict of interest.  At a hearing on his division’s budget request before the Joint Finance Committee, Public Defender Brendan O’Neill said the Office of Conflict Counsel will almost certainly require between $450,000 and $650,000 in additional funding this fiscal year, on top of the $3 million budgeted.” 
  • Historical Fun Fact: the word “Delaware,” which is the name of a state, river and bay, is mistakenly thought to be of Native American origin.  “Delaware” actually refers to this English aristocrat.  In addition to the state/river/bay, early European settlers even decided to (re)name the Lenape Indians as “Delaware Indians.”  How thoughtful. 

• 2.1.12 – New York State may discontinue funding a foreclosure prevention program that provides housing counseling and legal services to help homeowners in need.  From a Gannett story: “Non-profit groups that provide counseling and legal services to homeowners at risk of foreclosure and some lawmakers are urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to include $25 million in the state budget to continue the state Foreclosure Prevention Services Program…. Cuomo did not include money for the program in his proposed budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year, which begins April 1. Without funding, the Foreclosure Prevention Services Program will shut down, lawmakers and the non-profit organizations said.” 

• 2.1.12 – NALP (hey, that’s us!) releases 2011-12 Public Service Legal Employment Snapshot report.  The report offers data-driven insight into the law student and attorney hiring climate in the public service arena. In September, 2011 NALP surveyed government and nonprofit law offices to gather data on summer 2012 law-student hiring expectations; attorney hiring forecasts in 2012; and information on recent and anticipated layoffs. NALP also gathered employers’ insights on how job candidates can stand out in a tight market and on practice areas that may grow in the near future. The Snapshot Report is available here.

• 2.1.12 – the law school clinics at the University of Detroit Mercy will have a cool new home.  From Crain’s Detroit Business: The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law will repurpose the historic Engine No. 2 firehouse downtown to accommodate the school’s 10 legal aid-clinics…. In the UDM clinics, law students and faculty provide about 1,500 Detroiters annually with immigration, foreclosure and veterans affairs legal assistance. ‘Our new facility is going to be much more accessible – right out there, visible to the entire Detroit community,’ Dean Lloyd Semple said. “We expect this will increase the demand for our services’.”

• 2.1.12 – a couple of weeks ago we noted a skirmish between the Texas Supreme Court and the state bar over the creation of pro se forms for use in family court.  Here’s the latest from the Courthouse News Service: “The Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by the Texas State Bar to stop work on uniform divorce forms for use by pro se litigants.”  The forms are intended to help low-income Texans who couldn’t get help from legal aid because of resources shortages.  But as noted in a Texas Lawyer article some private-bar family law lawyers had concerns along these lines: “[They] oppose the forms and claim their use: could hurt the interests of people who use them to file for divorce; will not be limited to low-income Texans; could harm the livelihoods of solos and small-firm family lawyers; and may expand into other practice areas besides family law.”

• 2.1.12 – Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reports on continued tension and funding uncertainty surrounding the Bay State’s indigent defense system, which employs both public defenders and appointed private counsel.  It’s noteworthy that Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing to raise the percentage of cases handled by public defenders, which would likely require hiring a large number of new attorneys.  But to some degree this is tied up on legislative wrangling as well. 

• 1.31.12 – another story driven by scarce indigent defense resources, but in this instance we’re also dealing with the “longtime rivalry between Omaha and Lincoln.”  These two quaint Nebraskan cities as the Jets and Sharks.  Who knew?  From the Omaha World-Herald: “A major spat is brewing at the State Capitol over how best to provide lawyers for indigent people charged with felony crimes.  On one side is the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy.  It is a state-financed shop of six defense attorneys charged with taking on felony cases for counties that don’t have their own public defenders or face conflicts of interest in using their own county-paid defenders.  On the other side is Douglas County, which argues that the commission was set up to help cash-strapped rural counties without attorneys and that it isn’t necessary in populous Omaha, which has plenty of private attorneys willing to work as contracted defense attorneys.”

• 1.29.12 – a short Washington Post article profiles the work of civil rights attorneys in the District, noting that a good number practice in boutique law firms rather than in government or nonprofit law offices. 

• 1.27.12 – Some disturbing numbers on veteran homelessness, which illustrate why it will continue to be critical for the legal services community to engage veterans as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs (sometimes adversarially). From Government Executive online: “Veterans are significantly more likely to be homeless than civilian adults, and these homeless vets are getting steadily older and sicker, researchers reported on Friday.  The new study predicts that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ health care system could be deluged with at least some of these sick and homeless vets…. ‘Male veterans were almost 50 percent as likely and female veterans were almost twice as likely to be homeless as nonveterans in the general population,’ [Prof. Jamison] Fargo’s team wrote in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘Among the population in poverty, male veterans were more than twice as likely and female veterans were more than three times as likely to be homeless as nonveterans’.”

