Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  This week’s bulletin brings you two weeks of news (read: your author dropped the ball last week).  A legal education update before that.  This New York Times story suggests that law schools will face smaller student bodies and decreased revenue in the near future.  A National Law Journal piece focuses on the recent enrollment decline.

On to the public interest and access to justice news.  In very, very brief:

• the poor job market in civil legal aid;
• profiles of pro bono champions;
• $1 million in Sandy relief funding to LSC;
• Massachusetts lawyers march for more legal aid funding;
• family law pro bono in the Bay Area;
• controversy over Nebraska’s indigent defense system;
• ditto, Washington State;
• pro bono’s growth in Charm City;
• indigent defense hits the silver screen;
• a recap of two events promoting technology as an ATJ tool;
• the work of Iowa Legal Aid
• MN practice rule change could result in more in-house pro bono;
• New York’s top jurist is intrigued by proposal to allow bar exam after 2 years of law school.

The summaries:

• I just wrote about recently collected data on the civil legal aid job market:  “As has been well documented, the Great Recession led to a great diminution in the funding that supports the civil legal aid community. Federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has been slashed. Interest on lawyers trust account (IOLTA) funding, which supports LSC-funded providers and legal aid providers that don’t receive LSC funds, has bottomed out.  Foremost on the minds of all legal aid stakeholders is the impact that this funding shortage will have on clients, of whom there are recently many more— also a consequence of the recession. One facet of the legal aid funding crisis is the limitation that providers suffer in hiring and retaining attorneys to serve clients. Data compiled separately by LSC and NALP in 2012 shows that strains on funding are drastically limiting the legal aid community’s hiring capacity.”  Here’s the full piece, which reviews the new data,  in the February edition of NALP’s Bulletin.

• Speaking of February editions, the cover story of this month’s ABA Journal is entitled “Working for free: Lawyers incorporating pro bono into their lives talk about its rewards, challenges.”  The piece notes the increasing sophistication of pro bono programs in law firms, and profiles a handful of lawyers who maintain pro bono practices.  “Once perceived and defined as ‘charity work’ governed solely by personal conscience, pro bono has evolved into a professional responsibility and a powerful force inside the practice of law.”

• 1.29.13 – an announcement from LSC: “The Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Bill (H.R. 152), which passed the U.S. Senate last night on a 62-36 vote, includes $1 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to provide assistance to low-income people in areas significantly affected by the super storm.  The House passed an identical version of the bill on January 15^th.  President Obama is expected to sign the bill this week.”

• 1.28.13 – “Lawyers are planning an event to urge Massachusetts lawmakers to increase state funding for civil legal aid for children and adults living in poverty.  ‘Walk to the Hill,’ scheduled for Wednesday, is sponsored by the Equal Justice Coalition, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association and other bar associations throughout the state.”  (Short report from the AP.)

• 1.27.12 – from the Bay Area, an Oakland Press story looks at the work of the Family Law Assistance Project, a pro bono clearinghouse through which “more than 150 volunteer attorneys offering their services to low-income Oakland County residents.”

• 1.25.13 – a battle over how county-generated funds are used by Nebraska’s state indigent defense program.  “Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh has renewed his quest to let Douglas County quit contributing to a state commission that defends indigent people in criminal matters.  That’s because Douglas County rarely uses the commission, most often opting instead for private, court-appointed lawyers to augment its county public defender’s office….  ‘We (in Douglas County) have our own defense bar we retain for indigent defense when our public defender has conflicts,’ Lautenbaugh said. ‘We don’t need the commission, and shouldn’t have to fund such a large portion of it.’  The commission, which has six lawyers and two administrative staffers, has an annual budget of some $1.1 million — all paid for by a $3 surcharge on all state court cases. Douglas County sends some $385,000 to the commission each year, or 35 percent of the commission’s budget.”  (Story from the Lincoln Journal Star.)

• 1.25.13 – from Washington State: “The state Attorney General’s office is trying to put the brakes on a legal settlement that would give public defenders access to the same state pension benefits as prosecutors and other court employees. In a letter earlier this month to attorneys for the plaintiff and King County, AG senior counsel Anne Hall said the settlement appears to violate state law and could be “catastrophic” for the pension plan’s financial health.  Meanwhile, public disclosure documents recently obtained offer new–and some say, troubling–information about a related plan to make public defenders county employees.”  (Story from a Seattle Weekly blog.)

• 1.25.13 – a password-protected Baltimore Business Journal story looks at the growth and sophistication of law firm pro bono programs.

• 1.23.12 – the director/producer of “Gideon’s Army”, a new documentary focusing on public defenders and the country’s indigent defense framework, talks about her film in a New York Times video piece.

• 1.22.13 – LSC’s newly appointed Chief Information Office, Peter Campbell, recounts his experience at two LSC-sponsored events which focused on technology’s role in promoting access to justice.

• 1.20.13 – a local paper highlights the work of Iowa Legal Aid, which has staff of 50 attorneys and coordinates the work of 2,500 volunteer attorneys [who provide] more than $2 million worth of pro bono service each year.”   (Story from the Times-Republican.)

• 1.18.13 – a practice rule amendment in Minnesota makes it easier for in-house counsel to do pro bono work.  (Short story from the Minnesota Lawyer.)

• 1.18.13 – “A proposal to allow students to take the New York Bar Exam after two years of law school has piqued the interest of the state’s top judge.  Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman stopped short of formally endorsing the idea when it was taken out for a public airing on January 18 at New York University School of Law. But he told the more than 100 gathered legal educators, practitioners and judges that the concept deserves serious study.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.)

