By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  It’s been a relatively slow week as many of us have eased our ways back into the office.  Political junkies likely braved the fiasco that is cable news as it aired BREAKING, UNIVERSE-ALTERING DEVELOPMENTS (not involving grain elevators) from places like Coon Rapids, Iowa.  Today the Washington Post has run a funny picture of candidate John Huntsman reacting to a goat bite in New Hampshire.  This man is a former two-term governor and Mandarin-fluent ambassador to China.  Now he dodges Isak the Goat.  And that’s exactly how democracy should work.

Where was I? Oh, before we get to the news, one quick plug for a NALP/Equal Justice Works webinar series aimed at law students on the summer public interest job hunt.  Our two webinars will focus on cover letter and resume writing (part one) as well as interviewing and networking (part two).  Get the dates/details here.

At last, this week in public interest news:       

• criminal and civil justice gaps in the Volunteer State;
• possible monkey business in a Utah criminal case reads like a Law & Order script;
• is it more than the economy driving more law students into public interest careers?;
• the National Law Journal’s Pro Bono Hotlist profiles some headline-generating work;
• public interest items from January’s ABA Journal include a feature story on controversy involving an Illinois-based innocence project;
• animal law practice blowing up in Portland, OR (and why I loathe cats);
• the fiscal woes confronting Virginia-based legal services programs;
• the fiscal woes confronting West Virginia’s legal services program.

Here are the summaries:

• 1.5.12 – the widening civil and criminal justice gaps, as seen from the vantage point of Shelby County (Memphis, TN) Public Defender Stephen C. Bush, who writes in the Memphis Flyer: “In this moment, we cannot compromise on justice; living in poverty is hard enough. Our community has more than its share of hurting families, unemployment, substance abuse, hunger, sickness, mental illness, homelessness … the list goes on. These problems create more have-nots, more gaps. We cannot afford that. We must bear these costs together.”  Trivia: Shelby County has the 4th oldest defender program in the country.

• 1.4.12 – how’s this for a Law & Order twist: a prosecutor in the Utah County Attorney’s office faxed to county commissioners and the local defender’s office a letter which “called the public defenders’ [sic] office a ‘huge embarrassment’ and a ‘waste of money’.”  The letter referred to three defenders who worked on a homicide case – the defendant was convicted – as “a huge joke” and opined that “monkeys would do a much better job.”  The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the letter, which also referred to a defender sleeping at trial and throwing “temper tantrums,” was “signed by a ‘taxpayer in Utah County’.”  The prosecutor claims that an unknown third party handed her the letter, which she did not write but did fax…from a FedEx office.  Is there monkey business afoot?  Who knows?  But here’s the crazy part: in appealing the homicide conviction, a new defense legal team is asserting ineffective assistance and using the letter in making its case!  Apparently Utah’s standard for effective assistance is something above just monkeying around. 

• 1.3.12 – a short piece entitled “New Lawyers Have Rising Interest in Public Interest,” published on the higher-ed-focused Braintrack website, suggests that: “While the vast majority of new law school graduates find jobs with private law firms, many law schools have seen a significant uptick in the percentage of students pursuing careers in public interest….  Undoubtedly, the economy has played a role in these numbers: Since fewer opportunities are available at private firms, presumably students are more open to pursuing careers in public interest. But experts say that’s not the whole story.”  The piece goes on to suggest that students are increasingly public service minded and looking for meaningful careers in service.  Interesting.  Certainly the relative dearth of law firm jobs isn’t the only factor that’s driven more law students to consider careers in nonprofit and government arenas. But the weight of the anecdotal evidence that’s come my way suggests the altered job market is by far the biggest driver.  While I think it’s terrific that more students are considering public service careers, and while I have high hopes for the Millenials, I just haven’t seen evidence of non-economic factors having an oversized impact on student career choices.  But I was wrong about the Eagles making the playoffs and maybe I’m wrong about this.  

• 1.2.12 – Biglaw pro bono.  The NLJ’s Pro Bono Hotlist profiles the work of a handful of large law firms.  Their causes range from Holocaust victim reparations to education and election reform.  Without question, these pro bono efforts are laudable and I’m heartened to see Biglaw resources channeled to these ends.  But I’m disappointed that more pro bono poverty law work – those unsexy, non-headline-generating eviction, domestic violence, and veterans’ benefits cases – doesn’t figure prominently into the HotList mix.  Even the firms selected by NLJ are doing great poverty law work.  I’d love to see the HotList zoom in on the unheralded work of lawyers helping poor clients with nowhere else to go.

• January, 2012 – this month’s ABA Journal includes some noteworthy public-interest items:
  • one feature piece, entitled “Journalism & Justice: Did Innocence Project Student Reporters Get Too Close to Lawyers?” looks at a controversy that enveloped Northwestern’s Medill Innocence Project and which has raised questions about the role of student journalists in investigating convicts’ claims of innocence.
  • some coverage of the ABA’s work w/ the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to address the justice gap.
  • an interesting new corporate structure for socially conscious entrepreneuers is being accepted in a growing number of states.  The new “…corporate form – seven states in the last two years have amended their constitutions to allow for it – allows corporate officers to consider a social, community or environmental purpose as part of their mission.  It also helps shield benefit corporations from shareholder lawsuits for doing what they think is the right thing.”  

     

• 12.30.11 – the Portland Business Journal looks at the growth of “animal law” practice.  The article is password-protected and I don’t have access to it, so I include this just as an FYI to the animal enthusiast types in our readership.  (I am an animal enthusiast, having in my youth owned a retriever named Reggie and a rabbit named Crusader.  Turns out it’s tough to raise a rabbit in a Philadelphia neighborhood.  Cats paid all kinds of attention to Crusader and did not have his best interests at heart.  I have loathed cats ever since. Vile creatures.)  

• 12.31.11 – Virginia legal services programs are facing extraordinary fiscal challenges.  They expect layoffs and service cuts, particularly with last November’s LSC appropriation slash.  The legal services community is looking to the state legislature for help, in the form of establishing mandatory IOLTA program and increasing some court filing fees.  From the Virginian-Pilot: 
  • The program that sends interest on money held in trust to legal aid in Virginia is voluntary. It is mandatory in all states except Virginia, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Idaho. With backing of Virginia’s bankers, the General Assembly passed a law in the 1990s stopping the program from becoming mandatory.  Delegate Manoli Loupassi, a Richmond Republican, has introduced a bill to repeal that law and thus allow the Virginia Supreme Court to consider requiring all lawyers to participate in the program. Similar bills died in the General Assembly a year ago.
  • Legal aid will ask lawmakers to approve a budget amendment that would increase the civil filing fee that goes to legal aid from $9 to $13.

•  12.30.11 – a call to the West Virginia bar: pick up pro bono efforts because legal aid is underfunded.  An editorial in The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register (a newspaper so badass it needs two names) highlights how the LSC cuts will impact Legal Aid of West Virginia and continues, “If Legal Aid is forced into layoffs, it will be up to local attorneys to swallow the loss of pay and offer their services pro bono. Here in our area, lawyers have a praiseworthy record of stepping up to the plate. In the past, they have been recognized for their high rate of pro bono work. The need for help will not disappear, even when the money does. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  2011: the end is nigh.  At the close of every year the Washington Post publishes a “what’s going out?/what’s coming in?” piece about cultural trends, the changing zeitgeist, etc.  The piece seems perfeclty designed if the goal is to remind me how out of touch I am.  For instance, “Ovaltine nostalgia” is out while a “Tang renaissance” is coming in.  I love Ovlaltine!  How did I miss that!?  And, while seemingly crass but otherwise a mystery to me, “Pippa’s bum” is losing in favor of “Kate’s uterus.”  Sorry, Pippa.  Greek yogurt, which I had noticed was all the rage in 2011, is being pushed out by something called Icelandic skyr.  I hope Pippa’s not Greek.  That would be a double-whammy for her.  Anyway, as we turn to 2012 I wish you a happy and safe New Year’s holiday.

Here’s what we’ve got in the public interest department:

• it’s a revolving employment door for Wisconsin’s assistant prosecutors;
• lots of news about how LSC cuts will affect Virginia legal services providers;
• Michigan Community Resources expands to provide more than legal assistance to its nonprofit clients;
• DC’s LRAP program is coming up dry (boo!!);
• study shows that a homicide defendant with a public defender will fare a lot better than with court-appointed counsel;
• prosecutors and defenders square off, but this time everybody wins;
• Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma bracing for the LSC funding cut pinch;
• a good idea for raising legal services funding from law firm associates.

This week:

• 12.28.11 – Wisconsin struggles to retain its prosecutors, according to a new study.  Here’s a report from WISC-TV: “They carry much of the workload in Wisconsin’s criminal justice system, and a study found that many assistant district attorneys, or ADAs, are leaving their posts at an alarming rate.  The study called “Public Safety and Assistant District Attorney Staffing in Wisconsin” surveyed past and present ADAs and found that while an overwhelming majority of these state workers went into the field to perform a public service, for several years most are leaving for better paying jobs with better benefits in the private sector….”

