By: Steve Grumm

In a Post article/interview, LSC President Jim Sandman laid out four goals for LSC’s immediate future as it confronts likely cuts in its congressional appropriation.  The goals:

1. Create an independent body to make fiscal operations more efficient;
2. Focus on getting services to hard-to-reach communities;
3. Prove legal aid is different;
4. Seek alternative revenue sources.

All of these make sense in light of the sure-to-be-difficult appropriations battle which lies ahead, as well as the current climate in which so many people and families who are eligible for legal assistance can not access legal services due to resource shortages.  It’s noteworthy that another LSC initiative (which did not make it into this Post piece) involves a re-invigoration of efforts to marshal pro bono resources.  I’m hopeful that this conversation will not be confined to getting private lawyers (and law students) to handle more pro bono cases, but will also include broader discussion of the private bar’s role as a steward of the justice system at a time when more and more Americans are disconnected from courts and other legal channels. 

As to goal #3 above – proving that legal aid is different: what Mr. Sandman is getting at is that in the funding battle on Capitol Hill, LSC will need to make itself stand apart from other federal programs that face funding cuts:

“We need to make our case that legal aid is important and is a critical component of access to justice,” Sandman said. “We need to distinguish ourselves from other programs subject to cuts. Why are we different? Every program is getting reduced. In an environment like that, the burden is on us to explain why … access to justice is different from other types of programs funded by the government because it has to do with who we are as a country. Hard times test values. And they’re not all the same. The first line of the Constitution mentions establishing justice as a core purpose of the national government. The framers mentioned establishing justice before providing for the common defense or ensuring domestic tranquility.”

by Kristen Pavón

Here’s a healthy dose of weird news to end your workweek.

Restaurants in Wisconsin are prohibited from selling margarine as a replacement to butter, and other strange laws.

Southern Alabama offering offenders two choices: jail and pay or go to church ever Sunday for a year.

Woman sued Nutella for false advertising — she was led to believe the chocolatey goodness was nutritious.

Second-degree misdemeanors for your fantasy football league?

Have a fun and safe weekend!

By: Steve Grumm

We’re a few days late to the party on this, but FYI, from the Minnesota Judicial Branch’s website:

The Minnesota Client Access, Barriers and Solutions Study (“MN-CABS Study”) was a joint project of the Minnesota State Bar Association, the Bremer Foundation, the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition and the Legal Services Advisory Committee.  The purpose of the MN-CABS Study was to identify specific groups of legal services-eligible clients around Minnesota, the barriers they face to obtaining legal services, and strategies for overcoming those barriers.  

This study was the first of its kind in Minnesota and in the country. Its innovative methodology – using direct surveys and focus groups of eligible clients, much of it conducted by staff from legal services and pro bono programs that have been trained by University of Minnesota researchers – provides a model of client-centered analysis that goes well beyond generic needs assessments.

The study was released on September 13, 2011 and is available at the following link:  Final MN-CABS Report

Founded in 1991, Pace Women’s Justice Center was the first academic legal center in the country devoted to training attorneys and others on domestic violence issues. The Center’s mission is to end abuse by providing innovative legal programs including direct legal representation for victims and survivors of domestic violence and elder abuse, training, community education and outreach, service coordination, and information and referrals.

Today, with a staff of 17 and over 6,700 hours contributed annually by pro-bono attorneys, volunteers, and law students, the Center provides direct legal services to over 2,800 victims and survivors of domestic violence and elder abuse each year.

PWJC is looking for a Pro Bono Coordinator who is committed to the Center’s mission and work. The Pro Bono Coordinator will work closely with the Executive Director, Deputy Director and the management team to coordinate the PWJC Pro Bono Project, including developing and overseeing both new and existing pro bono projects, building relationships and recruiting volunteers from law firms, in-house legal departments, and the community, as well as training, managing and supervising the volunteers and supervising substantive work.

If you’re interested in applying, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

If you don’t already know, National Pro Bono Week is October 23 to October 29. Lots of great educational events are planned across the country to celebrate efforts to meet the legal needs of our most vulnerable populations.

Have you decided what you’ll do during the Pro Bono celebration?

If not, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service has a comprehensive list of the events by state here.

Also, remember to join the national conversation on pro bono! Today’s question is: What suggestions do you have for law schools that would result in the graduation of students committed to access for all?

Here’s my response: First, law schools can offer more public interest-related courses, including poverty law, affordable housing and civil rights. Also, access to justice issues should be discussed and covered in every law school course, similar to requiring an international component to curricula. Additionally, law school career counselors should have specialized knowledge and training in public interest advising. Finally, law schools should make pro bono work a priority; students’ pro bono accomplishments should be widely promoted throughout the school and community.

Add your thoughts here!

Also, let us know below what you’ve got going on for Pro Bono Week.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Thanks for reading our weekly attempt to track goings-on in the business of public interest law – particularly developments that affect funding and employment – as well as news from the legal education world that impacts the way we train tomorrow’s public interest advocates.  If you are  also interested in keeping up with similar developments in the larger legal industry, check out NALP’s Industry News Weekly Digest.  Published every Friday morning, the digest is authored by NALP executive director Jim Leipold, one of the industry’s closest watchers, and a darned fine dresser (read: my boss). 