• 1.27.12 – last November’s Legal Services Corporation funding slash will impact Legal Services of South Central Michigan to the tune of about 8% of their budget, From the Battle Creek Enquirer: “Last year the agency, which employs 55 lawyers and has a budget of $5.9 million, represented 27,619 people in 11,000 cases involving domestic violence, landlord-tenant disputes and obtaining access to health care and government programs.  But a 15 percent cut from the federal government and a decrease in money from the state will trim the Legal Services budget by $440,000.”  Legal Services’ Battle Creek office will likely run a budget deficit in 2012 and is trying to avoid staff cuts.

• 1.27.12 – the Columbia Missourian picks up on the Legal Services Corporation’s announcement last week about budget and staff cuts at programs throughout the country, and hones in on the Show Me State: “Mid-Missouri Legal Services Corporation…faced a $135,000 deficit in November when it prepared its budget for 2012. The 14-member staff reduced a full-time attorney to half-time and laid off a half-time attorney”.  Despite this and an almost 50% cut in IOLTA proceeds, caseloads at Mid-Missouri have risen 60% since 2008.

• 1.27.12 – Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center here in DC, pens a touching piece about why legal services lawyers never give up.  Sandalow, writing in the Huffington Post, recounts the work of a CLC attorney who, after being appointed as the guardian at litem of a girl who was abandoned at birth and again later by an adoptive parent, refused to give up on the girl even after she gave up on herself.  Today, “Charline,” once a homeless dropout, is a high school graduate and moving forward with her life.  She is “one less statistic and one more success story,” thanks in large part to her tireless GaL. 

• 1.XX.12 – “Mandatory pro bono gets another look” is the title of this Minnesota Lawyer article which begins thusly: “Dwindling financial aid for free legal services has prompted a return to the argument that time, rather than money, is the best solution…”  The article’s password protected and I don’t have access, but FYI.

• November, 2011 – our friends at Pace Law School called our attention to their launch of a “school-supported law firm geared toward guiding students in their first years of practice.”  From the New York Law Journal: “The Pace Community Law Practice is set to open in September 2012…and will employ between five and seven recent Pace graduates. The new lawyers will offer low-cost legal assistance in areas including immigration, family and housing law while attending seminars on obtaining and billing clients, malpractice insurance and setting up a law office.  Jennifer Friedman, director of the Public Interest Law Center at Pace, who has been spearheading the project, called the initiative a “legal residency program,” similar to a medical residency, “providing intensive supervision and support” for the new attorneys.  Ms. Friedman said the economy, and the poor market for legal services jobs, played a role in the decision to start the project.”

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  I often begin bulletins with my attempts at humor because the content that follows can be disheartening to public interest advocates and other access-to-justice stakeholders (to say nothing of those who visit our blog while on the public-interest job hunt).  The lightheartedness is meant as a sort of preemptive counterbalance.  However, it’s tough to lead with humor today because the bulletin’s first (and biggest) story is of survey results about staff losses in civil legal aid.  So we’ll dispense with a whimsical anecdote – which, today, would have centered on my recent introduction to yoga and why yoga is an enhanced interrogation technique – and get right into the news.  (For those law students among the readership, I close this week’s bulletin with some thoughts about keeping your chins up and navigating a poor employment market.)      

This week:

• LSC-funded programs forecast continuing layoffs in 2012;
• making the business case for legal services can get the state legislature’s attention;
• IOLTA shortfall’s impact in the Evergreen State;
• Legal Aid of Arkansas’s fiscal woes;
• the New Orleans public defender’s office is running on financial fumes;
• Vivit lingua Latina.  Lexis Nexis and Lex Mundi forge a pro bono partnership;
• the Hispanic National Bar Association launches a pro bono program serving vets;
• harnessing technology to enhance pro bono in Virginia.

Here are the summaries:

• 1.26.12 – the Legal Services Corporation has released results of a grantee organization survey focused on anticipated staff layoffs in 2012.  The news is perhaps not surprising; yet it is quite disheartening.  From LSC: “According to the survey, LSC-funded programs anticipate laying off 393 employees, including 163 attorneys, in 2012.  The reductions continue a staffing downturn that began about a year ago. In December 2010, LSC-funded programs employed 4,351 attorneys, 1,614 paralegals and 3,094 support staff. During 2011, LSC programs reduced their staffing by 833 positions through layoffs and attrition. They now anticipate a new round of layoffs this year, bringing the staffing loss to 1,226 full-time personnel.”

• 1.26.12 – something a bit more uplifting: when legal services programs make the case about the economic efficiencies of supporting their work, legislatures do listen.  From a Boston Globe op-ed: “A study by [the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation] estimates that legal aid boosted the state’s economy by $53 million last year through federal benefits won and state costs saved.  Those numbers have made an impression on Beacon Hill. Legislators recently proposed upping the Legal Assistance Corporation’s $9.5 million appropriation to $10.5 million. Governor Deval Patrick’s budget plan released yesterday bumps their funding for next year to $12 million. Powers and Jourdan, among others, will be on Beacon Hill today trying to persuade legislators in the House and Senate to go at least that far.”

