From the job posting:

To augment its Supreme Court litigation, the Litigation Group operates the Alan Morrison Supreme Court Assistance Project, named after the Group’s founder. The Project focuses on helping small-firm practitioners, lawyers for non-profit organizations, and other lawyers with little or no experience in Supreme Court litigation. The Project provides direct assistance to lawyers before review is granted, either by helping with a petition for certiorari or a brief in opposition, and provides assistance in cases in which review is granted, working with the lawyers to prepare briefs and oral argument. In some cases, a Litigation Group attorney will become the lead lawyer on the case.

The Litigation Group is looking for a bright, energetic lawyer to coordinate the Project and work on Supreme Court cases for one year. Most, but not all, of the cases on which we work are civil rather than criminal. Most of our work at the petition stage involves assisting the party who won below in preparing an opposition to the petition for certiorari, to keep the case out of the Court and thereby preserve a victory. The fellow will review all paid cert. petitions. Working under the direct supervision of the Litigation Group director, the fellow makes an initial judgment about whether the case is of interest to the Project and prepares a memo and recommendation about whether to offer assistance. Considerable legal research and analysis are often required to determine whether assertions in the petition, such as a conflict among the courts of appeals, are supportable. The fellow then makes an initial contact with the attorney to whom help is being offered to explain the Project and the assistance that we can provide. In addition, all cases accepted by the Court for full review are considered for possible assistance by the Project. When an offer of help is accepted, a Litigation Group attorney assumes principal responsibility for the case within the office. For a list of the Project’s current cases, see http://www.citizen.org/ litigation/forms/scap_index.cfm.

The application deadline is12/09/2013. Ideal applicants will have had some practical litigation experience while in school or elsewhere and a solid academic background, in addition to a demonstrated commitment to public interest work.

For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

From the PSJD job posting:

The Capital Punishment Project (CPP) of the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking applicants for a full-time Project Director to work in its Durham, North Carolina office. The effective hire date will be on or about October 1, 2013.

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The Southern Education Foundation is the South’s oldest education philanthropy organization, dating back all the way to 1867. Their mission is to advance equity and excellence in education for low income students and communities in the South – a region that is home to the nation’s poorest people. With low levels of education attainment and high dropout rates, the Southern Education Foundation helps fulfill the need for new leaders to develop community partnerships and corrective public policies that will improve education equity, quality and opportunity at all levels.

In 2004, SEF initiated the Southern Education Leadership Initiative to provide highly motivated and diverse graduate students opportunities to develop leadership skills and engage with their communities on contemporary education issues. Students spend the summer in trainings and working at a leading nonprofit sector organization. From the PSJD job posting:

Interns Receive:

• An opportunity to work for eight weeks in an organization concerned with equity and excellence in education e.g., a policy institution, community-based organization or philanthropic institution;
• A modest stipend and travel expenses for summer trainings;
• Exposure to research in the field, practical experience, and opportunities to meet and work with outstanding and inspiring education reformers and advocates.
• Professional development and leadership trainings that orient them to issues in education and the nonprofit sector.
• Opportunities to network, reflect, and exchange ideas with fellow interns.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be between the ages of 20-32 years old to qualify for program.
• Completion of 60 credit hours (or the equivalent of junior status & above in undergraduate program) or enrollment in a graduate program or law program at a college or university.
• Familiarity with or demonstrated interest in social justice and/or education policy and practice.
• Excellent interpersonal, writing, and critical thinking skills, with flexibility to respond well to diverse people, settings, and tasks.
• Submission of the complete application by due date, including all supporting documents. (No exceptions on late applications will be made). Application available here: http://southerneducation.org/SEF/media/Education-Legends/2013-Program-Application.pdf
• Must be willing to potentially relocate for summer, not take any kind of coursework or other job opportunities during summer program, and attend in full the Orientation and Closing Meetings of the program.

The summer stipend is $4500 and the deadline to apply is March 1, 2013. For more information, view the full job listing at PSJD.org (log-in required).

If you’re sick of lists, you have our apologies.  Here’s the Washington Post’s annual offering, “The List”, which purports to tells us what’s coming down the pike in pop culture, and what’s being forgotten.  For some of us it’s a lesson in, “Darn! I just learned what that is and now it’s gone!”

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.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) is currently accepting applications for Policy Interns in its Washington, DC Liaison Office. Headquartered in Rome, Italy,  the WFP is the United Nation’s food assistance agency and feeds an average of 100 million people in 80 countries each year. In addition, WFP provides critical emergency relief to a wide spectrum of people, including victims of natural disasters and conflicts, refugees, and those living with HIV/AIDS.