• Super Music Bonus: let’s hear a new song from Benjamin Gibbard, with an assist from Aimee Mann.  Here’s a live version of “Bigger Than Love.“

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks, from a windy but otherwise beautiful Washington, DC.  I hope your week is wrapping up well.  Ever felt the solo-driver’s frustration at not being able to use the carpool lane?  Ever experienced Bay Area traffic?  Ever wondered for what purposes a corporation is a person?  Mix ’em all together and you get this: “Jonathan Frieman…failed to convince a Marin County Superior Court jurist Monday after he argued that he was not alone when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over…while driving in the carpool lane.  Instead, Frieman admitted that he had reached onto the passenger’s seat and handed the officer papers of incorporation connected to his family’s charity foundation.  By Frieman’s estimation, if corporations are indeed persons as was first established in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., and he offered evidence that a corporation was traveling inside his vehicle – riding shotgun, of course – then two people were in his car.”  Brilliant!

It’s perhaps fitting that Mr. Frieman bears a close resemblance to the highly eccentric Detective John Munch, a character from the old crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.  For those of you too young to remember Homicide, it was a gritty, critically acclaimed show based on a book by David Simon, who went on to create HBO’s even grittier, even more acclaimed The Wire.  For those of you too young to remember The Wire, well you are indeed too young.

Moving ever closer to topical relevance, it’s noteworthy that officials in New York State are looking at the importance of law school’s third year.  From the National Law Journal:  “Legal educators and top New York state court officials will gather on January 18 to discuss whether to allow candidates to sit for the New York state bar examination after just two years in law school. The idea was floated by Samuel Estreicher, a professor at New York University School of Law, who believes skyrocketing law school tuition and diminishing job prospects for new lawyers have created a climate favorable to reform.”  Here’s a New York Times op-ed co-authored by Professor Estreicher, making the case for change.

One more preliminary: we hosted a webinar this week for law students, focused on drafting the best cover letters and resumes for the summer public interest job search.  The webinar’s archived here.  Critics rave: “The most riveting one-hour spectacle since The Wire!”  On Tuesday, 1/22, at Noon Eastern, our friends at Equal Justice Works are taking the reins to present a webinar on interviewing and networking.  Learn more and register here.

Okay, this week’s public interest and access to justice news in very brief:

• NYC’s Legal Aid Society returns to lower Manhattan office after extended Sandy displacement;
• the Last Resort Exoneration Project is up and running at Seton Hall Law;
• pro bono’s down Down Under;
• IOLTA FDIC insurance change explained;
• is law school pro bono’s future bright?;
• in Gideon’s 50th anniversary year, a criminal justice reform proposal;
• LSC’s TIG conference;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

• 1.16.13 -“The Legal Aid Society is finally home again.  Hundreds of staffers returned to their headquarters on Tuesday, 2-1/2 months after Superstorm Sandy damaged the building at 199 Water Street and forced them to seek other office space.  The group found refuge at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, as well as at Legal Aid’s other satellite offices around the city.  The telephone lines remain out of service, but everything else is back to normal, said spokeswoman Pat Bath.  Legal Services NYC and the New York Legal Assistance Group also were displaced by Sandy but have already returned to their offices.  NYLAG’s staff members were housed at UJA-Federation of New York and at a host of law firms around the city before remanning their office at 7 Hanover Square last Thursday, said president Yisroel Schulman.  Legal Services was forced out of its downtown offices for about a week, with most of its lawyers moving to its Harlem office.”  (Story from Thomson-Reuters.)

• 1.16.13 – “In the last 15 years, eight people have been exonerated in New Jersey, the majority with DNA evidence….  In an effort to bring more of these cases to light, the Last Resort Exoneration Project at Seton Hall University School of Law was established to offer pro bono legal services. It is the first and only program dedicated exclusively to the convicted innocent in New Jersey.  The Last Resort Exoneration Project recently filed its first petition…”  (Story from PolitickerNJ.com.)

• 1.14.12 – “The Legal Services Expenditure Report 2011-2012 found that more than half of the top 30 Australasian firms reporting in both 2011 and 2012 registered a decline in pro bono work.  According to the web site Legal Business Online, the report also found that only 11 of the 46 firms that reported their 2012 figures hit the aspirational target of 38 hours of pro bono work per lawyer.”  (Story from the Global Legal Post.)

• 1.14.13 – “With Congress failing to take action to extend unlimited coverage, as of Jan.1, 2013, FDIC insurance available to IOLTA accounts is limited to the standard amount of $250,000 per owner of the funds (client), per financial institution, assuming that the account is properly designated as a trust account and proper accounting of each client’s funds is maintained.”  (This blog post from the Washington State Bar Association goes on to explain how insurance coverage for IOLTA funds has generally reverted back to the pre-Dodd Frank norm.)

• 1.11.13 – David Udell and Liz Tobin Tyler look toward the future of law student pro bono: “Law students have long been key players in important pro bono legal assistance efforts. They engage in a range of access to justice activities―working with mentoring attorneys on pro bono cases, staffing court pro se assistance programs, providing community legal education, and more. But the announcement last spring by the New York Court of Appeals of a 50 hour pro bono requirement for applicants to the New York Bar has brought the role of law student pro bono work into the foreground like never before. What is the role of law student pro bono in addressing the growing justice gap? In providing law students with practical legal skills? In instilling a professional responsibility for pro bono service in new attorneys? The effect of the New York rule―on the focus and structure of existing and developing law school pro bono programs, on law school accreditation standards, and on other state access to justice reform efforts―remains to be seen, but a significant impact seems likely. This article describes current law school pro bono program goals and structures, highlights key elements of the New York pro bono rule, and posits some of the potential implications of this first-of-its kind rule.”  (Full piece on the Bloomberg Law site.)

