Would You Hand Over Your Facebook Password to Prospective Employers?

March 8, 2012 at 3:59 pm · Filed under Career Resources, News and Developments

by Kristen Pavón

Yesterday, Forbes staff writer Kashmir Hill posted an interesting article on schools and prospective employers requiring students/prospective employees to fork over their Facebook passwords.

Here’s a snippet:

. . . The ACLU announced that it is helping a Minnesota high school student sue Minnewaska Area Schools after school officials forced her to hand over her Facebook password so that they could search her private messages for an alleged conversation with another student about S-E-X. Because the school is a public institution, the ACLU alleges this violated the student’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches. Meanwhile, MSNBC reports on prospective prison guards in Maryland being forced to hand over their Facebook passwords during job interviews and college athletes who are forced to friend their coaches on the social network. The Maryland Department of Corrections wanted to check applicants’ pages for any signs that they’re affiliated with a gang, while coaches want to make sure athletes are behaving (and not violating any NCAA rules).

I asked our Twitter followers if they’d be willing to give their Facebook passwords to prospective employers. My guess is that no, you guys are not willing to give prospective employers that kind of behind-the-scenes action.

Well, read on, readers.

Those of you offended by the idea of a prospective employer simply looking at your public-facing Facebook page must now be curled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth, and crying at the horror of it all. In fact, says privacy attorney Behnam Dayanim of Axinn Veltrop Harkrider, there is no legal protection for you, at this point, if an employer asks for your Facebook password during a job interview. You can (and you should!) say no, but private employers have the right to ask for it and can choose not to hire you if you refuse.

“Legally, the employer has a strong position. You can say no, but there’s no element of duress there. If you don’t get the job, you’re no worse off than you were before,” says Dayanim. “That said, as a policy matter for the employers, I think it’s a bad idea.”

You can read Hill’s article in its entirety here.

Anyone else oh-em-gee-ing over this? So, what are your thoughts? Would you comply with an employer’s request for your password?

Luckily, I don’t have a personal Facebook page. I am a reformed Facebook obsessionista — I quit the social networking site back in 2009 because the level of over-sharing became intolerable and more than ever, I’m glad I did.

How many of you have thought about dropping off the Facebook grid?

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Job o' the Day: Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Arizona!

March 8, 2012 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Public Interest Jobs

The ACLU of Arizona and its Foundation operate jointly as private, non-profit organizations devoted to protecting civil rights and civil liberties. To achieve our mission, we litigate a broad range of constitutional cases in federal and state court on issues including, immigrants’ rights, racial profiling, police misconduct, prisoners’ rights, free speech, religious freedom, education, juvenile justice, and reproductive freedom. We also engage in legislative lobbying and public education to advance civil liberties principles statewide.

Under the direction of the Legal Director, the Staff Attorney will litigate cases and participate in non-litigation advocacy to advance civil liberties in Arizona. The Staff Attorney’s responsibilities include serving as lead and co-counsel on a variety of civil liberties cases; working in conjunction with National ACLU lawyers; investigating, developing and litigating cases at the trial and appellate level in federal and state courts.

The Staff Attorney also has non-litigation advocacy responsibilities, including: public speaking, media interviews, outreach and “know your rights” presentations, and writing op-eds, newsletter articles and reports. The Staff Attorney will work with the ACLU Foundation of Arizona Legal Panel and assist with recruiting and working successfully with cooperating attorneys.

Learn how to apply at PSLawNet!

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Women's Reproductive Rights: The Confusion Over Contraceptives

March 8, 2012 at 10:56 am · Filed under News and Developments

 

by Kristen Pavón

Happy International Women’s Day!

This year’s UN theme for International Women’s Day is Empower Women – End Hunger and Poverty, but really, it should be Empower Women…to Talk About Our Reproductive Health & Policy here in the U.S.

Yesterday, Virginia’s Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a law requiring abdominal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, which will become mandatory starting on July 1.

Last week, conservative talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh attacked a Georgetown law student for her opinions on women’s reproductive rights expressed at a congressional hearing. Limbaugh singled out another “overeducated” woman on his show yesterday (seriously, he called her overeducated).

What’s going on???

And today, Huffington Post contributor Doug Bandow had this to add:

Law school is typically a time of financial stringency. I know, since I also attended law school (though many years ago). I drove a 1966 Corvair, rented a room in a private home, and worked part-time. I don’t remember the cost of contraception being a major issue then, but if it had been I wouldn’t have expected “society” to pay for it.

Obviously Sandra Fluke lives in a different world. As, unfortunately, does President Barack Obama.