The WFP prefers currently enrolled applicants with a background in international development, public policy, or business administration. The intern will be able to gain hands-on experience in global development policy within a well-established international organization. Duties will include tracking developments related to priority international organizations and NGOs; reviewing leading news, opinion, and research publications, and any other policy related duties that may arise.

For helpful tips and more information on working for the United Nations, check out PSJD’s “Jobs with the UN & International Organizations: A Brief Guide“.

The deadline to apply is next week, on 09/12/2012. Visit PSJD.org to view the full listing (log-in required).

Break the Cycle is a national nonprofit organization working to engage, educate, and empower youth to build lives and communities free from dating and domestic violence. To help them with their mission, they are now looking for a Research & Policy Intern to join the team!

The Research and Policy Intern will:

• Research and analyze state and local laws related to dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
• Contribute to the development of written products to assist schools and community-based organizations improve their response to young survivors of abuse.
• Examine and categorize relevant studies to support the work of the Training and Policy Departments.
• Write content for the Break the Cycle website.
• Assist with other with other tasks as needed.

To learn more about the position, check out the full description at PSLawNet.org!

The Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation is looking for an attorney to fill a three-year Foreclosure Fellowship position in its Western Regional Office in Alton, Illinois. The Fellow will represent low income homeowners who are unable to meet current mortgage obligations and who need legal assistance to avoid foreclosure. The position will involve: individual case work, including advice, budget counseling and loan modification negotiations; defense of homeowners in foreclosure (including in mediation); possible affirmative litigation in state or federal court; and education and outreach efforts directed at courts, homeowners and service providers in the community.

Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation is a non-profit organization providing free legal services to low-income individuals and to senior citizens in civil cases through five (5) offices in central and southern Illinois.  The program has a long history of high quality and innovative advocacy for their clients.  The Western Regional Office-Alton is located in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Check out the job listing at PSLawNet.org (log-in required)!

This position is available immediately. The job location will be in Pacoima, California with frequent local travel required.

Supervises attorneys and paralegals in all aspects of poverty law, including hearings, litigation and policy advocacy work on individual and impact cases, including health care, government benefits, housing, family law immigration and community development.  Responsible for policy work, special staff projects and substantive legal work.  Handles quality control, assistance and supervision of representation at hearings and in court, and opportunities for providing direct representation.  Develops training and resource materials and trains advocates. May be asked to perform other duties and responsibilities to meet program priorities.  Experience in health and/or public benefits advocacy strongly preferred.

NLSLA is one of Los Angeles County’s leading public interest law offices and has been the primary legal aid program serving the Antelope and San Fernando Valleys, and the cities of Glendale and Burbank for 40 years and the city of Pasadena and San Gabriel, Pomona  Valleys since 2001.  The NLSLA staff of 100+, including 45 lawyers, provides legal assistance to low-income individuals, families and groups in the areas of family law and domestic violence, housing, health care, employment, public benefits, economic and job development, immigrant rights, consumer rights, and environmental justice.  NLSLA offices are located in the cities of El Monte, Glendale and LA (Pacoima)

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

DHS components work collectively to prevent terrorism, secure borders, enforce and administer immigration laws, safeguard cyberspace and ensure resilience to disasters.  The vitality and magnitude of this mission is achieved by a diverse workforce spanning hundreds of occupations.

The Office of the Chief Counsel provides legal advice to, and legal representation of, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in matters relating to the activities and functions of CBP. The Office is also responsible for reviewing proposed actions to ensure compliance with legal requirements, preparing formal legal opinions, preparing or reviewing responses in all court actions, civil or criminal, involving CBP, and developing, implementing, and evaluating nationwide programs, policies, and procedures within its functional areas. The Office of the Chief Counsel has both a Headquarters and a field structure. The Headquarters office is located in Washington, D.C. and its activities are divided broadly into three functional areas: Ethics, Labor and Employment; Enforcement; and Trade and Finance, under the supervision of Associate Chief Counsels. The field structure consists of Associate and Assistant Chief Counsels located in major cities across the United States who advise CBP field managers in their geographic areas.

This position is in the Office of Chief Counsel – CBP, and will be under the supervision of the Associate Chief Counsel, Enforcement. The selectee provides legal services concerning the laws that relate to CBP enforcement functions with special emphasis on Customs and Immigration Law. The selectee researches the law and prepares legal memoranda, litigation reports, affidavits and other documents in civil and/or criminal actions involving CBP; provides current information to the field concerning significant changes in law and procedure; advises policy makers and coordinates legal issues with other government components; and prepares or reviews CBP regulations, policies and other materials.

The deadline to apply is 7/16 – find out how at PSLawNet!