From the National Law Journal, we learn that federal judges and court administrators feel that a ride over the much discussed “fiscal cliff” could imperil the federal justice system:

With the elections over, the federal courts are warning Congress and the public that major spending cuts triggered by the impending “fiscal cliff” would imperil the justice system by forcing layoffs of one court staffer in three, decimating court security and ending juror pay.

Unless Congress and the White House resolve the stalemate over the budget, 8.2 percent across-the-board cuts to federal programs would strip $555 million from the courts. That would be “devastating,” according to a October 2 analysis by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

…

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  Quite a week here in DC.  One of the most noteworthy election stories involves the changing faces of the American electorate.  Much ink has already been spilled about the youth (i.e. Millenial Generation), Latino, and women’s voting blocs’ influences on the election.  But it’s not just the voters who are changing.  It’s those whose candidacies are being voted upon.  For the first time, the women’s caucus in the Senate will swell to 20 next January.  And the Senate will also welcome its first openly gay member in the person of Tammy Baldwin.  Change is afoot. 

In other election-related news, here’s some unsolicited financial planning advice: I’m bullish on Frito-Lay sales in Colorado and Washington State.

On to the public interest news.  By way of transition I ask for your help in circulating NALP’s just-launched Public Interest Employment Market Snapshot Survey, a brief, anonymous survey of U.S.-based nonprofit and government public-interest law offices about 1) recent law student and attorney hiring and 2) hiring expectations for the immediate future. We will use the gathered data to produce a report about what the public interest employment market looks like.  We will make the report freely available in January, 2013.  The survey is available here.  Thanks for supporting this unique endeavor. 

This week’s news in very, very short:

• Making the economic case for civil legal aid in the glorious Keystone State;
• Stanford Law students help throw a little chin music at CA’s three strikes law;
• The  op-ed battle over who’s responsible for the tough circumstances confronting Missouri’s public defense program;
• Election Day proves to be Independence Day for New Mexico’s public defense program;
• It’s Pro Bono Week in the UK;
• A new MLP in Houston;
• Wisconsin Law opens a veterans clinic;
• Foreclosure fraud settlement funds channeled to the Legal Aid Society in TN.

The summaries:

• 11.8.12 – making the economic case for civil legal aid in PA: “Poverty legal services fill this void and have a long history of defending the most vulnerable among us from both fraud and abuse, but recent cuts to their funding guarantee that they will be able to help fewer and fewer people and– studies show– that affects all of us.  ‘This is the type of funding that not only rights wrongs but makes clear economic sense,’ explained Al Azen, Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (PA IOLTA), a non-profit program that provides funding for civil legal aid.  A new study by PA IOLTA, shows that over the last fiscal year the work of poverty legal services created $594 million for the Pennsylvania economy, an unheard-of eleven fold economic return on their funding.”  This story’s from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Unfortunately I can’t find the referenced report from the IOLTA board.  [EDIT: here’s the report, which was released in April.]

• 11.7.12 – “Stanford Law School students and faculty celebrated on election night, after years of hard work paid off when California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, which reforms the state’s tough ‘three strikes’ sentencing law.   The…school’s Three Strikes Project worked with the New York-based NAACP Legal Defense Fund to draft and promote the legislation, which won widespread support among California law enforcement and civil rights advocates. Proposition 36 represents the first time that voters have approved more lenient sentencing for offenders already serving prison time. With the change, offenders who commit nonviolent crimes as their third offense will no longer receive life sentences.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.)

• 11.7.12 – after a Missouri prosecutor blamed the state public defense program’s leadership, and not high caseloads, for the program’s struggles, a return volley: “Missourians deserve undistorted facts when faced with such serious criminal justice decisions. Instead, prosecutors take technical disagreements about how best to calculate public defender case overload — as raised in a new state auditor’s report — and conclude that the report ‘shatters the myth’ that public defenders are overworked. In reality, the report found “MSPD’s growth in caseload has outpaced its growth in staffing resources….”  (St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed from the director of the Sixth Amendment Center.) 

• 11.6.12 – “New Mexico voters have approved a constitutional amendment that establishes the Public Defender Department as an independent state agency….  The amendment calls for forming an independent commission that would appoint the state’s chief public defender, who would then oversee the department. Currently, the governor appoints the chief public defender.”  (AP story via KKOB’s website.)

• 11.6.12 – It’s Pro Bono Week in the UK, so there’s been a rash of stories about what is, and isn’t being accomplished by the bar across the pond.  Here’s a little bit about pro bono performed by UK’s “Biglaw” firms: “The value of pro-bono work in the UK is almost half a billion pounds a year, with research from legal recruitment company Laurence Simons finding that the top 20 firms carried out £180m of free work – the equivalent of 1.85 per cent of their budgets – in 2011….  The research, which was released to coincide with pro-bono week, show that the average value of voluntary work for each lawyer was £5,194. However, with the survey suggesting that 52 per cent of lawyers did no pro-bono work at all last year, the figure is likely to be double that amount.”  (Article from The Lawyer.)
  • an op-ed in The Guardian looks critically at how pro bono numbers demonstrate a polarization in the legal profession, and what that could say for the future of promoting access to justice.   

• 11.4.12 – ” Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Bar Association’s Houston Volunteer Lawyers recently announced the formation of a medical-legal partnership (MLP) that will provide Texas Children’s low-income patients and patient-families with critical legal assistance. This is the first partnership of its kind to be offered in the Houston area.  Through the program, a dedicated Houston Volunteer Lawyers staff attorney will provide legal advice and representation to Texas Children’s patients and their families with assistance from outside pro bono lawyers. The project is being funded in part by a donation from Walmart, which created a successful MLP with Arkansas Children’s Hospital last year with plans to expand the benefits of MLPs to other major pediatric hospitals nationwide.”  (Story from the Bellaire Examiner.)