• 1.25.12 – from a Seattle Weekly blog, a glimpse at how IOLTA shortfalls impact legal services providers in Washington State.  If you are a law student who has heard the term “Interest on Lawyers Trust Account” (IOLTA) but are not sure how it figures into legal services funding, the article nicely explains IOLTA’s workings.

• 1.24.12 – funding cuts are causing layoffs at Legal Aid of Arkansas.  From the 4029 TV news: “Blaming cutbacks in state and federal funding, an organization that helps poor people with legal services says it will lay off eight workers and close its office in Mountain View.  Lee Richardson, the director of Legal Aid of Arkansas, tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the group won’t be able to take on as many clients as a result. The organization serves 31 counties in northern Arkansas. It’s among the groups nationwide losing money because of a $56 million cut in federal funding to Legal Services Corp.  Legal Aid of Arkansas says it will lose about $345,000 in federal funding this year. The group says it’s also lost state funding because of a shortfall in the Arkansas’ Administration of Justice Fund, which receives money from filing fees and court costs.”

• 1.24.12 – bad funding news flows down the Mississippi River.  From New Orleans news site Gambit: “The Orleans Parish Public Defender’s office was down to $36,000 in the bank and may be unable to make its payroll this month, according to chief parish public defender Derwyn Bunton and Louisiana Public Defender Board Chairman Frank Neuner, who reported the budget problems at a Jan. 18 meeting of City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee. According to Bunton, the immediate financial problem results from an alleged failure by the New Orleans Traffic Court to hand over monthly indigent defendant fees, which were due Jan. 10.  Even if that’s resolved, the office still faces a $1 million shortfall for the year and may have to lay off as many as 14 staff members, Bunton said. The office already has instituted a hiring freeze and suspended payments to contractors in an attempt to save money.”

• 1.23.12 – I was honored as the Latin Scholar of the Cardinal Dougherty High School Class of 1994.  And I ain’t rusty.  Here is a press release wherein I have identified at least four and perhaps more Latin words: “The Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation and LexisNexis are pleased to announce a joint collaboration to strengthen the rule of law throughout the world. Working together, these two organizations are combining their skills and resources to support and empower social entrepreneurs who are working around the world to improve the lives and communities of the poor and disenfranchised and to mobilize leaders of the global legal profession.”

• 1.23.12 – keeping with a trend, a new pro bono program serving vets (from a press release): “The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) is proud to announce the new HNBA Veterans Legal Initiative Program (“Veterans Initiative”), a new effort to provide free legal services to the men and women of the American armed services and their families.”

• 1.13.12 – in Virginia, Capital One, a handful of prominent law firms, and other pro bono stakeholders are unveiling JusticeServer, online pro bono software that is intended to increase efficiencies in pro bono delivery.  Here are the details.

More bad news than good news in this week’s bulletin.  I started producing the bulletin several months ago as a way to help public interest stakeholders, law school career professionals, and law students track developments related to funding, economic health, and the job market in the public interest arena.  I believe that it’s always better to have information, even if the information conveys bad news.  But I’m mindful that law students reading the bulletin may feel exasperated by so much bad news, particularly regarding the employment market.

It’s simply a tough time to be looking for public interest work.  But it’s important to remember two things:

• Accept what you cannot control.  Control what you can control.  Life happens and we have to react accordingly.  We are much more subject to the course of events around us than we are masters of it.  This is certainly true of the job market.  Job seekers are stuck, at present, with poor economic conditions.  You cannot control those.  What you can control is the strength of your candidacy for public interest jobs.  Because the market is so tight, now more than ever it’s necessary to makes yourselves the best job applicants possible.  Work with career services staff.  Use PSLawNet and other resources to polish your cover letters and resumes.  Do mock interviews.  Network, network, network.  I know, it may seem to some of you like trite advice.  But the strength of your candidacy for jobs is one variable you can control.  It’s a hugely important variable.  Control it.
• There Are Jobs Out There.  “If it bleeds, it leads” is the saying used to convey the fact that bad news is what makes news.  Media will cover the laying off of 15 public defenders much faster than they will cover the hiring of 15 public defenders.  Just because most of the news you read focuses on the tightness of the job market, that doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs.  In the last week we posted 120 jobs on PSLawNet.  There are over 1100 job listings on the site right now.  Layoff news notwithstanding, there are jobs.  Again, the key is to make yourself the best job candidate possible.       

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  This week:

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

And here are the summaries:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By: Steve Grumm

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

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

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

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

The summaries:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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