We’ve blogged a lot recently about the funding plans for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) – most recently here. Well, yesterday the House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee approved the LSC funding bill with a budget of $440 million, $5 million above the president’s request (and a 4.7% increase from last year). The subcommittee also lifted the restriction on LSC grantees against class action suits, OMBWatch reports. This change may allow some legal aid offices to engage in more effective action litigation, particularly in areas such as predatory lending and unfair housing practices that tend to impact large groups of people. The bill now moves to the Appropriations Committee before it can be considered by the full House.

In related news, the NLADA has a short piece with the background of the last two nominees for the LSC Board of Directors, who were announced June 25.

The Office of Personnel Management hosted a public hearing last week, according to this helpful article from Government Executive, where many top agency hiring officers talked about how the competitive hiring system is not an effective way to hire recent college or graduate school grads. One speaker discussed the particular disadvantage recent grads have going up against applicants with more experience but perhaps less education:

Officials also agreed that hiring based on past work experience also puts college graduates at a disadvantage when they are compared with applicants who have been in the workforce for many years. Instead, they should be evaluated based on “foundational competencies that we believe are lifetime skills and underpin every job,” said [Marilee] Fitzgerald [of the Department of Defense], such as optimism and intellectual curiosity.

Changes in the federal hiring mechanism that make it easier for recent grads to find a way into the system, whether through structured internships, honors programs, or other options, all spell good news for recent law graduates looking to get into the federal market.

Emily Savner of the Brennan Center for Justice makes a strong case for the need to increase Legal Services Corp. funding to support civil legal services work over at the National Law Journal (something we’ve blogged about here in the past). Savner argues that LSC funding has become even more critical in the face of IOLTA funding decreases (we blogged about that earlier as well) and increased demand for services. Some numbers she cites includes:

The Legal Aid Society in New York City, for example, reported a 16% increase in clients seeking domestic violence-related help, a 40% increase in health cases, a 30% increase in employment-related cases and a 20% increase in housing cases from the recession’s start to July 2009. Legal services programs in Maryland reported a 60% jump in requests for assistance from 2008 to 2010. And in Florida, one program alone, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, has seen a 700% increase in the number of people seeking advice in the 12 counties it serves.

• 6.24.10 – San Jose Mercury News – the Santa Clara County public defender’s office has recently expanded the scope of its services so that attorneys are now staffing almost all misdemeanor arraignment hearings.  “Unlike most counties in California, Santa Clara County historically has not had public defenders or prosecutors at misdemeanor arraignments, a defendant’s first court appearance. Defendants charged with misdemeanors were arraigned before a judge who often offered a plea deal to quickly resolve the case. Many legal experts consider that a potential violation of the defendants’ constitutional right to counsel. Some believe that defendants plead guilty simply to get out of jail.  Earlier this year the county board of supervisors added $1 million to the public defender’s budget over the next two fiscal years to fund the attorneys to staff the arraignments.”  Link to article.

• 6.23.10 – Tulsa World – former Oklahoma governor George Nigh and his wife are co-chairs of the Campaign for Legal Aid, and are spearheading efforts to raise $750,000 for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc., the statewide program that has seen other funding streams recede during the recession.  Link to article.

• 6.23.10 – Washington Post – “The Obama administration released a strategy Tuesday to end homelessness by expanding programs to secure housing for veterans and families with young children and by building on efforts to help chronically homeless people.”  The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness’s strategy seeks ways to maximize collaboration between the many federal, state, and local government entities that combat homelessness, and emphasizes how important a stable living environment can be to helping people deal successfully with other problems, such as mental illness.  The strategy focuses especially on homelessness among veterans and children.  Link to article.  Link to Opening Doors – Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness – 2010.

• 6.22.10 – The Tennessean – the Volunteer State’s high court, which in 2009 had formed an Access to Justice Commission, is poised to “unveil [a plan] to make legal aid more available to state residents.”  The AtJ Commission had submitted recommendations to the court earlier this year.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the Supreme Court’s website includes coverage of the announcement event, which laid out plans to convene a pro bono summit and create a resource website with self-help materials for Tennesseans with legal problems.]