• 12.28.11- three stories about how LSC cuts will impact Virginia-based legal services providers:
  •  From WVIR: “Legal aid groups across the commonwealth are preparing to lobby the Virginia General Assembly for losses in funding. That funding has decreased by $8 million since 2008, affecting the services available to more than a million Virginians that cannot afford other legal help.  For some, it could mean job cuts. That is why groups across the state plan to ask the General Assembly for increased funding when its session begins in January.”
  • The News-Leader reports on how Blue Ridge Legal Services, in central/western Virginia, will be impacted: “Congressional action in mid-November reduced federal funding for civil legal services to low-income residents by 15 percent. This cut came on the heels of an earlier 4 percent cut in federal funding in April, sparking Blue Ridge’s first round of cuts, halving the number of attorneys at its Harrisonburg office, which serves Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County, said John Whitfield, executive director and general counsel for the organization.”
  • Here’s a statewide look at the potential for cuts, from the Northern Virginia Daily: “A statewide agency that gives legal aid to the poor faces layoffs as a result of congressional funding cuts.  Representatives with Legal Services Corp. of Virginia said Friday they plan to ask the General Assembly to help restore funds lost this fall when Congress reduced grants by 15 percent, according to a news release.  The agency provides funding and oversight of the state’s legal aid system — nine direct-service programs in 38 offices statewide and the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which assists with advocacy, education and litigation support.  Statewide the agency faces losing 20 attorneys and 10 support staff, according to legal services group’s executive director, Mark D. Braley. 

• 12.27.11 – Michigan Community Resources, formerly known as Community Legal Resources, outgrew the “Legal” in its name.  MCR used to provide legal assistance to under-resourced nonprofit organizations.  Now it offers a broader range of services, and works with an expanded circle of client organizations.  From the Huffington Post: “MCR now services the entire state and offers planning, technical and educational support in addition to legal aid. Its clientele has expanded, too. Many of the groups MCR assists are 501(c)3 nonprofits, but the organization also helps groups like block clubs and neighborhood associations.”  I used to work with a transactional pro bono program that served nonprofits in need of legal help.  Often times, they would also require technical assistance that was not directly legal in nature.  Taking a more holistic approach to client services makes a lot of sense to me.  Congrats, MCR.  

• 12.25.11 – the LRAP program for DC-based poverty lawyers is short on the cash to meet demand from debt-laden lawyers.  From the Washintgon Post: “For the first time in its five-year history, the privately funded program that helps lawyers at Washington nonprofits repay law school debt — the Loan Repayment Assistance Program — fell short of covering the majority of lawyers’ eligible monthly loan payments. In past years, the program managed to cover at least 90 percent of those monthly loan repayments; this year, they only have enough money to cover about half.  That’s because the need for aid is outpacing the money coming into the program. In 2007, the first year of LRAP, 14 percent of lawyers applying for the grants had debt of more than $150,000, and their average debt was $92,000. Today, 27 percent have debt of more than $150,000, and their average debt has jumped to $119,000.”

• 12.24.11 – here may be our data points of the week.  A study of indigent homicide defendants that took place in Philly found a sharp difference in outcomes based on whether they had a public defender (on staff w/ the Defender Association of Philadelphia) or a court-appointed lawyer.  An NY Times editorial summarizes the RAND study: “The study examined murder cases of indigent defendants with similar profiles in the city from 1994 to 2005. The conviction rate of clients represented by staff lawyers working for the public defender association…was 19 percent lower than those represented by court-appointed lawyers working alone. Their expected time served in prison was 24 percent lower, and they were far less likely to get a life sentence.”   

• 12.24.11 – on a lighter note, prosecutors and defenders in Alaska engaged in some non-hostile combat to generate a whole bunch of food donations for the needy.  From the Peninsula Clarion: “A friendly competition between the Kenai’s District Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender Agency helped people in need this holiday season. The two offices, which generally compete toe-to-toe at the Kenai Courthouse, collected food last week as part of a private food drive. The public defenders won the competition, donating 1,547 pounds of canned and dried foods. The district attorneys donated 978 pounds of food.”

• 12.23.11 – on the heels of the LSC funding cut, Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma is bracing for impact.  From the Express-Star: “Oklahoma’s statewide nonprofit law firm providing free civil legal services to elderly and low-income persons who are about to lose their children, housing, health care or income or who are victims of domestic violence, is preparing for a federal funding cut of approximately $700,000 for the coming fiscal year.”  ($700,000 represents about 10% of LASO’s budget.)  “No decisions have been made by LASO’s Board of Directors regarding implementation of LSC’s funding cut.”

• 12.22.11 – a good legal services fundraising idea.  Here’s some information on the “One Hour of Sharing Associates’ Campaign, which encourages Minnesota-based law firm associates to make a cash donation, in the amount of their hourly billing rate, to the Fund for the Legal Aid Society.  The JD Rising blog has more detail. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy FridayHolidays, dear readers.  And if the religious holidays are not your bag, I wish you a wondrous Winter Solstice Season.  According to the Wikipedias, “The winter solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet’s polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits. Earth’s maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26′.” If axial tilts don’t warm your heart and make you want to be in fellowship with humanity, I don’t know what will.  Regardless of what you celebrate or how you celebrate it, I wish you a joy-filled, relaxing holiday season.  In summary, here’s what we’ve got:

• NOLA’s defender office has made serious, post-Katrina progress;
• our buddy Tom Maligno is profiled for his remarkable public-interest work at Touro Law on Lawwng Eye-laaand.  (Don’t worry, the interview is translated out of their strange local dialect and into regular English.);
• just a few miles west, is public defender hiring on the horizon in New York?;
• Legal Aid of West Virginia looking at layoffs in wake of LSC $ cuts;
• as has happened elsewhere in the country, a Northeastern PA defender announces he’s triaging the kinds of new cases he can accept;
• controversy in MA about an apparent failure to screen indigent defendants for indigence;
• an MLP in East Tennessee;
• making the case for an indigent defense system, Minnesota-style;
• Quiz: what will cause a public defender’s office to burn through cash right quick?;
• NYC legal aid lawyers hop in the bus and bring justice to Brooklyn and the Bronx;
• from the Department of Bad Timing: public defender layoffs, prosecuting attorney raises, in Central Florida;
• Houston, TX finally has a public defense program, and its chief wants you to know how their first year went.

This week:

• The Jan./Feb. edition of Mother Jones looks at the remarkable, post-Katrina progress of the Office of the Public Defender in New Orleans, which has transformed from a beleaguered to an award-winning program.  Nevertheless the OPD, led by Derwyn Bunton (whom we interviewed here in early 2010), faces new funding challenges and is pitted against a district attorney’s office which brings cases in historically high volume.

• 12.22.11 – Tom Maligno, executive director of a unique (and quite robust) “Public Advocacy Center” at Touro Law School, drops some wisdom about why/how the PAC operates.  The center houses several independent public interest law offices, which gives Touro students direct access to employers and experiential learning opportunities.  On the ABA Center for Pro Bono’s blog, Maligno notes, “Through the William Randolph Hearst Public Advocacy Center (PAC) we give free space to advocacy organizations so they have working offices within the law school. What we get in return is a plan for them to involve our students in their work. We have a mandatory pro bono graduation requirement at Touro. One of the ways students can fulfill that requirement is by working within these agencies that are all housed within the law school.  We try to select various groups so the types of organization available for student volunteers run the gamut. We work with legal services programs, immigration groups, civil liberties organization, domestic violence advocates and much more.”

• 12.21.11 – public defender hiring on the horizon in New York?  Thomson Reuters reports: “State court administrators have requested millions of dollars in funding to help legal-aid offices in New York City come into compliance with a new law limiting the number of criminal cases a public defender can handle each year…. The law, proposed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman in 2009, bars public-defender offices in the city from averaging more than 400 misdemeanor or 150 felony cases per attorney in any 12-month  period…. While the law creating the cap doesn’t take effect until April 1, 2014, the current state budget includes $6.8 million to allow the handful of public-defender offices in the city to hire new attorneys. The largest office, the Legal Aid Society of New York, has already hired 105 new lawyers, according to Attorney-in-Chief Steven Banks, but is still only about halfway toward its bid to meet the cap. Earlier this month, in a spending proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, state court officials requested an additional $6.4 million to come into compliance with the law.”

• 12.20.11 – following November’s LSC funding cuts Legal Aid of West Virginia is bracing for attorney layoffs.  From the Charleston Gazette: “Federal spending cuts will likely force the overburdened Legal Aid of West Virginia to lay off several lawyers in order to compensate for its annual budget woes.”  It’s not like LAWV is overly staffed right now: “Legal Aid has just 40 lawyers to handle cases in the state’s 55 counties, according to Legal Aid’s website, and demand for more lawyers is not getting any lighter.  In 2010 alone, demand for Legal Aid services increased 20 percent from the previous year.”

• 12.20.11 – resource shortages are compelling a Northeastern Pennsylvania public defender to refuse some new cases.  From an editorial in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader: “Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. said his office will limit the number of new cases it takes beginning this week. Flora pinned the problem on a shortage of funding for a sufficiently large defense staff to handle the caseload, saying, ‘We are overwhelmed right now….’  By taking this action, Flora might finally force county and state officials to confront troubling shortfalls here in money and personnel devoted to the court system. He’s justifiably perturbed at being asked to provide competent counsel without being provided the resources to supply it.  Until the dust-up can be resolved, however, the most likely casualties are – again – the people with the least.”  Flora is basically limiting case intake to juvenile and some felony matters.  Here’s additional coverage from the Associated Press.
   
• 12.19.11 – in Massachusetts, trouble with the system to screen client eligibility for a public defender.  The AP reports: ‘Massachusetts has spent nearly $48 million on free legal services for the poor without verifying whether those making the claims are truly indigent, according to a new report released Monday by state Auditor Suzanne Bump.  The report looks at the Office of the Commissioner of Probation, the agency responsible for verifying that a person claiming to be poor meets the definition established by the Supreme Judicial Court to be eligible for free legal services.  Bump’s review of fiscal year 2010 records at 27 of the state’s 70 district courts found what she called ‘near total noncompliance with the indigency verification laws, rules, and regulations.’  None of the 27 courts performed any verification of documentation at an applicant’s initial screening.  In the sample of cases pulled from these courts, only 1.7 percent contained adequate documentation that court officials performed a required 60-day reassessment, and less than 1 percent had any evidence that a required six-month reassessment had been conducted.”  More coverage from the Boston Herald.

