The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is seeking an unpaid legal intern for its Research and Assessments Office based in Washington, D.C. The intern will work supporting a variety of short- and long-term research projects related to rule of law reform in ABA ROLI’s Focal Areas, which include: access to justice and human rights, anti-corruption and public integrity, criminal law reform and anti-human trafficking, judicial reform, legal education reform and civic education, legal profession reform, and women’s rights. For example, current projects include development of a technical assistance guide on judicial integrity reform for the UN, analyses of draft legislation, the review and revision of our International Convention on Civil and Political Rights assessment methodology and implementation of ABA ROLI’s various assessment tools.

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

Los Angeles Superior Court is seeking applicants who have graduated from law school and are members in good standing of the California State Bar, or are awaiting initial admission, for a temporary grant funded AmeriCorps member position as a Legal Fellow supporting Los Angeles Superior Court’s self-help services. The 11-12 month term starts between August 20 and September 30, 2012, and may be renewed for a second year, pending funding confirmation. The Legal Fellow’s work, under the supervision and training of a court staff attorney, will include the following:

1) providing substantive legal guidance to undergraduate AmeriCorps JusticeCorps members, other volunteers, and staff in courthouse self-help centers as they assess the needs of self-represented litigants, and assist them to complete legal documents and procedures to effectively represent themselves in cases involving child custody and visitation, child or spousal support, paternity, divorce, guardianship, or conservatorship;
2) teaching neutral educational legal workshops to self-represented litigants, reviewing documents they complete, and providing guidance for them to represent themselves in court;
3) directly assisting individual self-represented litigants who have the most obstacles to their ability to understand and complete court processes;
4) development of instructional materials and resources to address legal issues prioritized for veterans and military families, and providing training about the use of these resources;
5) organizing and conducting outreach to veterans and military families to educate them about legal options, and to inform them of self-help resources available at Courthouses;
6) development of a pro bono panel to represent and protect the rights of absent service members in child custody or support proceedings, divorce or paternity cases; and
7) recruitment, training and guidance of law student volunteers in the Court’s self-help centers.

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

Credit: philly.com

Happy Friday, dear readers.  And happy Independence Day weekend.  I had an opportunity, yesterday, to live my patriotism. I had jury duty!  And although I thanked them privately, I wish to give a shout-out to the staffers who run D.C. Superior Court’s jury selection program.  They were kind, professional, and actually quite funny.  They knew how to keep a room full of impatient people calm.  Thanks, again. 

New Year’s resolutions are standard fare nowadays.  What I don’t understand is why folks don’t use Independence Day as a chance to lead their own, personal revolts – to declare independence from whatever in life may be hindering them.  For instance, on or around July 4, 1989 I declared independence from vegetables.  That didn’t stick.  Turns out a prerequisite for that would have been declaring independence from my mom.  But nowadays I’ve got more independence to declare my independences.  This year I’ve declared independence from people who treat strangers rudely.

Twice recently I’ve had to endure an adult belittling a service worker – once in an airport and once in a coffee shop.  I was behind these two people in line as they threw temper tantrums.  I’m a conciliator by nature.  So I’m often inclined, when these kinds of people – as they invariably do – turn around and look for affirmation from those around them, just to smile a thin-but-polite smile in hopes that it calms them down.  But I was so astonished at the airport person’s behavior that I realized the last thing I should be doing, even if passively, is affirming the behavior.  So I met this person with a blank stare.  And when he tried to elicit my support I continued staring but didn’t reply.  Ultimately he turned back around and became quiet.  I no longer wish to suffer adults who behave like children.  So I’ve declared independence from them. Feels good.

I’ve also declared independence from kale.

On to the access-to-justice news.  This week in very short:

•  NJ law school clinic not subject to state’s open-public-records law;
• Massachusetts prosecutors getting a pay bump;
• Using Groupon to pay for civil legal aid;
• when judges push plea deals, it may thin out the docket, but at what cost to defendants’ rights?;
• Legal Services of New Jersey levels criticism at a state bar pro bono blueprint;
• a kerfuffle over how indigent-defense contract lawyers are paid in Miami-Dade;
• from Michigan: should defenders working with special-needs clients be trained specialists?;
• a look at the forthcoming LSC appropriation battle;
• Wyoming Center for Legal Aid, chartered in 2010, slow to get operating;
• how funding cuts have affected indigent defense programs throughout the Sunshine State;
• Virginia legal services community rolls out a high-tech, online pro bono clearinghouse;
• state funding cuts to legal aid will continue through the Garden State’s next budget cycle;
• Massachusetts prosecutors and defenders who are benefitting from John R. Justice Act LRAP funds can re-up this summer;
• differing points of view about Washington State’s newly imposed indigent defense caseload limits;
• the AmLaw pro bono report, 2012.