• 11.2.12 – Wisconsin Law goes to bat for local vets.  “Legal assistance for Dane County veterans will be available starting Thursday, Nov. 8 when the University of Wisconsin Law School launches the new Veterans Law Center….  The free legal center is funded by a $5,000 Pro Bono Initiative grant from the State Bar Legal Assistance Committee. The project is administered by the UW Law School’s Pro Bono Program and is a collaborative effort with support from the Dane County Veterans Service Office, the Dane County Bar Association, Porchlight, Inc. and representatives from the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison. Habush Habush & Rottier SC recently contributed an additional $5,000 to fund the center.”  (Here’s the story from the Univ. of Wisconsin.)   

• 11/2/12 – funds from the national mortgage foreclosure fraud class-action settlement flow to legal aid in Tennessee: “The Legal Aid Society has launched a new initiative to help Tennessee homeowners dealing with foreclosure and mortgage rescue scams.  The expanded project is funded through an agreement with the state attorney general’s office.  The money is the result of a nationwide settlement between state attorneys general and major banks that engaged in questionable mortgage practices.”  (Story from CBS MoneyWatch.)

Music!  This week’s song is dedicated to campaign TV commercials.  We hardly knew ye.  On second thought, we knew ye all too well and saw ye all too often.  Ye were never welcomed.  Good riddance.

By: Steve Grumm

Hi, folks. We at NALP have just opened collection on our 2012 public interest employment market survey.  (Response deadline: 11/30.)  The survey will provide us with information about current and future hiring expectations in nonprofit and government law offices, with respect to both summer law students and attorneys.  Please spread the word to your contacts at U.S.-based nonprofit and government law offices by forwarding this blog post or using the below language.  Thanks much!

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is conducting a brief, anonymous survey of U.S.-based nonprofit and government public-interest law offices about 1) recent law student and attorney hiring and 2) hiring expectations for the immediate future. We will use the data to produce a report about what the public interest employment market looks like now and how it may change in the near future.

NALP will release the report in January 2013. The report will be made freely available online. The report will NOT identify any responding organizations by name. We hope the report will benefit the public interest legal community as well as law students and attorneys who are on public interest career paths.  Please participate in the short survey by clicking here.  The survey deadline is Friday, 11/30/12.  If you have questions please contact Steve Grumm, NALP’s director of public service initiatives, at sgrumm@nalp.org or 202.296.0057.

By: Steve Grumm

Bloomberg News

Happy Friday, folks.  If you were affected by the storm earlier this week, I hope you are safe and well.  Sandy delivered a painful reminder of our fragility.  One of the world’s most developed, sophisticated population centers found itself completely subject to nature’s whim.  Humbling.  And tragic for too many people.  On the legal front, the National Disaster Legal Aid website is serving as a resource both for those seeking help and those wishing to render it.  And while the news coverage has focused on the New York/Jersey region, it’s noteworthy that the storm’s impact has been felt far and wide.  I heard from a Cleveland-based legal aid lawyer who’s gone the week without electricity.     

For some post-Sandy escapism, here’s word that a new Star Wars movie is in the making (and that George Lucas is selling his empire to Disney).  Since I grew up loving the original trilogy and watching too many saccharine 80s sitcoms, I’m tempted to greet this development with unmitigated joy.  But I’ve got real questions about the franchise that inflicted Jar Jar Binks upon the world turning itself over to the company that gave us The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea.  Be warned, Disney: take good care of this galaxy far, far away.  

This week in very, very short:

• Texas counties pooling resources to provide indigent defense in capital cases
• Mandatory pro bono, Singapore style
• Low-paid FL prosecutors and defenders
• Pushback on pushback on Income Based Repayment
• More on NY’s new 50-hour pro bono rule
• Missouri prosecutor minces no words in assigning fault for indigent defense system woes
• NOLA PD may see big cut in city funding
• We can hear you now.  Corporate lawyers should be freed up to do more pro bono, says Verizon general counsel.
• Even Harvard’s public interest minded law students face a difficult career path
• Great work from Iowa Legal Aid, but times are tough
• Low-paid Pittsburgh prosecutors and defenders
• New masters-in-law course in animal law
• Recent hiring by the Land of Enchantment’s (great state nickname!) public defense program
• Online ATJ in IL
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries

• 11.1.12 – in Texas, counties banding together to provide capital defense counsel: “Parker County commissioners recently voted to join the Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases program, an action that could save the county thousands of dollars during the prosecution of expensive capital murder cases.  The program, funded through the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, represents defendants who are charged with the offense of capital murder and are eligible for the death penalty but cannot afford to hire their own attorneys.  The organization helps participating smaller counties meet the legal requirement to provide access to counsel for those defendants by providing a core team of four — two…attorneys, a mitigation specialist and a fact investigator — as well funds for an investigation…. Of the 240 counties eligible for the program … 193 have agreed to participate so far.”  (Story from the Weatherford Democrat.)

• 11.1.12 – I work hard to offer a global worldview, dear reader.  So here we have news about a potential move to mandatory pro bono in Singapore.  Only 16 hours, though, which is odd.  Here’s some detail from Today Online: “Lawyers could soon be required to contribute a minimum of 16 hours of free legal services, as part of a high powered committee’s proposal to make it mandatory for practitioners to provide legal aid to low-income and disadvantaged Singaporeans….  The scheme will cover legal assistance in four broad areas: Criminal legal aid, civil legal aid, community mediation including other voluntary services in the Subordinate Courts, and legal advisory work to institutions and charities.”

• 10.31.12 – “Florida prosecutors and public defenders can’t keep over-worked young lawyers very long without at least a break-even pay raise to offset the state’s 3 percent pension deduction, lawyers told state budget planners at a public hearing Wednesday….  ‘We have two kinds of assistant state attorneys today,’ said Buddy Jacobs, general counsel for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association. ‘We have those that are leaving and those that are looking.’  Jacobs said 56 percent of assistant prosecutors are five years, or less, out of law school, and that the typical young prosecutor starts at $40,000 a year — with $80,000 to $100,000 in college debt…. The state attorney offices have had about 15 percent turnover in each of the past two years, he said.”  (Story from the Florida Current.)

