This week the Pro Bono Institute has issued Law Firm Deferred Associates and Public Interest Placements: Survey Report and Preliminary Analysis.  The report is based on two surveys performed by PBI in February: one of law firms who had deferred associates working in public interest placements, and the other of public interest organizations.  As for the methodology, about 170 public interest organizations responded to part/all of the survey, and about 45 law firms responded. The findings generally comport with much of the other evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, gathered thus far about this unique phenonmenon.  It is still too early for law firms to assess in any depth how things will play out for their associates, because many associates are still in their deferral periods or have only just recently returned to the firms.  The public interest orgnizations that are hosting deferred associates have broadly favorable reviews of the associates’ work.  Just about 75% of respondents to a question about associate contributions in the public interest organization rated those contributions as either 4s or 5s on a 0-5 scale (5 being the best).  Here are some quotes from the public interest organizations:

[The deferred associates] are a wonderful resource to our clients. Although they cost us time and our logistical resources, we recoup that through their work. It also builds on our relationship with their firms and hopefully makes them into well-rounded lawyers when they return to private practice.

The deferred associate served an essential role as co-counsel for a complex Medical Assistance case that culminated in an 8 hour administrative hearing in her final week.

One deferred associate saved our youth program which would have otherwise been lost.

Although most reports are quite positive, and the phenomenon generally has been received in the pro bono community as a large success,  it has not been all smooth sailing.  The report notes that:

Complaints reported by respondents included administrative difficulty with firms’ “rigid” procedures, as well as minimal firm involvement in placing associates. Lack of coordination with firms regarding benefits and oversight, as well as poor communication with the firm overall, and brief associate stays were also cited as problems, as was the desire for greater associate availability in rural areas.

We encourage you to read the full report, and here’s some New York Law Journal covearage of its release.  Speaking of deferred associates and New York, here is a separate report that the New York City Bar and City Bar Justice Center produced about how deferred associate placements are working out in NYC.  And here is a link to a piece that we contributed to the ABA Division of Legal Services’ Dialogue magazine about how this phenomenon has been playing out nationwide.

Kelly Tautges serves as the Chicago Bar Foundation’s Director of Pro Bono.  She had started her career in a large law firm, and after five years moved into the public interest arena, and away from practicing law.  These days, Kelly works on several fronts to encourage continued innovation in the delivery of pro bono services to low-income clients, and to promote partnerships between the private and public interest bars.  We recently asked Kelly about how the legal services and pro bono communities are set up in Chicago, how her career path has unfolded, and what advice she would offer to aspiring public interest lawyers.

Kelly, tell us generally about the Chicago civil legal services community, and comment on CBF’s role in it.

Chicago is home to a legal aid community that includes around 40 legal aid providers.  The providers range from organizations with one or two lawyers to organizations with almost 100 attorneys, and from those focusing on particular subject areas to generalists handling cases in many areas.

Even with this breadth of available legal aid providers in Chicago, the needs of those who cannot afford a lawyer substantially outweigh the available services. There are only about 300 legal aid attorneys in Chicago to serve the more than 1 million people who qualify for their services.  In addition, Chicago’s private bar has strong commitment to pro bono work and helps supplement the efforts of our dedicated legal aid attorneys. Despite the hard work happening in our pro bono and legal aid system in Chicago, the majority of low-income individuals are left to attempt to resolve their complex legal problems largely on their own.

The Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) takes a system-wide approach to improve access to justice by bringing together all of the stakeholders—including legal aid organizations, the courts, law firms, and individual lawyers—to strengthen and improve Chicago’s pro bono and legal aid system.   Very generally, the CBF works to advance the work of our community’s pro bono and legal aid organizations, supports our legal aid attorneys and works to make the courts more user friendly.  We accomplish our work through grants, advocacy, pro bono and other partnerships.   The CBF is funded primarily though support from individual lawyers, law firms and corporations.

My role at the CBF is to focus on pro bono: helping people get involved with pro bono, working with organizations and other stakeholders to identify and set up new programs, supporting existing programs and creating collaborations and partnerships to efficiently and effectively involve pro bono volunteers to address client need.    I also work on a new initiative called the CBF Legal Aid Academy that provides training and professional development opportunities to legal aid attorneys through the pro bono contributions of legal consultants, lawyers, educators and firms.

