By: Steve Grumm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jamie Bence

Across the pond, a story similar to one we blogged about last week, as legal aid there faces deep cuts from Parliament. As in the United States, the proposed cuts to service providers have sparked controversy and debate over the role of Legal Services in the justice system.
BBC News has outlined the major provisions of the legislation as follows:

Under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, ministers say they want to end legal aid for:

• Private family law cases, such as divorce and custody battles
• Clinical negligence claims
• Employment and education law
• Immigration, other than where someone is detained
• Some debt, housing and benefit issues.

The government says that domestic violence cases will still receive legal aid and it intends to expand the definition to include mental and sexual abuse.

Sir Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Legal Services Commission, released a statement, saying:

‘The Legal Services Commission is committed to playing its part in delivering these reforms, to ensure there is a sustainable legal aid scheme for the future, targeted at those who need help most.”

The BBC reports that Justice Secretary Ken Clarke had a different take on the proposals:

Mr Clarke has told MPs that the current system “too often encourages people to bring their problems before the courts, even when they are not the right place to provide good solutions and sometimes for litigation that people paying out of their own pocket would not have pursued.”

However, whether the legislation will save money in the long term remains a point of controversy. In an op-ed, Peter Lodder, chairman of the Bar Council, argues:

Legal aid is an insurance policy, paid for through our taxes, that is there for people when something goes wrong. It will come as a shock to many, at what is often among the most stressful times in their lives, to discover that they are being left by the roadside with no one available to assist them.

Worse still, it is far from clear these proposals will even save money. They will disrupt the courts, increase costs and cause delays. Stressed litigants in person, unfamiliar with their surroundings and not used to marshalling their arguments, will prolong hearings. These concerns are not confined to the Bar Council; they have been echoed by the Judges’ Council of England and Wales.

The reforms have had a startling impact on the Immigration Advisory Service, which had 14 branches handling thousands of immigration cases until recently, when their doors closed due to budget cuts. BBC reports:

In a statement, the IAS said: “The government’s reforms include the removal of immigration from the scope of legal aid, and a 10% cut in legal aid fees for refugees seeking asylum within the UK. Immigration accounts for around 60% of IAS’s income.

“There are few organisations that could cope with the compound effect of removal of immigration from the scope of legal aid and a cut in fees for asylum clients.”

While it remains to be seen what budget cuts legal services will face stateside, the problems associated with drastic reductions in legal services are already clear in the UK.

By Jamie Bence

Today, the Wall Street Journal examines a growing trend among law schools to offer more practice-oriented courses in the wake of the recession. The article points out that these changes are largely in response to employers’ criticism of newly minted attorneys:

“Law firms are saying, ‘You’re sending us people who are not in a position to do anything useful for clients.’ This is a first effort to try and fix that,” says Larry Kramer, the law dean at Stanford.

The moves come amid a prolonged downturn in the legal job market. Only about one-quarter of last year’s graduating law-school classes—down from 33% in 2009—snagged positions with big law firms, according to the National Association for Law Placement, an organization that collects employment data.

The article also points out the incongruities between law schools and other professional schools, which typically take a more practice-oriented approach. Changes being implemented at several law schools are highlighted in the article:

Indiana University Maurer School of Law started teaching project management this year and also offers a course on so-called emotional intelligence. The class has no textbook and instead uses personality assessments and peer reviews to develop students’ interpersonal skills.

New York Law School hired 15 new faculty members over the past two years, many directly from the ranks of working lawyers, to teach skills in negotiation, counseling and fact investigation. The school says it normally hires one or two new faculty a year, and usually those focused on legal research.

And Washington and Lee University School of Law completely rebuilt its third-year curriculum in 2009, swapping out lectures and Socratic-style seminars for case-based simulations run by practicing lawyers.

A few elite players also are making adjustments. Harvard Law School last year launched a problem-solving class for first-year students, and Stanford Law School is considering making a full-time clinical course—which entails several 40-hour plus weeks of actual case work—a graduation requirement.