• 6.22.10 – WHBQ Fox 13 T.V. Station Website (Memphis) – as more local families are impacted by the recession, more are in need of legal services.  Memphis Area Legal Services held a press conference, attended by ABA President Carolyn Lamm and U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, which highlighted the crises faced by poor families whose homes are in foreclosure.  Lamm noted that non-LSC legal services funding remains scarce, and that increasing LSC funding is an uncertain proposition.  Link to article and video.

• 6.21.10 – Houston Chronicle – the State of Texas has hired an experienced federal defender to “run its first-ever public defense office for death row appeals….The office was created by the Texas Legislature after a series of scandals generated by ill-prepared and mostly poorly-paid death row defense lawyers assigned to handle writs of habeas corpus across Texas.”  Brad D. Levenson, the new hire, will be working with an annual budget of $1 million.  Link to article.

• 6.20.10 – New York Times – R. Seth Williams, Philadelphia’s new district attorney, is charting a different course than his predecessor by emphasizing a “smart on crime,” as opposed to “tough on crime,” approach.  Williams intends to prosecute fewer cases but to raise his office’s conviction rate.  He is also focusing less on minor crimes and more on violent crime, and reaching out to youth with a message that staying in school makes it easier to stay awayfrom criminal activity.  Link to article.  

• 6.19.10 – [Ed. Note: Professor Laurence Tribe, who earlier this year was tapped by Attorney General Eric Holder to spearhead the Department of Justice’s Access to Justice Initiative, has lately been speaking about how his office may attack the problem of shoring up poorly funded pubic defense programs throughout the country.  Tribe recently spoke at an event sponsored by two Congressmen, called “The Constitutional Right to Counsel Summit: A Dialogue on the State Public Defense Crisis & the Federal Response.”  The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) has put up a nice summary of the program.  Also, Prof. Tribe spoke last week at the American Constitution Society’s National Convention, and was featured on two panels: one concerning civil legal services (Main Justice has a summary of that panel), and one regarding indigent criminal defense issues (the Blog of the Legal Times has that summary).]

• 6.18.10 – McClatchy News Service – funding for the Legal Services Corporation, a question which may be taken up by Congress shortly, remains a hot-button political issue in Washington, DC and in Central California.  “Some lawmakers now hope to boost funding for the Legal Services Corp. and lift some longstanding restrictions on its work. Others consider the agency a bastion of liberal activism and want it curtailed.  No region has a bigger stake in the political outcome than the [California] Central Valley, home to thousands of legal services clients as well as some of the federal program’s most vocal critics.”  Link to article.

• 6.18.10 – New York Times – the small-but-formidable group of federal defenders working in Manhattan are held in high regard by their adversaries – U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara offers that they “have earned their reputation as among the finest public defenders in the country.” – and are accustomed to handling high-profile cases like the current “Times Square Bomber” trial.  Link to article.

Earlier this year we covered the appointment of Harvard professor Laurence Tribe as the Senior Counselor for DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative, which is exploring what role the federal government’s chief criminal justice arm should play in shoring up weakened indigent defense infrastructures on the state level.  In states throughout the country (e.g. New York, Michigan, and Idaho) funding pressures are weighing heavily on public defense programs.  While exacerbated by the recession, many of these funding problems existed on a systemic level long before.

Anyway, this brings us to what’s been happening recently in Washington.  Last week, Reps. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) hosted  an indigent defense summit called “The Constitutional Right to Counsel Summit: A Dialogue on the State Public Defense Crisis & the Federal Response.”  Courtesy of the Constitution Project, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) has put up a nice summary of the program. Professor Tribe spoke, as well as defenders and prosecutors from around the country. Several panelists discussed the imbalance in federal funding to prosecutor’s offices and defender’s offices.

Also last week, Prof.  Tribe spoke at the American Constitution Society’s National Convention.  He actually was featured on two panels, one concerning civil legal services on Friday (Main Justice has a summary of that panel), and one on Saturday regarding indigent criminal defense (the Blog of the Legal Times had that summary). During the indigent defense panel, Prof. Tribe mentioned the importance of increasing law firm pro bono efforts. However, it was unclear whether he meant that law firms should make efforts to take more indigent defense cases, or whether he was merely discussing DOJ’s efforts to expand civil access to justice as well (as he had been talking about the day before).