It should be obvious that, as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman was fond of observing, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Whether the pill, IUDs, condoms, or other, contraceptives must be developed, manufactured, and distributed. Someone has to cover that cost. Since contraceptives make sex easier for those who don’t want babies, one normally would expect that those who want to have sex to pay for them. After all, you get the personal pleasure of the act. Your wallet — and that of your partner — should get stuck with the corresponding financial pain.

Nor does calling contraception “preventive care” make it so. Sex is a great thing. But even 20- and 30-somethings, like Ms. Fluke, can survive without it. (Shock, horror, disbelief, I know, but still true!) What is more “essential” — getting a mammogram, colonoscopy, or chemotherapy, having bypass surgery or trauma care, or … making sure you can have a good time essentially without risk (at least of an unwanted pregnancy)? If you answered the latter on my final exam, you would earn an “F.”

Contraception also isn’t what is normally thought of as an insurable “event.” The purpose of insurance is to guard against the small chance of a big loss. You get insurance to cover the cost of treating a deadly disease or responding to a life-threatening accident, not to pay for bandages to cover a small cut or aspirin to ameliorate a headache. It especially makes no sense to insure against an event which you control — like how often you have sex, and therefore how often you use contraception. Imagine auto “insurance” which covered the cost of every gas fill-up. . . .

Sandra Fluke apparently wants to have sex freely and without risk. That’s hardly a surprise, and she’s certainly not alone in that desire. But it is still no reason to conscript the rest of us to pay.

You can read the rest of his diatribe here.

…..andddd discuss.

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Maryland Senator Takes New Approach against Maryland Law's Environmental Law Clinic

March 7, 2012 at 3:15 pm · Filed under News and Developments

From the National Law Journal:

The political wrangling over a University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law clinic’s involvement in environmental litigation against a local chicken farm does not appear to be settling down.

State Sen. Richard Colburn has proposed a budget amendment that would pit the state’s two public law schools against each other, transferring $500,000 from the University of Maryland, which houses an environmental law clinic that has angered some Republican lawmakers, to the University of Baltimore School of Law, to start a law clinic that would represent farmers.

Colburn and state leaders including Gov. Martin O’Malley have spoken out against the environmental law clinic for representing plaintiffs in a pollution lawsuit against a local chicken farm that supplies Perdue Farms Inc. They contend that publicly funded law clinics should not file suits that hurt state businesses.

The agricultural law clinic at Baltimore would be “dedicated to assisting farmers in the state with estates and trusts issues, compliance with environmental laws and other matters necessary to preserve family farms,” the proposed amendment reads.

If the University of Baltimore chose not to establish the clinic, the $500,000 would not revert to the University of Maryland. Instead, it would go to the state’s general fund.

Read more here.

Thoughts?

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Job o' the Day: Legislative/Policy Clerk at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia!

March 7, 2012 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Public Interest Jobs

The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) provides and promotes quality legal representation to indigent adults and children facing a loss of liberty in the District of Columbia and thereby protects society’s interest in the fair administration of justice. PDS is regarded as one of the best public defender offices in the country—local or federal. It is the benchmark by which other public defender systems often measure themselves.

The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) seeks a talented law student to serve as a legislative/policy clerk for the summer of 2012.

The clerk will report to both the Special Counsel to the Director (Legislation) as well as to the General Counsel, and will conduct complex legal research and writing on both legal, policy and legislative issues.

 

To learn more, see the listing at PSLawNet!

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Does Private Firm Work Do More Good Than Public Interest Work?

March 7, 2012 at 11:20 am · Filed under Legal Education

by Kristen Pavón

First, some background — this year, Harvard Law re-established their One Day’s Work fellowship program. Students who enter the private sector after their second year of law school volunteer to donate one day’s worth of their summer salary and the money collected goes to one of their classmates entering the public sector upon graduation.

Some students like the program, others don’t like the way it’s funded… But one student thinks it’s “the best possible way to fund an unworthy cause.”

From The Record at Harvard Law:

Kudos to One Day’s Work for being up-front and honest with their request for charity.  The only problem is that the purpose of One Day’s Work is highly suspect.

A brief note on the provision of legal services.  Imagine a law student named Ames Greenleaf.  He works as a summer associate at a private firm and makes quite a hefty haul.  He spends his days that summer writing research papers on civil procedure esoterica to help, say, a can manufacturer get out of a suit.  His efforts raise the probability that the can manufacturer survives the suit and can continue employing dozens of workers who would otherwise end up indigent.

Now, imagine a law student named Barry Chosenone.  He works at a public interest firm that files copyright paperwork for indigent NEA-grant artists.  One such artist gets his copyright and airs to the world his passionate magnum opus “Piss Christ.”  Barry loves this work, but he is worried because it does not pay well enough to support an uptown New York lifestyle.

