Are you a fairly new attorney with a commitment to immigration, children’s rights and advocating for quality public education? If so, then today’s Job of the Day is for you!

From the PSJD job listing:

Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. (AFC) is a not-for-profit organization that works in partnership with New York City’s most disadvantaged families to secure quality public education services. AFC works on behalf of children and youth who are at greatest risk of academic failure due to poverty, race, ethnicity, disability, homelessness, immigration status/limited English proficiency, or involvement in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. We use uniquely integrated strategies to advance systemic reform, empower families and communities, and advocate for the educational rights of individual students.

AFC seeks a bilingual Spanish-speaking staff attorney to obtain high quality, appropriate educational service for underserved immigrant families. Responsibilities will include direct representation of families in special education administrative hearings and school discipline hearings, as well as case management responsibilities, including attendance at special education review meetings and school visits.

The attorney will also be responsible for providing training and technical assistance to parents and a range of non-profits to build the capacity of these individuals and organizations to address educational issues. The attorney will also work on policy analysis, research, and advocacy or litigation related to students and their families. Specifically, the position will include:

1) providing case services and legal representation to clients;

2) performing outreach and providing workshops, which may occasionally occur on nights and weekends, to parents, youth and professionals about their rights to attend school and receive adequate educational services;

3) promoting inter-agency coordination to facilitate better delivery of educational services; and

4) supporting ongoing policy advocacy work on English Language Learner and immigrant student issues.

AFC prefers applications from lawyers with at least 1 – 3 years of experience. For more information on application instructions and qualifications, visit PSJD.org (log-in required)!

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. 

It’s crunch time! Over 600 public interest law students from all over the country are preparing to attend the 2012 Equal Justice Works Conference & Career Fair this weekend in Washington, D.C.

If you’re headed to the conference this weekend, take a look at these tips from Equal Justice Works to help you prepare and make the most out of your career fair experience:

• EJW Resume Do’s and Dont’s
• Tips for a Successful Table Talk
• How to Get the Most Out of the Conference & Career Fair
• Preparing for the Interview: Dressing for Success

Also, be sure to check out PSJD’s Resource Center for other helpful guides on professional career development. Specifically, Interviewing Tips for Postgraduate Public Interest Jobs may be especially helpful for 3Ls and recent graduates.

Don’t forget to stop by our table during Table Talk for career development resources and more information on PSJD.org. The full Equal Justice Works Conference & Career Fair schedule can be found here. Happy job hunting!

From the PSJD job listing:

NYLAG has an immediate opening for a staff attorney in its Foreclosure Prevention Project. This Project provides legal representation and court-based services for borrowers with subprime, deceptive, and unconventional mortgages facing foreclosure. The attorney hired for this position will have the unique opportunity to work in an evolving practice area within an established and dynamic Citywide legal service provider as the foreclosure crisis continues, requiring innovative and coordinated responses. In addition to carrying a caseload of foreclosure prevention matters, this attorney will provide pro se assistance, conduct case consultations, and engage in community education and outreach. The attorney will participate in legislative initiatives to improve conditions for homeowners, and operate a collaborative foreclosure assistance clinic out of the Bronx Supreme Court. This attorney will also work within other NYLAG consumer protection projects, as described below, and will have the opportunity to work with NYLAG staff to identify systemic problems concerning foreclosure proceedings and to address these problems through a variety of means.

The attorney will also be involved and take cases for NYLAG’s Connect to Care Program (C2C), established by UJA-Federation of New York in 2009. Through C2C, NYLAG provides legal and financial counseling services to New Yorkers adversely impacted by the recent economic downturn. This attorney will conduct intakes at community-based C2C sites in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island and will handle some C2C case matters back at NYLAG’s central offices. This attorney may need to travel to these sites on to meet with clients and conduct educational workshops on relevant legal issues. The primary substantive areas of C2C legal services are: foreclosure prevention, consumer law, bankruptcy, unemployment insurance, employment law, eviction prevention, and access to public benefits. In addition to C2C work, this attorney may also provide consumer protection assistance through other NYLAG programs and may provide other GLS legal services, depending on funding. In particular, this attorney may assist with the Consumer Credit Volunteer Lawyer for a Day (VLFD) programs in the Bronx and Queens, in which NYLAG staff represent and supervise volunteers to represent defendants for the day in court in consumer credit cases.

Click here to visit PSJD.org for more information on qualifications, application instructions and more (log-in required)!

Columbia Law School is seeking a recent law graduate for its Provost’s Postdoctoral Research Scholars Program. The goal of the program is to enhance the recruitment of outstanding postdoctoral scholars from underrepresented groups to more closely reflect the composition of the national pool of qualified candidates. The program strongly encourages applications from promising scholars from historically underrepresented groups, including but not limited to: Blacks/African-Americans; Hispanics/ Native Americans/Alaska Natives; persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, or Samoa.