This week in less short:

• 7.5.12 – law school clinic not subject to state’s open public record law: “The developer of an outlet mall in Sussex County can’t get records from a Rutgers University law clinic that represented two groups seeking to block its construction, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The ruling says the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, a training ground for Rutgers law students that handles cases for little or no cost, is not subject to the state’s public records law. The decision was praised by the law school and environmentalists who said it would combat “witch hunts” against those seeking help to protect the environment. The developer’s attorney said the developer should have been allowed to see who was behind the opposition to the project, which has won local approval but has yet to be built.”  (Story from the Star-Ledger.)

• 7.5.12 – short and sweet salary news out of Massachusetts: “The $32.5 billion state budget approved last week by the Legislature includes 5 percent increases for all the state’s district attorneys…”  (Story from South Coast Today.)  

• 7.3.12 – using the Groupon system to support a free legal advice clinic in Maryland: “Free legal advice is being offered to low-income residents in Maryland through a partnership between the JustAdvice Initiative and Groupon Grassroots, the philanthropic arm of Groupon.  JustAdvice, run by Civil Justice Inc. and the University of Maryland School of Law, has been offering low-cost legal consultations in areas such as family law, housing, employment and criminal matters since 2009 and is staffed by student attorneys and volunteer lawyers. The goal is to offer a low-cost alternative for those who do not qualify for Legal Aid but can’t afford to hire a private attorney….  Groupon subscribers can pledge support for the initiative in increments of $10 on the Baltimore Groupon Grassroots page through July 8. Each $10 donation goes toward legal advice for one person.”  (Story from the Baltimore Sun.) 

• 7.3.12 – an examination of conflicting justice-system values when courts try to promote docket efficiency by encouraging arraignment pleas from defendants who have limited access to counsel: “More than eight of 10 cases in Northampton County are now resolved at arraignment, through guilty pleas or applications for first- or second-offender programs. It’s an approach the county embraced two years ago to address a packed docket in which cases were being delayed month-to-month without resolution.  It is heralded by court administrators for saving time and effort and easing jail crowding, and by some defense attorneys for the deals it offers. But it also has critics in the legal community who say it can trample on defendants’ rights by pushing a rush to judgment.”  (Story from Pottstown Mercury.)

• 7.3.12 – some pro bono drama in the Garden State: “A New Jersey State Bar Association task force proposing to raise the roof on pro bono legal efforts is meeting opposition from an unlikely quarter — Legal Services of New Jersey, the state’s largest pro bono provider. In a…report titled “Closing the Justice Gap,” the task force recommends a raft of measures, including establishment of a judiciary commission; creation of a statewide pro bono web portal; allowance of CLE credit for pro bono work; and clarification and expansion of what qualifies for exemption from mandatory pro bono service. But LSNJ has decried the recommendations as the product of a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to assess the most pressing legal needs of the poor and the real obstacles to meeting those needs, including the economic realities at small and solo firms and the pressure at larger ones to rack up billable hours.  (Here’s the story from the New Jersey Law Journal.  Here’s a video clip from the state bar regarding the “Closing the Justice Gap” report.)

• 7.2.12 – a kerfuffle over how indigent-defense lawyers re paid in Miami-Dade: “A new system aimed at limiting fees paid to court-appointed lawyers violates the U.S. Constitution and means poor defendants will get only ‘token representation’ by underqualified and overwhelmed lawyers, according to legal actions filed Monday…. The Miami branch of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed an official objection and a request to the state’s Supreme Court trying to halt the ‘Limited Registry,’ a new system passed by lawmakers and set to begin July 1.  The new law creates a voluntary pool of lawyers who get first crack at receiving clients who, because of ethical conflicts, cannot be represented by the Public Defender’s Office or a second state-funded defense firm. Right now, private lawyers who represent indigent clients can earn up to $75 an hour on time-consuming criminal cases. But lawyers in the new pool will only receive a flat rate of between $750 to $2,500 on cases depending on the degree of the felony — with no chance to earn more money.”  (Full story from the Miami Herald.)

