Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It shouldn’t shock anyone at this point to learn that a lot has happened in the past week. Various authorities are either making or entertaining fundamental changes to the way the legal system functions in response to the extraordinary conditions under which we must all now live; similarly fundamental changes to related systems such as the penal system and the educational finance system are also underway.

In this digest, I’ve done my best to highlight articles and resources that describe overall trends that are beginning to emerge in the way these systems are adapting. In some instances, I haven’t been able to find resources that capture these overall trends. Where possible, NALP’s Public Service team is working on creating these materials. We hope to be able to share them with you soon. In the meantime, I will note the existence of a trend and reference a few key articles below.

I hope you all find this approach helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me and let me know if you have thoughts about how I can best keep you all informed in this period of uncertainty.

One more thing: In each section, news that is not related to the current crisis appears at the section’s end, separated from Coronavirus content with a horizontal line (—).

Stay well,

Sam

Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking

• In Above the Law, a California attorney posed a crucial question that the pandemic has forced upon the legal profession: “Is The Court a Place or a Service?” The author argues that “If one of the things we should be doing is to make legal services more affordable and more accessible, then COVID-19 may prompt, indeed, mandate changes in our thinking and delivery of those services.”

  This is the most succinct formulation of an issue with which attorneys and courts across the country are currently grappling. Many courts are developing policies related to remote appearances (and, alternatively, continuances of cases); we hope to collect these various policies into a centralized document for everyone to review sometime within the next week. For now, I will focus on sharing reports from the perspective of attorneys practicing before courts that are beginning to adapt their procedures in this way.

  In related news:

  • In The Washington Examiner, the VP of Criminal Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation argued that “this is [] a good time to assess the extent to which all hearings must be held in-person. Defendants have a sacrosanct constitutional right to confront their accuser at trial, but trials are very rare in the modern criminal justice system. Many court hearings are status conferences that could be handled through commonplace virtual meeting applications.”
  • JDSupra argued that “ ‘Social distancing’ is now a public health imperative everywhere, and it’s clear that remote computing technology will play a large role in providing both business continuity and health safety within the legal community over the next few weeks and months.”
  • In Texas, a criminal defense lawyer observed that on Law.com that “Normal for me involves a lot of wasted time. At least once a week I drive an hour in traffic (each way) to sit through a calendar that takes a judge an hour to call, just to say, “not guilty.” That’s three hours to speak for three seconds…This pandemic has been an expensive lesson in [how] arraignment calendars need to give way to a system that spares judges, prosecutors, defendants, and their attorneys from using half their day in court to say two little words.”
  • Lawfare published an overview of how federal courts are adapting their operations to comply with social distancing.
  • In Bernalillo County NM “District Attorney Raul Torrez [announced] that his prosecutors will no longer physically go to ‘non-essential’ hearings…Torrez says prosecutors from the 2nd Judicial District will only appear in hearings via telephone or video connection.”
  • In New York NY, “Public defenders in New York City say the state courts are putting staff and attorneys at risk of COVID-19 exposure during arraignments. The Office of Court Administration has set up video conferencing, but the only person in the court who is on the video and not there in person is the defendant.”
• In Washington DC, “Republican Rob Portman[, of Ohio,] joined with Democrat Dick Durbin, of Illinois, to introduce a bipartisan resolution to allow senators to vote remotely during a national crisis. During certain crises, such as the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, guidelines from the CDC may advise against convening the full Senate in the Capitol.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, fundamentals of the existing student loan debt system are in flux. There are many articles out there, but a good place to start is Inside Higher Ed’s discussion of current proposals being floated at the federal level. Some key points (from the article):
  • Although Trump announced last week that “he will be waiving the interest of federal student loans[, ] student aid experts have said it doesn’t appear that the proposal would lower how much borrowers have to repay each month.”
  • A short-term break from monthly payments would likely be acceptable to right-leaning policy experts, “at least, as long as it is deferment and not some sort of forgiveness[.]”
  • In contrast, “the stimulus package put together by Senate Democrats…would not only defer monthly payments, but pay down the amounts owed[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) along with Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) introduced the Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act of 2020, which would permit 401k, 403b, SIMPLE and governmental 457b retirement plans to make matching contributions to workers as if their student loan payments were salary reduction contributions.”
• In New York, “Governor Andrew Cuomo has suspended collections on certain student loans in the state.”
• US News & World Report published advice on “what to do if the Coronavirus affects your student loan payments.”
• The VP of Research for Savingforcollege.com said “he would expect the [student loan interest] rates for the upcoming academic year, which will be announced this spring, to fall to 1.9% for undergraduates, and to 3.5% and 4.5% for graduate students and PLUS loans, respectively.”
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• MarketWatch published an article arguing that “getting student loans erased in bankruptcy, while technically possible, is so hard and expensive that few people try; even fewer succeed. Without intervention by Congress and a change of heart at the Education Department, struggling borrowers will continue to be trapped in a virtual debtor’s prison: unable to pay what they owe and unable to move on with their lives.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• JdSupra published “some action steps nonprofit executives, leaders and board members can take to minimize risk and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.”
• In Chicago, the ABA “launched a task force that includes representatives from the Legal Services Corp, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the National Center for State Courts and other groups, to address legal needs that could arise from the pandemic, including an uptick in domestic violence cases, employment-related cases and bankruptcy filings[.]”
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• Also in Chicago IL, the ABA released “Principles for Legal Education and Licensure in the 21st Century,” a document “aimed at aligning legal education and licensure more closely to better address the public’s legal needs.”
• In New York, “[a] New York State Bar Association task force has recommended several strategies to address an expected shortage of small-town lawyers set to hit rural areas across the state over the next few decades. The NYSBA’s Task Force on Rural Justice has recommended loan repayment programs, tuition assistance, relaxed residency requirements for public positions and increased hourly rates for assigned counsel in rural areas. The reforms would enable attorneys, typically saddled with major student loan debt, to take jobs in rural areas that pay lower than positions in cities and suburban towns.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Boston MA, “[c]oncerns over exposure to COVID-19 are increasing among Boston’s immigration attorneys after one of the courtrooms in Boston abruptly closed earlier this week.”
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• In Tennessee, the state’s “Republican-led Legislature has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their failed challenge of the federal refugee resettlement program, which claims the state shouldn’t be forced to spend money on Medicaid and other services for refugees.”