How badly has the recession affected your funding of legal services, and other funding sources?

Like most communities, many major sources of funding for legal aid in Chicago, especially state support and IOLTA funding, are under severe stress.  At the same time, a lot of great things are happening here that demonstrate the legal community’s strong support of the pro bono and legal aid system.   For example, we just finished the CBF’s  4^th Annual Investing in Justice Campaign, which raised more than $1.1 million to support Chicago’s pro bono and legal aid organizations.  80 firms, corporate legal departments and other organizations participated this year, up from 54 firms and organizations last year.  More than 2,500 individual attorneys personally contributed to the campaign, up from about 2,000 individuals last year.  The Campaign is a great example of how Chicago’s legal community is coming together to support our pro bono and legal aid system even in these challenging economic circumstances.

You began your career at a law firm and subsequently transitioned to CBF.  Why, and how did the discernment process play out for you?

In many ways, I took the path of least resistance when I first graduated from law school and started my career at a large Chicago law firm.  I was lucky to graduate at a time when good jobs were plentiful, and I received an offer from the firm where I was a summer associate.  I took this law firm job because I was concerned about my debt, knew that I liked and respected the people in my department, and was confident that I would get great litigation experience.   Just over the five-year mark, though, I knew that it was time for me to leave my law firm practice.   Volunteerism and service have always been a big part of my identity, and while my pro bono work while in private practice was rewarding, it was not enough.  I wanted to work in the public interest full-time.   I decided to take the leap, and I left the firm.

After some time off, I began looking for a public interest position.  I knew it would be tough, and I was right.  Even though it took some time and rejection, though, I found a position that was a perfect fit for my background and skills.  The CBF had just announced the Director of Pro Bono position, which was new at the CBF.  I feel very fortunate that I was able to find and be offered such a wonderful position.

What advice do you offer law students who are on civil legal services career paths but who are scared about economic conditions?

My advice would be to stick with the commitment of working in legal aid, but to be flexible and open-minded about the route that may be necessary to get a legal aid job.  There are many different ways to make a difference and to help people in need, and lawyers may want or need to take positions outside traditional civil legal services as part of their process to ultimately get the job that they want in legal aid.  Also, be creative: finding fellowships and identifying areas and organizations that are likely to have new funding are great ways to get into legal services.  Finally, I would encourage those interested in legal aid to meet with members of their community’s legal aid network to learn about the legal aid landscape, to identify volunteer opportunities and to find leads for legal aid employment.

• 5.20.10 – NJ Today Website (New Jersey) – Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) has released An Open Report to New Jersey Concerning Funding for Civil Legal Services and Its Human Consequences.  LSNJ’s president noted that IOLTA funding in New Jersey is down by 80%, the state may cut its funding of legal services by 33%, and that significant staff layoffs will continue to be necessary unless funding stabilizes.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: The report highlights the severe funding cuts that are plaguing legal services programs throughout the Garden State, and makes the case for the importance of adequately funded programs for the state’s residents and government.  Link to report.]

• 5.19.10 – The Tennessean – the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, along with the Tennessee Bar Association and the Tennessee Attorney General’s office, are offering an array of resources to victims of recent, disastrous flooding in the Volunteer State.  Link to brief article.

• 5.19.10 – New Orleans Times-Picayune – the Louisiana Senate’s Commerce Committee rejected a proposed bill that would have “effectively shut down the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic.”  The bill was intended to stop law school clinic programs from suing business interests in the state, and its main proponent, Sen. Robert Adley, enjoyed the support of the Louisiana Chemical Association.  Ultimately, though, the bill received no other support from Commerce Committee members.  Link to article.  And see additional AP coverage from the Bloomberg Business Week website.   [Ed. Note: prior coverage of this controversy is found in Items 1 and 4 of the May 14 PSLawNet Public Interest News Bulletin.]

• 5.17.10 – National Law Journal – this week “the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment does not allow sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles who committed nonhomicide crimes.”  In the Graham v. Florida opinion, “Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 6-3 majority, applied the logic of the categorical exceptions to the death penalty for juveniles and the mentally retarded, already created by the Court, to juveniles who commit lesser crimes than homicide. Their age and level of mental development make them less culpable…”  Link to article.  And see additional coverage from the Miami Herald.