The cost of prosecution and defense was another popular topic at the ACS panel, with Jo-Ann Wallace (president and CEO of NLADA) pointing out that if states provide competent counsel at the beginning of cases, they can avoid higher costs associated with appeals later due to less-than-stellar representation. Erik Luna (professor at Washington and Lee, whose op-ed we blogged about back in March) argued that there is no appropriate role for the federal government in state-level indigent defense (or state-level prosecutions), and that a complete withdrawal of support on all levels could force states to cut down on their prosecutions in order to stay within their new budgetary constraints.

We linked yesterday to the video and audio of many of ACS’s convention panels, but the two discussed here are not yet posted. If they go up, we will link to them as well.

• 6.14.10 – Los Angeles Times – largely on account of extremely low fees paid to panel attorneys who represent juvenile defendants when public defenders can not, critics suggest that there are two levels of justice for those defendants.  Those who get public defenders typically will have more resources available to make their case, while those who have panel attorneys – who are paid a flat fee of $345 per case – may end up with a lawyer who has very few resources to provide an adequate representation.  “Questions about equity for juvenile offenders come as a group of California legal experts is nearing the end of a three-year, $100,000 study — paid for by the MacArthur Foundation grant — on improving juvenile representation statewide.”  Link to article.

• 6.14.10 – KKCO TV Station Website (NBC Affiliate in Grand Junction, CO) – the Mesa County Public Defender’s offices has already added one attorney to its staff in order to handle an increasing caseload, and another attorney is due to be added this fall.  The local district attorney questioned the wisdom of using funds to hire more defenders.  Link to article.

• 6.14.10 – National Law Journal – “Attorney fee awards under a major federal fee-shifting statute are paid to the client, not to the attorney, and can be offset to pay a client’s debt to the federal government, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.  The Court’s decision in Astrue v. Ratliff will affect primarily lawyers and law clinics who successfully represent clients seeking Social Security or veterans benefits and who earn fee awards under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA).”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: as we noted in a prior blog post, Astrue is meaningful for legal services programs that rely on the possibility of receiving attorneys fee awards in order to finance the costs of representing low-income clients (at no charge) in administrative appeals of government benefit denials.  If the government can siphon off an attorneys fee award to recoup on a debt owed by the party who successfully appeals a benefit denial, the legal services provider’s chances of being able to offset their own costs are jeopardized.  A handful of legal services providers had submitted an amicus brief in Astrue arguing for the opposite result than the one ultimately adopted by the Supreme Court.]

• 6.11.10 – New York Times (“City Room” blog) – the City Room blog looks at the ongoing legal battle surrounding NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to change the way that cases involving indigent defendants are assigned to counsel.  Link to blog post.  [Ed. Note: NYC’s counsel assignment system is more complicated than in most jurisdictions, and involves potential assignment to the Legal Aid Society, other public defense services, or private counsel who are designated to serve as assigned counsel.  For more on Mayor Bloomberg’s initial proposal, see this City Room blog post from early March.] 

• 6.11.10 – The Arizona Republic [Special feature] – low- and moderate-income Arizonans who have legal problems could receive help through a variety of initiatives designed to provide limited-scope representation.  These initiatives include the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education’s “Modest Means Project” and the “Bankruptcy Self-Help Center at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Arizona.  Southern Arizona Legal Aid has also set up limited-representation arrangements in order to accommodate the greater numbers of low-income clients seeking assistance.  Link to piece.

• 6.10.10 – “The Careerist” Blog – in New York City, it seems considerably easier for law graduates/attorneys who have been deferred or furloughed by their firms to find temporary public-service placements than it is for those who have been laid off.  Link to blog post.

The Los Angeles Times has an excellent story today on the juvenile public defender system in Los Angeles County. LA County is one of very few jurisdictions that pays private attorneys who agree to take public defense cases (many go to salaried public defenders, but the remainder are taken by these “panel” attorneys) a flat fee for all juvenile justice cases. In this case, $345. The story tells of the impact the flat fee can have on cases, limiting attorneys’ time with clients and leading many lawyers to take on as many cases as possible in order to make enough money. The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) has a great discussion of and response to the article where it explains the dangers of this system and some of the nuances the article can’t get in to.

• 6.1.10 – The Tennessean – Tennessee’s chief justice, Janice Holder, recently lamented the “crisis in the need for civil legal services” that has arisen as a result of the economic recession.  While roughly 1 million Tennesseans are financially eligible for free legal services, there are only “81 federally funded, full-time attorneys in Tennessee to help them.”  Too many low-income individuals and families are being forced to navigate the justice system without a lawyer.  In response, the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered the formation of an Access to Justice Initiative in 2008.  Under the AtJ Initiative’s auspices, several recommendations have been issued about ways to bolster the support structure for low-income and pro se litigants.  Link to article. 