Decarceration

• The Marshall Project put together a fantastic resource “rounding up [visitation] closures and other changes [to prison facilities across the country].” Their resource focuses on which facilities have suspended or limited visitation.
• Data for Progress released a memo, “Fighting the Coronavirus with Decarceration,” finding “strong, cross-ideological support for the strategy of dramatically reducing jail and prison populations to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Sixty-six percent of likely voters, including 59% of those who are “very conservative,” said that elected officials should be considering measures to reduce overcrowding in prisons and jails as a response to coronavirus.”

  Across the United States and Canada, various actors including NGOs, Public Defenders, and District Attorneys have begun to call for these measures–and some elected officials have agreed. We hope to collect as many of these various policy changes as possible into a centralized document to which we can all refer sometime within the next week. For now, I’ll leave you with the overview from Data for Progress.

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Canada, “law societies across the country are enabling staff to work from home, while providing direction to legal professionals as they try to maintain practices during a time of social distancing.”
• In the United States, Newsweek published a list of “all the cities [and states] who have announced moratoriums on evictions during [the] Coronavirus pandemic.” (As of Monday March 16; things have continued since then but this article will get you started).
• In Baltimore, “pro bono groups…have begun implementing remote services to stay connected with clients in need of free legal aid.”
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• In Canada, National Magazine reviewed “judgments rendered by our top court over the last five years [which] show[] it has increasingly relied on the idea of ‘access to justice’ in handing down its rulings.”
• In Manitoba, the provincial “law society is welcoming proposed legislation that would allow for ‘limited practitioners’ in that province.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Ontario, “Attorney General Doug Downey has been left with little choice but to virtually shutter the Ontario Court of Justice after an unprecedented mutiny by all levels refusing to continue to attend the lower court in the face of COVID-19. The associations for criminal defence and Legal Aid lawyers have announced they’ll no longer appear at any OCJ courtroom after the chief justice ignored their repeated pleas to close the halls of justice to any in-person appearance.”

_________________________________________________________

• In British Columbia, “Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA-Plus) is now a required component of all cabinet, budget and Treasury Board submissions.” Writing for the Lawyer’s Daily, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice Service Branch of the BC Ministry of the Attorney General wrote about the implications of this policy for Access to Justice.