• 12.19.11 – a new medical-legal partnership (MLP) in East Tennessee.  WDEF reports: “It’s the first of its kind in the Chattanooga area.  Erlanger Health System announces a partnership with Legal Aid of East Tennessee.  The Erlanger Health Law Partnership aims to improve the health of low-income patients….  [The] Partnership will help low-income patients with legal problems that affect their health…issues like education, the Family Medical Leave Act, Powers of Attorney, Public Benefits and Housing.”

• 12.18.11 – a column by Minnesota judge Terrence E. Conkel emphasizes the importance of public defenders’ roles in the judicial system, and the importance of providing them with the resources they need to operate effectively.  Read the column in the Jordan Independent, a/k/a the New York Times of Scott County, Minnesota.

• 12.18.11 – what causes public defenders’ offices to burn through funding right quick?  Capital cases.  To wit, in Northampton County, PA the defender’s office saw its “budget ballooning nearly 400 percent from $150,000 to $600,700,” mainly on account of having to handle four death-penalty cases in the past year.  Read more in the Express-Times. 

• 12.16.11 – NYC legal services lawyers have justice, will travel.  From WNYC: “A large truck with the words ‘Access to Justice’ written on it has been making its way through low-income communities on the outskirts of Brooklyn and the Bronx this week. Its purpose is to bring the courts and free legal services to people who often don’t have access either because of language barriers, physical disabilities or other issues. It’s the first of its kind in the state.  Lawyers from the New York Legal Assistance Group or NYLAG operate the mobile center with the New York State Courts’ full cooperation. The so-called justice on wheels truck is expected to make stops in 30 different locations a month and serve 2,000 city residents a year.”

• 12.16.11 – worst of times, best of times: public defender layoffs, and prosecutor raises, in Florida.  The Orlando Sentinel reports:  “Orange-Osceola Public Defender Robert Wesley says a combination of economic factors has led his office to lay off 11 attorneys, meaning several long-time assistants will lose their jobs by year’s end….  Factors contributing to the layoffs include: lack of natural turnover with defense attorneys finding fewer jobs available with private firms; a decline in collections from clients of Wesley’s office – normally such collections account for 30 percent of funds for operations; a number of staffers who left and then returned under the Family Medical Leave Act; and an increase in health insurance costs.”  In a strange juxtaposition, the local prosecutor’s office announced raises: “…State Attorney Lawson Lamar, just announced raises for staffers in his office, which prosecutes state-level crimes in the circuit covering Orange and Osceola….  ‘[Increased collections have enabled me to provide salary increases for the remaining majority of our team members this year,’ Lamar wrote in a statement to employees. ‘This comes at a particularly important time of year since we all saw our take home pay shrink due to inflation [and] no cost of living increases since October 2006’.” 

• 12.15.11 – in Texas, Harris County (that’s Houston) Public Defender Alexander Bunin catches us up on his newly created office’s activity.  (Houston had been using an appointed counsel system for indigent defense all the way up until last year.)  Contributing a piece to the Houston Chronicle, Bunin reviews his office’s successes and reinforces the economic and moral cases for funding a stand-alone public defense agency. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  From my perch here in Washington I’m looking at a freakishly warm December morning, a disappointingly cold cup of coffee, a newspaper headline about Newt Gingrich (what year is this?) and a stack of unwritten holiday cards (a phenomenon that recurs every year, Newt or no Newt).  This week’s Bulletin contains a little bit of everything.  Here’s what we’ve got: 

• a new Connecticut provider to serve DV and human trafficking victims;
• ACLU of Montana critical of state’s public defense program;
• speaking of, a class-action over Georgia’s long-criticized public defense system may settle;
• young lawyers in “The OC” lend aid to the county’s legal services program;
• more public defense funding woes, this time addressed by Missouri’s high court;
• an unexpected glut of federal employee retirements;
• too many strings attached to law student summer public interest funding?;
• “A call for prosecutorial accountability”;
• Expanding New York State’s appellate pro bono program;
• A veterans diversionary court program in Oklahoma;
• LSC funding cuts hit hard in Mississippi;
• A formerly deferred associate recounts a formative experience representing DV victims;
• more medical-legal partnerships needed in the Lone Star State?
• cash-strapped government law offices leveraging private bar resources.

Here are the summaries:

• 12.15.11 – a new nonprofit law office in Connecticut will serve a highly vulnerable population.  From the New Canaan Observer: The Rights, Advocacy and Empowerment (RAE) Law Group has been formed to “promote, enforce and advocate for the rights of victims and survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The group will serve clients in Fairfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties.”  RAE apparently takes referrals from other service providers and provides representation for a “modest fee.”

• 12.15.11 – indigent defense trouble in the Treasure State.  From TV station KXLH: “The ACLU of Montana asserts there are many problems with the state’s public defender system and it’s asking the Montana Legislature to do its part in ensuring the agency operates smoothly.  If you can’t afford an attorney one will be appointed for you, and it’s likely the public defender could also be managing about 200 other cases….  The report also states attorneys aren’t getting the feedback and training they need to be successful in the courtroom.”  A lack of funding is seen as the main culprit.  Here’s a link to the ACLU’s report, which is being published 5 years after the Montana moved from a county-by-county to a statewide system.  The news isn’t all bad, but funding still is lacking.

• 12.14.11 – a class action regarding Georgia’s embattled indigent defense system may be settling.  The AP reports (and this is the whole article so no need to click through): “The Southern Center for Human Rights says a potential settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit that claims the state of Georgia must provide attorneys to handle the appeals of dozens of convicted criminals.  The case had been scheduled for a hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter on Thursday. Kathryn Hamoudah of [SCHR], which brought the case, said Wednesday the settlement was not yet final and she did not know the details.  Plaintiffs want the state to make changes to make sure hundreds of indigent defendants have lawyers to represent them in their appeals. They claim cuts to the statewide public defender system has robbed them of their constitutional right to make their case.  The lawsuit was filed in 2009.”
   
• 12.14.11 – as a native Philadelphian I have little use for Orange County, CA.  From afar it seems so La-la Land-ish.  The OC did produce punk rock juggernaut Social Distortion, but otherwise it’s not my bag.  Nevertheless, here’s some good news about young lawyers pitching in to aid an overburdened legal services provider.  The Orange County Register reports that the Legal Aid Society of Orange County’s evictions unit is staring down LSC funding cuts and swelling caseloads.  The county bar’s young lawyers division heeded a call for help.  The YLD’s chair hoped “for maybe 10 volunteers [to handle pro bono eviction cases], but more than 40 responded to the call. Two weeks ago, about 35 went through training in wrongful-detainer law, and another session will be held in a few weeks. Then they’ll start taking cases.” 

• 12.14.11 – Show Me Oral Arguments!  A long-simmering controversy concerning the overburdened Missouri public defense program made it to the state’s high court.  Last year a defender refused new cases because the office’s caseload was overwhelming its ability to represent clients.  From the Springfield News-Leader: “The question is simple on its face: Does the Missouri Public Defender Commission have the authority to turn away defendants?  But the issue, taken up in oral arguments Tuesday in the state Supreme Court, splintered off into discussions ranging from constitutional rights to ethical burdens, from separation of powers to rule-making authority. No clear solution was offered.  The judges…also didn’t give an indication of how they are leaning. [E]ach stated conflicting concerns — forcing public defenders to represent clients regardless of caseload concerns or leaving the decision to local judges to find representation for poor defendants.”

• 12.12.11 – Uncle Sam is losing workers left and right to retirement.  From the Federal Times: “Retirement applications for the first 10 months of 2011 soared 24 percent from the same time last year, topping 92,000, according to statistics from the Office of Personnel Management….”  OPM Director John Berry told Congress last month…” that the rising retirement rate “…was likely caused by cash-strapped agencies offering buyouts and taking other steps to cut their workforces.”  What does this mean for aspiring civil servants?  The good news is obvious: open positions.  The bad news, of course, is the government-wide hiring freeze.  But the freeze has some cracks in it.  (That’s metaphor torture, for those scoring at home).  Agencies can still hire to fill “mission-critical” positions, so it’s not as though federal recruiting has stopped altogether.  This could bode well for law grads looking for a way in.

• 12.12.11 – is it becoming too burdensome for law students to get summer public interest funding from their schools?  From every law school dean’s fav periodical, U.S. News and World Report: “It’s fellowship application season for first and second year law students who want to work in public service law next summer. Many law schools offer…summer fellowships, which provide a stipend ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars, to students who pursue service-oriented roles rather than positions at big firms…. Many law students and J.D.’s report that their public service internships were fulfilling…. But some say that the internship applications come with too many requirements, warning aspiring public servants to carefully consider whether to participate.  Many law schools…require students to do between 5 and 10 hours of volunteer work on campus, and some also insist that students volunteer at fundraising auctions. ”  Oh, the horror!  I’m okay with requiring someone to do 5 hours of service to qualify for funding.  If nothing else it may separate the truly public-interest oriented students from those who would rather be at a firm but wish to hedge their bets.

