Although Michigan’s indigent defense system has long been criticized, including in this 2008 report by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, NPR reports on changes that may be ahead:

Court-appointed lawyers in Michigan, Steinberg says, “have to encourage their clients to plead guilty and keep the docket moving in order to generate the volume that they can make a living. So the incentive is to get your client to plead guilty as quickly as possible doing the least amount of work as possible.”

Steinberg and the ACLU have an unlikely ally: state Rep. Tom McMillin. The son of a retired General Motors executive, he’s a Republican and a former leader of the Christian Coalition in Michigan.

“Conservatives are really talking about, what is the proper role of government? Has it expanded too much?” McMillin says. “And I think many of us feel this is one of the proper roles — providing as much equal justice as possible.”

That issue captured the attention of Michigan’s Republican Governor, Rick Snyder, too. Last year, the governor named McMillin to a commission to study how to improve the patchwork system of justice for the poor. The group is planning to present its recommendations to the governor this month.

Jeff Sauter is eager to read them. Sauter testified before the commission last winter, on behalf of a group of prosecutors in Michigan. After 21 years as the elected prosecutor in Eaton County, near Lansing, Sauter has seen a lot.

“I’ve seen instances actually, both appointed and retained attorneys, where the defendant I don’t think is getting good representation,” he says.

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation’s leading organization of people who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. In its vision of the future, individuals will not be punished simply for what they put into their bodies, only for harm done to others. DPA fights for drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights and seeks to promote dialogue on cutting-edge drug policy issues around the country. Its work spans issues from ending marijuana prohibition and promoting more honest and effective drug education to reducing the many harms of drug use and drug laws. DPA works to ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and otherwise harm millions of nonviolent people, especially people of color.

The Law Fellow will be based in DPA’s Office of Legal Affairs in Berkeley, California, and will work alongside DPA’s three attorneys supporting DPA staff in a wide range of matters in state and federal courts and legislative bodies. The Law Fellow will also work closely with DPA staff and coalition partners across the country. Some travel will be required.

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

If you can talk about and demonstrate bilingual skills, they can be a valuable asset in the job market. MSN’s Career Builder site offers helpful tips:

Don’t put your language skills under “other”
As you would with any other skill on your résumé, you should quantify your ability to speak fluently. Don’t treat it like a hobby and bury it at the bottom of your résumé. “I would treat it like any other skill by listing it on your résumé and including examples of how it was used to your advantage,” says John Millikin, clinical professor of management at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. Quantify how your language skills helped business, whether it was by growing sales or reaching new audiences.

Understand what they need and what you can do
When researching the position, find out why the company might need a bilingual employee. Is the company expanding into a new region or diverse markets? Is it looking to better support an existing market?

Some positions will require someone who is a native speaker due to the level of written and oral interaction. Other positions may just require someone with the ability to correspond with internal teams from the around the world. By understanding how your language skills will be  used, you’ll be better able to fine tune your résumé and cover letter.

Don’t oversell your abilities
“Do not exaggerate your skills,” says Jonathan Riedel, CEO of Forword Translations. “If your conversational skills are intermediate and you claim they are advanced, you will embarrass yourself and your company when they ask you to interpret for a conference or to call a potential client on the phone. There is no need to cram for an interview if the job requires knowledge of Spanish and you feel unprepared. Only say you can do what you can do.”

Riedel adds that even if a candidate lists himself as a “beginner” in several languages on his résumé, it shows an employer that he’s open-minded, eager to learn and try new things, culturally sensitive and well-rounded.

How to quantify your bilingualism
If you were proving your sales skills on your résumé, you would include revenue earned, market share or client needs that were met. Treat bilingualism the same way. Provide evidence of your abilities and potential, either during the interview, on the résumé or in the cover letter. Here are some ways to do so:

• Show translated documents or content written in another language: Examples could include marketing materials, press releases, emails or social media interactions.

• Identify specific scenarios: Be ready to share a scenario that best represents how your understanding of a second language helped you in your career or improved a process or experience for your previous employer.

• Attach a dollar amount: Money talks. Any quantitative figures you can use to back your multilingualism well help you get ahead of other candidates.

• Show how it can grow business: Identify markets that the prospective company isn’t taking advantage of and explain how your bilingualism can help them expand into those markets. If you can walk into an interview and address a hole in the marketplace that can be solved by your skills, you become an asset to the company that it can’t afford to pass up.

The Center for Economic Progress (CEP) is seeking an outgoing and highly motivated individual to lead our Tax Clinic that has provided free legal counsel and representational services to low-income families for 12 years. CEP’s tax expertise and years of experience enables us to provide services that simplify the complicated federal tax code for our clients and resolve IRS controversies and disputes with the Illinois Department of Revenue related to collections, audits, innocent spouse relief and employee v. independent contractor disputes.