Criminal Justice Reform

• Across the United States, “[l]ocal law enforcement officials across the country are rapidly making major operational changes in preparation for the continued spread of coronavirus, as they face potential strains in resources and staffing without precedent in modern American history.” In some places, these measures include changes long sought by advocates of criminal justice reform. For example, in Dane County WI the sherriff told ABC that they were“working with all of our law enforcement partners, local, state and federal, to decrease the number of people who are physically arrested and brought to jail.”

  For one more example, in related news:

  • In Baltimore MD, “City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby told prosecutors [] to drop all pending charges for drug possession, attempted distribution, prostitution, trespassing, minor traffic offenses, open container and public urination…to reduce the potential spread of the virus in detention centers.”
• In New York, the District Attorneys Association of New York “called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to suspend new discovery and speedy trial reforms as the coronavirus pandemic grinds criminal court operations to a halt.”
  _________________________________________________________
• Also in New York, “there [remains] a big divide over whether to roll back the state’s new bail law.”
• In Chicago IL, “Kim Foxx…took a major step toward re-election on Tuesday with a victory in the Democratic primary.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[i]t’s looking more and more like there will be a November runoff in the race to be L.A. County’s next District Attorney.”

The Organization

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD) provides statewide representation in criminal defense cases to those unable to afford an attorney. Maryland OPD employees operate according to a common principle: Justice, Fairness and Dignity for All. Under this guiding principle, Maryland OPD attorneys represent clients in criminal defense, parental, defense, appeals, post-conviction, and mental health cases.

The Position

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender is hiring its Fall 2020 Class of assistant public defenders to work in its offices throughout the state. Assistant public defenders are responsible for zealously advocating for indigent criminal defendants through competent and resourceful representation and thoughtful communication with clients and team members.

The ideal candidates will have a demonstrated commitment to public defense and social justice, will be compassionate, and will thrive in a fast-paced environment.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=100760

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! We have a theme this week. There’s news I don’t need to share with you all currently affecting every corner of our society–including the topics we cover together in this Digest. (For those of you who are interested, you can find NALP’s statement concerning COVID-19 here.) Here’s how COVID-19 is playing out in the Public Interest Legal world:

Some courts have begun suspending in-person operations. Some public defenders’ offices have begun calling for the release of pretrial detainees and vulnerable members of our incarcerated population. Some cities have begun placing moratoria on eviction proceedings and water utility shutoffs. It is not clear yet how federal immigration policy will affect public health in this moment. After the Fed announced plans to “pump in up to $1.5 trillion into the financial system in an effort to combat potential freezes brought on by the coronavirus,” some politicians on both sides of the aisle have begun asking whether other stimulus options, such as student loan debt relief, should also be considered.

Stay well,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• “Hundreds of advocates across the U.S. are pressing the Trump administration to not allow the coronavirus response to trigger immigration enforcement…In [an open letter to Vice President Pence], the group presses the government to deem hospitals as ‘enforcement-free zones,’ similarly to immigration officials’ position during hurricanes and other major emergencies…Though neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security has commented on whether it will officially declare healthcare facilities enforcement-free zones amid the outbreak, ICE told the Miami Herald on Tuesday that[, ] ‘Coronavirus is not considered an exigent circumstance, and individuals seeking medical treatment for the virus should continue to do so without fear or hesitation[.]’”
  • Meanwhile, Vox noted that “the Trump administration’s public charge rule, which makes it harder for immigrants to obtain a green card when they receive government benefits, went into effect two weeks ago. The rule discourages immigrants from using Medicaid, and potentially leaves these people without access to affordable health care — which is particularly dangerous during times like this.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “OPM has told agencies to report on their calendar year 2019 use of student loan reimbursements, one authority agencies can use to attract and keep employees in high-demand occupations.”
• Also in Washington DC, after “coronavirus fears sent markets into free fall, leading to the worst day in the stock market since 1987. In response to the dip, the Federal Reserve announced that it would be injecting more around $1.5 trillion in the market to help smooth short-term funding markets. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, questioned why the Fed was ready to aid the markets but not Americans struggling with student debt. She tweeted, “FYI, the amount that the Fed just injected almost covers all student loan debt in the US. There is absolutely NO excuse for not pausing student debt collections, planning for mortgage &rent relief, etc. We need to care for working people as much as we care for the stock market.”
  • Meanwhile, also also in Washington DC, “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the Trump administration would consider suspending people’s student loan payments as part of a larger strategy to limit the economic consequences of the coronavirus.“

Legal Technology

• Here on the Internet, Pro Bono Net published its Remote Legal Support Guide: A Best Practices Manual for Nonprofit and Pro Bono Innovation.