• 12.12.11 – “A Call for Prosecutorial Accountability” appears as an op-ed in the National Law Journal: “Last term, the Supreme Court…limited municipal civil liability for prosecutors in Connick [v. Thompson]. In justifying this holding in part by stating that prosecutors are ‘personally subject to an ethics regime designed to reinforce the profession’s standards,’ the Court pointed to the existence of the [ABA] and state grievance mechanisms that set ethical standards for prosecutors and discipline them when they break the rules.  [Yet] new research analyzing the policies and procedures for disciplining attorneys in each state…shows that prosecutors are rarely held accountable when misconduct occurs….  Inspired by the Connick decision, students from the Liman Prosecutorial Mis­con­duct Research Project at Yale Law School examined the basis of the reliance on current attorney-sanctioning mechanisms. The resulting investigation of the disciplinary procedures in various states found that the process and results are largely inadequate for investigating claims of misconduct and holding prosecutors accountable.”

• 12.12.11 – “One year after establishing an experimental pro bono civil appellate program to handle family law appeals for people who cannot afford counsel, the New York State Bar Association is expanding the initiative to several other areas of law,” according to the New York Law Journal.   “Two upstate nonprofit organizations, the Legal Project in Albany and the Rural Center of New York in Plattsburgh, are providing staff support. The program is supported by a grant from the New York Bar Foundation.  During the first year, volunteer attorneys handled six appeals before the 3rd Department, one of them precedent-setting.  According to the American Bar Association, the State Bar’s pro bono appellate project is one of only 10 such programs in the country.”

• 12.11.11 – The Oklahoman looks at a diversionary judicial program for veterans in the Oklahoma City area.  “Veterans who get into legal trouble in Oklahoma County can apply to the program. Those who qualify have to go before a board that includes prosecutors, public defenders, counselors and veterans advocates. If they are selected for the program, they sign a contract agreeing to participate.  If they fail the program, charges can be refiled. Part of the contract includes waiving the statute of limitations on their case. They are not required, however, to plead guilty to a judge.”  The county prosecutor’s and public defender’s offices joined forces to create/administer the program.

• 12.10.11 – the LSC cuts are hitting hard in Mississippi.  From the Clarion-Ledger: “[T]wo Legal Services programs in Mississippi that provide civil legal help for the poor will see federal funding reduced by more than $821,000 in 2012.  The cuts in funding for the Mississippi Center for Legal Services, which serves 43 counties in the central and southern part of the state, and the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, which serves 39 counties in the northern part of the state, were the result of a 14.85 percent reduction nationally in federal spending for Legal Services programs…. About 600,000 poor people in Mississippi are eligible for services, and about 30 attorneys are available in Mississippi for Legal Services.  The number of Legal Services attorneys is about one per 20,000 low-income residents.”

• 12.9.11 – a formerly-deferred DLA Piper associate recounts the positive experience he had spending his deferral period with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s domestic violence project.  After recounting two of his emotionally charged case experiences, he closes the piece: “Now, I am a second-year associate…working mainly in construction law. I am constantly aware of how much there is to learn about this area of law, and about practicing law, period. But learning the ropes in a court…with real live clients whose safety may be at stake, and in an often intense courtroom setting, forced me to understand how to respond swiftly and how to think outside of the box…. [T]hose experiences are easing my path from naïve, wide-eyed associate to useful lawyer…. I am very grateful to my firm and to AVLF for allowing me to start my practice with this experience. Serving as a Deferred Fellow turned out to be both incredibly useful and a great luxury: it gave me confidence, and it gave me the time and the support to learn skills I will always be able to use throughout my career.”

• 12.9.11 – more MLPs needed in the Lone-Star State?  From the Public News Service: “When a health problem persists despite medical treatment, the real issue could be a legal matter. There’s a growing national trend toward medical-legal partnerships (MLPs), which help people figure out whether they might benefit from lawyers in addition to doctors.  A weak economy and state budget cuts have been magnifying the need for such assistance, according to Priscilla Noriega, who directs an MLP in the Brownsville office of Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.”

• December, 2011 – The December ABA Journal reports on how cash-strapped government law offices are leveraging private-bar resources to help stay afloat.  The Chicago Law Department is benefiting from the services of four local firms. And it turns out this isn’t a new trend.  “Since 2002, New York has saved approximately $84 million in legal fees” while benefiting from pro bono or “loaned associate” programs from law firms.  The article also looks at the L.A. City Attorney’s practice of recruiting law grads for six-month volunteer stints prosecuting misdemeanors, and the U.S. DOJ’s practice of recruiting unpaid Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys. (A few months ago I also wrote about the SAUSA trend.)

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Greetings from day two of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s annual conference.  (It’s their centennial, in fact.  Happy 100th, NLADA!)  There is much terrific programming here.  It’s heartening to learn of so many innovative approaches to delivering high-quality client services.  And it’s great to catch up with friends and colleagues from the legal services community.  But the dire funding circumstances which legal services providers – and defenders, for that matter – face are part of most conversations I’ve had.  So there is much to celebrate, but some things to lament as well.   

This week: legal services funding woes in North Carolina; ditto in Ohio; a “Justice Index” to measure the health of court systems?; an access-to-justice report in New York State.

• 12.8.11 – here’s a look at how funding woes impact legal services in North Carolina: “On Nov. 15, Congress cut $56 million from the federal Legal Services Corporation for 2012. This cut is as plain as it is severe: federal support specifically for the provision of legal services to low-income people will drop by 15 percent next year. In North Carolina, these cuts will directly reduce funding by about $1.5 million.  The full picture is worse. Federal legal services funds for North Carolina were cut by $700,000 this year. Our state legislature sliced 25 percent from legal aid budgets this year. These cuts forced LANC to shut down four offices across the state and eliminate 30 staff positions. The 2012 cuts will likely cause more reductions in staff and services next year.”  Read the full op-ed in the Charlotte Observer. 

• 12.7.11 – bad news from Ohio: “Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc. (LAWO) announced it will close its Mansfield office due to severe funding cuts. The closing will also result in the elimination of two attorney positions and one administrative assistant position in the Mansfield office.  The closing is scheduled to take place by December 31, 2011.”  Here’s the story from WMFD. 

• 12.5.11 – a “Justice Index” to measure the health and effectiveness of state court systems?  Writing in the National Law Journal, David Udell and Cara Anna of the National Center for Access to Justice at Cardozo Law propose using data to help policymakers find solutions to access-to-justice problems: “Which states’ courts are in the worst condition? Which, despite the challenges, are making litigation simpler and less expensive? It’s hard to fix a problem when you can’t see clearly what’s going wrong. There’s no way to tell how one state’s legal system is performing or how it compares with others. It’s time to change that. We need a national Justice Index.  A Justice Index follows on the innovative idea by Yale law professor Heather Gerken of creating a Democracy Index to evaluate America’s election system. A national Justice Index would be a high-profile annual ranking of each state’s approach to legal assistance and the way each handles civil and criminal cases. That ranking would be supported by published data that could be mined by policymakers, the media and the courts themselves.”

• 12.2.11 – the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services released a report about the state of AtJ in the Empire State.  From Thomson-Reuters: Access to civil legal services for low-income New Yorkers is severely lacking, which not only impacts the livelihood of poor litigants but drains precious resources from the state’s court system, according to a new report released by a task force created by the state’s chief judge.  ‘At best, no more than 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income families and individuals are met, because civil legal services providers lack the resources to meet them,’ says the report issued Thursday by the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services.”  Here’s a link to the Task Force’s report. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday (and December), dear readers.  On this date in the year 1409, the University of Leipzig opened.  Never forget.  Also, on 12/2/70 the EPA began operations.  It is surprising to many that President Nixon established the EPA.  Guess what other federal agency he established.  It’s the Legal Services Corporation.  And LSC figures prominently in this week’s Bulletin, which includes coverage of:

• state court systems feeling the fiscal pinch;
• Maryland’s governor pressures law school clinic to back off environmental suit;
• Tennessee’s high court launches a pro se assistance website;
• OPM provides details on the new federal gov’t internship programs;
• an update on the deferred-associates-take-public-interest-placements phenomenon;
• a Florida legal services program’s fiscal struggles;
• the LSC funding cut’s impact in the Empire State;
• exciting law student pro bono news;
• outlook for state budgets bleak, according to new report;
• a Missouri legal aid lawyer fights for equal smiles under law;
• declining Biglaw pro bono hours – temporary or here to stay?
• Prairie State Legal Services’s $ struggles;
• the LSC funding cut’s impact in the Mountain State;
• boosting pro bono among retiring and retired lawyers;
• the LSC funding cut’s impact in the Old Line State
• the LSC funding cut’s impact in the Garden State.

This week:

• 11.30.11 – hardly surprising, but budgetary belts are tightening in state court systems throughout the country.  From the National Law Journal: “Deep state court budget cuts are hurting access to justice, according to a recent survey issued by the National Center for State Courts.  The survey, released on Nov. 29, tabulated a poll of state courts conducted from July through October.  Results indicate widespread recent budget cuts, including 42 states with substantial court budget decreases; 39 states where clerk vacancies were not filled; 34 states where court staff were laid off; and 23 states with reduced court operating hours.”

• 11.30.11 – a few days back my colleague Kristen posted about the Maryland governor pressuring a U of Maryland Law clinic to back off an environmental suit against a poultry farm.  (This gives me an opportunity to gratuitously refer to the poultry industry as “Big Chicken,” which I find funny.) Where were we?  Oh, a Washington Post editorial takes aim at Governor O’Malley: “Mr. O’Malley’s Nov. 14 missive was a misguided protest against the school’s environmental law clinic and its involvement in a lawsuit against Perdue Inc. and Alan and Kristin Hudson Farm, a Maryland-based operation that works for Perdue.”  Here’s some more detailed coverage and background from the Baltimore Sun.  Here’s Dean Phoebe Haddon’s – hey she was my torts professor! – reply to the governor.

