Registration is now open for the Washington Council of Lawyers and Arnold & Porter’s annual Litigation Skills Training on May 17 & 18.

Litigation Skills Training is a two-day course that provides a combination of lecture presentations and on-your-feet skills practice.

Topics covered include:

• opening & closing statements
• evidence & impeachment
• direct & cross examination

Registration for the full two-day course for public interest attorneys is $60 (council members) or $90 (non-members). For private attorneys, registration is $90 (council members) or $150 (non-members).

For more details, see the Washington Council of Lawyers website.

By: Steve Grumm

An announcement from Equal Justice Works:

Summer Corps is now accepting online applications for the 2012 program. Due to numerous requests, we have extended the deadline to Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.  All application materials must be submitted by this time. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

 More info on the program at EJW’s Summer Corps page.

Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) is an innovative partnership among the Microsoft Corporation, Angelina Jolie and other interested philanthropists, law firms and corporate supporters. KIND is dedicated to providing both pro bono representation and positive systemic changes in law and policy to benefit unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. Launched in fall 2008, KIND is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

KIND seeks a Pro Bono Coordinator in New York City to help develop, maintain, and oversee the provision of pro bono legal representation to unaccompanied children through KIND’s network of major law firms and corporate partners.  This includes helping children to understand the immigration process and training volunteer attorneys to effectively represent individual child clients before immigration authorities.  The Pro Bono Coordinator’s role does not include direct legal representation.

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

From the Washington Post:

While rents have been rising, wages have stagnated, making affordable housing an increasingly scarce commodity. The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, calculated how many hours of work at the minimum wage would be required to afford a two-bedroom unit at Fair Market Rent—the government’s measure for the monthly cost of a “modest, non luxury rental unit” in a specific area, plus utilities. In no state was a 40-hour work week enough.

Read more and see the National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s chart here.

The Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings is looking for a law student intern to work 6-8 weeks this summer, starting in mid-May.  The Center is located at the University of Maryland’s College of Education, just outside of Washington, DC.

The intern will work directly with David Domenici, the Center’s Director, researching and writing on a handful of legal and policy issues related to juvenile justice and education reform work. David is one of the co-founders of the Maya Angelou Schools in Washington, D.C. (www.seeforever.org), a long-time advocate for underserved and at-risk students, and a graduate of Stanford Law School.

For more information, see the listing at PSLawNet!

By: Steve Grumm

Coverage from the National Law Journal’s Tony Mauro:

Arguments over the constitutionality of a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for juveniles provoked strong comments but no clear consensus at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Court heard arguments in Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, cases in which defendants who were 14 when they committed murder were sentenced, in effect, to die in prison without any chance of release during their lifetimes. The cases presented identical issues but were argued separately, possibly because in the second case, defendant Kuntrell Jackson did not actually kill the victim, a video store clerk, but was an accomplice convicted of felony capital murder in Arkansas.

Bryan Stevenson of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Equal Justice Initiative, argued for both youthful defendants, confidently telling the justices that juveniles have proven “deficits” in judgment and maturity that make life without parole an unconstitutional sentence. He invoked the Court’s precedents in Roper v. Simmons, which banned the death penalty for juveniles, and Graham v. Florida, which barred life without parole for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses.

By: Steve Grumm

Senator Dick Durbin doesn’t understand why some student loans are treated differently than other forms of personal debt.  And he’s looking to make a change.  From the Blog of the Legal Times:

The congressional overhaul of bankruptcy laws in 2005 included a provision that students with private college loans can’t discharge those debts in bankruptcy courts, and now Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) wants to change that.

At a hearing on Capitol Hill today, Durbin said there is no reason why private student loans should be treated differently from other private debt in bankruptcy. “That means that students are stuck with these loans for life,” he says. He wants to restore law to pre-2005 standards.

“How in the world did that provision get into the law?” Durbin said. “It was a mystery amendment. We can’t find out who offered it.”

…

G. Marcus Cole, a Stanford University law professor, said he was sympathetic with the plight of students trapped in huge debts, but was concerned about allowing loans to be discharged. Durbin’s legislation would raise the cost of student borrowing for all student loans, would dry up the entire student loan market, and reduce the affordability of such loans.

In student loans, the person is borrowing against their future capital, Cole said. “If you take away the exemption from discharge, you’re essentially saying to the lender that they can’t look at that future for sure,” he said. “That increases the risk premium that has to be charged across all loans.”

Durbin said he did not buy that argument. “If it really was so compelling, it wouldn’t be slipped in as it was here.”

by Kristen Pavón

Today, I got an unexpected email from a fellow 2011 law grad who was interested in learning more about the Job Search spreadsheet I use to keep track of all my job applications.

In case any of you want to use my method, I’ve created an Excel template you can try out.

Here’s a screenshot of the template. At the top, I have Employer, Job Title, Location, Materials Required w/ Deadline, Send to, Date Applied, and Notes. Jobs I’ve already applied for are highlighted in green, jobs I applied to but didn’t work out are in gray, and jobs that are in the queue to apply to are in red (you can click on the screenshot to see more details).

The template I’ve included here can also be uploaded onto your Google Docs. I use both Google Docs and Excel (if you use both formats, make sure to keep them updated!). I keep my Excel spreadsheet in my Dropbox folder so I have access to it whenever and wherever.

In addition to this spreadsheet, I also maintain a Networking Spreadsheet to keep track of people I’ve met along the way. You can use my template here.

Here’s a screenshot of my networking sheet:

I know, I know. It’s not nearly as colorful as my job search spreadsheet, but it works. At the top, I have Name, Organization/Employer, Contact Information, Meet Details, and F/U Notes.

Under Meet Details, I usually add a few keywords that will jog my memory on how/where/when we met. I always make sure to include who, if anyone, introduced me to the person. I keep my F/U Notes column updated with my latest contact with a person, including last time we emailed or met for coffee, etc.

I hope this helps! Do you have any other tips for keeping track of your job search efforts?

The Legal Action Center (LAC) of the American Immigration Council is looking for second-year law students to join the LAC staff as legal interns this summer. Interns must be dynamic, self-starters with strong research and writing skills and a commitment to the LAC’s mission.

Intern projects may include: monitoring and analyzing immigration decisions; legal research and memo writing; and drafting practice advisories, pleadings and briefs. The LAC advocates for fundamental fairness in U.S. immigration law. It is staffed by experienced immigration lawyers who play a leading role in immigration litigation across the country.

For more information, see the listing at PSLawNet!

From the ABA’s Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division (GPSLD):

GPSLD’s National Awards: Honoring the Public Sector’s Best

The Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division’s annual awards program is designed to recognize the extraordinary achievements of public lawyers and to inform the general public about the outstanding work performed and the positive impact made by our nation’s public lawyers. The 2012 Awards will be presented on August 3 at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting.

The deadline for nominations for the 2012 Awards is Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

The Dorsey Award honors an outstanding public defender or legal aid lawyer. The Award was named for the late Charles H. Dorsey, Jr., long-time Executive Director of Maryland’s Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. and a champion of the poor and underprivileged.

The Hodson Award recognizes sustained outstanding service or a specific extraordinary accomplishment by a government or public sector law office. (This is not an award for an individual). The award is named in honor of the distinguished public service career of the late Major General Kenneth J. Hodson, a former Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army.

The Nelson Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the ABA by an individual government or public sector lawyer. The Award was established as a tribute to the late L. Clair Nelson, who contributed his loyalty, time and extraordinary talent to the ABA.