• 6.1.10 – National Law Journal – in Berghuis v. Thompkins, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 5-4 that, in order to invoke their right to remain silent, a criminal suspect must affirmatively do so, as opposed to simply remaining silent.  The court further held that “once a suspect has received and understood the Miranda warning about the right to remain silent, he or she automatically waives that right by answering a subsequent police question.”  In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy wrote that “there is good reason to require an accused who wants to invoke his or her right to remain silent to do so unambiguously.”  The lead dissent, authored by Justice Sotomayor, argued that the decision subverted Miranda: “Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent – which, counterintuitively, requires them to speak.”  Link to article.

• 5.31.10 – Lansing State Journal (based in Michigan, but running a piece about activity in Chicago) – about 60 Class-of-2009 law graduates whose start dates were deferred by big law firms have joined Chicago’s  legal services community during their deferral periods.  Despite some initial skepticism about how effective these temporary placements would be, they have worked out remarkably well so far, with the deferred associates getting valuable hands-on practice experience while helping organizations to maintain service capacity.  These developments have also “sparked discussions of whether a more permanent model of apprenticeships can be developed that would train law school graduates at a lower cost and benefit public interest legal organizations that are suffering from funding constraints while attending to a greater need because of the recession.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: this article is a shortened version of a piece that originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on April 4.]

• 5.29.10 – Houston Chronicle (Opinion Piece) – Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis notes that there has been significant improvement in the Lone Star State’s indigent defense system since 2001 passage of the Fair Defense Act, which, among other initiatives, provided state funding for indigent defense.  Nevertheless, the indigent defense infrastructure needs to be shored up.  State funding now is generated through court fees – not from tax receipts – and is inadequate.  It should be increased so that counties do not continue bearing so much of the remaining cost of funding indigent defense.  Well-funded indigent defense programs are ultimately cost-efficient and go a long way to ensuring that justice is served.  Link to piece.

We know that women outnumber men substantially in public interest law, particularly civil legal services. We also know that public interest legal careers are some of the lowest-paying attorney jobs out there. And yet when the topic of gender diversity in the legal profession comes up it tends to focus on firm partnership inequity and the lack of women judges. Check out this new NALP Bulletin article by PSLawNet Fellow Katie Dilks (pdf) on the topic. Then chime in below with your thoughts on both the current inequitable gender distribution in public interest law and the lack of a coherent national conversation – we’d love to start one here!

• 5.26.10 – New York Law Journal – the “Attorney Emeritus Program,” a project spearheaded by New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to engage retired lawyers in pro bono service, “has enlisted more than 120 retired lawyers since January to offer free legal advice and representation to poor New Yorkers in foreclosure, debt collection, housing, family and other civil cases.”  The program, now guided by a 30-attorney advisory council representing all corners of the profession, hopes to tap into a projected, large-scale increase in retirees as the first Baby Boomers turn 65 next year.  Lippman anticipates the volunteer numbers to swell and hopes that the project may be “permanent piece of the puzzle” in delivering legal services to low-income clients.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: in January, the New York Times covered Chief Judge Lippman’s announcement of the program’s beginning.]

• 5.26.10 – Louisville Courier-Journal (covering Kentucky and Indiana) – in Clark County, Indiana, officials announced the launch of the Clark Legal Self Help Center, a resource for low-income people in need of free legal assistance on civil matters.  The Center will be staffed by volunteer attorneys and law students, and will offer help with reviewing court documents, determining the nature of legal problems, and directions on how to find an attorney if needed.  Law students will handle most of the initial meetings with individuals seeking help; volunteer attorneys will also participate in the program, but will not necessarily establish attorney-client relationships.  Those who are eligible may be referred to Indiana Legal Services for additional help.  Link to article.  

• 5.25.10 – New York Law Journal – this week the Pro Bono Institute released a report, Law Firm Deferred Associates and Public Interest Placements: Survey Report and Preliminary Assessment, documenting findings from surveys done over the winter to analyze how well deferred associates’ public-service placements were progressing.  The report’s findings paint the phenomenon in a largely positive light.  Public interest organizations that are hosting deferred associates are generally very satisfied with the contributions made by the associates, and demand to host associates in the future remains high.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: here is a link to the full Pro Bono Institute report, as well as a link to a PSLawNet Blog post reviewing the report.]