• 11.30.11 – Tennessee’s high court is hands-on in addressing the justice gap.  From the Daily News Journal: “The Tennessee Supreme Court launched a new website this week to provide the public with valuable resources to help navigate the court system. The new site, JusticeForAllTN.com <http://www.justiceforalltn.com/> , is intended to assist people with civil legal issues who cannot afford legal representation.  The Justice for All website includes downloadable court forms, resources for representing yourself in court, information about common legal issues and an interactive map with resources for each of the state’s 95 counties. Thanks to a partnership with the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the Tennessee Bar Association, the site also gives visitors the ability to email a volunteer attorney with questions.”

• 11.29.11 – lots of changes affecting employment pathways into federal government.  From Government Executive: “The Office of Personnel Management plans to launch the federal government’s new internship program by May….  The [Student Pathways Initiative] will consolidate several federal internship programs into three pathways, replacing the Federal Career Intern Program…. The initiative’s three options are an internship program for current students, a new Recent Graduates Program and the Presidential Management Fellows Program for graduate students. OPM confirmed that all three pathways will be launched simultaneously, and that the organization aims to be ready in time for the Recent Graduates pathway to accommodate students graduating in May 2012.”

• 11.29.11 – the Legal Intelligencer, based in the Glorious City of Philadelphia, has a piece reviewing the phenomenon of associates whose law-firm start dates were deferred taking short-term public interest placements.  This mostly affected the law school graduating class of 2009, but also some subsequent grads. According the article, while deferrals certainly marked a rocky patch on a law-school-to-law-firm employment path that was typically smooth, some deferred associates enjoyed rich experiences that have impacted their careers, and lives, for the better.  I’m glad to know that deferred associates are re-integrating into their law firms.  Here at PSLawNet we played a role in facilitating deferral placements, and in 2010 I looked in on the trend and concluded that things were going well.

• 11.29.11 – in Florida, Gulfcoast Legal Services has been battered by the recession.  IOLTA revenues in the Sunshine State have plummeted from $40 million to $6 million.  And the governor vetoed a $1 million appropriation that would have gone to GLS and other providers.  GLS has also seen other grants dry up.  “Because of the fallout [GLS], which started 2011 with 20 staff attorneys at its five offices, will end the year with 13.  Read more from the Bradenton Times.

• 11.29.11 –  The Rochester Daily Record reviews how Legal Services Corporation funding cuts will impact providers in Western New York State. 

• 11.29.11 – here’s a pair of stories about law school pro bono developments:
• at GW Law, six new pro bono programs are up and running according to Dean Paul Berman, including a new Street Law initiative, a homeless advocacy project, and a pro se resource project at the DC administrative hearings offices.  GW Law also launched an Innocence Project last year.
• from a Charlotte School of Law press release: “A pro bono student services organization at Charlotte School of Law has assisted more than 450 homebuyers file $3 million in claims against a multi-million dollar restitution fund supported by Beazer Homes U.S.A. The outreach is being offered to homebuyers who were victims of the fraudulent business practices acknowledged by Beazer in July 2009 as part of a deferred prosecution agreement reached with U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.”

• 11.29.11 – we’ve focused a lot recently on the federal legal services funding cut, but it’s important to remember that state-level legal services funding has declined in many jurisdictions too.  And as noted in this Washington Post piece, state governments face tough times ahead: “Things have improved since the worst of the recession, but states still face a dire fiscal situation, according to a report…released…by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO).  The Fiscal Survey of States says that even as states struggle with tepid revenue growth, they will be called on to spend more because of the economic distress caused by continued high unemployment.”  Here’s a link to the report.

• 11.28.11 – an attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has found an interesting niche practice: orthodontics.  LSEM’s Anne Morrow, now an attorney but formerly a nurse, “has secured orthodontics for 89 children in eastern Missouri who had previously been rejected under the state’s prohibitive Medicaid standards for orthodontics set by a dental advisory committee under MO HealthNet.”  State officials argue, however, that Morrow’s advocacy has the unintended consequence of setting back other children who have severe dental needs because her clients jump to the front of the line.  Read all about it in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch.  

• 11.28.11 – Fortune magazine looks at the recent declines in Biglaw pro bono hours: “Law firms are lagging in donating legal help because ‘they are anxious, and they don’t staff up quickly to meet the increase in client demand when the economy begins to improve,’ says Esther Lardent, chief executive of the Pro Bono Institute. ‘Much of the pro bono work is done by younger lawyers, but when they are in short supply, paid work is the priority’.”  Pro bono stakeholders are looking for new solutions in case this marks a systemic change and not a short-term fluctuation.  The piece reviews the ideas of building more pro bono into associates’ training curricula, and ramping up law student pro bono.

• 11.28.11 – in Illinois, funding cuts have forced Prairie State Legal Services to make significant cuts: “The agency has lost almost half its staff this year because of budget cuts and just last week congress approved another 14-percent budget cut. Because of limited resources, Prairie State can only help people with ‘basic human needs’ such as orders of protection, housing cases, and utility cases.”  Prairie State just announced that it’s cutting its telephone intake hours in half, according to WIFR.

• 11.28.11 -the LSC funding cut’s impact in West Virginia, reported by the State Journal: “West Virginia legal aid attorneys are searching for solutions following a congressional agreement that would cut services in the state by more than $400,000…. Adrienne Worthy, executive director of Legal Aid of West Virginia, said the state’s program has been fortunate to experience growth in the past few years.  ‘But as funding cuts have started to happen, we have gotten leaner and leaner,’ Worthy said. ‘There is no way we can lose those kinds of dollars and it not to have an impact on what we’re doing every day’.”

• 11.27.11 – a few stories above we read that they’re aren’t as many Biglaw associates to bolster pro bono hours.  What about the grayhairs partners heading toward retirement?  The Washington Post looks in on the issue of retiring/retired law-firm partners who, rather than leaving practice altogether, maintain robust pro bono dockets: “[M]any law firms in Washington are rethinking how they structure retirement and compensation for senior lawyers. Eleven firms…are working with the D.C. Access to Justice Commission on a project called the Senior Attorney Initiative for Legal Services. The program…targets a generation of attorneys who have retired or are on the cusp of retirement — the type of lawyers who at many firms make up a good chunk of the rainmaking roster — to encourage them to stay at their firms, transition commercial work to younger attorneys, and take more pro bono cases in-house.”

• 11.25.11 – the LSC funding cut’s impact on the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, courtesy of The Gazette: “[the] bureau received $4.3 million from [LSC] in fiscal 2011 and is slated to receive $3.7 million in fiscal 2012. [The figure is preliminary.] Maryland’s shortfall is roughly equal to the salaries of 11 of the bureau’s 154 staff attorneys, each of whom makes about $60,00 annually, [bureau official Shawn] Boehringer said.  Although bureau officials have not yet decided how to fill the funding gap, they likely will look to first cut travel and office expenses in order to avoid direct cuts in services to clients, Boehringer said.”

• 11.24.11 – the LSC funding cut’s impact on New Jersey legal services providers, courtesy of The Record.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday Wednesday, dear readers, from a dreary Washington, DC.  I did quite a bit of grumbling before arriving at the office this morning.  A car running through a puddle splashed me but good while I was jogging.  And at 8am I still didn’t manage to beat the last-minute food rush at the super market.  But now, here I sit with coffee, a bagel, and some quiet.  “Hell is breakfast with other people” is a humorous variation on a quote from John Paul Sartre.  And this morning, a quiet breakfast is perfect.  But as Thanksgiving approaches, I eagerly look forward to sharing a table and a meal with others.  Between the people who inhabit my life, the comforts I enjoy, and the work I do, I have much to be thankful for.  And I will try hard amidst the food and the football (yay!) and the minor holiday stresses to keep feelings of gratitude at the fore.  I hope that you will do the same.  Happy Thanksgiving.   

But you’re not here for sappy rumination.  This is what we’ve got:

• a restrictive cy pres decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals;
• troubles plaguing Michigan’s indigent defense system;
• public defender’s office in Sonoma County, CA feeling $ strains;
• Defense Department to kick a little funding toward pro bono programs for service-members;
• speaking of service-members, this veteran who joined a DA’s office isn’t, well, human;
• LSC cut to hit the Pennsylvania Legal Action Network hard;
• ditto for the two Wisconsin LSC grantees;
• ditto ditto in Virginia;
• A law graduate work program in Utah will have students offering “low bono” services.

This week:

• 11.21.11 – cy pres news from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, coming down against an award that would have gone (in part) to the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA).  From the Recorder: “The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday rejected a class action settlement that called for AOL Inc. to give $110,000 to random charities, sending a message that courts should be more careful in doling out money under the cy pres doctrine.  A unanimous panel said the charities had nothing to do with the plaintiffs’ email privacy claims and that too much money was being funneled to Los Angeles groups, despite a class spread out across the country. And the court expressed skepticism about whether judges or mediators should make recommendations on how large sums of money get paid out when the money doesn’t go to the class members.”  

• 11.21.11 – Michigan’s indigent defense system has been foundering.  This is the gist of a Michigan Public Radio story looking at the much-maligned, county-by-county public defense framework in the Great Lake State.  A 2008 report from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association found that the quality of indigent representation varies greatly from county to county, and that overall the state ranks 44th in total indigent defense funding.  In the report’s wake, the ACLU of Michigan has filed a lawsuit to improve the system, and the governor formed a commission to find solutions.