• 10.31.12 – student debt expert Heather Jarvis pushes back on a report that was itself critical of the Income Based Repayment program: “The New America Foundation released ‘Safety Net or Windfall:  Examining Changes to Income-Based Repayment for Federal Student Loans’… arguing that changes to Income-Based Repayment (IBR) should be better targeted towards low-income borrowers rather than “high-income borrowers with graduate and professional degrees.”   The analysis in the report clearly demonstrates what advocates have long known is a weakness in the IBR program—the lowest-income student loan borrowers need more and different help.  But the wealthy certainly do not benefit the most from Income-Based Repayment.  Wealthy students and families have money to pay for education, do not need to rely on student loans, and neither need nor will receive many benefits from Income-Based Repayment.  We have a debt-based system of access to higher education.  Unless or until that changes, student loans enable middle- and lower-income students and families to pay for…advanced degrees.  Middle- and lower-income students…must borrow substantial amounts or decide not to pursue advanced graduate and professional degrees.”
  • Speaking of student debt, the federal “Pay As You Earn” regulations were finalized this week.  PAYE makes two significant changes to the Income Based Repayment program. It first lowers the debtor’s monthly contribution from roughly 15% of disposable income to 10%.  Second, it knocks down the 25-year forgiveness period to 20 years.  (Distinguish this, however, from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness provision, which forgives eligible loan balances after 10 years of payments into IBR.)  (Here’s some coverage from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.) 

• 10.31.12 – New York’s newly implemented 50-hour pro bono requirement for admission to the bar just will not leave the news.
  • New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman delivered remarks to a DC-based audience earlier this week.  The Blog of the Legal Times has coverage: “The pro bono requirement, which is the first of its kind for a state bar, is ‘conceptually unassailable,’ Lippman said, even as he acknowledged concerns raised by law schools and legal services providers about how it would work in practice. He also said that the requirement was not a precursor to a mandatory pro bono requirement for the bar, another concern within the legal community.  Lippman said he hoped other states would consider similar requirements
  • And from the New York Law Journal, we learn that the chief judge expects that few bar applicants will be exempted from the rule’s requirement.

• 10.30.12 – pulling no punches regarding Missouri’s troubled indigent defense system, the state prosecutor association’s president blames the indigent defense program’s leaders, not overwhelming caseloads, for the program’s woes: “Simply put, the current public defender system is broken beyond repair because its top brass has surrendered in the face of its challenges. The only suggestion the public defender leadership ever offers is that they need more money. When the state budget is already stretched too thin, Missourians deserve a better solution….  We need to consider a new model where we reserve state-paid public defenders for the most serious felonies, such as murders and sexual offenses, while contracting representation of misdemeanors and low-level felonies to private counsel who could do the work more efficiently.  (Op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)

• 10.30.12 – the city of New Orleans is funding the district attorney’s office at just slightly less than it did last year, but the public defender’s office will see funding slashed by 33% (from $1.2 million to $800,000.)  Here’s the story from the Times-Picayune. 

• 10.29.12 – loosen up state practice rules so that in-house counsel – who may not be licensed in the states in which they physically work – can do more pro bono.  This is the case made by Verizon general counsel Randal Milch in a Corporate Counsel op-ed.

• 10.29.12 – the Harvard Crimson looks at the difficulties confronted by public service minded law students when they choose between a relatively robust law-firm recruiting system and the more difficult path to public service, which involves a tight, low-paying job market.

• 10.29.12 – a piece on Iowa Legal Aid trumpets the organization’s work on behalf of thousands of vulnerable Hawkeye Staters, but closes on a somber note: “All of that work is being done with fewer people, though. Iowa Legal Aid served nearly 17 percent fewer people than in 2010 because of reduced revenue and reductions in staff. At the end of 2011, the organization had 12 fewer attorneys and 8 fewer support staff than it had at the beginning of 2010. Funding from the Supreme Court was reduced to $172,000 for 2012, which is down from the $828,572 grant received three years ago, and federal funding was cut by 15 percent.”  (Full piece in The Hawkeye.)

• 10/29/12 – citing NALP data, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks at how low pay harries the Steel City’s junior prosecutors and defenders, forcing some to moonlight in order to make ends meet.

• 10/28.12 – the pet industry is booming – Big Pet? – and Lewis & Clark Law School has created a masters-in-law certificate program for tomorrow’s animal rights/law lawyers.  From the Columbia Tribune: “Enrollment in the yearlong program [which has an initial class of six students] is expected to grow to 15 or 20 students in three to five years, said attorney Pamela Frasch, assistant dean and executive director of the [school’s Center for Animal Law Studies].”

• 10/26/12 – New Mexico’s public defender program has done a fair amount of recent hiring.  That’s tapering off but they’re still looking for lawyers.  From the Las Cruces Sun-News: “Vacancies in the agency have declined from 20.8 percent in 2011 to 15 percent today.  Moreover…the chief public defender…said she expected vacancies to drop to 8 percent by January.  Her department is filling 70 jobs, she told the Legislative Finance Committee this week. In raw numbers, the public defender has 211 attorneys and 182 support employees. [The chief defender] said she had begun to reduce the vacancy rate because the Legislature increased her budget by $1.2 million last session. Overall, the [program’s] budget is $40.14 million. It stood at $42.6 million in 2010, then legislative cutbacks began because of the national fiscal crisis.”

• 10.26.12 – this Government Technology story is ostensibly about the launching of a successful online, self-help legal aid website in one county.  But it points to a larger trend in Illinois toward empowering low- and moderate-income residents with online legal resources.  

Music!  This week I’m having all kinds of trouble not listening to Centro-matic’s “Patience for the Ride.”  If I had to guess, I’d say the song has to do with the Enron fallout and similar instances of corporate malfeasance.  But as with all well-written songs, it draws upon more universal themes.  And I hear “Patience for the Ride” as an anthem for public interest lawyers who face long odds and powerful opponents.  The song also contains a somehow-unpretentious use of the word “eleemosynary”.  That’s straight badass, is what that is.

A recent report by the New America Foundation highlighted a perceived flaw in the Income Based Repayment program, namely that IBR will benefit not only low-income borrowers, but also high-debt, middle income borrowers, i.e. those who earn comfortable salaries but are also saddled by very high debt loads.  So there’s a question about whether a federal program can or should sustain itself when its benefit go to those who make a decent buck.