• 7.2.12 – indigent defense news out of Michigan: “State lawmakers are in the process of drafting legislation to make sure people who cannot afford attorneys get adequate legal representation in criminal court. One of the complaints about Michigan’s system is it does not ensure public defenders have the skills and experience they need to properly represent their clients.  State Senator Bruce Caswell served on the governor’s commission on indigent defense. He says the system has to recognize the special needs of defendants who are children or people with mental health issues.” (Story from Michigan Public Radio.)  

• 7.2.12 – “Once More, LSC Budget a Risk,” a piece in the National Law Journal, looks at the impending LSC appropriations battle, and highlights the impact that last year’s appropriation cut has already had on grantees throughout the country.  (The article’s password-protected, but if you can track it down I recommend the read.  It’s a good “where things stand now” piece. )

• 7.2.12 – in 2010, at the behest of the state’s judicially created access-to-justice commission, the Wyoming legislature enacted a measure to create the Wyoming Center for Legal Aid in order to buttress funding for legal services in the Cowboy State.  While the organization was supposed to begin operating in 2011, to date it is still building an infrastructure.  Critics – including the state’s LSC-funded provider, Legal Aid of Wyoming, are restless, while proponents argue that moving slowly is the best course. Story from the Casper Star-Tribune.

• 7.2.12 – here’s an overview of how funding cuts have impacted various public defense programs in Florida.  (Story from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.)

• 7.1.12 – Virginia’s going high-tech with its new statewide pro bono clearinghouse system: “Virginia’s system of providing free legal services to the poor is expected to improve significantly with a new online case management system that makes a limited debut Monday.  Justice Server eventually will allow lawyers throughout the state to log onto their office computer and select a free or “pro bono” case that’s fed into the system by legal aid organizations. Lawyers will be able to instantly search for the type of case they are interested in handling — uncontested divorce or landlord-tenant disputes, for example — and will have access to the entire case file with the click of a mouse.  Steve Dickinson, executive director of the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, said the system will replace cumbersome and time-consuming procedures “based on technology that peaked sometime in the 1970s.”  (Full story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
  • This raises an interesting-but-off-topic question for me: what, if any, technology that peaked in the ’70s is still holding out today?

• 7.1.12 – state funding cuts to legal services continue in the Garden State.  “Though the governor added $600,000 in the fiscal 2013 budget for clinical legal programs for the poor administered by the law schools at Seton Hall and Rutgers in Camden and Newark, he cut $5 million for civil legal services. And he vetoed a Democratic bill that would have given $10,000 and a stable funding source to Legal Services of New Jersey. The organization represents low-income residents and lost $10,000 of its funding via Christie’s veto pen last year.” (Story from the Philly Inquirer.)  

• 6.29.12 – Massachusetts prosecutors and defenders who are benefitting from the John R. Justice loan repayment program should look into re-upping.  Applications are due on 9/7, according to this announcement.

• 6.29.12 – “Shocking cases of inadequate public defense in Washington [State] have led the state Supreme Court to take an unusual step. The high court has imposed a mandatory cap on the number of cases lawyers for the poor can take. You might assume public defenders would be cheering – finally they’re going to get relief. But in fact some lawyers are downright offended and angry.”  By “public defenders,” the piece is referring to attorneys who take indigent defense cases on a contract basis – and who stand to lose revenue because of what they see as one-size-fits-all caseload caps that they could safely exceed without diminishing they quality of their representation.  (Story from Northwest Public Radio.)  

• 6.27.12 – The American Lawyer’s 2012 pro bono report is out: “For the first eight years of this century, The Am Law 200’s pro bono performance traveled in one direction: up. Between 2000 and 2008 average pro bono hours per lawyer swelled by more than 65 percent. Then the recession hit, marking the beginning of a persistent decline. In 2011 average hours fell to the lowest level in more than three years, with the percentage of lawyers who did more than 20 hours of pro bono work plunging to 43.5. Today, the future of pro bono looks a whole lot murkier than it did just a few years ago. While a recovering economy could lift pro bono work back to boomtime levels, it’s just as likely that changes in law firm staffing and an increasing fixation on cost control could depress pro bono hours for years. At the same time, innovative uses of technology and partnerships with clients could amplify firms’ efforts—a textbook case of doing more with less.”  

Super Musical Bonus.  Given not only the recent fireworks, but also the extraordinary heat-wave so many of us are enduring, a song called “July Flame” seems appropriate.  So here’s July Flame from Laura Veirs of Portland, Oregon.

The day has come: if you’re a rising third-year law student, a recent grad, or an experienced attorney with a commitment to public interest law, you can visit the Equal Justice Works website now to download the application guide and start working on your proposal for an EJW Fellowship!