As the PSLawNet Blog has noted in the past, it will be interesting to see how a movement to more experiential learning models may impact public interest programming at law schools.  Clinical programs, externships, and pro bono work are already among the main avenues through which students can get hands-on legal experience, so it’s possible that a push toward more experiential learning programs may lead to a boost in public interest opportunities.

For more information on specific changes that schools are implementing, read the complete article here.

By: Steve Grumm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By: Steve Grumm

On the heels of our brief post yesterday about a proposal in the House to slash LSC funding by over 25% in FY12, LSC put out a press release.  We’ve reprinted it is in its entirety below.  In some ways this funding proposal is just an opening salvo.  LSC’s board favors an FY12 appropriation of about $515 million, and the Obama Administration supports $450 million in LSC funding.  The Senate subcommittee charged with LSC funding hasn’t produced a figure yet.

Nevertheless,  the House proposal is alarming.  It is being marked up today by the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations subcommittee, with a full committee markup scheduled for next week.  According to the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the House wants to bring a funding bill to the floor before an August 5 recess.  The Senate is moving more slowly on this front, however.

Here’s LSC’s press release:    

July 6, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

House Proposal Would Cut Civil Legal Aid by $104 Million

Washington, DC— Funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) would be cut by 26 percent in Fiscal Year 2012 under a proposal announced by the House Appropriations Committee today. The Committee bill proposes a $300 million budget for LSC—rolling back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999.

Basic field grants, which are currently provided to 136 nonprofit civil legal aid programs across the nation, would be cut to $274.4 million, a 27.5 percent reduction from current funding of $378.6 million.

LSC’s preliminary estimates show that about 235,000 low-income Americans eligible for civil legal assistance at LSC-funded programs would be turned away if the Committee proposal were enacted.

“The proposed cut would prove to be especially damaging to low-income persons whose health and safety are at risk—the elderly, the victims of domestic violence, the disabled, children, veterans and others—by denying them access to justice,” LSC President James J. Sandman said.

“At LSC programs, requests for assistance are increasing. The poverty population eligible for civil legal assistance has grown by 17 percent since 2008, to an all-time high of 63 million Americans. And funding from non-federal sources is decreasing. This is not the time to undercut the fundamental American commitment to equal justice for all,” Mr. Sandman said.

In April, Congress cut LSC funding by 4 percent for Fiscal Year 2011, to $404.2 million from $420 million. The impact of that cutback, combined with reductions in state funds, Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts and other funding sources, has put many LSC-funded programs under great financial stress.

LSC-funded programs by the end of 2011 project net staff reductions of 445 employees, including more than 200 attorneys, because of layoffs and attrition, according to survey responses provided by 121 of the 136 LSC-funded programs.  In the responses, 57 percent of the programs project budget deficits for 2011 totaling more than $19 million. Forty-two percent of the respondents said they had imposed a salary freeze, and 31 percent anticipate reducing employee benefits this year.

Some LSC-funded programs have dipped into reserve funds to postpone downsizing and reduced client services, but almost all report that continued cuts to their funding in 2012 will lead to layoffs, office closures and reduced services to clients. Many rural areas, where there are not enough private lawyers to volunteer pro bono services, will be especially vulnerable to office closures because they are already minimally staffed.

Last year, the 136 nonprofit programs funded by LSC closed nearly 1 million cases, which affected 2.3 million people. The legal aid programs also assisted an additional 1.4 million Americans, through referrals to private lawyers, self-help workshops and other services.

From 2009 to 2010, foreclosure cases were up 20 percent at LSC-funded programs; unemployment compensation cases increased 10.5 percent; landlord-tenant disputes rose by 7.7 percent; bankruptcy, debt relief and consumer finance cases were up by nearly 5 percent, and domestic violence cases increased by 5 percent.

“Never in American history has the need for federal support for access to justice been clearer. We look forward to working with the Congress in the coming weeks on continuing and expanding civil legal assistance to low-income Americans,” Mr. Sandman said.

Established by Congress in 1974, LSC is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and funds high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and families.  LSC-funded programs provide legal services to persons at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline.