CEP provides free tax preparation, college financial aid assistance, tax-related legal assistance and financial coaching services that assist low-income clients in accessing significant financial resources, improving their credit status and building savings. Annually, CEP staff and 1,200 volunteers provide high-quality tax preparation and tax-related legal and financial services to over 20,000 clients in Chicago and surrounding communities.

The Director will lead CEP staff, interns and volunteers to deliver high quality tax representation for our low income clients. Primary responsibilities include:

• Planning and managing all operations for the Clinic, including intake, tracking, assignment of cases, case review, and client representation
• Recruiting, managing and training pro bono attorneys to handle tax representation cases
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with local and national partners, including the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service and SPEC, other tax clinics, law and accounting firms
• Developing marketing and outreach plans to provide workshops and presentations to community-based organizations, law firms and other entities related to tax law
• Developing curriculum and delivering training programs to VITA site managers and volunteers, as well as the Clinic staff, interns and volunteers
• Supporting CEP fundraising by identifying and pursuing new funding opportunities, contributing to grant applications and reports, and meeting with funders
• Representing the agency before the media to enhance awareness of CEP programs and broaden awareness of tax issues among various constituents
• Supervise a full-time attorney, student interns, and support staff

The deadline to apply is 6/22–find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Maria Hibbard

Two men who recently passed the bar in their respective states–Florida and California–have completed all of the on-paper requirements to become an attorney–college, law school, character examination, and bar passage–but Supreme Courts in both states are considering whether Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio and Sergio C. Garcia can be admitted to the bar and actually practice law. Both Godinez-Samperio and Garcia are undocumented immigrants, and U.S. law generally forbids these individuals from receiving professional licenses. Due to a gray area in federal law, however, they may work as independent contractors. According to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog:

…federal law doesn’t require those who hire independent contractors to ask for proof of immigration status. Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell Law School, told the Associated Press that a client who pays for services isn’t breaking the law even if the contractor isn’t authorized to work in the U.S.

While the cases play out in California and Florida, Cesar Vargas, a CUNY School of Law graduate who entered the country illegally when he was 5 years old, has opened a legislative lobbying firm, DRM Capitol Group LLC — a nod to the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the Dream Act, which would provide illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before age 16 with a path to citizenship.

The Dream Act remains in political gridlock, but these cases raise important issues about access to justice: the LA Times reports that hundreds of individuals from Garcia’s community showed up to see him be sworn in as a lawyer last year. Law graduates who have achieved law school graduation and bar passage–even without citizenship–may be able to provide access to attorneys to hundreds of communities who previously saw legal counsel as far out of reach. Even if these individuals do not practice in their home communities, should these law graduates be limited to work as independent contractors, or can they be licensed to practice like any other graduate with good qualifications? The cases in California and Florida will surely set a precedent.

The United States Attorney’s Office prosecutes federal criminal offenses and defends the interests of the United States in civil and appellate matters in the district. The Eastern District of Texas is a large district consisting of 6 staffed offices that cover 43 counties in the eastern part of the state, spanning more than 50,000 square miles from the Oklahoma border to the Gulf of Mexico. Offices are located in Beaumont, Lufkin, Plano, Sherman, Texarkana and Tyler. Our district works closely with federal agencies and law enforcement personnel located throughout the district and in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas has a vacancy in the Criminal Division in our Beaumont office. This position will be responsible for investigating and prosecuting a variety of federal crimes, with a primary emphasis on drug trafficking and capital crimes litigation. Employment with the U.S. Attorney’s Office offers a unique and challenging experience for the highly motivated and talented attorney who is committed to serving justice.

The deadline to apply is 6/15–find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Maria Hibbard

As I read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow (a book off our PSLawNet summer reading list!) on the metro and bus this past week or so, I was acutely aware of passers-by glancing at the provocative title. The new Jim Crow? The old Jim Crow laws are known as sad and embarrassing time in our nation’s history; who would dare suggest that the same kind of discrimination exists today?

In her book, Alexander addresses head-on the proposition that instead of the direct “Jim Crow laws” that have long been eradicated, the war on drugs and mass incarceration of African American males throughout the 1980s and beyond has in effect created a similar type of “caste” system and had the effect of creating continuing the cycle of discrimination. Like the fellow commuters who glanced at my book, I too approached this hypothesis with skepticism; throughout the narrative, however, Alexander systematically lays down the history of Jim Crow laws and the effect mass incarceration has had in creating similar effects.