• 5.14.10 – The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) [Editorial] – state aid is a critical source of funding for civil legal services programs that serve Central and Northern New Yorkers, but a state budget proposal from the executive branch may do away with funding altogether.  A potential bit of good news for legal services may come if a $15 million appropriation for legal services comes through the state judiciary’s budget request.  Still in the longer term, New York must find a way to avoid “boom and bust” legal services budget fluctuations and to “find a better way to keep its promise to help the needy navigate the legal labyrinth.”  Link to piece.

• 5.13.10 – KBIA Radio Station Website (Columbia, Missouri) – officials from the Boone County public defender’s office, prosecutor’s office, and the local bar met to develop a solution to the problem of overwhelming caseloads confronting public defenders.  Link to brief article.  [Ed. Note: for earlier coverage of the indigent defense crisis in Missouri, a problem which wound its way to the state’s high court, listen to this December 2009 NPR story.]

• 5.13.10 – Harvard Law School Website – “Harvard Law School has selected 25 students and one recent graduate to receive fellowships enabling them to pursue public service work….Ten of the students will be awarded the newly established Redstone Fellowships; one student will be the Maria, Gabriella & Robert A. Skirnick Public Interest Fellow; another nine will receive the Holmes Public Service Fellowships established by Dean Minow in 2009; and six will receive the Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship.  The one-year fellowships offer Harvard Law School students and recent graduates financial support so that they can work for non-profit organizations or for the government following graduation.”  Link to announcement.

• ABA Division of Legal Services’ Dialogue Magazine, Spring 2010 Edition – in a phenomenon driven by the economic recession, law firm associates whose 2009 start dates were deferred have taken temporary public-service placements in nonprofit and government law offices across the country. Reports of the associates’ integration into the public interest community have been positive. And the associates have seized chances to develop skills and gain perspective on the public service arena.  Some public interest leaders, law firm pro bono managers, and other stakeholders are evaluating the phenomenon’s overall impact.  Further, some are considering whether a longer-term pro bono model could emerge from what was initially seen as a short-term occurrence born of unique circumstances.  Link to article.

• April 2010 – [Ed. Note: the Legal Aid Association of California has released Shaping the Future of Justice: Effective Recruitment and Retention of Civil Legal Aid Attorneys in California, a comprehensive report highlighting severe obstacles in legal aid programs’ efforts to recruit and retain junior staff attorneys.  The main factors cited as obstacles on the legal aid career path are financial pressures, including low salaries and high educational debt loads.   Link to report.]

The Legal Aid Association of California has released a report, Shaping the Future of Justice: Effective Recruitment and Retention of Civil Legal Aid Attorneys, which looks at the challenges that legal services programs have confronted (even pre-recession) in trying to hire and keep junior lawyers.  The main hurdles, no surprise, are low salaries and high educational debt loads maintained by recent law grads.  In preparing the report, Kelly Carmody – a friend of the PSLawNet Blog – and her colleagues did some impressive research via surveys, individual interviews, and focus groups.  Here’s some of the information offered in the report’s Executive Summary:

• “The median entry level salary [for civil legal aid attorneys in California] is $46,000, and more than half of the attorneys have salaries of less than $50,000 after more than three years in legal aid.”
• “One half of the legal aid attorneys think they will leave their current employment in the next three years.”  [The top reason cited by attorneys surveyed on why they may leave is “financial pressure due to low salary.”

And here are a couple of telling quotes from civil legal aid attorneys:

If I was not married, I would have to live with my parents.

…

I have been an attorney for almost 10 years.  I was offered a position at the public defender’s office which would have paid me three times what I make now.

There’s a lot of disturbing news in the report.  And it’s important to remember that the initiative to produce this report was begun pre-recession, at a time when IOLTA law changes in California left the legal aid community anticipating that their funding would actually be boosted.  That, as it turns out, was not to be, as the recession has presented severe fiscal challenges for most legal aid organizations.  They may not be in a position now to take institutional steps toward raising salaries and developing retention programs, but we applaud the California legal aid community for keeping its eye on this very severe problem.  Hemorrhaging junior attorneys who can’t afford to remain on legal aid career paths is a potentially terrible problem for the legal aid community.  Attrition leads to immediate financial inefficiencies when organizations lose attorneys they’ve invested time and money in training.  And in the longer run, there will be no next generation of experienced leaders to assume management responsibilities if they are hopping off the ladder while still on the lower rungs.