• 11.21.11 – public defense funding woes in Sonoma County, CA.  From the Press-Democrat: “The recession has increased demand in Sonoma County for court-appointed lawyers at a time when the public defender’s office is short-handed.  Retirements and a round of layoffs have reduced the number of lawyers available to serve indigent clients to the lowest level in years. The office is down to 27 lawyers and 18 support staff representing clients in criminal, civil and juvenile courtrooms.  At the same time, caseloads have spiked. Attorneys made 115,000 court appearances in fiscal 2009-2010 compared to about 71,000 appearances a decade earlier.  This month’s loss of two attorney positions through budget cuts forced Public Defender John Abrahams to suspend misdemeanor court coverage and focus on more serious felony cases.” 

• 11.21.11 – good news for service-members who need legal services.  From the National Law Journal: “The U.S. Senate this week is expected to vote on a measure that would help fund programs that provide pro bono legal services to active military personnel. The amendment was introduced by sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)… The amendment would allow the Defense Department to designate up to $500,000 of its $184 billion fiscal year 2011 operation and maintenance budget for programs similar to those set up by the ABA and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan.”  $500,000 isn’t exactly a huge chunk of change in the larger appropriations scheme, but it’s signifies a recognition that service-members can be hamstrung when confronted with legal problems on the home-front.

• 11.20.11 – speaking of service-mmebers, a veteran of operations in Afghanistan has recently returned to the U.S. and taken up a post in a local D.A.’s office.  Nothing terribly newsworthy about this, right?  Well the veteran, Andy, isn’t a person.  Andy’s a pooch.  When Assistant District Attorney Jason Beato – who is human -joined the DeKalb County (Georgia) prosecutor’s office after service in the Army, he brought with him Andy, a bomb detection dog whom Beato had adopted when Andy’s primary handler was injured.  Of Andy’s service abroad, Beato says, “For all practical purposes he [was] a team member—he just can’t talk and that’s about it—and he sheds a lot more.”  Andy will likely go to work in the D.A.’s office doing courthouse security work – and probably boosting morale along the way.  good story. Read more in the blog post from the Champion Newspaper.  

• 11.20.11 – “Legal aid: The need is there, so should the funding” is the verb-deficient title of an otherwise well-intentioned editorial from the Patriot-News in the Glorious Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The editorial laments the recent LSC cut coming on top of legal services funding cuts on the state level: “The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network expects a $2 million cut in federal funding plus frozen allocations, and funding cuts on the state level during past years have put the organization close to what the appropriation was in 1976…. Legal Aid predicts the funding imbalance means another 10 percent staffing cut, and this is after the service already is at bare bones. It also could mean closing at least two offices statewide.”

• 11.19.11 –  the circumstances are similar in Wisconsin. Both Badger State LSC grantees (Wisconsin Judicare and Legal Action of Wisconsin) are bracing for LSC funding cut’s impact.  This will come on top of a complete loss of state funding.  From the Capital Times in Madison: “The 2011-13 state budget cuts, which took effect this year, stripped Judicare of $350,000 per year in funding, about 17.5 percent of last year’s budget, and cut about $1.3 million a year in revenue for Legal Action. The federal cuts will strip $176,000 more from Judicare’s budget, and $540,000 from Legal Action’s.”

• 11.18.11 – the LSC cut will impact the Virginia Legal Aid Society to the tune of about 7% of its budget, or $180,000.  According the VLAS executive director David Neumeyer (as quoted in the Suffolk News Herald), “Keeping up with the demand for our services is already a huge challenge, and now with this cut I’m afraid we’ll have to turn away even more people who have nowhere else to turn…. This loss of funding will mean we cannot increase capacity and will need to start reducing staff size in 2012 if we do not bring in significant new income,” he said. “Private giving, like donations, foundations and United Ways, are the only hope we have of making up part of the loss, because government funding will not increase for the foreseeable future.”

• 11.18.11 – the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law is launching a program through which recent grads will provide legal services to moderate-income clients.  From the Salt Lake City Tribune:  “The…new University Law Group is intended to expand the availability of legal services and service-learning opportunities, according to law dean Hiram Chodosh.”  This is a variation of the law school “bridge” programs which provide work-experience opportunities for recent grads who face a tough employment market.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  The News Bulletin took a break last week, so I didn’t get a chance to offer Veterans Day thanks to my favorite vet: Thanks Dad!  This week we return with a broad range of content.  Sadly the most significant story is that of the congressional cut of $56 million in Legal Services Corporation funding.  In summary here’s what we’ve got:

• Themes emerge from ABA’s October pro bono summit;
• Large LSC funding cut;
• A look at “veterans court” programs;
• Best places to work in federal government;
• Funding woes facing NC legal aid lawyers;
• More LSC: a development in the LSC/CRLA legal proceedings;
• More more LSC: 5 additions to the Pro Bono Task Force (including a friend of mine!);
• LAFLA + TCC = SoCal MLP;
• USAJobs Version 3 stumbles out of the gates;
• Funding news about Minnesota legal aid lawyers, defenders, and prosecutors;
• The worst of the foreclosure crisis yet to hit NY courts;
• Demand for Maryland Legal Aid Bureau’s services going nowhere but up;
• The Big Easy’s public defender seeks more local funding; and
• Practice-area specialization in law firm pro bono: yea or nay?   

This week(s):

• 11.16.11 – in the L.A.-based Daily Journal, O’Melveny & Myers’s managing counsel for pro bono David Lash recaps his experience at a first-ever Pro Bono Summit hosted by the ABA last month: “We agreed upon and built on a number of themes:
  • Pro bono involvement by the private bar leverages meager resources right now;
  • Professionalization of the pro bono legal services delivery system is critical to maximizing that leverage;
  • Pro bono programs will be only as effective and help only as many clients as the size and strength of the country’s legal aid providers will allow;
  • The advantages of technology must be better tapped …to bring more services to more people in more areas.”

• 11.15.11 – the week’s biggest news is bad news.  Congress has cut Legal Services Corporation funding by over $56,000,000 (about 14%).  Here is National Law Journal coverage, and here is a press release from LSC.  The most recent news, that of the House and Senate passing the bill and of its expected signature by President Obama, comes from The Hill.  No good comes from this.  Programs will be forced to cut staff and reduce services at a time when more and more Americans need legal assistance.  One partially mitigating factor is that some LSC grantee programs planned to absorb a budget-cut shock in their budgets.  But that doesn’t change the underlying reality: a cut in legal services funding at a time of acute need means fewer poor people will be served.  And there will be fewer lawyers to serve them.  Indeed, the NLJ article reports: “In 2010, the groups had 9,059 employees, including 4,351 lawyers. But they shed 445 staffers – including more than 200 lawyers – during the first half of 2011.”

• 11.15.11 – Should some veterans’ offenses be adjudicated in a specialized civilian court?  A piece in the The Atlantic explores this question: “Nearly 80 veterans courts have sprung up across the country over the past four years, and 20 more are expected to open by the end of this year. Many courts accept only nonviolent offenses. Some, like Dallas County, also take violent crimes on a case-by-case basis. Most consider only those veterans who are struggling with mental-health or substance-abuse problems. Many of the judges, lawyers, bailiffs, and court administrators have served or have family in the military, and some volunteer for the courts before or after normal hours. (One attraction of veterans courts is their low local cost, a result of this volunteerism and the provision of counseling by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.)”

• 11.15.11 – want to know who’s happiest working for Uncle Sam?  The Partnership for Public Service has released its 2011 “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” report.  There are no specific ratings for lawyers’ job satisfaction, but the report offers general insight about which agencies cultivate happy, motivated workforces. 

• 11.14.11 – according to the Public News Service, there are hard times on the horizon for both legal services and indigent defense lawyers in the Tar Heel State.  The state cut 20% of its funding to Legal Aid of North Carolina.  “The cuts have forced [LANC] to close four offices and lay off 60 attorneys….  The hourly rate for public defenders was cut as well, and a lapse in funding expected in March of next year will force those attorneys to work without pay until the fiscal year begins again in June.”

• 11.14.11 – the Legal Services Corporation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) scored a legal victory in its effort to gain access to otherwise confidential client information held by California Rural Legal Assistance attorneys.  From McClatchy’s “Suits and Sentences” blog: “The subpoenas [that OIG sought to enforce] will enable investigators to troll through some 37,000 case files, as they search for evidence that California Rural Legal Assistance attorneys may have strayed into politics or in other ways [run afoul of LSC restrictions on grantee program activity]. The legal-aid organization has already turned over some 6,000 pages and several megabytes of data; now, they will have to turn over client names and other information as well.”

• 11.14.11 – more LSC news.  From a press release: “John G. Levi, Chairman of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), today announced the addition of five new members to the Board’s Pro Bono Task Force.  The new Task Force members are Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; Deborah Leff, Deputy Counselor for Access to Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice; Larry S. McDevitt, Chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service; Linda K. Rexer, Executive Director of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, and Angela C. Vigil, Partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP and the firm’s Director of Pro Bono and Community Service for North America.”  Hey, that’s my buddy Angela!  Good choice.  The task force is playing an important role for LSC because a message that came from Capitol Hill in the appropriations process is that engaging the private bar must be a priority.  LSC has long done this but I suppose that the funding cut will necessitate a re-exploration of the best ways to harness private bar support.

• 11.9.11 – Fun with abbreviation: in SoCal, LAFLA and TCC have formed an MLP.  From a press release: “The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) and The Children’s Clinic, “Serving Children and Their Families” (TCC) in Long Beach have formed the Greater Long Beach Medical-Legal Partnership to provide an integrated approach to health-related, legal challenges faced by low-income individuals and families in their everyday lives, particularly in the areas of housing, family law and public benefits.”