This week: some funding for a new Northeastern Law pro bono program; nonprofits bracing for impact from looming federal budget cuts; the University of Maryland’s law school also gets pro bono dollars; the 20^th century saw the dawn and significant evolution in public interest law practice; a new Chicago-area legal helpline for undocumented immigrants is fielding calls from across the nation; a California public defender seeks to undo county budget cuts (we suspect he’s not alone in this endeavor); from tragedy emerges a creative means to support a public defense program; the Dallas D.A.’s family violence unit faces a budgetary axe; and, significant changes to both the Massachusetts and Missouri public defense systems.

• 9.22.11 – good news for Northeastern Law students and Beantown micro-entrepreneuers.   According to the Boston Business Journal the law school “has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Commerce to set up a center at the school that will provide free legal services to local low-income or under-served entrepreneurs, the school said on Thursday.  The new center will focus on several emerging industries in Massachusetts including clean energy; green technologies; science and health technologies; and small and ethnically diverse businesses, according to Northeastern.”  One of the particularly nice things about these kinds of pro bono programs is that law students who participate will be able to develop transactional skills, which is not the norm with most pro bono opportunities.

• 9.21.11 – noting that the Legal Services Corporation’s congressional appropriation is on the chopping block, the Nonprofit Quarterly offers some broader perspective on how other nonprofit sectors which rely on federal dollars may fare in the FY12 budget process.  The picture’s not pretty.

• 9.20.11 – more good news on the law school pro bono funding front.  The National Law Journal reports that the University of Maryland’s law school received a $1 million grant from the Moser Family Philanthropic Fund to “establish the Moser Ethics in Action Endowment, which will fund projects and courses centered on ethics, pro bono and professionalism.”

• 9.19.11 – Chip Mellor of the libertarian Institute for Justice pens a Forbes.com piece looking at “Public Interest Law, Then and Now.”  In the early 20^th century both the NAACP and the ACLU “realized that without an effective and persistent courtroom presence, they would not be able to secure the rights and goals they sought. In the coming decades, their programs evolved and other organizations on both the left and the right launched their own public interest law efforts. As a result, the role of the courts and the nature of legal advocacy were transformed.”  As time passed, “public interest law came to involve more than just litigation. The tactics incorporated media relations and mobilization of the public. And it involved appearing in court representing a client and advocating a cause for the purpose of achieving larger social and legal goals.”

• 9.19.11 – from the Huffington Post: “The nation’s first 24-hour hotline for undocumented immigrants seeking information about deportation went live in Chicago Monday….  Created by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), the Deportation Family Support Hotline is run by volunteers. During the monthlong trial, 67 volunteers responded to 173 calls from across the country seeking advice about deportation law, the Chicago Tribune reports.”  We’re not sure, but it doesn’t appear that law students are engaged as hotline volunteers.  This seems like a great opportunity for student pro bono work, however.

• 9.19.11 – in California, Riverside County’s public defender is asking county officials to reconsider budget cuts put into place earlier this year.  From the Southwest Riverside News Network: “Riverside County Public Defender Gary Windom is expected to ask the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for $1.4 million to cover a gap in his office’s budget that, if not closed, will result in layoffs.”

• 9.19.11 – here’s a creative way to support a public defender program.  According to the Arizona Daily Star the widow of an attorney who was killed earlier this year has donated his wardrobe to the “Yuma Public Defender’s Office so destitute defendants can increase their chances of having a fair trial” by looking presentable during courtroom proceedings.

• 9.19.11 – some dark clouds looming over the Family Violence Unit in the Dallas D.A.’s office.  According to KERA, the unit “could take a hit when County Commissioners approve a new budget tomorrow. KERA’s BJ Austin says state grant money is running out, and the county can’t pick up the cost….  Officials with the District Attorney say the loss of [the unit’s three positions] will make prosecution of domestic violence cases much slower.”

• 9.17.11 – Significant changes in the Massachusetts indigent defense system are moving forward.  The Taunton Daily Gazette reports: “Leaders of the state’s public defender system will soon detail a plan to hire more staff attorneys to represent the poor and contract less of that work to about 3,000 private lawyers across Massachusetts.  The cost of defending low-income people came under the spotlight on Beacon Hill this year when Gov. Deval Patrick proposed hiring about 1,000 new state attorneys and ending the use of private attorneys altogether…..  Patrick ultimately signed a state budget that makes less ambitious reforms. It requires at least 25 percent of cases with indigent defendants to be handled by state attorneys by next July, up from about 10 percent now.  [An official with the state’s public defense administration] said the plan will likely require hiring 346 new full-time employees, including attorneys, support staff, social workers and investigators.”