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “the Supreme Court announced that it would close its doors to the public “until further notice” “[o]ut of concern for the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees.” The announcement follows the news earlier on Thursday that the Capitol would close to visitors until April 1, the first disease-related closure of the building to the public since the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918.”

Rule of Law

• In Georgia, “[t]wo would-be candidates have filed suit against Georgia’s top election official, saying he illegally cancelled a scheduled May 19t election for a seat on the state’s highest court to allow the governor to fill the position by appointment when it becomes vacant months later.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Tennessee, “the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court…declar[ed] a state of emergency for the Judicial Branch of Tennessee government” the court has suspended “[a]ll in-person proceedings in all state and local courts in Tennessee…subject to exceptions[.]”
• In Kentucky, ,”[m]ost in-person court proceedings…have been suspended due to the state’s ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.”
• Across the U.S., “[i]n hopes of avoiding mass evictions in the coming weeks and months, tenant advocate groups and city council members nationwide are pushing for moratoriums on evictions in hopes of limiting the economic damage. If the coronavirus leads to evictions on a massive scale, the fallout could end up being one of the most consequential effects of the virus’s spread.”
  • In Oakland CA, “[m]ore than a dozen activists and tenant rights attorneys lined up to demand the city protect unhoused residents and low-income renters who may miss work and paychecks because of coronavirus fallout. They asked the City Council to halt eviction lawsuits in Alameda County courts, forbid landlords from pushing out tenants who can’t pay rent due to a coronavirus-related loss of income, and to stop closing homeless encampments in the city.”
  • In New York State, “lawmakers have introduced legislation to enact a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during New York’s coronavirus outbreak. State Senators Brad Hoylman and Brian Kavanagh announced the bill on Thursday, echoing the economic concerns raised by a growing coalition of housing advocates and elected officials.”
  • In Boston MA, “Local officials and housing advocates are demanding a halt to the housing court’s ‘eviction machine’ in an effort to protect vulnerable residents from exposure as coronavirus spreads throughout the city.”
• In Atlanta GA, “To make sure everyone has access to water over the next two months, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an administrative order to halt water service termination for any Watershed Management customer due to non-payment.”
  • In Detroit MI, “The city of Detroit will temporarily restore running water to thousands of households who have been disconnected due to unpaid bills. This action comes on the heels of public outcry that lack of water poses a serious public health threat amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In the Eastern District of Virgnia, the court continued “all misdemeanor, traffic, and petty offense dockets scheduled in all Divisions…from March 16, 2020, through April 30, 2020[.]”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services, and The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem called for “Immediate Release of Vulnerable Incarcerated New Yorkers in Response to Coronavirus”.
• Also in New York, after “Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that prison inmates are producing 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer in response to price-gouging retailers[,… p]rison advocates call[ed] out the governor and the state’s correctional department for subjecting the prioners to work that equates to ‘slave labor.’”
  • Meanwhile, in a related story, “Jails and prisons are often dirty and have really very little in the way of infection control,” said Homer Venters, former chief medical officer at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex. “There are lots of people using a small number of bathrooms. Many of the sinks are broken or not in use. You may have access to water, but nothing to wipe your hands off with, or no access to soap.”
• In the U.S., “some public health officials…are proposing [] large-scale [prisoner] releases, like those already underway in Iran. There, officials approved the temporary release of more than 54,000 prisoners in an effort to combat the spread of the new virus.”
  • Mother Jones also reported that “Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez joined criminal justice advocates and public health experts to call on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant emergency clemencies to older and sick prisoners.”
• In San Francisco CA, “in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office will begin filing motions to seek the immediate release of all clients being held pre-trial in San Francisco county jails who are at heightened risk of illness from the virus.”
• In New Orleans LA, “the Orleans Parish Public Defenders [asked] the Criminal District Court to immediately release from jail people being held on non-violent offenses and ensure inmates and detainees are safe.”

• Email from a public defender

  “I visited two in-custody clients today.
  Both learned about the virus and recent local cases from TV news. Neither received any information about the virus from anyone at the jail. No additional soap for handwashing. No PSAs. No literature. Nothing.”

  — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 12, 2020

   

• Talked to two different clients to in custody today. They’re scared. The people they’re with are scared. They’re vulnerable and they’re the last people anyone will try to help and they know it.

  — OneMileContainmentHat (@Popehat) March 13, 2020

  • (Ken Whitem, Brown White & Osborn LLP)

The Organization

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond. NALP believes in fairness, facts and the power of a diverse community. NALP staff work every day to be the best career services, recruitment, and professional development organization in the world because they want the lawyers and law students they serve to have an ethical recruiting system, employment data they can trust, and expert advisers to guide and support them in every stage of their careers.  

A NALP initiative, PSJD is a unique online clearinghouse for law students and lawyers to connect with public interest job listings and career-building resources. As a collaborative project among over 200 American and Canadian law schools, PSJD is a free resource for law students and alumni of our subscriber schools to search among thousands of public interest job opportunities and employer profiles. Public service employer organizations may also post job opportunities for free. In addition to its database, PSJD offers an online library of educational and career-building resources for those interested in pursuing a career in public service. These resources are publicly available to all website visitors.

The Position

NALP is hiring 2-3 law students to work in our office this summer as PSJD Project Assistants. Project Assistants are the backbone of our service as they complete data entry tasks that keep our service robust and helpful for our users.

Project Assistants are paid $15 per hour and are asked to dedicate 8-10 hours per week to NALP, so this position is perfect for law students who will be completing unpaid internships in D.C. this summer. Project Assistants are required to work in the NALP office during regular business hours, but shifts can be scheduled around other commitments.

The ideal candidates will have an interest in legal public service organizations and have excellent skills in attention to detail and accuracy.

Learn more about this opportunity on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=90562&Search=Y&OrgID=105860

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major stories this week include the 9th Circuit’s decision temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, three Senators’ concern over racial disparities in the federal student loan system, and widespread condemnation of Montgomery County Pennsylvania’s decision to fire its Chief and Deputy Chief Public Defenders after they filed an amicus brief critical of the county’s bail practices.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In San Francisco, “[a] federal appeals court has decided to block the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” plan in two states along the U.S. border, following back-and-forth rulings over the program.”
• In the US, “[t]hose who provide services to immigrants and those who advocate on their behalf say the [Trump administration’s ‘Public Charge’ rule, which took effect on Feb. 24,] has a chilling effect on the greater immigrant community, including those who have become naturalized citizens.”
• In Houston TX, “President Donald Trump’s administration is fast-tracking the legal proceedings of thousands of immigrant children in its care and unveiling a pilot program in Houston to video stream their hearings — a move advocates say will jeopardize their asylum cases and speed up deportations.”
• In San Francisco CA, “Federal immigration agents arrested a man in front of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice this week, prompting outrage from the city’s public defender and district attorney.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), wrote to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) requesting information about how OCR plans to address alarming racial disparities in the federal student loan system through vigorous enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws.”

Legal Technology

• In Florida, “the Florida Supreme Court will consider whether [ticket dispute app] TIKD poses a legal risk to its customers or merely represents the evolution of legal technology [after] traffic ticket attorneys complained to the Florida Bar that TIKD and its founder, Christopher Riley, were practicing law without a license.”
• In Washington State, the Seattle Times editorial board in favor of the State Senate’s version of the “groundbreaking privacy law” currently making its way through the state house, which differs from the House version in a number of respects. The board took particular care to note that “[u]nder the original Senate version, the state AG was given authority to enforce the law on behalf of Washington residents. The House version allows private parties to enforce the law, potentially creating a flood of litigation.”
• In New Jersey, “[l]awmakers…are proposing a bill to solidify data privacy guidelines and inflict tougher limits on the tech industry.”

Non-Profit Management & Hiring

• In New York NY, “the Public Interest Law Center (PILC)’s annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair marked its highest attendance ever, as 2,048 students from NYU Law and 19 other law schools met with representatives of 277 public interest employers from all over the country.”
• In Oregon, “[t]he Public Interest Environmental Law Conference that was scheduled to be held at the University of Oregon this weekend was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “[t]he leader of Pennsylvania’s system of 14 state-owned universities told lawmakers Tuesday that it is urgent they act to help the schools in the face of sinking enrollment, rising student debt and a lagging commitment of public tax dollars to higher education.”