• 11.8.11 – Government Executive catches us up on the federal government’s efforts to solve glitches in the new USAJobs website: [An official] announced that the number of resumes uploaded to the redesigned website is fast approaching 1 million. Many users have complained that not all the information on their resumes is being properly uploaded to their online applicant profile.  [The official] explained that though all the information is there, users cannot see the resumes in their entirety. The USAJobs team will be addressing these visibility issues in the coming week, along with a continued focus on password-reset complaints, which remain the topic generating the most help desk tickets.”

• 11.7.11 – Minnesota Public Radio catches us up on funding difficulties confronting civil legal services lawyers, public defenders, and prosecutors in the North Star State.  Some takeaway (and note that Hennepin County is where Minneapolis sits):

• [S]tate funding makes up one-third of [Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance’s] budget. This year, the state reduced its contribution…by $1.6 million.  [MMLA] has already had to cut positions because of decreases in funding from their other public and private sources…. In 2009…they had 73 attorneys; at the beginning of 2012, they’ll be down to 55.
• Unlike Legal Aid, the State’s Board of Public Defense got a slight increase in their state funding…. but it’s not enough to make up for past years of budget cuts [according to Hennepin county’s chief defender]…. [H]e doesn’t have enough lawyers to keep up with caseloads that are more than double the amount recommended by the American Bar Association.
• [Hennepin County Attorney Mike] Freeman said county attorneys haven’t received pay raises in several years. And his office hasn’t hired a new attorney in the last 10 years, he said.

• 11.7.11 – a Thomson Reuters piece conjures up a scary prospect: the full impact of the foreclosure crisis has yet to hit New York courts.  “The flood of foreclosure cases created by the subprime mortgage fallout and high unemployment rates is expected to clog cash-strapped New York courts for the next several years, a New York judge told members of the state Assembly….  [T]he number of homeowners in foreclosure cases who are unrepresented by attorneys has risen from 63 percent in 2010 to roughly 67 percent in 2011….And cuts to the state court budget have decreased the number of judicial hearing officers available to preside over foreclosure settlement conferences, which were made a mandatory part of foreclosure cases in 2009….According to a 2010 report from the New York State Unified Court System, the number of foreclosure cases pending in 2010 rose to 77,815, up from 54,591 the year before.”

• 11.6.11 – a story in The Capital, based in Annapolis, MD, highlights the swelling demand for services at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, as well as the changing demographics of its client community.  “[A]s the economy has slowed…former middle-income wage earners are flocking to Maryland Legal Aid to take seats next to the traditional low-income clients…. Legal Aid…has seen its annual caseload increase from about 40,000 in 2007 to nearly 70,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June….”  MDLAB has seen huge increases in unemployment and other public benefits cases.  One nitpick: the article refers to a “shortage of lawyers willing to work in lower-paying public service roles.”  Come again?

• 11.5.11 – the Times-Picayune on indigent defense funding in New Orleans:  “The head of the Orleans Parish public defender’s office…asked City Council members to increase the agency’s budget for next year, saying the state cannot bail the agency out of its $1.9 million shortfall. Derwyn Bunton, the chief public defender, said his office is looking at cost-cutting measures and whether some of the clients can afford to pay for part of their legal representation. But the sheer magnitude of cases at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court and cutbacks from the state will leave the agency with a deficit next year unless the city provides more money….”

• 11.4.11 – on his “Access to Justice” blog, Richard Zorza explores whether law firms should focus on an area (or areas) of pro bono practice in order to build institutional expertise and deliver high-quality, efficient representation.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers. From my perch at the NALP Global Headquarters I’m looking out at a gray-but-still-beautiful autumn morning.  Well, actually now I’m looking out at a trash truck picking up garbage from a restaurant.  So much of urban beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   

This week: LSC funding movement on the Hill (or in French: le Hill); how Virginia prosecutors and defenders are weathering funding challenges; speaking of, are layoffs coming to the Chicago PD’s office?; the lawyers representing “Occupy” protestors; DV funding for New Hampshire Legal Assistance; controversy surrounding a proposal to put caseload limits on Washington State defenders (story from the glorious city of Yakima, which I once called home). 

• 11.2.11 – our friends at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association offered a useful update about Legal Services Corp. appropriation developments in Congress: “Yesterday the Senate approved by a vote of 69 to 30 a package of three appropriations bills, including the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) appropriation bill for FY 2012.   The measure includes an appropriation for the Legal Services Corporation of $396.1 million for next year.  This amounts to a 2 percent cut from the current level of $404.2 million…”  Read on for discussion of how this may be reconciled with the much lower House LSC appropriation.
• The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog opened up debate about the importance of funding LSC.  You can read the blog post and some commentary (which is pretty good by Internet standards) here.

• 11.1.11 – a piece in the Virginian-Pilot provides numbers on how Virginia prosecutors and PDs are handling funding challenges.  Some data points:
• “In Virginia, the State Compensation Board decreased the budgets for commonwealth’s attorneys statewide by 10 percent in 2010.”
• “Norfolk has lost five prosecutors since last July, dropping the number of attorneys from 44 to 39, Commonwealth’s Attorney Gregory Underwood said.”
• “Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr said in an email that she…lost two attorney positions, which she said she was able to do through attrition rather than layoffs.”
• “A handful of open positions in the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office have remained unfilled, prosecutor Earle C. Mobley said.”
• “Virginia Beach public defender Peter Legler said his office has gone several years without raises but has not lost any attorney positions.”

• 10.31.11 – layoffs among Chicago public defenders?  Quite possible.  From the Sun-Times: “Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle sent out the first wave of layoff notices Monday to roughly 100 employees under her authority, a spokesman said….The layoffs will hit a range of offices under her control, from the public defender’s office to the highway department….County Public Defender Abishi Cunningham didn’t have a precise count of workers in his office receiving notices today but said he hopes the county and the unions will work out a deal as they did before.  ‘We’re still negotiating,’ Cunningham said, adding that he initially thought he was going to have layoffs in his office at the start of this year but negotiations avoided that through furloughs.”

• 10.30.11 – a McClatchy piece looks at the role of lawyers assisting “Occupy” protestors throughout the country.  Noting that many protestors are running into legal entanglements, the piece goes on, “The resulting legal skirmishes have spurred the largest mobilization of pro bono protest attorneys since the anti-war movement of the 1960s and ’70s. ‘It’s probably bigger than the anti-war movement, because there are so many simultaneous demonstrations. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ said Carol Sobel, co-chair of the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild.  Some of the volunteer lawyers draft and file motions, or simply monitor the protests as legal observers. Some advise the activists on how to negotiate with city leaders. Others show up in court – usually on short notice – to represent jailed protesters at their initial court appearances.” 

• 10.29.11 – New Hampshire Legal Assistance received good funding news: the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women renewed a grant which allows NHLA to serve DV victims.  The Nashua Telegraph reports: “The grant, $540,000 over two years, is the prime funding source for the statewide program that offers civil legal services to low-income victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence….”  It’s been a tumultuous funding year for NHLA (as has been the case with so many other programs), so this is certainly welcome news.  (Congrats, John and company!)

• 10.29.11 – the Yakima Herald-Republic reports on the controversy surrounding the Washington State Supeme Court’s consideration of a proposal to put upward limits on public defender caseloads:  “In an effort to make sure indigent clients are receiving adequate legal representation, the state Bar Association recently recommended limiting the number of cases public defenders can handle at any one time.”  The story focuses on arguments against the proposal by Washington cities, including Yakima, which don’t have a way to finance the costs that could attend the rule’s promulgation.  (Unsolicited autobiographical tidbit: I spent a post-college year volunteering with a legal services program in Yakima.  Such a wonderful, formative experience.  And I sure miss hiking the eastern Cascades.)   

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  I offer abject apologies to regular readers (all four of you) for my skipping last week’s installment of the News Bulletin.  But it was nice to see so many folks at the NALP and Equal Justice Works events.  Today the Bulletin returns with a double issue.  There is much to catch up on, including:

• ABA’s Celebrate Pro Bono Week and related events;
• budget cuts take a toll on the nation’s DA’s, defenders, and court systems;
• an American Bar Foundation report looks state by state at access-to-justice frameworks;
• proposed DOJ antitrust field office closures cause a stir;
• a recap: the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair;
• bad legal services funding news from the Treasure State;
• legal services volunteer programs for retiring Baby Boomer lawyers;
• ACLU of Montana takes to task the state’s indigent defense program;
• Michigan’s indigent defense program is under the microscope, too;
• the NLG lawyers looking out for the Occupy Wall Street…occupiers;
• ACLU of Pennsylvania takes to task Allegheny County’s (Pittsburgh) indigent defense program;
• a pro-se assistance center in Maryland goes statewide with a hotline;
• a novel, international-sustainable-development clinical program at Penn St.-Dickinson Law;
• progress in launching a new legal services program in Wyoming;
• the Shriver Center absorbs the Center for Legal Aid Education (CLEA). 

This week(s):

• 10.28.11 – the ABA’s Celebrate Pro Bono Week is coming to a close tomorrow.  We at PSLawNet were deluged with news stories about lawyers and law students throughout the country participating in clinics and other client outreach efforts.  Kudos to the thousands who’ve gotten involved.  We couldn’t begin to recap all the news we read, but here’s a link to the official Celebrate Pro Bono site.  Also, I was fortunate to participate in the ABA’s Pro Bono Summit, which convened here in DC on Monday and Tuesday.  119 very smart people exchanged thoughtful ideas (I was attendee number 120, and I held up my end with un-thoughtful ideas) about where pro bono fits into the larger access-to-justice scheme during hard economic times. I’m looking forward to seeing what the ABA produces as a result of the work done at the Summit.  Here are remarks delivered at the Summit by Attorney General Eric Holder, and here’s NLJ coverage of ABA President Bill Robinson’s Summit remarks.