Recession or no recession, the report should be a wake-up call for those who have a stake in cultivating the next generation of legal aid leaders.

I recently contributed an article on Class-of-2009 deferred law firm associates to the ABA Division for Legal Services’ Dialogue magazine.

Starting last fall, deferred associates began public service placements with host organizations throughout the country.  The placements have ranged in duration from three to four months to over a year. Inferences drawn from NALP research suggest that the number of associates in  public service placements could be as high as 900 individuals out of the approximately 3,200 associates who were deferred nationwide.

Major legal markets are hosting the largest numbers of deferred associates.  The National Law Journal reported last November that there were upwards of 140 deferred associates taking placements in New York City nonprofit and government offices.  In the civil legal services community, the NYC Bar Association and the City Bar Justice Center launched the “Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project” to train and monitor the progress of deferred associates.  Chicago’s legal services community welcomed 54 deferred associates from the Class of 2009.  In California, the Public Interest Clearinghouse has counted at least 55 associates working with nonprofits throughout the state.  Associates are also contributing in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and in other smaller markets.

In terms of associates’ substantive contributions to their host organizations, reviews from all parties involved – the hosts, the law firms, and the associates themselves – are generally quite positive…

…

Regardless of the peculiarity of its origins, and whatever its ultimate impact on the employment and pro bono landscapes may be, the short-term result of [the deferred-associates-in-public-service- placements] phenomenon has been that deferred law firm associates have gained first-hand perspective on the importance of public service work that is likely to endure after they return to their law firms.  For example, it is possible that deferred associates working in public interest organizations today will be tomorrow’s public interest fundraisers and pro bono advocates. Most importantly,  deferred associates increase the pool of lawyers supporting the work of government and fighting for access to justice for clients on society’s margins.  That is the brightest of silver linings.

At a time of extraordinary need in the public interest community, it has been heartening to see that deferred associates have been able to help bolster the delivery of services to low-income clients.  And in the longer term, such successes with deferral placements may lead to more robust collaborations between law firm pro bono attorneys and public interest ogranizations.

In the shorter term, the only potential negative that has troubled me has been the prospect that law students and grads on public interest career paths could be displaced because deferred associates may literally be taking up the desk space where those students want to work as interns and later as attorneys.  I went to law school knowing that I wanted to go into civil legal servcies, so I would understand how current students who wish to do something similar might be disconcerted about being squeezed out by a deferred associate.  There is no getting around the fact that it’s a hard time right now for law students/grads looking for nonprofit jobs, and for nonprofit law offices (and more importantly, their clients).  I hope that those students and grads can take some comfort in a sentiment that Jennifer Thomas, the Director of Legal Recruiting at the DC Public Defender Service, offered when I was writing about deferrals late last year.  Noting the importance of a commitment – as demonstrated through work experience – to a public interest career when evaluating job candidates, Jennifer said, “A passionate commitment to public service is a chief criterion in our hiring process…and that will remain long after the recession has gone.”

Steve Grumm

• 5.12.10 – National Law Journal – as the Louisiana legislature prepares to debate a bill that would vastly limit the types of legal advocacy performed by legal clinics at law schools in the state, the Louisiana Chemical Association is playing “hardball” in opposing the activities of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic.  The association is advocating “that [its 61 corporate members] stop making donations to the university, stop matching employee donations to the school and curtail recruiting there.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: additional coverage of the legislative proposal is offered in the 5.10.10 New Orleans Times-Picayune article below.]

• 5.11.10 – Florida Times Union – Michael Figgins, executive director of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for 15 years, has quietly but dramatically expanded the organization, a process that included a decision to stop receiving Legal Services Corporation funds.  Link to article.

• 5.11.10 – Huffington Post Website (Opinion/Analysis Piece) – Maria Foscarinis, founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, weighs in on how a controversial, recently-passed Arizona immigration law may affect the increasing numbers of homeless and others in poverty who will not be able to readily produce personal identification documents if called upon to do so.  Foscarinis suggests that the law “risks further criminalizing poverty, and in particular, the extreme form of poverty that is homelessness.”  Link to piece.