Heather Jarvis, student debt expert and friend of the PSJD Blog, pushes back on her blog:

The New America Foundation released “Safety Net or Windfall:  Examining Changes to Income-Based Repayment for Federal Student Loans” by Jason Delisle and Alex Holt, arguing that changes to Income-Based Repayment (IBR)should be better targeted towards low-income borrowers rather than “high-income borrowers with graduate and professional degrees.” 

The analysis in the report clearly demonstrates what advocates have long known is a weakness in the IBR program—the lowest-income student loan borrowers need more and different help.

But the wealthy certainly do not benefit the most from Income-Based Repayment.  Wealthy students and families have money to pay for education, do not need to rely on student loans, and neither need nor will receive many benefits from Income-Based Repayment. 

…

We have a debt-based system of access to higher education.  Unless or until that changes, student loans enable middle- and lower-income students and families to pay for the advanced degrees required to work in many higher-income professions.  Middle- and lower-income students and families must borrow substantial amounts or decide not to pursue advanced graduate and professional degrees.

Income-Based Repayment enables lower- and middle- income students to borrow and successfully repay high student loan balances, and borrowing and repaying a high student loan balance is the path from a lower- or middle-income family to high-income employment.  The person who benefits the most from IBR comes from a family of modest means, borrows a lot to earn advanced degrees, and makes payments based on income every month for many years.  The more that student loan borrower earns, the more he or she will pay. 

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents. It’s been a pleasure to spend time with law school public interest career advisors who’ve descended upon Washington DC for the NALP/PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference and the Equal Justice Works Career Fair.  Yesterday’s Mini-Conference reminded of why community-building among professional colleagues is so valuable.  And I’m pretty sure I only managed to alienate people from St. Louis and San Antonio during yesterday’s events.  I’ve done worse.  I want to extend, again, my congratulations and admiration to Elizabeth Gutierrez, a 3L as St. Mary’s University School of Law, who won our 2012 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award.  Liz acquitted herself with great humility during our award presentation, but her record as an advocate for the most vulnerable in her community is stunning. 

The weeklong, national celebration of pro bono, facilitated by the ABA and marked by volunteer projects and recognition events throughout the country, is winding down this weekend.  Events that have taken place are too numerous to mention.  But www.celebrateprobono.org is serving as a repository of related resources, news, etc.

There is just a moderate amount of public interest and access-to-justice news to report on today.  So here we go.  Short version:

• a new Tennessee MLP (poetry);
• making the case for an independent New Mexico defender’s office;
• loan repayment for NY nonprofit and government lawyers;
• happy 100^th, Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo (but the Bills still stink);
• one CA county’s prosecutors/defenders fight off a pay cut;
• OPM guidance on the federal government’s “Pathways” program’s intern hiring component;
• after NY, is NJ also going to require pro bono service as a condition of getting a law license?;
• could the Income Based Repayment program inadvertently re-inflate the law school tuition bubble?
• only 40 years until Buffalo – Ohio’s Community Legal Aid Service turns 60.
• super music bonus!

The summaries:

• 10.26.12 – in Tennessee, the Vanderbilt University Shade Tree Clinic and the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands have formed a new medical legal partnership.  It seems as though both law and medical students will play prominent roles: “[The] new MLP, which will offer patients a variety of free legal services, is an outgrowth of one that was set up and is still operating in a limited capacity at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Most MLPs are formed at children’s hospitals because they are teaching hospitals and thus can partner with other university resources, and because they have a higher concentration of families in need than a regular hospital might have…. The Legal Aid-Shade Tree partnership is unique because the clinic is student-run, as opposed to a community health center or larger hospital. Student physicians and, increasingly, student lawyers, gain real-world experience while providing an immediate service to the patient base, says Shannon Jordan, LMSW, a medical social worker at Shade Tree.”  (Story from the Nashville Ledger.)

• 10.25.12 – a Las Cruces News-Sun op-ed, written by a retired public defender, makes the case for a New Mexico ballot initiative which would take the state’s public defender program outside of the executive branch’s control and make it an independent entity.  One of the main concerns of having the governor continue to control the defender program is an inherent conflict of interest, as the governor also has responsibility to prosecute crime.

• 10.24.12 – the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) has created a loan repayment grant program for mid-level lawyers in nonprofit and government practice.  From the Buffalo Business Journal:  “The grants, offered through the Steven Krane Special Committee on Student Loan Assistance for the Public Interest, are available to attorneys who have practiced public interest or government law for a minimum of five years. Priority will be given to civil legal services attorneys.”

• 10.24.12 – the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo hits the century mark.  Huzzah!  (Here’s the story from WBFO.)

• 10.23.12 – in California, Contra Costa County prosecutors and defenders have successfully staved off a planned salary cut: “After months of fractious negotiations, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and associations from both the district attorney and public defender’s offices agreed Tuesday to a new employment contract that would roll back controversial pay cuts in exchange for some concessions.”  (Here’s the password-protected Recorder article.)

• 10.22.12 – a development concerning federal agencies’ intern recruiting efforts under the new “Pathways” recruiting model: “Federal agencies have been told that they can continue to use interns referred from third parties such as intern placement agencies after a recent overhaul of government intern-type programs.  The government in July formally launched the Pathways program that revised or replaced several prior developmental and hiring programs for students and graduates….  A memo that the Office of Personnel Management sent Friday said that since the revisions, agencies have been asking about the role of third-party intern providers. OPM said that nothing in the new program ‘restricts in any way an agency’s authority to enter into arrangements with third-party intern providers. Agencies retain the same authority to enter these arrangements that they had before the Pathways programs were authorized’.”  (Full blog post from the Washington Post.)