• 10.26.11 – a well-reported AP piece looks at the toll taken by cuts to prosecutor, public defender, and court-system budgets throughout the country.  “Prosecutors are forced to ignore misdemeanor violations to pursue more serious crimes. Judges are delaying trials to cope with layoffs and strained staffing levels. And in some cases, those charged with violent crimes, even murder, are set free because caseloads are too heavy to ensure they receive a speedy trial.  Deep budget cuts to courts, public defenders, district attorney’s and attorney general offices are testing the criminal justice system across the country. In the most extreme cases, public defenders are questioning whether their clients are getting a fair shake.”  The piece looks specifically at goings-on in AL, CA, IA, NY, and elsewhere.  (The postal abbreviations may pose a challenge for our Millenial Generation readers who have never mailed a letter.  JKLOL!!)

• 10.25.11 – I just got word of an American Bar Foundation report, Access Across America, which reviews the access-to-justice infrastructure in each state and Puerto Rico.  Here’s a link to a summary on ABF’s website, here’s a link to the report, and here’s some language from the report’s executive summary: “Access Across America is the first-ever state-by-state portrait of the services available to assist the U.S. public in accessing civil justice. The report documents, for the nation as a whole and individually for the 50 states and the District of Columbia:
• Who is eligible for free civil legal information, advice or representation (civil legal assistance services);
• How civil legal assistance services are produced and delivered;
• How eligible people may connect with services;
• How civil legal assistance is funded;
• How civil legal assistance is coordinated
• How both no-fee and fee-generating limited-scope civil legal services are regulated.”

• 10.24.11 –some DOJ antitrust attorneys don’t trust DOJ’s decision to close four field offices.  From Government Executive: “Three weeks after the Justice Department proposed closing four of its antitrust division field offices, affected employees are calling for congressional hearings on the matter.  The closings, along with the department’s other budget-trimming proposals, are contingent on Congress, which must approve or fail to respond in order for the plans to move forward, according to attorneys who would be affected by the shuttering of the field offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Cleveland and Philadelphia.”  Incidentally, if you’re a law student or law school career counselor wishing to keep up with similar developments in federal government, I recommend joining Government Executive’s email distribution list.

• 10.24.11 – the Blog of the Legal Times covered last week’s Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair: “Resumes in hand, more than 1,300 law students from across the United States attended this year’s Equal Justice Works annual conference, and more than 1,100 met with employers at the conference’s career fair. [It] brought in 117 employers from 27 states to meet with students on Friday and Saturday. Law students waiting on line for a chance to speak with employers all said they held no illusions about their job prospects right now. Although some students were lucky enough to get formal interviews, many more were taking their chances at the informal ‘Table Talk’ sessions, where students waited on line to get a few minutes alone with employers.”  I feel for public interest law students these days.  It’s perhaps trite advice, but persistence and fortitude in carrying forward with the job search are essential.  (This is true even in better economic times, because there are always more grads interested in public interest than there are job openings.)  Keep using PSLawNet, including the cover letter, resume, and interview tips on our Job Search Fundamentals page.  And email us at pslawnet@nalp.org if you’d have ideas about how we can help more. 

• 10.24.11 – rotten legal services funding news from the Treasure State.  The Missoulian reports: “Poor people seeking divorces in Missoula County will no longer be able to get free legal advice. Likewise for low-income renters who get crosswise with their landlords. The Montana Legal Services Association has laid off attorneys, paralegals and support staff statewide as part of an anticipated $500,000 budget cut in 2012. That’s 15 percent of its total budget.   ‘We are cutting into bone at this point,’ said Alison Paul, executive director of the agency that provides legal assistance in civil cases to low-income people.” 
   
• 10.24.11 – The civil legal services community cannot keep up with swelling demand for services.  Meanwhile, the Baby Boomer exodus from law practice has begun, as the oldest Boomers are at retirement age.  This being the case, what about providing public interest volunteer opportunities to  those lawyers who wish to leave fee-generating practice but also want to remain in practice?  The National Law Journal looks at D.C.’s Senior Attorneys Initiative for Legal Services (SAILS), a program which matches attorneys in or near retirement with pro bono cases (password-protected). SAILS isn’t the only program harnessing the experience and expertise of the profession’s elder statespeople.  In New York State, the Attorney Emeritus Program does something similar.  On the national level, the Pro Bono Institute’s Second Acts project facilitates the movement of retiring attorneys into volunteer work.

• 10.21.11 – more bad Montana news.  The Billings Gazette covers an ACLU report critical of the state’s public defense system:  “The…five-year-old…system is still plagued by mismanagement, with overworked and undertrained attorneys sometimes failing to provide the most basic help to their indigent clients, a new report by the ACLU of Montana says. The report, released this week by the rights organization whose lawsuit led to creation of the new system, said the system has ‘greatly improved’ public defense in some areas of the state. But overall, the system ‘continues to fall short of achieving its full potential’ because of ongoing management problems….”  The Gazette has an accompanying article about poor public defender pay compared to other state lawyers.

• 10.21.11 – Michigan’s embattled public defense system is going under the microscope.  From Interlochen Public Radio (great name!): “A state commission began work this week to ensure that everyone who is accused of a crime in Michigan gets an adequate legal defense. Michigan allows every county to handle its own public defender system. The system is frequently cited as one of the worst in the country. That’s because some counties do a good job of ensuring even people who cannot pay get a good lawyer. Other counties are more haphazard. There are also no training standards for public defenders.”  Here’s additional coverage from the Battle Creek Enquirer.

• 10.18.11 – The American Lawyer looks in on the “about 200 National Lawyers Guild members volunteering as legal observers on the scene at Occupy Wall Street.”

• 10.18.11 –  the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on criticism of the local public defense program: “Poor management and lack of training for new lawyers in the Allegheny County [where Pittsburgh sits] public defender’s office are violating the constitutional rights of those accused of crimes and costing the county millions of dollars in extra jail costs, an ACLU report has concluded…. The ACLU report, entitled ‘A Job Left Undone,’ relies heavily on the research done in a 2008 study for the county by a team led by investigator Alan Kalmanoff of the California-based Institute for Law and Policy Planning, a nonprofit policy and research organization.”  Here’s a link to “A Job Left Undone.”

• 10.17.11 – The Baltimore Sun reports that a pro-se assistance center in one Maryland county has opened a phone line that will allow its lawyers to connect with Marylanders statewide: “The center has helped more than 10,000 people since it opened. However, a lack of space and tight budgets made adding walk-in centers in other District Courts out of the question.  But those in need of advice can now chat online with the center’s four lawyers. Users can remain anonymous and there are no income restrictions….In its first month of hosting live chats, 850 people have used the service. In comparison, the self-help center assisted a record 626 people in August. Officials said chats have been initiated by people in every county except Kent and Somerset.”
   
• 10.17.11 – the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on a new Penn State Dickinson School of Law sustainable development operating in cahoots with engineering and business students:  “Designed as an interdisciplinary collaboration between Penn State’s law school, its College of Engineering and Smeal College of Business, the clinic promises experiential learning through work with real humanitarian projects as part of a team for law students seeking international experience, said Jeff Erickson, professor at Penn State and the clinic’s director…. Mr. Erickson said that, to his knowledge, no other schools are using interdisciplinary project teams to launch international humanitarian efforts in the same manner. What makes the Penn State clinic the first of its kind is the clinic’s humanitarian mission — that its projects are internationally and not locally focused — and that students will design and develop projects themselves.” 

• 10.16.11 – an Asbury Park Press editorial bemoans sharp state funding cuts to legal services in New Jersey: “Under [Governor Chris] Christie, state funding for Legal Aid has dropped from $29.6 million in 2010 to $19.9 million in 2011 to $14.9 million in 2012. That is unconscionable. Decency and fairness demand a restoration of most of those funds and the institution of a formalized program in which lawyers volunteer hours of service to Legal Aid or make a donation….  By next June, there will be only half as many staff attorneys as there were in 2008 to give free help to qualifying low-income New Jerseyans with civil cases.”

• 10.15.11 – K2 Radio reports on the development of Wyoming’s new legal services program: “Officials say the new Wyoming Center For Legal Aid should be up and running in a year or two.  The program was established a year ago after the Wyoming legislature passed the Indigent Civil Legal Services Act during the 2010 budget session.   The center’s goal is to provide legal services for Wyoming residents who fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. The center was officially established in April, and the Wyoming Center For Legal Aid Board of Commissioners recently hired a new law school graduate as its first employee.” 

• 10.14.11 – from the Chicago Tribune, news of a merger in the legal services community: “Legal-aid charities have felt the impact of the economic downturn with declining funding and increasing demand. After revenues fell by 50 percent, the Boston-based Center for Legal Aid Education began considering a merger as a way to cut costs, reduce duplication of services and expand its reach. Its search has culminated in an acquisition by the larger Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, based in Chicago…. One of the gaps in [the Shriver Center’s] offerings was providing training to public-interest lawyers who want to work on complex litigation… The Center for Legal Education has been providing legal training in the New England region for years. When the economy crashed in 2009, the center lost about half of its revenues because many clients that provide legal services lost some of their funding.”  So this makes sense on both ends.  And the piece raises the question of whether more legal services mergers may/should follow.