By: Steve Grumm
Just got an email update from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.  Bad, bad news:

House Appropriations Subcommittee Slashes LSC Funding

 The House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations subcommittee has posted its draft FY 2012 bill, which recommends a $104 million reduction for Legal Services Corporation funding. Markup is scheduled for tomorrow, July 7, and full committee markup is Wednesday, July 13.

 The subcommittee’s recommendation is $300 million, a $104 million reduction from the FY 2011 funding level of $404.2 million. The entire cut comes from the basic field line, which is reduced by 27.5 percent – from $378 million to $274 million.

….

The message does close with some slightly reassuring news:

The Senate subcommittee has not drafted its bill yet. We expect the White House to strongly defend its request of $450 million, and we are hopeful that LSC will get an increase over FY 2011 funding. The Senate is unlikely to act before the August recess. If last year is any barometer of the FY 2012 process, we may well see a number of continuing resolutions throughout the fall.

By: Steve Grumm

From Richard Zorza’s Access to Justice Blog, we learn of a resources page listing federal grants available to legal services providers:

Special thanks to the DOJ Access Initative for its Grants Information Page, bringing together informtion about a wide range of Federal grants, including many that would not normally get the attention of access advocates.

For example as of his date, the civil area includes information about a Neighborhood Revialization grant program.

The page allows you to subscribe for e-mail alerts when there is an update.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Independence Day Weekend, Dear Readers!  Here in the nation’s capital, we will celebrate modern democracy with barbeques, fireworks, debt ceiling debate madness, Colbert Super PAC, and humidity.  Yay!  Kidding aside, we wish you a happy and safe weekend.  Now, returning to our democratic system of government, let’s catch up on news related to the pursuit of equal justice for all.    

This week: a libertarian look at public defender caseloads; the Public Defender Corps is up and runnin’; DOJ still working through the Bush-era “politics in hiring” scandal; IOLTA funds disbursed in the Hawkeye State; in CA, child care funding for welfare-to-work families reinstated after cuts; have more law grads been going into public interest work in the past 20 years?; tough times for the Cleveland Legal Aid Society and other Ohio organizations which rely on IOLTA funding. 

• July, 2011 – a piece in this month’s edition of Reason, a libertarian journal, highlights the case overload pressing down upon many public defenders, forcing them to triage cases and work out quick pleas rather than being able to delve into factual investigations that may help their clients.  The piece also notes that appointed counsel are often under-compensated for their work.

• 6.29.11 – the Public Defender Corps, a program co-managed by Equal Justice Works and the Southern Public Defender Training Center, is up and running.  The Rochester City Paper (in the lovely Finger Lakes region of New York) reports on two incoming fellows: “Two young attorneys will serve three-year fellowships in the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office: part of a new national program focused on training newer attorneys in public interest law.  Katherine Higgins, a Cornell Law School graduate, and Felipe Alexandre, a graduate of the Indiana University School of Law, will start in the defender’s office in August ”  There are presently 18 Public Defender Corps fellows working in 12 defenders’ offices, according to the article.  Equal Justice Works’s website has more info on the Public Defender Corps.

• 6.28.11 – No liberals need apply!  The legal battle over alleged political vetting of job candidates in the Bush Administration DOJ continues.  According to the Blog of the Legal Times: “The Justice Department is urging a federal judge in Washington to reject a suit that alleges department officials in 2006 used job candidates’ political and ideological affiliation to decide whether to grant interviews to applicants. The claims from three plaintiffs, each a former applicant for the Justice Department’s highly competitive Honors Program, stem from an internal DOJ report published in 2008 that found members of a screening committee improperly examined political and ideological affiliation in rejecting candidates.”

• 6.28.11 – the Hawkeye State’s high court is spreading the cash around in the legal services community. Eastern Iowa News Now reports: “Non-profit programs providing legal aid to low-income Iowans with civil legal problems got a boost today with the Iowa Supreme Court’s announcement of more than $321,000 in grants for those organizations. The court has awarded grants to 15 organizations statewide, including Cedar Rapids-based Kids First Law Center” as well as Iowa Legal Aid and the Iowa State Bar Association Public Service Project.”  The grants come from IOLTA fund proceeds.