• 5.10.10 – New Orleans Times-Picayune (running an AP article) – a Louisiana state senate bill could “hobble” law clinics at law schools located in the state.  “As it now stands, the bill — scheduled for a Wednesday hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee — would prevent all university law clinics from challenging government agencies in court, suing individuals for damages or making constitutional claims. That would limit access to justice for thousands of low-income Louisianans and prevent law schools from providing students with a complete legal education, legal experts argue.”  The bill has been proposed by a Senator who is concerned that some clinical programs – the Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic has been a point of focus – sue companies that are integral parts of the state’s economic infrastructure, which could ultimately lead to negative economic consequences for the state’s residents.  Link to article.  See also 5.4.10 coverage from the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog.

• 5.7.10 – The Record (New Jersey) – for the fourth year, “[b]attered women who have lost custody of children to spouses pleaded for legal help at a demonstration Friday in front of the Passaic County Courthouse.  But their pleas come at a time when Northeast New Jersey Legal Services — in most instances the only provider of legal services for low-income people — has suffered a 20 percent loss of staff to attrition and layoffs in just the past year. And it still faces major budget cuts and staff reductions….[A]dministrators of social and legal agencies confirm it’s almost impossible for a woman without resources to get publicly provided legal representation in a custody case. And now, with major budget cuts to state-funded Legal Services, the chance is even more remote.”  [Ed. Note: the article states that NNJLS’s staff has shrunk from 110 to 82 as a result of attrition and layoffs.]  Link to article.

• 5.6.10 – New York Times – “New York’s highest court ruled Thursday that a broad class-action suit challenging the state’s system of providing public defenders can move forward because there are enough signs that the system is failing poor people.  The 4-to-3 ruling by the State Court of Appeals came in a closely watched suit that civil liberties lawyers said could be a model for similar challenges across the country.”  Link to article. 

• 5.6.10 – Washington Post – a $2.4 million cy pres award stemming from a lawsuit involving cell phone fees is being used to bolster the financially strapped legal services community in Maryland.  That award, characterized as “Miracle Money” by one bar foundation official, will allow programs that have been battered by the recession to avoid office closures and service cuts.  Link to article.

• 5.6.10 – Monroe Evening News (Michigan) – Monroe County Senior Legal Services, which provides legal services to seniors using a sliding fee scale based on clients’ ability to pay, is holding fundraisers in order to finance the costs of serving a large portion of its clients who are living in poverty and unable to pay any fees.  “For the first time in its 32-year history, the nonprofit agency finds itself faced with rising caseloads and too few dollars to help those 60 and older who need legal aid.”  Link to article.

• 5.6.10 – Earth Times Website (Press Release) – “Low-income individuals in need of legal assistance [in Northern Virginia] with housing, consumer law and employment matters have an additional resource…as a result of the Legal Aid Justice Center’s recent expansion. Under an agreement with the Legal Services of Northern Virginia, the Legal Aid Justice Center now provides low-income immigrants in the metropolitan-DC area of Northern Virginia with a wider variety of legal issues than before.”  Link to press release.

• 5.4.10 – San Francisco Chronicle – “More than 80 San Francisco police officers have criminal histories or misconduct records that the Police Department withheld and prosecutors did not disclose to defense attorneys in cases in which officers testified, a failure that could put hundreds of felony convictions in jeopardy.  Link to article.

• 5.3.10 – New York Times – New York State’s top jurist called for a “Civil Gideon” – a right to counsel  for the poor in some civil matters, “like suits over eviction and other disputes where basic needs are at stake.”  Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said, “I am not talking about a single initiative, pilot project or temporary program, but what I believe must be a comprehensive, multifaceted, systemic approach to providing counsel to the indigent in civil cases.”  Link to article.

• 5.3.10 – Jacksonville Daily Record (Florida) – [Ed Note: a Q&A piece provides details about the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership.]  Link to article.

The Washington Post reports on a $2.6 million cy pres award – stemming from an old, class-action lawsuit about cell-phone fees – that will go to funding financially-strapped legal services programs throughout the Terrapin State.

A legal aid clinic in Oxon Hill will reopen and one in Baltimore that serves consumers across the state will avoid a scheduled closing as a result of a $2.4 million award stemming from a decade-old lawsuit over excessive late fees on cellphone bills.

Thirteen legal programs in Maryland that help clients facing evictions, wage disputes and other civil cases will share the money, helping buoy programs battered by ongoing public funding cuts and drops in foundation donations.