• 1.8.13 – “The ‘perpetual crisis in indigent defense’ could be lessened by moving minor infractions—including minor drug offenses—out of the criminal justice system, according to a new report by an ABA committee and a national group of criminal defense lawyers.  The report concludes that the criminal justice system is flooded with petty infractions that could be dealt with through two front-end reforms: reclassification and diversion. In reclassification, criminal statutes are changed so that minor illegal acts are changed from criminal offenses to civil infractions that carry a fine. In diversion programs, individuals charged with low-level criminal offenses can have the charges dismissed if they perform community service, enter substance abuse treatment or follow other requirements.  The report (PDF) was released in advance of the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the March 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding a Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”  (Story from the ABA Journal.)

• Finally it’s noteworthy that the Legal Services Corporation this week convened the 13th Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) Conference this in Jacksonville, FL.  LSC bills the event as “the nation’s largest convening of experts and persons interested in the use of technology to address the civil legal needs of low-income Americans.”  I haven’t seen news coverage, but conference attendees are, appropriately enough, creating a record using the Twitter hashtag #lsctig.  Check out the happenings.

Music!  Tennessee’s Lucero has long been one of my favorite rock bands.  Here’s “Tears Don’t Matter Much”, their homage to some fellow songwriters and to the way that a good song can stop you dead in your tracks.  Great chorus.

From the National Law Journal:

The third year of law school has long been a punching bag for critics who argue it’s a waste of time and drives up the costs of a law degree, but there have been few serious attempts to do anything about it. Until now.

Legal educators and top New York state court officials will gather on January 18 to discuss whether to allow candidates to sit for the New York state bar examination after just two years in law school. The idea was floated by Samuel Estreicher, a professor at New York University School of Law, who believes skyrocketing law school tuition and diminishing job prospects for new lawyers have created a climate favorable to reform.

“People have been asking for years: ‘Do we really need a third year of law school?’ ” said Estreicher, co-director of NYU’s Institute of Judicial Administration. “I’m simply proposing that we give students a choice to stay for three years or leave after two. The economic downturn is a big part of it.”

He believes additional states would follow suit if New York adopted a two-year option. The proposal may prove a tough sell to the legal academy at large, however, which has blocked previous attempts to drop the third-year requirement.

But there are some institutional hurdles:

Unless the ABA changes its accreditation standards, New York students who opt to take the bar instead of completing their 3L years would not receive juris doctor degrees. (The ABA requires completion of 83 credit hours for a J.D. A handful of schools offer accelerated, two-year J.D. programs, but students still must meet the 83-credit minimum.)

Convincing the New York Court of Appeals would require significant support from practicing attorneys and professional organizations, Estreicher acknowledged. Practicing attorneys tend to be receptive to the idea because many recall their 3L years as worthless, he said.

In Bloomberg Law, two proponents of boosting public-service learning opportunities in law school look at where student pro bono may go in the near future, especially in light of New York’s new 50-hour requirement:

Law students have long been key players in important pro bono legal assistance efforts. They engage in a range of access to justice activities―working with mentoring attorneys on pro bono cases, staffing court pro se assistance programs, providing community legal education, and more. But the announcement last spring by the New York Court of Appeals of a 50 hour pro bono requirement for applicants to the New York Bar has brought the role of law student pro bono work into the foreground like never before. What is the role of law student pro bono in addressing the growing justice gap? In providing law students with practical legal skills? In instilling a professional responsibility for pro bono service in new attorneys? The effect of the New York rule―on the focus and structure of existing and developing law school pro bono programs, on law school accreditation standards, and on other state access to justice reform efforts―remains to be seen, but a significant impact seems likely. This article describes current law school pro bono program goals and structures, highlights key elements of the New York pro bono rule, and posits some of the potential implications of this first-of-its kind rule.

…

Read the full piece…

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  Your author’s a bit under the weather, so you’re spared from my typical ruminations and editorializing.  Here’s what we’ve got on the public interest and access-to-justice fronts (it being a good week for Maryland-based AtJ enthusiasts):

• $6.2 million to Old Line State legal aid providers for housing work;
• 20 Biglaw attorneys to work as special assistant DAs in suburban Philly county;
• the NLJ’s Pro Bono Hot List, hot off the presses;
• a Maryland Access to Justice Commission report on legal aid’s economic impact;
• Michigan Law’s new entrepreneurship clinic.

The summaries:

• 1.10.12 – “Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and officials from the Department of Housing and Community Development on Thursday awarded $6.2 million from the national mortgage settlement to nine legal aid groups in order to expand the availability of low-cost and pro bono legal services to Maryland homeowners facing foreclosure.  Here’s how the funds are being distributed: Maryland Legal Aid, $3.6 million; Civil Justice Inc., $1.4 million; Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, $930,000; St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, $600,000; Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, $565,000; Public Justice Center, $510,000; Community Legal Services of Prince George’s County, $850,000; Mid-Shore Pro Bono Inc., $342,000; and Allegany Law Foundation Inc., $200,000.”  (Full piece in the Baltimore Sun.)