Scholars will attend twice-weekly general faculty workshops, as well as subject-specific workshops, where they will have many opportunities to meet and get to know faculty. In addition, the Vice Dean and other faculty who oversee our Scholars programs often reach out to faculty colleagues on Scholars’ behalf in order to encourage faculty-scholar interactions. Faculty members regularly read and comment on Scholars’ article drafts and proposed projects. Scholars also have a year round workshop of their own at which they can present their own work and receive comments from their peers. Scholars are also invited to attend entry-level job talks, so they know what to expect when they go on the market themselves, and receive extensive support in putting their entry-level application packets together.

In addition, scholars will be provided with the opportunity to meet and to develop mentoring relationships with law faculty members outside the Law School itself through the school’s emerging scholars program. Invited faculty members will be selected on the basis of their expressed interest in developing mentoring relationships with emerging scholars who are members of underrepresented groups.

Click here to visit PSJD.org for more information on application instructions and qualifications (log-in required).

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!

Most folks are familiar with the much publicized decision in New York to require 50 hours of pro bono work before being admitted to the state bar.  The Garden State is considering a similar rule (from Thomson-Reuters):

– 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.

Interested in practicing immigration law for the Department of Homeland Security? Check out this recent PSJD job posting:

Do you desire to protect American interests and secure our Nation while building a meaningful and rewarding career? If so, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is calling. 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. Make an impact; join DHS!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system. Visit us at http://www.uscis.gov/.

Every day, our Immigration Services Officers independently research, interpret and analyze an extensive spectrum of sources including pertinent sections of the law and regulations, operating instructions, references and guidance contained in legislative history, precedent decisions, state and local laws, international treaties and other legal references to embrace the correct course of action.

Apply for this exciting opportunity to become a member of the Office of Field Operations, District 23, in one of the Field Office locations listed below, within DHS US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

• Los Angeles Field Office, in Los Angeles, CA
• Santa Ana Field Office, in Santa Ana, CA

The starting salary is between $52,852.00 – $68,702.00. Immigration Services Officers support the adjudication process by providing accurate and useful information to DHS customers, managing correspondence, and providing internal and external customer support. Officers at the full performance level may adjudicate cases, conduct security checks, conduct interviews, and ensure program quality assurance.

The deadline to apply is this Friday, October 26, 2012. For more information on qualifications, salary and application instructions, view the full listing at psjd.org (log-in required)!

The Office of the Attorney General in the District of Columbia is looking for an Attorney-Advisor to work in the Office of the General Counsel for the Department of Public Works (DPW). With approximately 1300 employees, DPW is one of the larger District agencies.

The Office of General Counsel provides legal services to DPW, whose primary services include: (1) Solid Waste Management— collection and disposal of residential trash, street cleaning, sanitation enforcement, leaf and snow removal; and (2) Parking Enforcement Management—public space parking enforcement, booting, towing and impounding of vehicles; and Fleet Management—procurement, fueling, maintenance, repair and disposition of District owned vehicles.

These operations generate issues regarding the delivery of DPW’s services, conduct of its employees, policies and implementation and enforcement of regulations. Several DPW operations, i.e. Solid Waste Management and Fleet Management, must comply with both federal regulations as well as District regulations. Ensuring that the agency is complying with both District and Federal requirements can be complex and an attorney’s guidance is always sought.

Successful applicants will provide legal guidance, represent DPW in adjudicatory and quasi-adjudicatory proceedings, prepare pretrial discovery, write motions, prepare briefs, and conduct direct and cross-examination of witnesses, among other responsibilities. The position is a 13-month term appointment, contingent on agency renewal, and is within the collective bargaining unit. Candidates may be subject to a criminal background check.

For more information on qualifications and how to apply, view the full listing at PSJD.org (log-in required)!

In this harsh economy, lawyers and law students have had to meet an unprecedented demand for free or low-cost legal services by volunteering, interning, and/or providing pro bono legal services. Every year, the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service dedicates National Pro Bono Week to showcasing the impact of such important legal work across the country.

This year’s National Pro Bono Week celebration is happening until October 27, 2012, with events like pop-up legal clinics, panel discussions, and community service opportunities nationally coordinated in an effort to raise awareness about the need to continue expanding the delivery of pro bono services.

The ABA is also celebrating with JUST Stories, a digital video collection of legal advocacy stories highlighting the impact of pro bono work on lawyers and the clients they serve. The “video quilt” is housed on the home page of the National Pro Bono Celebration site, along with instructions on how to send in your own JUST Story.

For planning tips and guides, the ABA has a page full of resources to help participants come up with event ideas, fundraising materials, promotional materials, and more. For more information on the 2012 National Pro Bono Week celebration, visit the ABA’s Celebrate Pro Bono site!