The competitive EJW fellowships are all 2-year sponsored fellowships at host organizations; ideally, an EJW fellow would propose a project that would be sustainable past the term of the fellowship. Search PSLawNet’s opportunities to find organizations that are looking to sponsor fellowships; these organizations are not the only places that might be open to a fellowship proposal, though, especially if you have an existing relationship with a specific public interest organization.

To find more information about all kinds of fellowships, visit PSLawNet’s Fellowship Info & Resources page!

By: Maria Hibbard

If you log on to Groupon’s Baltimore deals sometime before Saturday, you won’t find “A Luxurious Spa Package for Two” or a “$20 for $40 worth of Asian Fare” deal (although those are the best!) – you’ll find a chance to give $10 towards the JustAdvice Clinic, a low-cost legal services program operated by The University of Maryland.

Although JustAdvice aims to provide low cost legal services to those who need brief advice for their legal issues, the clinic has partnered with Groupon Grassroots for a campaign to raise at least $300 to provide free legal services to at least 30 people. The campaign doesn’t proceed unless at least 30 people donate; as of Thursday morning, though, “the deal is on” because over 50 had bought the deal.

The JustAdvice clinic and the Groupon campaign highlight a number of ways in which community advocating for civil justice can be proactive in the wake of the recession. With “brief advice” clinics at a cost of $10, the clinic addresses the needs of people who may find themselves not able to qualify for pro bono services at legal aid organizations (because of income restrictions), but not able to afford a private attorney. The clinic empowers those who may be in this position to take the next steps in accessing legal resources or provides assistance in thinking about how to proceed pro se. With the Groupon Grassroots campaign, the clinic knocks the $10 cost down to zero for a portion of its clients while using the power of collective action via technology. And although the JustAdvice clinic does not provide continuing legal services to its clients, it does serve another purpose. In the clinic, University of Maryland law students and recent grads get the chance to gain hands-on clinical experience in the midst of a tough job market.

From the looks of it, you’re not going to get a better find on Groupon if you’re an advocate for civil justice – and there’s only 3 days and 11 hours left to get the deal!

Swords to Plowshares seeks a candidate to sponsor for a Skadden legal fellowship, beginning in Fall 2013.

Swords to Plowshares is a nationally-recognized nonprofit serving veterans in need in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Founded in 1974, Swords to Plowshares is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides legal assistance, counseling and case management, employment and training, and housing to veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We promote and protect the rights of veterans through advocacy, public education, and partnerships with local, state, and national entities.  Believing that war causes wounds and suffering that last beyond the battlefield, our mission is to heal the wounds of war and to restore dignity, hope, and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need, and to significantly reduce homelessness and poverty among veterans.

Our legal services include free assistance to veterans who seek Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare, disability compensation, and pension; we also specialize in military discharge reviews and upgrades for veterans who received less than fully Honorable discharges.  We are a small, collegial staff seeking a candidate to sponsor for a Skadden fellowship.  Our staff includes a former Skadden fellow; this fall we will host both Skadden and Equal Justice Works fellows.  Applicants are encouraged to propose project ideas.  We seek someone who is dynamic, creative, and highly motivated.

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

Like the Bay Area?  Like health law?  Like the idea of working with a medical-legal partnership to provide holistic services to low-income clients and families?  Apply to be the next Staff Attorney/Clinical Supervisor with the East Bay Community Law Center!

The Health Law Practice of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) seeks a Spanish-speaking attorney for a one year full-time position as a Staff Attorney/Clinical Supervisor to provide legal representation and other legal services to low-income families referred through our medical-legal partnerships and to assist with the training and supervision of summer law student interns. The position may be extended beyond one year depending on funding availability.

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to provide high quality legal services to low-income clients and educational opportunities for law students and community volunteers. As UC Berkeley Law School’s community-based legal services clinic, EBCLC is currently the largest provider of legal services for low-income residents in the East Bay. EBCLC has eight practice areas in two offices which cover a range of legal issues, including housing, welfare, immigration, health, community reentry, youth justice and education, economic development, consumer, homelessness, general civil, and law and policy.

Check out the full job listing here, on PSLawNet!