Which of those two students has done more to help the community?  Who can honestly claim that Barry deserves Ames’s money?  Baldly, public interest work is more emotionally rewarding because it involves directly helping people, a fact which leads many good-hearted people to choose public interest vocations.  Private firm work does more ultimate good, however.  The clients pay more because they ultimately provide more benefit for their communities than individual down-on-their-luck litigants.

Personally, I don’t want to pay an extra couple hundred dollars to incentivize my fellow students to get a legal job at the Department of Health and Human Services that will be paid for with the tax money I already have to pay to the government anyway. . . .

Anddddd, discuss.

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U. of Wisconsin Law School to Ramp Up Pro Bono Programs with New Funding

March 7, 2012 at 9:10 am · Filed under Career Resources, Legal Education, News and Developments

By: Steve Grumm

The University of Wisconsin Law School’s pro bono progams will be bolstered by two grants from the state bar association’s Legal Assistance Committee.  A report from the state bar:

The State Bar Legal Assistance Committee has awarded Pro Bono Initiative grants to Dane County Veterans Legal Clinic to start a free legal clinic and to the U.W. Law School to recruit law students to work on pro bono matters.

The Dane County Veterans Legal Clinic received a grant to start a new free legal clinic for veterans in the Dane County area. The project is administered by the U.W. Law School’s pro bono program and is a collaborative effort with initial support from the Dane County Veterans Service Office, the State Bar of Wisconsin pro bono program, representatives from the Wm. S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, and the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior Program. Volunteer attorneys and law students will staff the clinic at the local veterans service office in Madison. The project is modeled on a similar effort in Milwaukee. The clinic aims to launch by Veterans Day, Nov. 12, 2012.

The U.W. Law School received a grant to help launch its new Pro Bono Society. With the assistance of the law school’s new pro bono coordinator and an Americorps VISTA coordinator, the law school is implementing an ambitious effort to recruit and recognize law student pro bono efforts. The program recruits volunteer attorneys to work with law students on pro bono matters. Additional special events will be organized throughout the school year to engage more law students in pro bono service. Students completing 50 hours of pro bono legal services during law school will be inducted into the Pro Bono Society and receive special recognition at graduation.

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Pardon This! Idea for Unique Law School Clinic to Focus on Executive Pardon Power

March 6, 2012 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Legal Education, News and Developments

By: Steve Grumm

From the Washington Post:

For years, lawyers, faith-based groups and students have helped file petitions for inmates seeking to cut short lengthy prison sentences. But there have been no comparable resources for felons who sought pardons after serving their time.That may soon change. In response to stories published in December by ProPublica and The Washington Post, former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich (R) plans to launch the nation’s first law school clinic and training program devoted to pardons.

…

Ehrlich said he intends to contribute to the program and raise funds for it. He is working to find it a home, looking at Georgetown law school and George Washington University, as well as other institutions in the Washington area.

…

Ehrlich’s proposal is modeled in part after the country’s only law school clinic for commutations, started a year ago at the University of St. Thomas law school in Minneapolis. The commutations program is run by Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor who has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court.

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Landing the Job: A Few Resume Tips From Legal Recruiters

March 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm · Filed under Career Resources

by Kristen Pavón

This morning, I listened to a pretty informative ABA Journal podcast on “How to Craft a Resume that Recruiters Will Love.” While the recruiters focused on resumes for private law firms positions, some of the speakers’ advice also applies to public interest resumes.

  1. Objectives are out — if you’re a senior lawyer, try a summary instead.
  2. Including your hobbies and interests is a personal choice. Depending on what you include, it may help build rapport or it could hurt you.
  3. Don’t use pronouns.
  4. High school is ancient history — leave it off.
  5. If your GPA is 3.0 or above, put it on your resume. (*I’m undecided on this one…)

The podcast speakers — legal recruiters — emphasized that lawyers are snooty and snobby about education (her words, not mine) and because of that, if you leave your GPA off your resume, employers will assume that it’s below a 3.0. Is this true? Is this true in the public interest world?

You can listen to the 25-minute podcast or read the transcript here.

Thoughts?

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Job o' the Day: Election Complaints Legal Fellow at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in DC!

March 6, 2012 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Public Interest Jobs

Under the Election Law Reform project, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, is conducting research and will create a publication to assist practitioners in their global electoral law reform efforts, with a specific focus on investigating and prosecuting election offenses.

The Election Complaints Legal Fellow will provide the following support to the Election Law Reform project:

  • Provide legal research, writing, and editing support to the Election Law Reform project, including research assistance for specialists/ expert writers;
  • Conduct comparative research and draft summaries regarding country specific approaches to remedies for election offenses;
  • Assist in managing expert writers, their related contracts and deliverables;
  • Maintain research project files and records; and
  • Perform other duties as assigned.

Interested? Check out the listing at PSLawNet!

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