• 1.7.12 –  “The [suburban Philadelphia] Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is gaining a bit of free human capital, thanks to a relatively new partnership with an international, Philadelphia-based law firm. Twenty lawyers from the firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius are joining the DA’s office for some experience as special assistant district attorneys.”  (Story from the Times Herald.)

• 1.7.13 – the National Law Journal released its 2013 Pro Bono Hot List: “There’s an unfamiliar face in the crowd this year — the crowd being the 10 legal organizations we selected for The National Law Journal‘s Pro Bono Hot List. For the first time, we’ve included a corporate legal department — that of International Business Machines Corp. We did so in recognition of IBM’s work on behalf of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, but also to highlight increasing corporate commitment to pro bono projects.”  

• 1.7.12 – “Maryland civil legal service programs not only benefit the poor but also save the state millions per year. Legal assistance to low-income Marylanders is a significant economic boost to the state and benefits more than just those receiving aid, according to a report just released by the Maryland Judiciary’s Access to Justice Commission…. In 2012, Maryland legal service programs preserved or found housing for almost 1,000 individuals and helped obtain 2,825 civil protective orders for clients. But the economic impact of legal services for the poor went far beyond the families helped, creating $190 million in total economic impact, including $12.6 million in economic stimulus to the state, $3.7 million in state expenditures saved, and $882,096 in tax revenue.”  (Here’s the full op-ed in the Baltimore Sun.  And here’s the AtJ Commission’s report.)  

• 1.6.12 – a profile of Michigan Law’s new entrepreneurship clinic: “In addition to helping student entrepreneurs, the program and clinic benefit law students who hope to one day work in the startup sector.  ‘For the law school students, the clinic consists of two parts, a classroom component and then actually representing their clients,’ clinic director Dana Thompson said. ‘… Most of law school is about taking classes and learning about the theory of corporations or torts or contracts. Then they come to us so we can put everything together and they can actually work with a startup.’  The clinic utilizes the ‘student practice’ rule, which allows law students to represent clients as long as a licensed attorney supervises them. Thompson said she…received more than 100 applications for 16 spots in the clinic’s first semester in the spring of 2012.”

• Super Music Bonus!  How about some Neko Case?  This is the beautiful “Bought and Sold.” 

If your New Year’s Resolution is to get a handle on your student debt, Equal Justice Works is here to help! Check out their message below detailing their upcoming debt webinars for this month:

As we enter 2013, educational debt remains a crippling burden for far too many, and especially for those who want to pursue careers in public service. Equal Justice Works provides in depth information on loan repayment assistance programs and relief programs like Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness to help everyone pursue the career of their dreams.

If you or someone you know needs a detailed guide to dealing with their student loans and earning forgiveness, it’s never too late to give them our new student debt eBook Take Control of Your Future as a gift! We go into the details borrowers need to understand and the exact steps they need to take to manage their educational debt and take control of their future.

 Our weekly U.S. News blog, the Student Loan Ranger kept us busy during the last month of 2012. We reported on how the increasing student debt burden is impacting parents, took a look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s report on private student loan servicers, discussed the feasibility of public service careers for law school graduates and examined the true scope of student loan borrower distress.

Every month, our free, live webinars also provide a comprehensive overview of the debt relief options available for students and graduates – including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Based Repayment – and provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of our webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Our January sessions include:

Plan Before You Borrow: What You Should Know About Educational Loans BEFORE You Go to Graduate School

Thursday, January 10, 3-4 p.m. EST

Interested in government or public interest work after graduating? This webinar will help you plan ahead and make sure you can take full advantage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

The webinar will teach you about:

– Taking out the right kind of loans

– Consolidating or reconsolidating your previous student loans

– How the College Cost Reduction and Access Act can free you to pursue a public interest career

 How to Pay Your Bills AND Your Student Loans: Utilizing Income-Based Repayment

Thursday, January 24, 3-4 p.m. EST

Saddled with high student debt? This webinar reviews Income-Based Repayment, a powerful provision of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that allows anyone with high debt relative to their income to reduce their federal student loan payments.

This interactive webinar will teach you:

– How to understand your federal loans

– How Income-Based Repayment works and if it is right for you

– How to sign up for Income-Based Repayment

Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Thursday, January 31, 3-4 p.m. EST

For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.

You will learn about:

– The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans

– What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

– How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

P.S. –  Don’t forget to register for the upcoming Summer Public Interest Job Search webinars on 01/15 and 01/22, co-sponsored by NALP and EJW!

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  And Happy 2013.  The Bulletin returns after a one-week holiday hiatus.  You are all undoubtedly looking for an authoritative source to tell you which pop culture trends to follow in 2013, and which to leave behind with 2012.  I am not that source.  (I recently had to spend 10 minutes convincing someone that my suggestion to “watch a DVD” was made in earnest.)  However, the Washington Post’s “The List: 2013” provides zeitgeist guidance in convenient “What’s Out?/What’s In?” format.  Tofu is out, in favor of insects.  That’s all well and good but I still classify both as “things that are not food.” 

Before the public interest news, a heads-up for law students that we’re hosting a public interest summer job search webinar series with our good friends at Equal Justice Works.  Dates: 1/15 and 1/22.  Registration info and all other details here.