• 6.27.11 – chalk up a win for a sextet of public interest organizations which sued the (sometimes-great) State of California in an effort to preserve child care services for wage-earners who have made the welfare-to-work move.  The Lake County News has the scoop: “The state of California agreed that the CalWORKS Stage 3 program will continue to offer child care services for parents who have successfully transitioned off welfare but whose wages are still too low to cover child care.  The settlement affects the families of more than 56,000 California children who had been told they would lose their child care last October, as Lake County News has reported.  The suit was brought by the Public Interest Law Project, the Child Care Law Center, the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, Public Counsel Law Center and Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. “

• 6.27.11 – “Public Interest Law Becoming a Hot Ticket,” according to a headlining piece in the National Law Journal.  Present employment market woes notwithstanding, the article looks at a 20-year shift on law school campuses that has led to more robust public interest career advising programs, LRAPs, and clinical programs, as well as the advent of postgraduate fellowship funders like Equal Justice Works and the Skadden Foundation.  The result, according to the piece, is more prestige attached to public interest career paths, and an increase in the number of grads who pursue those paths.  The article leans heavily on NALP data showing an uptick in the percentage of law grads taking public interest jobs – citing a growth from 2.1% in 1990 to 6.7% in 2010 (although some of that growth is attributable to a data classification change on NALP’s end, and some of the most recent data likely reflect the increase in law school graduate bridge programs which place graduates in public interest positions.)

• 6.27.11 – A Crain’s Cleveland Business article (it’s password-protected, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one) looks at the nosedive that Ohio IOLTA funding has taken – a 72% drop since 2007 – and its impact on legal services providers, particularly the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland:  “IOLTA revenue for the Legal Aid Society…had fallen by last year to $928,000 from $3.38 million in 2007.”   This has impacted staffing; the Legal Aid Society froze salaries in early 2010 and hasn’t hired an attorney in the past couple of years.  And this, in turn, impacts the growing numbers of would-be clients who must be turned away for lack of resources to help them.

By Steve Grumm and Jamie Bence

Some exciting news for legal aid providers in the capital:

“The DC Bar Foundation announced awards totaling $865,000 to support direct civil legal services for the poor and underserved in the District. These grants are in addition to the $2.8 million the Foundation awarded in April 2011 with funding from the District government, and to the more that $500,000 the Foundation awarded in FY2011 Loan Repayment Assistance Program loans to DC poverty lawyers, and training and technical assistance for the District’s legal services community.”

“The economic downturn has created an enormously challenging environment for non-profit civil legal services organizations, precisely at a time when the need for their services is increasing. We are grateful for the continued support of our legal community, and the commitment of local financial institutions to securing a baseline of     funding for legal services in our city,” said W. Mark Smith, President of the D.C. Bar Foundation.

The grants will help fund 22 organizations that make legal services available to those less fortunate who would not otherwise have access to assistance. The grants are made after a detailed evaluation of grant proposals, site visits and interviews.

You can read the Bar Foundation’s complete release here, including a list of the grant recipients, which include the Legal Aid Society, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, and exactly 19 others.

By: Steve Grumm (with big assists from Lauren Forbes and Jamie Bence)

Happy Friday, dear readers!  The bulletin was on vacation last week, so today we bring you two weeks of news.  Featured: legal services office closure threat in TN; an all-star panel tackles the civil justice gap; how could a MN state government shutdown impact indigent defense?; NY indigent defense programs will save some coin, courtesy of the state legislature; an access-to-justice conference today in Honolulu; SCOTUS says no right to counsel in civil contempt proceeding; wrongful convictions in IL have cost taxpayers millions; CA’s capital punishment program has done the same to Golden State taxpayers; also in CA, a new court diversionary program to benefit the homeless; the state high court acts to channel funding to legal services in Hawaii; NELP launches a new website for fair wage advocates; an innovative program in Oregon pairs law grads with public interest advocates to help the former build skills; a new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas; more funding woes in TN; after a state funding cut, local officials scramble to help fund Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in FL; in NC, Pisgah Legal Services loses some funding in political spat; a legal clinic in Mexico does some groundbreaking work toward promoting the rule of law; a great primer on the current state of Legal Services Corp. funding; the Missouri indigent defense crisis has victims.