• 10.22.12 – I’m so tired of New York being a trendsetter.  But here they go again.  “Following the lead of the New York state court system, New Jersey’s top judge has formed a committee to consider requiring prospective attorneys to complete pro bono work before being admitted to the state bar.  The 17-member panel, which Chief Justice Stuart Rabner created last week, will be chaired by Judge Glenn Grant, the acting administrative director of New Jersey’s court system. The committee will review New York’s pro bono mandate, which requires 50 hours of work, and make recommendations to Rabner.  The panel includes private attorneys, bar association officials, legal service providers and officials from the state’s three law schools, as well as a third-year law student and a retired state judge.  According to an Oct. 15 letter Grant wrote inviting the officials to join the committee, 97 percent of small claims litigants and 99 percent of tenants in housing cases in New Jersey show up to court without a lawyer.”  (Full story from Thomson-Reuters.)

• 10.21.12 – this blog post in the Chronicle of Higher Education explores a New America Foundation report on the federal Income Based Repayment program, specifically querying whether IBR, because it allows high-debt, middle-income borrowers to create very affordable repayment plans “could completely remove price discipline in a law-school market that desperately needs it…”  That is, could IBR inadvertently create another law school tuition bubble?

• 10.19.12 – Ohio’s Community Legal Aid Services is turning 60!  Congrats!  In celebration they are partying Akron-style at the Akron Civic Theater.  Consider yourself warned, Akron.  (Story from the Daily Legal News.)

• Music!  Here we have the song “Mass Romantic” from the New Pornographers. 

After you graduate from law school, your loans will typically enter a grace period of 6-9 months. This period of time could be spent staring with increasing horror at a calendar, or you could start actively preparing to enter repayment. Homeroom, the official blog of the U.S. Department of Education, featured an article today on 3 Things To Do During Your Student Loan Grace Period:

1. Get Organized

Start by tracking down all of your student loans. There is a website that allows you to view all your federal student loans in one place. You can log in to www.nslds.ed.gov using your Federal Student Aid PIN to view your loan balances, information about your loan servicer(s), and more.

Note: Don’t forget to check to see if you have private student loans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a great Student Debt Repayment Assistant to help you learn about the repayment process, whether you have federal loans, private loans or both.

2. Contact Your Loan Servicer

A loan servicer is a company that handles the billing and other services on your federal student loan. Your loan servicer can help you choose a repayment plan, understand loan consolidation, and complete other tasks related to your federal student loan, so it is important to maintain contact with your loan servicer. If your circumstances change at any time during your repayment period, your loan servicer will be able to help.

To find out who your loan servicer is, visit nslds.ed.gov. You may have more than one loan servicer, so it is important that you look at each loan individually.

3. Explore Your Repayment Plan Options

Although you may select or be assigned a repayment plan when you first begin repaying your student loan, you can change repayment plans at any time. Flexible repayment options are one of the greatest benefits of federal student loans. There are options to tie your monthly payments to your income and even ways you can have your loans forgiven if you are a teacher or employed in certain public servicejobs. Work with your loan servicer to determine which repayment plan is right for you.

Click here to read the full article. In addition to the U.S. Department of Education’s featured tips, check out PSJD’s Funding & Debt page in the site’s Resource Center for more information on calculating student loan debt, funding public interest legal careers, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program!

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks.  Well, not too happy.  Yesterday, we at NALP released the 2012 Public Sector & Public Interest Attorney Salary Report.  These already-low salaries, when taking inflation into account, have remained close to stagnant in the recent past. (Civil legal aid lawyers start at about $43,000 annually while assistant prosecutors’ and defenders’ starting salaries hover around $50,000)  But of course the amount of debt that today’s junior attorneys carry has swollen.  Thus, a public interest attorney’s income pie has stayed the same size, but a much larger piece of it now goes to debt service.

Loan repayment (and in some cases, forgiveness) programs can mitigate this circumstance.  Those grads positioned to maximize repayment/forgiveness options may not experience financial discomfort.  But not all types of loans qualify for inclusion in repayment programs.  And there is uncertainty about the viability of today’s loan repayment regime – a constellation of government-, school-, and employer-run repayment plans.  Finally there is the law graduate’s frustration of having to take on a massive amount of debt, only then to have it reduced.  Here’s the important question: with low, stagnant salaries, with the rising cost of legal education, and with a terribly tight job market, how difficult is it becoming for tomorrow’s lawyers to pursue public service career paths?

This question will not yield a simple, yes-or-no, across-the-board answer.  Circumstances are different for every law student.  But we can identify the key variables involved in the analysis. I’m going to focus on this as I do some writing in the next few weeks.  I am so far from having the market on wisdom cornered that I sometimes can’t find the market.  So please be in touch with your thoughts, insights, questions, etc.  I’m at sgrumm@nalp.org or 202.296.0057.     

Some interesting miscellany before the week’s public interest and access-to-justice news:

• in the nonprofit world, the Chronicle of Philanthropy released its list of the 400 largest nonprofits, accompanied by several analysis pieces.  Much of the content is password-protected.  But there is valuable data/insight in the accessible areas too, and one can get a sense of how the recession did, and continues to, impact the nonprofit world.
• on the job-market front, resume advice is ubiquitous, and some of it is so bland – “make it look clean” – as to be useless.  However, this blog post – 10 Reasons Your Resume Isn’t Getting You Interviews – on the U.S. News website is better than most of the content I come across because it compels job-seekers look critically at how their resumes are constructed.

Okay, on to the public interest and access-to-justice news.  In very, very short:

• coverage of NALP’s public interest salary report;
• IL attorney general directs more funding to legal aid for housing work;
• pro se resources in the Aloha State;
• the ABA’s weeklong celebration of pro bono takes place next week;
• OK legal aid providers also getting funds to do housing work;
• A look at law student pro bono in Minnesota (and New York);
• A Wall Street legal clinic?  Seton Hall’s Investor Advocacy Project;
• ~$7 million contract to provide legal aid to disabled New Yorkers up for grabs;
• An Innocence Project clinic launches at West Virginia Law;
• An Oklahoma nonprofit law office serving “modest means” clients expands;
• super music bonus

The summaries:

• 10.18.12 – here’s some coverage of the above-noted NALP public interest salary report:
  • From the ABA Journal
  • And from the National Law Journal

• 10.18.12 – “Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) announced Oct. 18 that $620,000 in funding from the national foreclosure settlement has been awarded to Illinois Legal Aid Online. The attorney general’s grant will be used to develop web-based resources to assist Illinois homeowners and legal professionals dealing with foreclosure, including online training programs for legal staff and attorneys working with Illinois residents facing foreclosure. The grant also will be used to develop and enhance educational websites intended for homeowners and renters affected by foreclosure.”  (Story from the Rock River Times.)