• 5.25.10 – Triangle Business Journal (North Carolina) – the Duke University School of Law is expanding its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for students on public service careers.  The LRAP now “will cover 100 percent of loan payments for graduates making $60,000 a year or less, up from $35,000. The program also provides some assistance, on a sliding scale, for graduates making between $60,000 and $75,000. Additionally, Duke has eliminated the cap on lifetime loan repayments, which previously stood at $80,000.”  Only federal loans are eligible for the LRAP program.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: Duke joins at least four other law schools – Northwestern, UVA, Cal-Berkeley, and Georgetown – in tailoring its LRAP program around the College Cost Reduction & Access Act’s Income Based Repayment provision.]

• 5.24.10 – WHYY Radio Station Website (Serving Philadelphia/New Jersey) –  “State budget cuts may mean less legal assistance for New Jersey’s poor.  The budget plan reduces funding for Legal Services of New Jersey by 33 percent.  Legal Services President Melville Miller says the funding reduction means they’ll have to cut their staff and turn away about 11,000 people seeking assistance, many of them trying to avoid foreclosures and evictions.”  Link to brief blurb.  [Ed. Note: last week, Legal Services of New Jersey released An Open Report to New Jersey Concerning Funding for Civil Legal Services and Its Human Consequences, highlighting the severe funding cuts that are plaguing legal services programs throughout the Garden State, and making the case for the importance of adequately funding programs.] 

• 5.24.10 – National Law Journal – a case arising out of Georgia in which an indigent, capital criminal defendant sat in jail for four years because of problems with funding his defense and is now asking for the U.S. Supreme Court to review right to counsel claims “comes at a time when an increasing number of legal challenges are being made to underfunded and overburdened state indigent defense systems” across the country.  The Georgia indigent defense system has long been plagued by problems.  And while legislation in 2003 to shore up the system offered promise, adequate funding remains elusive.  Link to article.

• 5.23.10 – The Citizen (New Hampshire) – a bill to make free legal services available to New Hampshire’s veterans is winding through the state legislature.  While the bill’s passage is expected the funding mechanism for the program is uncertain.  The funding, if obtained, would allow the New Hampshire State Veterans Council to hire staff attorneys to represent veterans on a variety of matters, including home foreclosure and consumer debt issues, as well as family law and veterans benefit cases.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: for additional coverage of a national trend toward expanding legal services/resources for veterans, see two items below (El Paso Times).]

• 5.23.10 – Dallas Morning News – the conviction integrity unit that operates out of the Dallas County District Attorney’s office has for several years been working with DNA evidence to ensure the propriety of past convictions and exonerate the wrongly convicted.  Now, the unit is expanding the scope of its activities to the more time-consuming review of convictions where there may be some question of guilt but no DNA evidence is available for review.  The unit’s work has captured national attention because it is unusual for a prosecutor’s office to have devoted so many resources to post-conviction reviews.  Link to article.

• 5.21.10 – El Paso Times [Special Feature Article] – “Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans is a new State Bar of Texas Committee established…to develop and assist pro bono legal clinics throughout the state for military veterans and their families who cannot afford or do not have access to legal services they need.”  El Paso Lawyers for Patriots is the local extension of the statewide initiative.  The local program “is developing a coordinated network of El Paso lawyers to assist veterans and active-duty military and their families who cannot afford or have no access to legal services through the El Paso Bar Association and veterans service providers.”  A local judge also recently established a Veterans Mental Health Treatment Court to “address cases involving combat veterans and active military personnel involved in the criminal justice system due to conduct related to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries or other mental diseases and disorders as a result of military service.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: there is a national trend involving the legal community establishing diversionary judicial programs and other resources for veterans with legal problems.  See the PSLawNet Blog’s March 16 post, linking to news coverage of the trend.]

• 5.21.10 – Blog of the Legal Times – “The Justice Department is studying Monday’s Supreme Court ruling barring life sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes, possibly with an eye toward improving rehabilitation programs for juveniles in prison.”  Link to blog post.  [Ed. Note: the PSLawNet blog posted about the Supreme Court decision – Graham v. Florida – and linked to news coverage here.]