• 6.24.11 – a potential legal services office closure in Tennessee.  The Cleveland Daily Bulletin reports that, due to funding pressures, Legal Aid of East Tennessee may close its Bradley County office. LAET is taking last-ditch measures to try to avoid a closure, but things don’t look great and they will make a decision sometime in 2011.  (And see below for more bad news for another Tennessee legal services program.)

• 6.22.11 – I had a chance to attend a terrific program called “Closing the Justice Gap,” hosted by the Center for American Progress.  I’m hoping to do a write-up on it later.  Suffice to say for now, though, the program panelists have all penned white papers on the access-to-justice crisis.  The papers, from different angles, look at the significant barriers facing poor people who try to access the justice system, and they propose solutions toward knocking down those barriers.  All four papers are worth a read:
•  Grounds for Objection by Joy Moses, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress;
• The Justice Gap by Alan Houseman, executive director at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) – and speaking of CLASP, scroll down to see a terrific update on Legal Services Corporation funding from CLASP’s Linda Perle;
• When Second Best is the Best We Can Do, by Prof. Peter Edelman of Georgetown Univ. Law Center;
• Access to Evidence, by a team of authors from Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.

• 6.22.11 – the Detroit Lakes Tribune (don’t be fooled, it’s in Minnesota) reports on the question of whether a Minnesota state government shutdown, which may take effect on July 1, could mean that the criminal justice system goes awry because public defenders are not allowed to work: “The Minnesota Board of Public Defense is concerned about the effects of government shutdown on Minnesota’s judicial system, and has asked a district judge to include the public defender system with other essential state functions.  [According to an official w/ the BPD,] a shutdown on July 1 could mean that people accused of minor offenses will have to sit in jail for three days because there’s no judge to let them out. Or worse, that people accused of serious crimes will go free, either for lack of a public defender or failure by the state to meet its requirement for a timely trial.”  The piece also highlights how badly the recession has impacted the state’s defenders.  Three years ago the BPD had 421 attorneys; now it t has 347.

• 6.22.11 – the NewsLI website (from Lawwnng Eye-land, NY) reports that the state legislature passed a fee waiver that should benefit public defense programs, and the counties that fund them: New York State Senate today gave final legislative passage to legislation, sponsored by Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (R-Merrick), to help counties save money in providing public defense services to individuals who cannot afford an attorney.  The legislation (S5474) would exempt legal aid societies from having to pay a fee to search DMV records in public defense cases. This exemption would provide savings to the counties who fund the services provided by legal aid societies.”

• 6.20.11 – um, my invitation to the access-to-justice conference taking place today in Honolulu must have been lost in the mail.  The Pacific Business News notes that the Hawaii Access to Justice Conference will “deep-dive into the major issues affecting access to civil legal services in Hawaii for underserved populations.  Among the most pressing issues to be tackled at this year’s conference is the search for more funding sources for legal services providers that cater to these groups — organizations such as Legal Aid Society of Hawaii , the Hawaii Justice Foundation and the Mediation Center of the Pacific — which were hit hard in the economic downturn when government funding for their programs was slashed.”  The Aloha State’s AtJ Commission was created in 2008.  Here’s a link to their most recent report, from 2010.  And see a few stories down for some good funding news for Hawaii legal services providers…

• 6.20.11 – the National Law Journal reports on a potential setback for Civil Gideon advocates.  In an opinion issued in the matter of Turner v. Rogers this week, SCOTUS came down against extending the right to counsel to a defendant in a civil contempt proceeding.  From NLJ (article may be pw-protected): “On the question of right to counsel [a decision having been reached on other grounds], [Justice] Breyer wrote that there was little precedent to guide the Court. For example, in a 1967 case, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause requires states to pay for counsel in a civil ‘juvenile delinquency’ proceeding, but that case was similar to a criminal prosecution. Breyer wrote that three reasons argue against providing counsel to child-support defendants like Turner: the proceedings are ‘sufficiently straightforward’ that a lawyer isn’t necessary; the custodial parent often doesn’t have a lawyer and could be disadvantaged; and other procedural safeguards could given the defendant sufficient due process.”  The specific facts of this case are nuanced and very important to the decision.  The Turner v. Rogers decision is available in full on the SCOTUS website.