Rule of Law

• In Amsterdam, “[j]udges at the International Criminal Court…ruled that the prosecutor can open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan. The decision…opens the way for prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity that may have been committed by the Taliban, by Afghani forces, and by the U.S. military and intelligence forces during the conflict.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• CityLimits.org reported on the nationwide impact of New York City’s Right to Counsel law: “it created a ripple effect. So far, Washington, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Newark, San Antonio, and Philadelphia have established the right to counsel laws, programs or initiatives. Other cities, such as Cleveland, Boston, Seattle, Detroit, Los Angeles and Santa Monica are considering or pushing for right to counsel in their respective communities.”
• In Wyoming, “[a] renewed effort to create an independent Guardian Ad Litem office has recently emerged in the state Capitol, largely to address a conflict of interest regarding the office’s current location inside the Wyoming Public Defender’s Office.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Montgomery County PA, “the county’s Board of Commissioners fired the two leaders of the Montgomery County Public Defender Office, Dean Beer and Keisha Hudson, shortly after they had filed an amicus brief recounting injustices in the county’s bail practices.”
  • In further news, “[t]wenty-seven lawyers and support staff in the [] County Public Defender’s Office wrote a letter of support for the former chief and deputy chief who were fired last week by the county commissioners…The letter [came] as the ACLU of Pennsylvania and other advocates, including NAACP- Pennsylvania, [were] co-sponsoring a 10 a.m. rally and press conference outside the courthouse [] to demand the county commissioners reinstate Beer and Hudson.”
  • Further in further news, The executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Fair and Just Prosecution wrote that “[r]ecent deeply troubling events in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, have undermined confidence in the independence that is required of public defenders.”
• In Trenton NJ, “[l]egislation…which would expand the Office of Public Defender (OPD) representation of juveniles[] cleared the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee[.]”
• In Macomb County MI, “longtime longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Tomko was formally introduced as the first administrator of the [county’s Public Defender] office.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Santa Clara County CA, “a small group of [public defenders] are…fight[ing] the routine jailing of defendants who can’t afford bail or a private attorney [through] a pilot program called Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review, a county-funded initiative in which public defense attorneys and investigators meet with select defendants within 48 hours of their arrest.”
• In San Francisco CA, “the media has declared both [Maria Evangelista and Michelle Tong, deputy public defenders] to be winners in two of the three open judge seats.”
• In New York NY, “[a] Manhattan public defender is the latest addition to a crowded field of candidates for the 2021 New York County District Attorney race.”
• Also in New York NY, “[a] decrease in the number of criminal cases city prosecutors are pursuing suggests that the crime spike recently reported by the NYPD could be a ruse to incite fear over criminal justice reforms, a coalition of public defenders said[.]”
• In Harris County TX, “Democratic primary voters in the nation’s third-largest county instead chose [DA] Ogg’s more cautious, incremental approach to reform [over that of challenger Audia Jones].”
• Meanwhile, in Travis County TX, incumbent DA Margaret Moore will likely face a runoff election against Jose Garza, “a former public defender and labor rights lawyer who has vowed to end low-level drug prosecutions as a way to curb mass incarceration.”

The Organization

The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) is a one-of-a-kind independent office with jurisdiction throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Created in response to a heroin epidemic and an increase in violent crime, SNP is charged with investigating and prosecuting cases involving felony narcotics. SNP partners with local, state, and federal enforcement agencies to root out narcotics trafficking organizations and offenders. SNP also employs public awareness efforts and treatment programs for offenders to reduce the demand for narcotics and advocate for drug-free lifestyles.

The Position

The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor seeks an evening student to work full-time as a legal assistant. The legal assistant will be responsible for conducting legal research, developing public service announcements and prevention campaigns, identifying trends in narcotics prosecution and treatment, and preparing legal documents, reports, and public testimony. This is a great opportunity for a current law student to gain practical legal experience in a specialized prosecutor’s office.