…

Maryland Legal Aid in Baltimore received the largest amount — $911,000 — which its head, Wilhelm Joseph Jr., said will plug a funding hole linked to the current low interest rates on accounts that historically generate payments for legal aid programs. As rates dropped, so did the interest income on which Wilhelm’s groups and others heavily rely. “The great pain for me was watching our money decline just as more people needed our services,” said Wilhelm.

As is noted in the Post article, and as we’ve noted in the past, Maryland’s legal services funding infrastructure was hit badly by IOLTA shortfalls in recent funding cycles.  So this is great news.

• 4.23.10 – Fulton County Daily Report (Georgia) – a local estate law attorney recounts the unique reward that comes with helping a pro bono client who had nowhere else to turn and, by way of a “top 8” list, explains the reasons that she has built pro bono into her practice.  Link to article (hosted on law.com).

• 4.22.10 – Washington Post – in Perdue v. Kenny A., a decision handed down by the Supreme Court this week, public interest lawyers may have scored a longer-term victory while enduring a shorter-term loss.  The case had to do with whether lawyers who prevail in federal cases and achieve a result in the public interest could be awarded not just attorneys fees but also financial “enhancements” on account of their advocacy.  In Perdue, a successful action brought by a public interest organization and pro bono co-counsel against the State of Georgia resulted in “a transformation of Georgia’s dysfunctional foster-case system.”  A judge awarded not just attorneys fees, but an additional amount equal to 75% of those fees in recognition of their excellent advocacy and their achieving a favorable result.  Georgia argued that there were no grounds for such an enhancement in the law.  The Supreme Court disagreed with Georgia, finding that such enhancements could be permitted.  But it set up very narrow parameters in which it could happen, preferring only an amount equal to attorneys fees to be the presumptively correct award.  It did not allow the enhancement of $4.5 million to stand in this case, and sent it back to the lower court for reconsideration.  Link to article.  See additional coverage from the ABA Journal.

• 4.21.10 – South County Spotlight (Oregon) – after Columbia County Legal Aid and the Oregon State Bar (its funder) hit loggerheads concerning the former’s precarious funding situation, a state senator helped organize a “mediation” session between the two groups.  CCLA is one of a small group of legal services organizations that does not operate under the umbrella of Legal Aid Services of Oregon.  CCLA’s funding comes from court filing fees from Columbia County, which may not be enough to sustain the staff needed to help its residents.  Still, CCLA fears that a merger with LASO would lead to closure of its office, potentially “forcing [clients] to visit LASO’s office in Portland.”  CCRA’s director argues that the unique types of issues and client base in Columbia County would make it difficult to provide out-of-county services effectively.  Link to article.

• 4.20.10 – Harvard Law Record – a group of public-service minded Harvard Law students is spearheading a fundraising initiative – the Post-Graduate Student Funded Fellowship – that would bankroll a public interest fellowship for one graduating classmate.  The group notes that “$1 per day for 1 month from each student … would fund a fellow classmate to work in the public interest for a year following graduation.”  The group, which hopes that the project will remain institutionalized after its founders graduate, has created a website to collect donations and is also taking the tried-and-true “bake sale” route to kick off fundraising efforts.   Link to article.  And see additional coverage (4.22.10) in the National Law Journal.

• 4.20.10 – San Francisco Chronicle – in the wake of a scandal inside San Francisco’s crime lab, the city’s public defender suggested that “[a]s many as 40,000 drug cases … may need to be reviewed and it’s going to take money to do it.” Already, more than 500 drug cases have been dismissed on account of “concerns about the police lab’s performance.”  The public defender is arguing that neither the police nor the district attorney should take the lead in investigating apparent malfeasance at the lab because both organizations rely on the lab for support in making criminal cases.  The defender and DA do agree, though, that any investigation will be expensive.  Link to story.  [Ed. Note: some background on the scandal, which centers on the erratic behavior of a technician who may have stolen cocaine from the lab, is available via a 4.18.10 Associated Press story.]