• 6.20.11 – a different National Law Journal piece reports on a study out of Chicago finding the cost to the public of wrongful convictions in Illinois over the past two decades to have topped $200 million:  “Wrongful convictions don’t just harm those who spend time in jail for crimes they didn’t commit and their families. They also come at a hefty cost to the public, according to a study by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based good-government group.
  The study concluded that wrongful convictions for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers more than $214 million since 1989. Those wrongful convictions also resulted in people later proven innocent spending more than 900 years in prison…. Researchers calculated the financial toll by tallying the cost of incarceration, compensation to those wrongfully convicted and civil litigation costs. Settlement payments represented the largest portion of the bill, at nearly $160 million. Another $31.6 million was spent to hire private attorneys to defend the government against civil suits, while jail and prison costs totaled $18.5 million. State compensation payments came to $8.2 million.”  Here’s a link to the report on the Better Government Association’s website.

• 6.20.11 – as noted above, putting the wrong people in jail costs Illinois taxpayers a lot of money.  According to a Los Angeles Times article, maintaining California’s capital punishment system is also a bit pricey: “Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, according to a comprehensive analysis of the death penalty’s costs.  The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year…. The authors outline three options for voters to end the current reality of spiraling costs and infrequent executions: fully preserve capital punishment with about $85 million more in funding for courts and lawyers each year; reduce the number of death penalty-eligible crimes for an annual savings of $55 million; or abolish capital punishment and save taxpayers about $1 billion every five or six years.”

• 6.18.11 -also in California, the Marin Independent Journal reports on a new, diversionary program to help the homeless deal with minor legal infractions outside of court:  “The Marin Community Court, a collaboration among Legal Aid of Marin, the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin County and the Marin County Superior Court, has held three sessions [since its launch in April].”  One of the program’s driving motivations is helping the homeless and those struggling with housing to avoid the spiral of accumulating legal fines and penalties that begins when they can not afford to resolve a problem at the outset.  The Community Court program includes one-on-one counseling sessions between a participant and an attorney, and then a “hearing” which often results in sentencing that focuses on treatment and support services rather than sanctions.  (A note to the law student readers who are interested in postgraduate fellowship proposals:  If I were in your shoes I would give serious thought to proposals that help poor people more efficiently navigate the justice system, like either diversionary programs or courthouse resource centers for pro se litigants.  There are a lot of people these days who can’t afford a lawyer, and there are a lot of courthouse officials looking for ways to keep the wheels of justice turning smoothly by helping these people navigate the system as efficiently, and as cheaply, as possible.)

• 6.17.11 – TheHonolulu Star Advertiser reports that Hawaiian legal services providers are due to benefit from class-action residual funds: “A rule adopted by the Hawaii Supreme Court helps clear the way for money left over from class-action lawsuits to be given to nonprofit groups that provide legal services to the poor. The rule takes effect July 1 and provides guidance on how to distribute money from lawsuits after the plaintiffs, attorney fees and expenses have been paid. Those residual funds include money for plaintiffs who cannot be located or who don’t file claims….  The groups that would qualify for the money under the high court rule include the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Elder Law Program, Voluntary Legal Services Hawaii and the Domestic Violence Action Center.”

• 6.17.11 – the National Employment Law Project has launched a  new website – Raise the Minimum Wage – focused on, well, raising the minimum wage.  It’s an easy-to-navigate site with a broad array of resources, news items, and data for fair wage advocates or those who wish to learn more about the cause.

• 6.17.2011- The ABA Journal reports that a new program in Oregon for recently graduated lawyers is receiving overwhelming response. Announced last month, the Practical Skills through Public Service Program pairs Oregon law school graduates with public interest attorneys, in hopes of giving young practitioners the opportunity to learn by doing. The Oregonian reports that this program is part of a larger effort in the state to prepare new law grads for solo practice, in light of diminishing offers from law firms.