Also, here’s a “fiscal cliff” dispatch focusing on two angles that may interest this blog’s readership:

• the potential impact on charitable contributions to nonprofits, courtesy of the Chronicle of Philanthropy: “Throughout December nonprofits [had] been lobbying Congress and President Obama not to impose limits on the tax savings wealthy donors get when they make charitable contributions.  The Senate-crafted plan enacts limits that charities have opposed. It reinstates a provision eliminated in 2010 that reduces the value of itemized deductions by 3 percent for household incomes over $300,000. Write-offs grow more limited the more taxable income a person has, and could reduce the value of deductions by up to 80 percent for the highest-income taxpayers, according to the Tax Policy Center.”
• the potential impact on the federal government labor force, courtesy of Government Executive.

On to the week’s public interest and access-to-justice news.  In very, very brief:

• the ongoing dispute over public defender caseload strains in Missouri;
• Oklahoma AG and legal aid collaborate on program to help low-income homeowners facing foreclosure;
• teaching law students about technology’s role in bridging the justice gap;
• Cash-strapped CA courts could see more cuts, closures;
• a CA county’s public defender sued for not providing counsel at defendants’ initial court appearances;
• ideas for how state-level access-to-justice networks should develop;
• law school clinic news potpourri;
• U.S. farmworker advocates take their pleas for farm access to the U.N.;
• no legislative action last year on Michigan indigent defense system reforms;
• a shift in post-Hurricane Sandy pro bono efforts;
• IOLTA funds to lose unlimited FDIC insurance backing(?).
• Music!

The summaries:

• 1.4.12 – this lengthy piece in The Missourian brings readers up to speed on the caseload controversy surrounding the Missouri Public Defender System.  In 2012 the rhetoric between prosecutors, judges, and those speaking for the defender system was at times quite heated. And there is still much disagreement on how strained the indigent defense system is.
  • And on a related note: “The chair of Missouri’s House Judiciary Committee is proposing reductions in the state’s public defender system.  Republican State Representative Stanley Cox of Sedalia says public defenders would still handle the most serious cases for indigent defendants, but the more minor cases would be bid out to private attorneys.”  (Story from St. Louis Public Radio.) 

• 1.2.13 – “The Attorney General’s Office and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma are providing free legal help to homeowners who are facing mortgage issues or foreclosure.  The program – Resolution Oklahoma – is designed to help Oklahoma residents stay in their homes or seek the best outcome for their situations. The program is provided by a grant from the Attorney General’s Oklahoma Mortgage Settlement Fund.  The fund was created in March, following a settlement by the AG’s Office with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.”  (Story from LoanSafe.org.)

• 1.2.13 – from a press release: “The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI®) will announce at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Schools in New Orleans on January 6, 2013 that they have reached agreements with faculty members from six law schools to develop course kits as part of the Access to Justice Clinical Course Project (A2J Clinic Project). Participating law schools include Columbia Law School, Concordia University School of Law, CUNY School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, UNC School of Law, and University of Miami School of Law. Each participating faculty member will develop and document a course model that uses A2J Author® to teach law students how technology tools can be used to lower barriers to justice for low-income, self-represented litigants. CALI will use those course models to assist other law schools in establishing A2J Clinical Courses as a permanent part of their law school curriculum.”

• January 2013 – “California’s judicial branch and its allies in the legal community are starting off the New Year under a cloud of uncertainty over further budget cuts…. Courts have been decimated by four years of cuts that have reduced the judicial branch budget by about 30 percent, or $475 million. In addition, the governor revealed to court leaders last month that he’s considering sweeping out local trial court reserves one year earlier than expected, which court leaders say would translate into an additional $200 million cut…. Many counties have already eliminated all non-mandatory spending, shuttered courthouses and reduced services. Litigants in remote reaches of San Bernardino County, for example, will have to travel 175 miles to the nearest courthouse starting in May. Los Angeles County Superior Court is considering a major restructuring that would close 10 courthouses and consolidate all personal injury cases to two judges”  (Story from the California Bar Journal.)

• 12.31.12 – “Contra Costa County’s long-standing practice of assigning defense attorneys to indigent criminal defendants after — and not at — their initial court appearance has resulted in a federal class action lawsuit against Public Defender Robin Lipetzky. Point Richmond attorney Christopher Martin, one of two attorneys who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oakland on Dec. 21, says the illegal practice could cost the county a minimum of $4,000 for each defendant whose civil rights were violated…. The lawsuit alleges that indigent, in-custody defendants are left in County Jail without an attorney for five to 13 days after their first court appearance, in violation of the right to assistance of counsel from the time one first faces a judge.”  (Full story from the Contra Costa Times.)

• 12.30.12 – Richard Zorza blogs on the priorities which should govern development of state-level access-to-justice infrastructures, and offers recommendations about promoting AtJ’s evolution in the states.

• 12.28.12 – law school clinic news potpourri:
  • 12.28.12 – “When students at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law return from winter break, those enrolled in clinics will enjoy new digs in a refurbished former city firehouse.  The law school in December opened the 6,000-square-foot space, which will now house its 10 legal clinics, just steps away from its main building.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.)
  • 12.27.12 – Stanford Law starting a religious liberties clinic, which “administrators say is the first of its kind at a U.S. School. The clinic was established with $1.6 million in seed funding from the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which supports the free expression of religious beliefs regardless of the faith. Unlike many public interest law groups that support religious freedom, Stanford’s clinic will take on clients from any religion, said director James Sonne.  ‘The point of a clinic is to teach professional skills to law students using real cases and live clients,’ said Sonne. ‘We think the religious liberty aspect offers a unique way to do this work, and it’s something the students get excited about. As our culture becomes more diverse, it’s a great way for students to represent clients whose beliefs are different from their own.’  (Story from the National Law Journal.)
  • 12.21.12 – “The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law has received a $1 million gift that will permanently endow a student-run clinic that provides legal advice to the poor.  The donation from Sue Ellen Ackerson of Louisville and her family was made to honor her late husband, Robert Ackerson, who founded the Ackerson and Yann law firm. The clinic will be renamed The Robert and Sue Ellen Ackerson Law Clinic.”  (Story from the Associated Press.)