Equal Justice Works’s live webinars provide a comprehensive overview of the debt relief options available for students and graduates – including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Based Repayment – and provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of our webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

Current sessions include:

• How to Pay Your Bills AND Your Student Loans: Utilizing Income-Based Repayment – Thursday, July 12, 3-4 p.m. EDT: Saddled with high student debt? This webinar reviews Income-Based Repayment, a powerful provision of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that allows anyone with high debt relative to their income to reduce their federal student loan payments. This interactive webinar will teach you:
  • How to understand your federal loans
  • How Income-Based Repayment works and if it is right for you
  • How to sign up for Income-Based Repayment
•  Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness – Thursday, July 26, 3-4 p.m. EDT  For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.  You will learn about:
  • The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans
  • What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness
  • How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

The Project Attorney is a one-year grant funded position that will assist NACDL’s Resource Counsel in developing and administering support services for criminal practitioners in a variety of practice settings throughout the United States, with an emphasis on post-conviction innocence claims. The Project Attorney will gather resources and further develop and update NACDL’s existing resources to provide technical and substantive assistance on all aspects of post-conviction criminal defense practice. The Project Attorney will also assist in notifying parties, including defendants and defense counsel in cases of possible wrongful conviction based on unreliable forensic evidence. The Project Attorney will provide resources on challenging the reliability of non-DNA forensic evidence to enable post-conviction lawyers to effectively identify and provide high quality representation in cases of wrongful conviction.

The deadline to apply is 7/27 – find out how at PSLawNet!

By: Maria Hibbard (with many thanks to legal-aid-funding-guru Steve Grumm!)

The news for civil legal aid funding is rarely positive lately – but, if you’re like me, you may be wondering exactly where these cuts are coming from. The answer is a complicated one dependent on many factors – because there is no civil “right to counsel” mandate (although some smaller-scale “Civil Gideon” programs are on the rise), civil legal aid funding comes from a number of sources, all of which work together to create any particular legal aid organization’s funding. A quick primer on the primary civil legal aid funding sources:

• Legal Services Corporation (LSC) – The largest institutional funder of civil legal aid programs is the Legal Services Corporation – LSC is a nonprofit entity chartered by the federal government in the mid-1970s to distribute federal grants to legal aid organizations – which themselves are independent nonprofits – which then provide legal help to individuals with incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level, or $28,813/year for a family of four. LSC funding is, in real dollar terms, at near historic lows. You can view an LSC funding history here.
• LSC Restrictions – Because LSC prohibits the organizations that use its funding from certain types of advocacy, like filing class actions or legislative lobbying, not all civil legal aid organizations take LSC funding. For example, Philadelphia Legal Assistance uses LSC funding, while Community Legal Services of Philadelphia receives its funding from other sources. These two organizations were once united, but changes to the federal regulations governing LSC-funded organizations in the mid-1990s resulted in PLA spinning itself off from CLS in a phenomenon that also played out in many other jurisdictions. PLA continued to receive federal dollars – and was thus subject to considerable restrictions on some of its advocacy – while CLS no longer took federal dollars from LSC. (Whew! Alphabet soup!)
• Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) – When a lawyer receives money from a client, that money is placed in a trust account separate from the lawyer’s own money until the work is completed. The IOLTA program takes the interest from these accounts and distributes it to legal aid programs foundations. Such use of  IOLTA funding is mandatory in the majority of U.S. jurisdictions – and is the third greatest source of civil legal aid funding behind LSC and state and local funding. With interest rates having remained at extraordinarily low levels over the past few years, IOLTA funding has been decimated. Nationwide, revenue from trust account interest dropped 74% from $371 million in 2007 to $95 million in 2010.
• State and local government funding – state /local funding for legal services organizations comes from state budget appropriations, fee surcharges, and property funds. We posted last week about how these budgets are volatile, however. Many states have considerably diminished their appropriations to legal aid providers (although New York State is a notable exception).
• Foundations and private lawyer and firm contributions – while much more difficult to measure, these contributions still contribute to a large portion of civil legal aid organizations’ budgets. Although not a direct financial contribution, pro bono attorney services also impact the ability of civil legal aid organizations to improve access to justice.

Understanding the multiple ways in which civil legal aid organizations are funded can help one understand the full extent of the justice gap – because there are no constants in funding, the amount of legal services that are available is unpredictable. This 2007 report estimates that for every person that an organization with LSC funding helped, one was turned away. Many organizations have more recently estimated that they must turn away much higher percentages of would-be clients because of funding shortages. Obviously, advocates for the support of civil legal aid services are constantly needed.

It’s definitely not fun for public interest minded law students to read about how bad funding is now – especially because these numbers are bound to have an effect on the number of jobs. But it’s best to be informed – you can read my colleague Steve Grumm’s weekly blog post on the funding and job developments in the public interest world on our blog every Friday.