The ideal candidate will have strong skills in writing, editing, communicating, and multi-tasking.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=100066

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been a busy few weeks, with ICE officials continuing to make arrests in California state courthouses despite a new state-level ban on the practice and the Supreme Court hearing arguments concerning a 1986 statute making it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigration. Student loan debt also remains a key topic, with a new report from the Student Borrower Protection Center arguing that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Maryland, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been permitted to run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland driver’s license photos without first seeking state or court approval, state officials said — access that goes far beyond what other states allow and that alarms immigration activists in a state that grants special driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants[.]”
• In Sonoma County CA, “U.S. immigration agents arrested two people at a Northern California courthouse, including a man detained in a hallway on his way to a hearing, flouting a new state law requiring a judicial warrant to make immigration arrests inside such facilities.”
  • Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, “[state] officials suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement over warrantless arrests at state courthouses got a boost Thursday from Harvard Law School’s immigrant and refugee clinic, whose leadership said state courts are being illegally forced to carry out a federal agenda not enumerated in the Constitution and to sideline Sixth Amendment trial rights.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is waiving certain procurement regulations to help speed up construction on the border wall…The waivers affect 10 statutes, including requirements for open competition and justifying selections[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration has issued a hiring freeze for non-asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pausing any new onboarding for positions related to benefits and programs for legal immigrants.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court…seemed doubtful that a 1986 federal law that makes it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigrants to come to or stay in the United States could be squared with the First Amendment.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Trump’s 2020 budget and 2021 budget proposes…the consolidation of income-driven repayment plans and the elimination of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicated that income-driven repayment (IDR) plans for student loans are growing rapidly.”
  • Also meanwhile, new Department of Education data “[shows that as] more time passes, it is very likely more borrowers will receive forgiveness.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[l]obbyists on both sides of the debate over U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s borrower-defense rule say it’s increasingly possible that the Republican Senate could join the Democratic House in rebuking the administration over the rule critics say makes it harder for defrauded students to have their education loans forgiven.”
• The Student Borrower Protection Center released a report titled “Educational Redlining”, finding that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

Legal Technology

• In Washington State, LegEx, “[a] new data visualization tool…developed by [the] University of Washington…draws on bill information made available by the state to enable students, journalists and voters to visually explore the lawmaking process.”
• In New York NY, the N.Y.P.D. announced it “will start expunging some of the 82,000 people in [its DNA] database who have never been convicted of a crime.”
• In Ithaca NY, “Cornell is joining the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN), a collaboration of 36 colleges and universities committed to building the field of public interest technology and preparing a generation of civic-minded technologists.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “law students from some of the best law schools in the country…signed a letter to the Judicial Conference asking for specific reforms [to workplace misconduct policies], specifically: publicly reported federal judiciary “climate surveys,” expanding the Office of Judicial Integrity, centralized employment discrimination responses for federal judges, and information-sharing between law schools and the federal judiciary for reports of judicial misconduct.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he IRS is nearly done with proposed rules that require nonprofits to report income streams separately, an agency official said.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) …introduced a bill to provide the District of Columbia Courts and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia with the same authority that federal courts and federal agencies have to offer voluntary separation incentive payments, or buyouts, to their employees.”

Pro Bono Publico

• In Tennessee, “[t]he Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission has released its annual report detailing the pro bono legal service reported by attorneys, bar associations, law firms, law schools, legal service providers, mediators and other organizations.”
• Law.com reported that “[t]he increase of lawyers who spend 50% or more of their time on pro bono work has been driven in part by law firms’ willingness to treat pro bono work the same way they do billable work.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Austin TX, “[t]he American Bar Association has passed a resolution that encourages states to consider regulatory changes that could increase low and middle-income Americans’ access to affordable legal services.”
• In Long Beach CA, “[a] new pilot program will bring free representation to low-income renters facing evictions[.]”
• In Alberta, “a group of prominent lawyers sa[id] in an open letter to Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer [that] Alberta’s legal system is in a crisis that may become irreversible if the right steps to fix it aren’t taken.”
• In San Francisco, Open Door Legal, a non-profit “committed to building the nation’s first system of universal access to legal help, has opened two new offices in the Excelsior and Fillmore-Western Addition neighborhoods. ODL was able to open the new legal aid centers thanks to a surge in funding by the City of San Francisco and is now halfway to achieving its vision in the city.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Hays County TX, the County Commissioner’s Court “approved a grant from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) to participate in a study examining potential benefits of [legal representation at a first appearance before a magistrate for arrestees].”
• In Minnesota, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reviewed the ongoing controversy surrounding the abrupt suspension of the Hennepin County Chief Public Defender by the Minnesota Board of Public Defense.
• In Indiana, “[l]egislation headed to the governor’s desk will require judges in all 92 counties to consider the same criteria when determining whether a person lacks sufficient financial resources to hire a private attorney to represent them.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Houston TX, “[c]riminal justice advocacy groups…protested the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for using pro bono civil litigation attorneys to help prosecute misdemeanor cases in the Justice of the Peace courts.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[t]he…County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously…to eliminate many county-imposed criminal justice fees and forgive related debt.”
• In Orlando FL, “[o]ne of Florida’s biggest court jurisdictions plans to start a fund to help low-income people charged with nonviolent offenses pay for bail. The chief prosecutor and the public defender for metro Orlando’s court jurisdiction joined with a prominent law firm on Thursday to create the Community Bail Fund.”