• 9.16.11 – change is also afoot in the Show-me State’s indigent defense system.  From the Columbia Missourian:  “The Missouri State Public Defender Office has changed the way it contracts with and oversees private attorneys to reduce the wait time for indigent defendants who need an attorney and increase the monitoring of private attorneys who take cases…. It’s been 22 years since the public defender system had enough lawyers to handle the number of cases it received. The gap between capacity and caseload grew through the ’90s and “escalated dramatically” from 2000 to 2009,” according to Missouri Public Defender System director Cat Kelly.

by Kristen Pavón

Career Builder featured a great article outlining 8 tips to battle job-search fatigue. I definitely could have used this list a year ago! Job searching is a ridiculously daunting task and I know it can be difficult to keep your eye on the prize.

I’m going to highlight a few of their tips and add a few public-interest law related ones of my own (mainly things I used to get through the job search period while keeping my sanity).

1. Consider your job search a full-time job.

Yes, yes and yes. If you’re unemployed, job searching cannot be something you do randomly when the urge arises. Like lots of things in life, you’ll get out of job searching what you put in. The more time and effort you dedicate to landing a job, the more likely you’ll actually get one.

2. Explore how social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, a personal blog and LinkedIn, can help your job search.

You can use these platforms as methods to either meet prospective employers or showcase skills or past accomplishments.

3. Craft a formal plan.

This tip is critical. I had a pretty good method, if I do say so myself. I set up a color-coded spreadsheet with job titles, organizations, application instructions, location, contact information, deadlines and the date I applied. Jobs I needed to apply to were highlighted in green, jobs I had already applied to were highlighted in red, and jobs that didn’t work out (read: rejected!) were in gloomy gray.

4. Set tangible (realistic) goals.

Write down the number of jobs you will apply for each day. Write down the number of jobs you will add to your queue each day.

5. Volunteer.

I know searching for and applying to jobs 8 hours a day can suck the life out of you and even leave you feeling low on the self-esteem meter. So, schedule a specific chunk of time to search for jobs and leave some time to volunteer for your favorite legal services organization in the area.

This will not only get you out of the house, but it will also be a great bullet on your résumé and more likely than not, you’ll meet some interesting people that may lead you to a job!

6. Go out and meet people.

Look up your local bar association and check out their events calendar. Make it to next networking event, bring a stack of business cards, and get to work!

Feeling awkward about it? Keep in mind lawyers know how to network, they expect it and they want to introduce you to other lawyers who may be able to help you out.

Still not feeling it? Well, I’m a success story. I went to a networking event in the D.C. area for public interest attorneys and law students, and I met two people. I had a great chat with one over coffee a few weeks later, which led me to meet another attorney who I set up a volunteering schedule with before landing a job. The other attorney I met at the event is now my colleague at work. Networking works.

7. Set up PSLawNet alerts!

Ok, yes. This tip is a bit self-serving but I actually used these during law school and during my job search. Through PSLawNet, you can get daily or weekly emails with job opportunities that fit your customized criteria. It’s too easy not to use. Check it out at PSLawNet.

I hope these tips help you. You can read all of Career Builder’s tips here.

Do you have any other tips to overcome job-search fatigue? What do you do to keep your head in the game? Post your own tips below!

by Kristen Pavón

The Institute for Justice President and Forbes contributor Chip Mellor wrote a great piece about public interest law’s beginnings and the changes it has gone through over the last century.

In his article, Mellor notes that with the filing of the NAACP’s first amicus brief in 1914, the era of public interest law began. He mentions that early public interest advocacy “arose around a particular conflict and not as part of a sustained, multifaceted litigation campaign,” but then says that that changed when the NAACP launched a campaign with the goal of ending racial segregation in the 1930s.

After that, public interest law was not just litigation. It was litigation-plus. It involved media relations and public mobilization for larger social and legal goals.

Very, very interesting article — I had no idea about the history of public interest law! It’s a quick read, check it out here.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida (ACLU), a statewide affiliate of the National ACLU, is seeking a Staff Attorney specializing in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and HIV/AIDS related issues.

The staff attorney may be involved in the broad range of ACLU and civil liberties issues. However, the staff attorney will be expected to work primarily on civil rights issues on behalf of LGBT individuals and families.

The attorney will likely be located in the affiliate’s main office in Miami, although placement in one of the ACLU FL’s Regional Offices (Tampa, Pensacola, or Jacksonville) may be considered.

Interested in working with ACLU? Check out the whole listing and find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

In addition to our database of more than 13,000 public service employer profiles (yes, you read that right — 13,000!) and almost 1,000 legal opportunities, the PSLawNet website has some great resources about anything from interviewing tips for public interest jobs, guides on landing jobs with international organizations to how to get and save money while working in the public interest field.

Here are a few other useful links you can find on our website:

• Post-grad fellowships Q&A
• Info about working on Capitol Hill 
• Almost anything you ever wanted to know about becoming a Public Defender

If there’s something public service career-related you’re interested in finding out about — leave us a comment below and we’ll see if we can help you out!

We’re always looking to update our resources and add new information that you want to learn about — so, let us know.