• 6.17.2011- A new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas aims to improve access to healthcare and education for at-risk children in the state. Walmart and Legal Aid of Arkansas have teamed up to provide legal assistance to children and families staying at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, providing holistic advice and guidance to help children and families get back on track. KTHV notes: “Direct access to legal services will help many families address obstacles to good health and continuing recovery. Attorneys can help families who need utility service recovery for the child’s home care, assistance negotiating with a landlord over the environment of an apartment or even special educational testing.”

• 6.16.2011- Just four attorneys will remain to assist clients at Northeast Tennessee Legal Aid after the end of this month. Federal budget cuts coupled with dwindling grants and donations have caused the office to lay off one third of its attorneys, including an associate director, according to TriCities News.

• 6.15.2011- The Jacksonville Daily Record calls the new ethics commission now in place for the city government “a promise kept.” In a unanimous vote after several months of heated debate, the city council voted to reinstate an ethics code and ultimately create an independent Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight. In the same session, the council considered a bill to impose a $50 court fee to benefit Jacksonville Legal Aid, a measure supported by Fourth Circuit Judge Donald Moran and intended to help offset decreased funding from the Florida Bar Foundation and the state legislature. “The funds from the court fee would be used to provide free legal services for the disadvantaged through JALA, including services to domestic violence victims, the mentally ill or disabled, the un-deremployed or unemployed, residents facing landlord/tenant issues or homelessness, foreclosure-related educational, mediation and defense programs, and the elderly.” The council will vote on the measure during its June 28^th meeting.

• 6.15.11 Sadly, in North Carolina, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted to discontinue county funding for nonprofit Pisgah Legal Services at the request of Chairman Mike Edney. PLS provides free civil legal aid to help low-income people avoid homelessness, escape domestic violence, access health care and meet other basic needs.  At the meeting, Edney, an attorney, said PLS “does provide some benefit to our community,” particularly in the area of domestic violence, but wanted to withdraw the $16,745 in county funding for 2011-12 partly because PLS sometimes “oversteps its bounds,” such as getting attorney’s fees out of landlords.

• 6.14.11 – the Los Angeles Times profiles the work of a novel legal clinic in Mexico City, through which law students have achieved groundbreaking results for their clients in a justice system which has a tenuous relationship with the rule of law: “The clinic is part of a Mexico City university called the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, or CIDE. The center’s legal studies program combines law school training with hands-on public interest advocacy, a novel field in a nation where many attorneys are poorly trained and their best weapon is often a bribe…. Students, guided by [Professor Javier] Angulo and another staff lawyer, work on the cases for free. Many of them probe uncharted terrain and have yielded legal precedents or led to new laws, such as one easing the penalty for abortions.  As Mexico works to cultivate a fully functioning democracy, the 6-year-old clinic is an effort to modernize a system long viewed as a factory of injustice.”

• 6.14.11 CLASP’s Legal Services Corporation update reiterates the uncertainty and disconcerting impact that the proposed cuts would have. LSC has asked Congress to appropriate $516.5 million for FY 2012.  President Obama’s budget request sought $450 million for LSC.  However, during the April 5, 2011, hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) on the FY 2012 LSC budget, there was again discussion of returning LSC funding to the FY 2008 level — all in the name of deficit reduction.  CLASP is working to increase the LSC funding level in the Senate and is hopeful that the Senate will adopt a funding level close to the President’s request of $450 million.   given the slow pace of events to date, and the need for Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling before August 2, there is unlikely to be a conclusive action on LSC’s FY 2012 funding before September.

• 6.14.11 In Missouri, Jared Blacksher is caught in the middle of a public defender debate.  Last year, Blacksher, 22, reached a plea deal with prosecutors that would have put him in a drug treatment program.  In July 2010, Blacksher was booked into the Christian County Jail on charges of burglary and forgery. He and prosecutors reached a plea agreement that would have given him 120 days in a drug treatment program in the Missouri Department of Corrections, which would have ended in January. However, he never got a chance to enter the program — his was one of the first cases the Missouri Supreme Court put on hold in 2010 during debate over the Missouri public defender system, putting him in jail. Assistant Prosecutor Ben Miller said Blacksher’s case is an unfortunate one that could have been prevented had he been able to take advantage of a plea agreement last year.