The Organization

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond. NALP believes in fairness, facts and the power of a diverse community. NALP staff work every day to be the best career services, recruitment, and professional development organization in the world because they want the lawyers and law students they serve to have an ethical recruiting system, employment data they can trust, and expert advisers to guide and support them in every stage of their careers.  

A NALP initiative, PSJD is a unique online clearinghouse for law students and lawyers to connect with public interest job listings and career-building resources. As a collaborative project among over 200 American and Canadian law schools, PSJD is a free resource for law students and alumni of our subscriber schools to search among thousands of public interest job opportunities and employer profiles. Public service employer organizations may also post job opportunities for free. In addition to its database, PSJD offers an online library of educational and career-building resources for those interested in pursuing a career in public service. These resources are publicly available to all website visitors.

The Position

NALP is hiring a recent law graduate to serve as the PSJD Fellow for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Fellowship is a unique opportunity for the graduate to manage a small staff, shape priorities for a major project serving public interest organizations, and participate in decision-making and budgeting for a mid-size non-profit at an early stage in his or her career. Because NALP takes professional development so seriously, the PSJD Fellow will have time (and be encouraged) to build relationships with public service employers through daily tasks, public appearances, and pro bono work.

The ideal candidate will graduate before August 2020 and have a demonstrated commitment to public interest work. The candidate will also be proficient in oral and written communication for a variety of audiences, be familiar with social media conventions, and be adept at independent and focused work that often involves juggling multiple tasks at once.

Read the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=90561

At the October Mini-Conference, we announced the finalists for this year’s PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award. To commend each finalist on their hard work and to demonstrate how difficult it will be to select the winner, we have featured a different finalist on the blog every Monday for the past four weeks.

For our final week in this series, we feature Ming Tanigawa-Lau from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in Los Angeles, California.

Ming Tanigawa-Lau

Ming was selected as a finalist because of the outstanding impact she has made at her school and in her community. As a 1L, Ming felt empowered by the strong sense of community she felt at UCLA, and she fostered that feeling by strengthening the community of students dedicated to immigrants’ rights. She jumped at opportunities to volunteer at fundraisers and events that would create relationships between students and practitioners. She traveled to Dilley, Texas and Tijuana, Mexico to help nonprofit organizations prepare asylum seekers for their credible fear interviews and to conduct Know Your Rights presentations. Ming was so moved by these experiences that she dedicated her 1L summer to Al Otro Lado, where she coordinated a weekend clinic to connect volunteers with asylum seekers who needed assistance preparing their applications. Beginning her 2L year, Ming continued her work with Al Otro Lado and introduced her colleagues at work with her peers at school. Notably, Ming organized multiple trips for law students to assist asylum-seekers in detention and at the border in Texas and California. Ming’s peers, colleagues, and professors describe her as a leader in pro bono service because of her unending dedication and her ability to connect volunteers with meaningful opportunities. As she describes her work, Ming is “dedicated to making [her invaluable] experiences possible for others.”

The Program

Access to Justice (ATJ) Tech Fellows was created to provide future lawyers with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they will need to be successful civil justice leaders. To achieve its goals, ATJ Tech Fellows implements an internship program that connects students with participating host organizations and provides a $5,000 stipend to cover summer expenses.

The program begins with Fellows diving into a skills-training bootcamp where they will be engrossed in live training modules for two days. Then fellows will apply their newly acquired skills in their 10-week, full-time internships with participating host organizations. Fellows will also have opportunities for professional development and to contribute their summer experiences to a blog for all Fellows.

Ideal candidates will be passionate about ensuring legal access and eager to learn about the ways legal technology can enhance resources available to low-income individuals and communities.

Students can learn more about which organizations will host ATJ Tech Fellows this summer on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/search?SearchTypeID=jobs&OrgID=112177