• 12.27.12 – Voice of America reports on a group of U.S. farmworker rights advocates that has gone to the United Nations on the issue of being able to get access to workers on farm property. “[A]  coalition of 28 rights groups, including Maryland Legal Aid, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the labor union AFL-CIO, submitted a complaint to the United Nations on December 13. The coalition argued that the lack of meaningful access to migrant labor camps ‘stymies’ farmworkers’ access to justice and, as a result, ‘violates international human rights law.’  It has called on the U.N. Envoy for Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda, to pressure the U.S. government to allow aid workers better access to migrant farm camps.”

• 12.24.12 – “A proposed overhaul to Michigan’s public defense system will have to wait until next year for action by the state Legislature.  State lawmakers passed a flurry of bills in their “lame duck” session. But there were a number of high-profile bills that didn’t move at all.  One of those would change the way the state appoints lawyers to people who can’t afford one.  Michigan’s public defense system is considered one of the worst in the country….  Critics of the [reform] plan say it would burden cash-strapped county governments, and doesn’t lay out specific standards they would have to meet.”  (Story from Michigan Public Radio.) 

• 12.24.12 – “Eight weeks after Hurricane Sandy, New York lawyers who have been assisting storm victims pro bono say they are in the effort for the long haul.  However, their focus is shifting from the most pressing legal needs in the immediate aftermath of the storm to grinding long-term problems.  At first, the lawyers concentrated on securing temporary housing, food stamps and unemployment benefits for storm victims, and later, documenting damages for homeowner and flood insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency claims.  Now, people are increasingly experiencing difficulties with FEMA officials, landlords, insurance companies and contractors.”  (Full story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 12.20.12 – “Lawyer IOLTA accounts that help fund civil legal aid and other legal programs are likely to lose their unlimited federal insurance coverage on Jan. 1.  The ABA Governmental Affairs Office says it appears unlikely that lawmakers will act this year to extend the unlimited coverage provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to an ABA statement.  If Congress does not act, the amount of FDIC insurance available will be $250,000 per client, per financial institution, as long as the account is properly designated as a trust account and there is a proper accounting of each client’s funds.”  (Article in the ABA Journal.)
  • [update from Steve: an IOLTA administrator contacted me to offer some context about this, which I should have thought to include.  To closely paraphrase said administrator: Congress chose not to extend the FDIC’s temporary program that had provided unlimited insurance to certain checking accounts, including IOLTA accounts.  IOLTA accounts remain in the same position as this group of checking accounts — and the insurance picture looks pretty much the same as it did up until the 2008 emergency action that created a temporary unlimited insurance program. The biggest change from the pre-2008 picture?  The insurance cap remains at $250,000 per depositor instead of the pre-2008 cap of $100,000.  There are important details to this, of course, but none that end up treating IOLTA accounts unfavorably.  Here’s the link to the FDIC’s explanation of the change: http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/changes.html.]

 Music!  In 2006, The Long Winters of Seattle, WA released a pop gem with the album Putting the Days to Bed.   Here’s “Fire Island, AK.”

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  Depending on whom you speak to, it’s the beginning of winter or the end of the world.  I’m hoping for the former.  I’m one of the weirdos who loves our coldest season.  With that said, I’ve realized that embracing the Mayan doomsday scenario has considerably eased the guilt I feel in consuming the holiday junk food that seems to follow me everywhere I go.  So I’ve been an end-of-the-worlder for purposes of cookies.  Though I suspect there will soon be a reckoning.

Cookies aside, I wish you all a joy-filled, relaxing holiday season.  Travel safely if you are on the move, and enjoy time with family and friends.

We’re light on access-to-justice news this week.  In very, very short:

• salary differences between an Ohio county’s prosecutors & public defenders;
• improvements in Sin City’s indigent defense program;
• a call for pro bono as a requirement for a bar license;
• the continuing saga of Missouri’s indigent defense program;
• $1 million supplemental approp. to LSC for Sandy relief work?.  

This week:

• 12.20.12 – “Sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom, employees of the Clinton County [Ohio] Public Defender’s office and the Clinton County Prosecutor’s office often square-off judicially. Some of the attorneys, all employed by the same county, have much in common — knowledge of local cases, law degrees, years practicing — but in other ways, such as their salaries, they are treated very differently. ‘It’s almost universal across the state in terms of salary and resources available,’ said Tim Young, director at the office of the Ohio Public Defender. ‘Public defenders regularly make 10 to 30 percent less [than prosecutors] when they have the same amount of time in practice of law, and essentially the same work on opposite sides of the room’.”  (Story from the News Journal.)

• 12.20.12 – an op-ed looks at recent improvements in the Clark County (i.e. Las Vegas area) NV public defense program, particularly its juvenile defense unit, which was once seen as emblematic of a failed indigent defense system.  (Piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.)