• 10.17.12 – Aloha.  This article covers the opening of one Hawaiian courthouse self-help center for pro se litigants, but more importantly highlights a statewide trend toward bolstering pro se resources. (Here’s the article in the Maui News.)

• 10.16.12 – the ABA’s “Pro Bono Celebration” week is next week.  There’s much happening on local, state, and nationwide levels to promote pro bono’s importance.  Here’s an ABA overview, and here’s the official Celebrate Pro Bono website, which serves as a central repository for event listings and resources.

• 10.16.12 – “Oklahoma’s $18.6 million mortgage settlement with five big lenders will pay for legal services for people trying to manage a mortgage, avoid foreclosure and keep their homes — no matter the lender — in a new partnership between the state attorney general’s office and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma.  Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Monday that Legal Aid received $1.27 million from the settlement to hire, train and reassign 15 attorneys and seven paralegals to help homeowners with mortgage modifications, refinancing, short sales, housing counseling and navigating the foreclosure process in a program called Resolution Oklahoma.”  (Story from the Oklahoman.)
  • and here comes a terrible segue into an unrelated topic. While we’re on Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie was born there. And here’s a Chronicle of Higher Education article looking at Guthrie’s legacy 100 years after his birth.  He was Bob Dylan long before Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan.  (I think of Guthrie as the first punk-rocker.)  And he exerted enormous, reaching-beyond-the-grave influence on the evolution of American music.  Good read.

• 10.16.12 – in light of the just-implemented New York State rule requiring 50 hours of pro bono service to get a law license, the Minnesota Daily looks at law student pro bono in the Gopher State. “All four Minnesota law schools — the University of Minnesota, Hamline University, University of St. Thomas and William Mitchell College of Law — provide legal volunteering opportunities through a partnership with the Minnesota Justice Foundation.  MJF is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by law students in Minnesota. It provides students with a database of volunteer opportunities as well as advising from a staff attorney at each school…. The only Minnesota school to require legal volunteer work is Hamline University School of Law — a rule that was put in place last year.”
  • speaking of the New York rule, here’s a Reuters piece noting that the rules broad definition of “pro bono” means that there might not be much “new” pro bono generated because many externship, clinical, and volunteer projects already performed by law students will satisfy the rule.

• 10.15.12 – a look at the work of Seton Hall Law’s Investor Advocacy Project, a clinic that helps low- and moderate-income investors who’ve been wronged. “”We provide advocacy for those investors who would otherwise be unable to secure adequate representation,” says David M. White, a law school faculty member and director of the…Project. The contingency fees charged by lawyers would alone eat up most of any possible recovery.  The clients are not big-time investors. They bought annuities, instruments like insurance policies. Or invested settlements from injury claims. Or the proceeds from the sale of their homes. White says the investments involved in these cases do not exceed $100,000.”  (Article from the Star-Ledger.)

• 10.15.12 – “Three groups have proposed taking over federally funded advocacy and legal protection of disabled New York residents who are in the care of the state and its nonprofit contractors.  Syracuse University, Disability Advocates Inc. and a coalition of six legal aid groups that now provide many of the services statewide under individual contracts have filed proposals. The six are the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, Legal Services of Central New York, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, Nassau Suffolk Law Services, Neighborhood Legal Services and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.  The selection is expected following public hearings, which have not been set yet.”  The funding amounts for about $7 million annually.  (Story from WNCT.)

• 10.12.12 – the West Virginia University Innocence Project has opened its doors as a law-school clinic in the Mountain State.  (Story from the Gazette-Mail.)

• 10.11.12- a nonprofit law office serving clients who have too much income to qualify for legal aid – which is not saying much because the income limit is typically 125% of federal poverty guidelines – but too little to afford full-scope representation is expanding in the Sooner State. (Story from KOAM.) 

• Music!  It’s a gray day here in D.C.  So how about something mellow?  Here’s Ryan Adams (not to be confused with Bryan Adams) performing “Desire”.

By: Steve Grumm

Legal education is gonna look a lot different in a couple of decades.  NYU is the latest law school to greatly expand outside-the-classroom (in this case, even outside-the-country) opportunities for 3Ls, with an eye toward reworking the legal education model by building in hands-on learning opportunities.  From the New York Times’s Dealbook blog:

The move comes as law schools are being criticized for failing to keep up with transformations in the legal profession, and their graduates face dimming employment prospects and mounting student loans.

N.Y.U. Law’s changes are built around several themes, including a focus on foreign study and specialized concentrations. Some students could spend their final semester studying in Shanghai or Buenos Aires. Others might work at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, or the Federal Trade Commission. Another group, perhaps, will complete a rigorous one-year concentration in patent law, or focused course work in tax.

…

N.Y.U. Law is the latest law school to alter its academic program significantly. Stanford Law School recently completed comprehensive changes to its third-year curriculum, with a focus on allowing students to pursue joint degrees. Washington and Lee University School of Law scrapped its traditional third-year curriculum in 2009, replacing it with a mix of clinics and outside internships.

…

There has been much debate in the legal academy over the necessity of a third year. Many students take advantage of clinical course work, but the traditional third year of study is largely filled by elective courses. While classes like “Nietzsche and the Law” and “Voting, Game Theory and the Law” might be intellectually broadening, law schools and their students are beginning to question whether, at $51,150 a year, a hodgepodge of electives provides sufficient value.

“One of the well-known facts about law school is it never took three years to do what we are doing; it took maybe two years at most, maybe a year-and-a-half,” Larry Kramer, the former dean of Stanford Law School, said in a 2010 speech.

Yet no one expects law schools to become two-year programs any time soon. For one thing, law schools are huge profit centers for universities, which are reluctant to give up precious tuition dollars. What is more, American Bar Association rules require three years of full-time study to obtain a law degree. Several law schools, including Northwestern University School of Law, offer two-year programs, but they cram three years of course work — and tuition — into two.