Because I was still in diapers at the beginning of the “War on Drugs,” I was initially startled by Alexander’s analysis of the way in which federal funding and incentive motivated local police officers to severely ramp up drug arrests. These searches targeted ghettos deemed likely to have more possible offenders and resulted in searches that may have stretched the limits of the Fourth Amendment. Most African American males incarcerated during this time period were not arrested for violent crimes, but for possession of drugs that were found at a traffic stop. Alexander next moves on to an analysis of the effect of this incarceration on felons once released. Convicted felons are not eligible for housing assistance or food stamps, and the effect of having to check the “felony box” on a job application can be detrimental to a recently released individual trying to support himself. Sooner or later, Alexander predicts, this same individual ends up back in jail. Alexander admits that Jim Crow laws and mass incarceration are not exactly alike, though, stating, “we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste system based entirely on exploitation (slavery), to one based largely on subordination (Jim Crow), to one defined by marginalization (mass incarceration).”

Through shedding new light on the ways in which the War on Drugs has resulted in “legalized discrimination,” Alexander faces a topic that may be too often brushed aside in our “colorblind” society. Although somewhat repetitive and generalized, Alexander’s book is worth reading for the very reason that it addresses an important idea about access to justice not often taught law school. Alexander prefaces her book by saying “This book is not for everyone”–I can disagree. Even if you think it isn’t for you, The New Jim Crow is worth a read just to be able to think through its challenging propositions.

Our friends at Equal Justice Works are putting on a student debt webinar later this month.

Drowning in Debt? Learn How Government and Nonprofit Workers Can Earn Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Thursday, June 28, 3 – 4:15 p.m. EDT

A must attend for anyone with educational debt planning to work or currently working for the government or a nonprofit, this webinar explains how you can benefit from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the most significant law affecting public service in a generation.

This webinar will teach you how to:

    – Understand your federal loans

    – Manage your monthly payments using income-driven repayment plans like Income-Based Repayment plan

    – How to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

EJW hosts webinars like this every month  that provide viewers with the opportunity to ask questions. Click here to view a schedule of webinars and to register for an upcoming session.

By: Maria Hibbard (and the PSLawNet staff and Advisory Group!)

A few weeks ago, the PSLawNet staff and Advisory Group contributed their recommendations to PSLawNet’s Summer Reading List. If you can’t bring yourself to read a whole book this summer–or you just want to stay informed–here are some favorite online periodicals and blogs to peruse. As a student I’m often tempted to stay focused on my little “law school bubble” and not know what’s happening in the “real world,” but staying updated on both the daily news and trends in the legal profession gives me perspective. In addition to these suggestions, you can find even more at the ABA’s annual Blawg 100 list.

General sources of information for being an educated person/lawyer:

• Clearinghouse for major legal news: http://law.com/jsp/law/index.jsp
• Keep updated on Supreme Court decisions as they happen: http://www.scotusblog.com/
• Broad coverage of court decisions and the legal industry: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/
• ABA Journal: http://www.abajournal.com/
• The Am Law Daily: http://www.americanlawyer.com/amlaw_daily.jsp
• NALP’s own news digest, published every Friday: http://www.nalp.org/newsdigest

General non-profit/public interest/access to justice blogs:

• Nonprofit Law Blog: http://www.nonprofitlawblog.com/home/
• Equal Justice Works Blog: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/blog/
• ABA Center for Pro Bono Exchange blog: http://centerforprobono.wordpress.com/
• Richard Zorza’s Access to Justice blog: http://accesstojustice.net/
• Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now blog: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/
• The Brennan Center for Justice Blog: http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/

Public Health

• The Shriver Brief: http://www.theshriverbrief.org/

A number of larger cities have daily law bulletins or law journals, some of which require a subscription or login. A sampling:

• Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: http://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/
• New York Law Journal: http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/
• Los Angeles Daily Journal: http://www.dailyjournal.com/

Academia

• Class Bias in Higher Education: http://classbias.blogspot.com/
• Law Professor Blogs: http://www.lawprofessorblogs.com/

What’s the easiest way to keep track of all of these resources? Use an RSS reader/aggregator! After you set one up, this service gathers the data from all your favorite sources and combines it into one readable format. Here’s a post on a number of RSS aggregators that are available—although I personally check my Google Reader every day: http://email.about.com/od/rssreaderswin/tp/top_rss_windows.htm.

The Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law at the University of Texas School of Law seeks a talented, versatile and energetic recent graduate of law to serve as an Environmental Law Fellow for one year beginning in September 2012.

Founded in 2009, the Center is a focal point for interdisciplinary analysis, debate, and discussion of the legal and policy issues relevant to energy, arbitration, and the environment.  It connects students, practitioners, and academics with the mission of advancing policy and legal ideas that promote effective and efficient environmental protection, sound energy development, and effective dispute resolution.  The Fellow will work under the supervision of the Center’s director, and collaborate with the director, other faculty, and students in the day-to-day operations and academic programs of the Center; help design and facilitate academic, curricular and research and advocacy projects with the Center’s affiliated faculty and students; and co-teach a course with a tenured professor at the Law School.

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!