• 12.17.12 –  UC Irvine Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky wants pro bono as a precondition for attorney licensing: “New York’s new requirement for pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar should be a model for other states to copy. Last May, Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of New York, announced this proposal. On September 12, the New York Court of Appeals adopted a requirement that, effective January 1, 2015, admission to the New York bar will require an applicant having completed 50 hours of pro bono service. This is to be applauded: Pro bono work helps to meet the enormous unmet demand for legal services, provides law students valuable legal training and hopefully instills a lifelong habit of public service.  At a recent meeting, an American Bar Association committee considering possible changes to accreditation standards seemed unreceptive to the idea of requiring all law schools to insist on 50 hours of pro bono work from their students. But that won’t matter if states follow New York’s lead and require pro bono work as a condition for admission to the bar.” (Full piece in the National Law Journal.  For some more background on the recent, unsuccessful push to have the ABA’s law school accreditation body include a pro bono requirement in accreditation standards, feast your eyes on this here hyperlink.)

• 12.14.12 – the latest in the ongoing controversy surrounding Missouri’s indigent defense system: “State lawyers have joined forces with private attorneys in the dispute over being involuntarily assigned criminal cases to lessen the burden on Missouri’s overworked public defenders.  Attorney General Chris Koster is asking judges in Boone and Callaway counties to waive several court orders appointing state workers as pro bono lawyers for criminal defendants facing jail time and unable to afford their own legal counsel. Koster’s office is representing at least six state employees opposed to the move, court records show.  The Associated Press obtained the public court filings from attorneys concerned about the practice.  (See the full AP story here.)

• 12.19.12 – “This week, the Senate is considering a $60.4 million emergency disaster supplemental funding bill to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy in the recovery efforts. The bill includes $1 million for [the Legal Services Corporation], to support LSC grantees in the areas significantly affected by Hurricane Sandy for storm-related services. The funding for LSC matches the request submitted by the White House on December 7.  This is the first time since 1993 that a supplemental appropriations bill has included funding for LSC after a disaster. If passed, the supplemental funding would be used to give programs the necessary mobile resources, technology, and disaster coordinators to provide storm-related services to eligible clients.  LSC-funded programs in the areas most severely affected by Hurricane Sandy reported significant office damage and prolonged power outages. They are struggling to provide legal assistance to thousands of storm victims.  Supplemental disaster funding will help LSC’s grantees provide essential legal aid to low-income individuals and families.”  (News from LSC.)

Music!  Since winter is upon us, let’s go north to listen to my favorite Nova Scotian rock band.  This is Sloan with “Losing California.” 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  It’s a beautiful, quiet December morning here in DC.  But it won’t be quiet for long.  It troubles me that the beginning of the holiday season is consumed with so much hustle and bustle.  There are gifts to buy and cards to sign.  There are end-of-year deadlines to meet.  Our law student readers have finals to take.  Our national policymakers have a fiscal cliff towards which to hurtle.  And so on.   The storms before the calm, I suppose.  In any case I’m delighted when a few quiet minutes turn up.  I hope you find some as well.

Before turning to the week’s access-to-justice and public interest news, three other items that have caught my attention this week:

• Fiscal cliff dispatch: “The White House and the nation’s most prominent charities are embroiled in a tense behind-the-scenes debate over President Obama’s push to scale back the nearly century-old tax deduction on donations that the charities say is crucial for their financial health.”  (Full article from the Washington Post.)

• Homeless vets: “The number of homeless veterans in the United States counted on a single night this year declined 7.2 percent from the previous year, a reduction significantly higher than that seen in the general population, according to figures released Monday.  Overall, the number of homeless people in the country declined only slightly, to 633,782 counted on a single night in January, about 0.4 percent lower than the previous year. The figures included a 1.4 percent increase in homeless people who are part of households that have at least one adult and one child…. The decline in veterans’ homelessness, from 67,495 in January 2011 to 62,619 in January 2012, followed a 12 percent reduction between 2010 and 2011.”  (Full story from the Washington Post.)

• 12.11.12 – big news on the legal education front: “The Arizona Supreme Court gave the green light December 10 to an experimental proposal allowing third-year law students to take the bar exam before they graduate, a move law school officials hope will give students a leg up in the job market.  Under the revised rule, 3Ls who meet eligibility requirements can take the bar exam offered in February, several months before graduation. The proposal was approved as a temporary pilot project from January 2013 until the end of December 2015. Law school officials and other stakeholders will have to file a report with the court by November 1, 2015.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.) 

Okay, this week’s access-to-justice news in very, very brief:

• volunteer lawyers roll in to help Sandy victims;
• report on legal aid’s impact on the Ohio economy;
• 2013 Equal Justice Conference registration open;
• class action on (in)adequacy of NY State’s public defense system marches on;
• CFPB chasing down alleged foreclosure legal aid scammer;
• law school clinics supporting social entrepreneurs;
• technology’s expanding role in communicating with legal aid clients;
• Super Music Bonus, Rod Stewart Edition! 

The summaries: 

• 12.12.12 – in Hurricane Sandy’s wake, legal aid and volunteer lawyers have literally rolled in to assist clients in crisis.  Pro bono lawyers have been instrumental in assisting clients with public benefits and housing problems among others.  This piece in the New York World, focusing on the response of legal aid and volunteer lawyers, notes some good timing in the Legal Aid Society’s acquisition of new wheels: “Legal Aid’s ongoing presence in Coney Island, and in the Rockaways before that, was made possible by the organization’s new Mobile Justice Unit, purchased earlier this year with the help of a grant from the Robin Hood Foundation.”