N.Y.U. Law’s new curriculum plan is highlighted by experience outside of the school’s Greenwich Village campus. While the school has dabbled in foreign study, it is now redoubling its focus on international and cross-border legal practice. N.Y.U. Law is preparing to send as many as 75 students to partner law schools in Buenos Aires, Shanghai and Paris, where the students will study the legal systems and the languages of those regions. With the ever-increasing influence of government and the regulatory state in private legal matters, N.Y.U. Law will also offer students a full semester of study, combined with an internship, in Washington.

Another key initiative gives students the chance to build a specialty. Called “professional pathways,” the program will offer eight focused areas of instruction, including criminal law and academia.

None of these programs will be mandatory, as students can still choose a conventional course load. But Richard L. Revesz, the dean of N.Y.U. Law, said that he hoped the students would take advantage of the new offerings.

…

N.Y.U. Law’s moves illustrate the continuing evolution of the legal education model. Until the late 19th century, most lawyers — like Abraham Lincoln — were trained through the old-fashioned apprenticeship method. But for the last hundred years, law school classrooms have been dominated by the case method of instruction, which trains law students by having them read court cases and questioning them via the Socratic method.

Now, in an era of globalization and specialization, law schools are acknowledging the inadequacy of the traditional approach.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  I spent time earlier this week romping around in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, prompting me once more to wonder why I live on the East Coast.  My Blackberry’s continued buzzing while I was 9000 feet up reminded me that, for good or for ill, it’s harder and harder to truly disconnect these days.  I fought off a few impulses to toss it into the Big Thompson River.  And I’m glad I didn’t because much has happened in the public interest arena. 

First, big props to Kelly Tautges, Friend of the PSJD Blog and (actual title) Director of Pro Bono with the Chicago Bar Foundation.  The Daily Law Bulletin has named Tautges one of “40 Under 40” lawyers to watch in Chicago.  I was enlisted to help embarrass Kelly by publicizing this distinction.  So that’s checked off the to-do list.  (Sorry, Kelly.  Not really.)

Okay, the access-to-justice and public-interest week in very, very short:

• Missouri’s indigent defense program is becoming a weekly news fixture;
• next door in Illinois, funding for foreclosure prevention goes to a Chicago legal aid office;
• the “Is the Income Based Repayment program sustainable?” inquiry continues;
• a public defender in San Diego will cost you $50;
• a profile of NOLA’s pro bono project;
• the FTC goes after “legal aid” scams preying on distressed homeowners;
• Michigan bill to revamp indigent defense program faces legislative scrutiny;
• pro bono Down Under;
• Manhattan DA and New York Law School collaborate on new clinical program;
• Colorado Bar Association fundraiser may offset IOLTA shortfalls facing the legal aid community;
• is California’s 3 Strikes law striking out;
• Alabama revs up the “justice bus” engine;
• proposed New Mexico constitutional amendment to create independent public defender program
• Massachusetts launches program for retired attorneys to do pro bono work.
• Super Music Bonus.

The summaries:

• 10.11.12 – there’s been a lot of ink spilled recently over the health of Missouri’s indigent defense program.  Some county defenders’ offices are limiting case intake on account of a perceived case overload which is straining resources.  A new report from the state auditor may muddy the picture, however.  “Missouri’s auditor challenged Wednesday whether the state’s public criminal defense lawyers really can support the notion that they face a genuine ‘caseload crisis.’  In a report critical of the Missouri state public defender system, Auditor Thomas A. Schweich took no position as to whether such a crisis really existed. He noted that his auditors found that the system has depended on outdated models and unsupported assumptions to calculate how much time its lawyers actually work on cases….  Cathy R. Kelly, director of the public defender system, said her office already was working on solutions to problems outlined in the audit.
  Kelly said she is happy to find better ways of measuring caseloads. But those figures, when they become available, could show that the problem is worse that anyone imagines, Kelly said.  ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ she said.”  (Story from the Kansas City Star.  Additional coverage from St. Louis Public Radio, MissouriNet, and here’s the auditor’s report.)

• 10.11.12 – $650,000 of Illinois’s mortgage foreclosure fraud settlement money is going to Metropolitan Family Services to represent low-income families facing foreclosure.  (Story from the Sun-Times, and here’s an MFS press release.

• 10.11.12 – a couple of weeks ago we took note of a blog post wondering whether the Income Based Repayment program can have staying power given how many debt-laden graduates enter the employment market each year.  This week an AmLaw op-ed piece picks up on that question: “IBR is calibrated for typical college graduates who have less than $30,000 in student loan debt. Its proponents did not contemplate the already high and ever-increasing costs of professional education coupled with acute professional oversaturation and underemployment. With so many law school graduates trying to enter the workforce with six-figure debts and very poor short- and long-term employment prospects, the likelihood that the government will be forced to cancel large amounts of law school debt in 20-25 years is high. As a result, the question floating in the legal education community is just how unpayable are most law school debts?” I’m on vacation this week and haven’t had a chance to closely read the data-heavy piece.  But in the Great Recession’s wake this is a question that law school administrators must be looking at.  I’d love to hear from Heather Jarvis, Equal Justice Works, and other debt experts on the issue.

• 10.10.12 – “Criminal defendants who are too poor to hire their own defense attorneys will have to pay $50 for public-defender representation under an ordinance approved unanimously by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.  People who are too poor to pay even the new $50 “registration fee,” can ask a judge to waive it.  Despite concerns about the impact on the Sixth Amendment right to defense counsel, many counties in California have implemented court-appointed-attorney fees, which the state Legislature legalized in 1996. Originally set at $25, the cap was raised to $50 in 2010.”  (Story from San Diego City Beat.)