• 4.20.10 – American Lawyer Daily– Andrew Ardinger, a Class-of-2009 law school grad whose law firm start date was deferred, is spending a year with the Public Interest Law Project (PILP), a civil legal services organization in California.  Ardinger has occasionally blogged for the American Lawyer about his public-interest experience.  His latest AmLaw post suggests that his experience at PILP thus far has offered ample opportunities for client contact and for cultivating practice skills, including working on a complaint and participating in a settlement negotiation on an important public benefit case.  Link to blog post.

• 4.19.10 – Bangor Daily News (Maine) – since last October, the Penobscot County Bar Association has been offering free attorney consults with low-income clients who are representing (or will represent) themselves in court.  “About 75 percent of the people who appear in Maine courts in criminal, civil and family matters are not represented by attorneys, Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley said last fall.”  One of the reasons for this is that Maine’s civil legal services programs are overworked, and can serve only about one quarter of eligible individuals who apply for services.  The clinic has by all accounts been successful, and as a result the county bar association has been nominated for an ABA public service award.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: in recent weeks there has been coverage around the country of bar associations’ and public interest organizations’ attempts to better support rising numbers of pro se litigants.  See related stories coming out of Michigan (Detroit Free Press, 4.15.10) and Texas (Texas Tribune, 4.13.10; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4.1.10).]

• 4.17.10 – Wisconsin Rapids Tribune – officials in Wood County, Wisconsin hope that a forthcoming statewide change in the formula used to determine if a criminal defendant is eligible for a public defender will reduce county legal bills.  At present, “[i]f a judge decides a defendant cannot pay for a lawyer but doesn’t meet the criteria for a public defender, the judge appoints an attorney, and the county pays the bill.”  The indigent defense eligibility standards had not been updated since 1987, with a result being that a lot of poor defendants were determined ineligible for a public defender even though they were living in poverty.  The state’s decision to expand the standards will mean that more defendants will be eligible for public defenders, with the state picking up most of the tab.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: see past coverage of the Wisconsin governor signing into law the bill to expand the eligibility standards via the Wisconsin Bar Association website (3.17.10).]

Andrew Ardinger, whose start date at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe was deferred, is spending a year with the Public Interest Law Project (PILP), a civil legal services support and resource organization that works with partners throughout California.  Ardinger has occasionally blogged for the American Lawyer about his public-interest experience.  His latest AmLaw post suggests that he’s had some valuable experiences, in terms of both professional and personal development, at PILP. 

…it was the first case that I got to see all the way through from start to finish that was the highlight of my first six months here. Through a task force that focuses on public benefits issues, PILP learned that a local county had created a rule that appeared unsupported on a legal level and grossly unfair on a gut level. As a result of the rule, poor people were being forced from stable homes to the streets because of a sharp reduction in their welfare benefits. I was involved in the preliminary investigation, researching the legal issues and talking with recipients to determine how and when this rule had been applied, and to what effect. When the decision was made to file, my bosses had me develop the complaint (at least the first draft or so), and I traveled out to our clients’ homes to meet with them and discuss the suit in detail. A while after we filed, the county agreed to discuss a settlement, and my bosses encouraged me to attend and participate in the negotiation sessions. PILP and the county reached an agreement that rescinded the rule and paid recipients across the county benefits that had been previously withheld.

It was my happy duty to discuss the terms of the settlement with our clients…

We’ve been closely following the phenomenon of deferred associates taking temporary public interest placements.  (We did some writing on the issue last December.  And a number of media articles focused on the phenomenon are collected here, on ProBono.net.)  There are many variables to consider when it comes to assessing how well things are playing out.  Two of the most important variables deal with whether the associates have opportunities to 1) interact with clients so that they can see first-hand the challenges those clients face, and 2) cultivate practice-related skills that will aid in their professional development.  It’s good to see that Mr. Ardinger’s experience has allowed him to do both.

Many law schools have had student-supported public interest funding programs for unpaid public interest summer work for years. Harvard is now taking that idea one step farther, by trying to establish a post-graduate student-funded fellowship. The fellowship would support a graduating student for a year in a public interest setting. The fellowship program chairs published an open letter to all students in yesterday’s Harvard Law Record, asking for a donation of one dollar per day for a month from all students  (which by PSLawNet’s rough calculations would work out to about $45,000) to support this program. While developed as a one-time idea in the face of immense economic difficulties, the founders express hope that this may become a permanent program.

It will be interesting to see if other schools decide to attempt this model as well. As always, we will keep you updated with any new developments.