• 12.12.12 – “Legal assistance to low-income Ohioans is a significant economic driver and impacts more than just the individuals receiving aid, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation.  Ohio legal aid in 2010, the most recent year studied, saved almost 1,000 homes from foreclosure and helped obtain nearly 1,000 civil protective orders.  But the economic impact of these services goes far beyond those families helped, creating $106 million in total economic impact, including $5.6 million in state, county and municipal tax revenue.”  (Story from the Dayton Business Journal.  And here’s the OLAF report.)
  • also in Ohio, the Marion Star looks at the fiscal crunch pressing against the Legal Aid Society of Columbus’s Marion office.  Two of the office’s four attorneys are set to retire soon, and there is not presently funding to replace them. 

• 12.12.12. – registration for the 2013 Equal Justice Conference is open.  The EJC, which brings together a wide array of access-to-justice stakeholders, will take place in St. Louis from May 9-11.  (Pre-conference events, including the law school pro bono pre-conference, take place on May8.)  And don’t worry!  I already checked, and the Cardinals are hosting the Rockies of Colorado on May 10-12.

• 12.11.12 – “A settlement conference in a class-action lawsuit brought by civil rights attorneys, which seeks to remedy what they say is the state’s “persistent failure” to provide meaningful counsel to the poor, ended Tuesday with no settlement….  The suit was filed five years ago in the name of Kimberly Hurrell-Harring and 19 others charged with crimes in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties.  Each plaintiff was left to navigate the criminal justice system without adequate counsel, some spending months unnecessarily behind bars. But the “types of harm suffered” by these defendants are “by no means limited or unique” to those counties, the suit claims.  A 2006 report from The New York State Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services called the public-defender situation an “ongoing crisis” and concluded “nothing short of major, far-reaching reform” can bring the state into constitutional compliance. It recommended a state takeover to properly fund counsel for the poor and enforce standards.”  The plaintiffs favor a state takeover, as well.  (Full article in the Albany Times Union.)

• 12.11.12 – “For the second time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has gone after a legal services provider for allegedly offering bogus mortgage relief assistance to struggling homeowners.  The CFPB announced today that a California federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order shutting down the National Legal Help Center, which allegedly offered legal representation to consumers ‘even though the individual defendants are not attorneys and consumers received no actual legal representation,’ according to the CFPB…. In July, the CFPB filed a similar complaint against the Gordon Law Firm also in California’s Central District and won a temporary restraining order the following day. On November 16, the court entered a preliminary injunction order halting the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct and freezing their assets while the case proceeds.”  (Full post from the Blog of the Legal Times.)

• 12.7.12 – an interesting look at the increasing work that law school clinical programs do to support social entrepreneurs.  “Legal systems are just one of many such complex systems that social entrepreneurs must navigate in order to be successful, but increasingly, they do not have to do it alone. Law schools are joining the ‘collective impact movement by using their legal clinics to provide social entrepreneurs with much-needed legal support from some of America’s brightest law students. Collective impact is a powerful new concept: the idea that all actors that have a stake in a problem should work together to solve that problem.”  (Story from Forbes.com.) 

• 12.7.12 –  “Like everyone else, lawyers for the poor are trying to do more with less, as government grants and private funding have dried up.  Increasingly, that means turning to tech, using new tools to deliver information to clients, support volunteer lawyers, and improve their own systems. They’re using text messaging, automated call-backs, Web chats, and computer-assisted mapping.  A crush of new clients is pushing the growing reliance on technology, as the old systems just can’t keep up. For years, people seeking help have called their local legal services offices, only to wait on hold for 20 minutes or more. If someone has a pay-by-the-minute cellphone, as many low-income people do, that gets expensive fast…. Text messages can also improve efficiency. If courts sent SMS reminders to litigants, that would help move along cases that get postponed over and over when one party doesn’t show up, says Glenn Rawdon. Rawdon runs the technology grants program at the Legal Services Corp., the federal program that funds legal aid groups. A text could also help people remember to bring documents to meetings with their overworked lawyers.”  (Full story on Slate.com.)  

• Music!  It’s the holiday season, so our thoughts turn naturally to Rod Stewart.  (It was a lot of fun to write that sentence.)  Well, even if that’s not where our thoughts are, I’ve lately been in the mood for Faces.  Faces was a rollicking 1960s British rock band whose members included Stewart – a very different version than the one we see today – and Ronnie Wood, who later joined the Rolling Stones.  They were known for terrific music, chaotic live shows, and booze.  Perhaps in that order.  Faces have a terrific back catalog, and I suppose they’re most popularly recognized song is “Ooh La La”, which a lot of people think of as the “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger” song.  Enjoy “Ooh La La.”      

Last week, the Partnership for Public Service released a study covering job satisfaction within the Presidential Management Fellows program. Now, a new report details the best and worst places to work in the federal government, and the results are a little less than stellar:

A report due out Thursday, based on the largest sample ever of the workforce of 2 million, confirms a steady decline in morale and ebbing commitment.

Despite positive feedback at some agencies, job satisfaction across the government has hit its lowest point in almost a decade. Just 52.9 percent of employees at the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, for example, are satisfied with their jobs, making it the lowest-ranked large agency, followed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The seventh annual “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” rankings pose a challenge for the Obama administration as President Obama, who pledged to reinvigorate federal work and make government “cool again,” embarks on a second term.

Even workers at layoff-battered private companies are more optimistic than government employees, who historically have had far more job security, the survey by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service found.

Still, most federal workers say they are committed to the missions of their agencies.

Click here to read the full article.