• 10.10.12 – a profile of NOLA’s Pro Bono Project: “Rachel Piercey, executive director of the Pro Bono Project, talks with great passion about her group’s work to provide free civil legal services to New Orleanians who need them. ‘We’re in our 26th year of operation, and we continue to grow because unfortunately, the civil needs of the poor are not going away,’ she said.   ‘And the needs always exceed the available resources. The entire organization is built around the volunteer concept and giving back to our community.’  During a typical year, the project averages between 1,300 to 1,400 cases, but in 2012 there has been a 50 percent increase in the case load.”  (Full story in the Times-Picayune.)

• 10.10.12 – “Targeting scam artists offering bogus legal services to distressed homeowners, the Federal Trade Commission on October 9 announced three suits against mortgage relief operations that allegedly victimized thousands of consumers.   In suits filed in federal court in Florida, California and Ohio, the FTC charged the companies with violating the Federal Trade Act and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rule by falsely claiming they could help homeowners avoid foreclosure. In some instances, the scammers allegedly promised but failed to deliver assistance from a ‘network’ of lawyers, or falsely passed themselves off as attorneys.”  (Full story in the National Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 – news out of Michigan about proposed reforms to what is now a decentralized, county-by-county indigent defense system.  “A Senate panel has begun hearing arguments on a bill to fix the way Michigan counties provide defense attorneys to the poor.  The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s still skeptical about the legislation.  Senator Rick Jones says…he…doesn’t see it as a statewide issue that requires sweeping changes…. The bill would create a state panel to set standards for appointing public defenders. Supporters point to a number of studies that rank Michigan’s public defense system among the worst in the country.  Some Michigan counties worry the changes could cost them, even if they’re already doing a good job.  The state House has already passed the bill out of committee. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.”  (Story from Michigan Public Radio.)

• 10.9.12 – “Australia’s foremost pro bono advocate has challenged mid-tier and small law firms to devote more resources to pro bono work.  John Corker…of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre…spoke to Lawyers Weekly in the wake of the release of the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey.  While the average number of pro bono hours per lawyer per year had increased when compared to the last survey two years ago (from 29 hours per lawyer per annum in 2010 to 29.9 hours in 2012), it was large law firms that picked up the slack.” (Full story from Lawyers Weekly.)
  • Here’s the Centre’s 2012 report, in case you’d like to learn more about pro bono Down Under in the Outback among the Kangaroos and the Fosters and “That’s not a knife…” and I’ve run out of stereotypes so let’s all be happy about that.
  • As an aside, I’ve met John Corker a few times.  He’s a delightful person and a highly successful advocate for pro bono in Australia.  While at a conference in 2008, John and I ended up sitting together for John’s first-ever baseball game.  (Twins v. Red Sawx in the old Metrodome.)  I’m a lifelong baseball fan, and thought it would be easy to walk him through the basics.  Turns out baseball is by any objective measure the craziest game you could ever conjure up, and/or I’m the world’s worst explainer.  John graciously pretended to understand my ham-handed rule explanations.  But we had some beers and shared some laughs.  And that’s baseball’s true virtue, anyway, people.

• 10.9.12 – “The Manhattan District Attorney’s office and New York Law School are teaming up to have students prosecute non-violent misdemeanors and violations in the Manhattan Criminal Court’s Quality of Life part. The clinical program announced Oct. 5 will allow students to engage in plea negotiations, prepare witnesses and participate in suppression hearings and bench trials under the supervision of assistant district attorneys and adjunct professors. The yearlong clinic will begin in the fall of 2013.”  (Story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 –  “[Legal aid] programs around the state will be spared cuts after a Colorado Bar Association fundraising drive has helped cover almost the entire projected [IOLTA] shortfall.  The CBA and its sections in three months have raised $79,000, just shy of the estimated cuts….  The programs are funded largely by the Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation, made of the interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts. But because of the down economy, and its resulting low interest rates, the fund hasn’t generated the same funding level as past years. Just this year, COLTAF monies going to Colorado Legal Services dropped by $500,000.  In June, the CBA learned that pro bono programs were going to receive an $83,000 reduction in their COLTAF funding. The bar quickly organized a fundraiser, and nearly every section contributed with the CBA matching the donations dollar-for-dollar.”  (Here’s the story – but I just quoted most of it – from Law Week Colorado.)

• 10.8.12 – a New York Times op-ed looks at whether California’s “3 strikes” law is working as it should.  A study [by Stanford Law’s Three Strikes Project] showed that more than 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses under the three-strikes law. While it is possible that some of the inmates may be eligible for parole after 25 years, a majority face the prospect of decades of prison time. Many of these stiff sentences struck us as egregious. Although judges have sentencing discretion in a very narrow band of three-strikes cases, the reality is that judges almost universally consider themselves bound under California law to impose a life sentence for a third felony offense, no matter how minor.”  (Here’s the fancy multimedia opinion piece.)

• 10/8/12 – Alabama’s going the justice bus route.  “Low-income Alabamians across the state this month can get free legal help when the ‘Justice Bus’ rolls into town.  In conjunction with the National Pro Bono Celebration, volunteer lawyers will fan out to four spots in the Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile regions. They literally will arrive in buses.  The lawyers will help people with uncomplicated civil matters like wills and trusts, uncontested divorces, housing disputes and debt collection issues.”  (Story from Alabama.com.)  The piece notes that these very well-intentioned Alabama lawyers borrowed the idea from lawyers in California.  They also borrowed the name “Justice Bus,” which may or may not be cool with San Francisco-based One Justice, which launched the initiative back in 2007.

• 10.6.12 – “It’s the last item on the Nov. 6 ballot. Hence, proponents are urging voters to “start at the bottom” with Amendment 5, which would change the New Mexico Constitution to create an independent Public Defender Department.  The chief public defender is currently appointed by the governor, and the agency is attached to the state’s Corrections Department.  The amendment gives authority to appoint the chief public defender to a Public Defender Commission, which also would provide administrative guidance and oversight of the new department.”  (Story from the Santa Fe New Mexican.)

• 10.5.12 – Massachusetts has just launched a program for retired attorneys to serve as pro bono “fellows”, helping beleaguered legal aid offices deal with overwhelming caseloads.  (Story from the AP.)

• Music!  Pretty sure I posted this once before, but repetition is just fine for this heart-melting Bill Withers tune.