By: Steve Grumm

The Boston Globe has a nice exit interview of sorts with Bob Sable, the executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, who’s retiring after decades of service, helping those on society’s margins find meaningful access to justice.  Some notable, and candid, quotes:

Q. What inspired you to go into legal aid?

A. This was the time of the War on Poverty, and what inspired me was the notion that lawyers could do for the poor what they had always done for the well-to-do. The guiding light of my career has been to use the law and legal tools to help people get out of poverty.

Q. What progress have you seen over 20 years, or has there been regression?

A. That’s a very tough question. The notion that government could deal arbitrarily with poor people was in retreat, but now we’ve seen a lot of setbacks. If you look at the ultimate question — Is the poverty rate lower now than it was? — the changes have been very marginal.

…

Q. You obviously don’t get rich at a job like this.

A. Our starting salaries are in the mid-40s, and associates in big law firms are earning $160,000. So there’s a huge gap. And on top of that the student loan burden is so great. I have a lot of admiration for young lawyers who are sticking with it.

By Lauren Forbes

US ARMY AVIATION AND MISSILE COMMAND LEGAL OFFICE, GENERAL LAW DIVISION REDSTONE ARSENAL 35898

Civilian employees serve a vital role in supporting the Army mission. They provide the skills that are not readily available in the military, but crucial to support military operations. The Army integrates the talents and skills of its military and civilian members to form a Total Army.

The AMCOM Legal Office provides comprehensive legal advice and support to assure the accomplishment of the Army’s aviation and missile systems’ acquisition mission and to the Redstone Arsenal Garrison.

This announcement requires completion of a questionnaire which will be sent to you after your application package is received. As the questionnaire is part of a complete application package, failure to complete it may result in non-consideration for this position.

Duties:

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers!  To begin with shameless self-promotion: if you’re inclined to use the Twitters, please follow us at @PSLawNet.  We tweet all of our blog posts along with pieces of timely public interest career and funding news.  And we don’t tweet immodest photos of ourselves.

Also, I apologize for publishing the Bulletin a few minutes late this morning.  The Philadelphia Phillies kept me up until 12:30am last night, only to fall apart on defense, surrendering to the lowly Cubs of Chicago in extra innings.  And now I’ll have to hear about it from the Chicago Bar Foundation folks, which is even worse.

This week we present a Bulletin rich with funding news, although certainly not all of this news speaks to the riches of public interest funding: good news for Lone Star State legal services and indigent defense advocates; but in the Bay State, elected officials may still need some prodding; Have Justice Will Travel urgently needs money to keep moving; in Jacksonville, FL, the city council may boost legal services funding in the wake of state gov’t. stinginess; Legal Services of New Jersey sure could use a funding boost, too; the DOJ’s AtJ program has a new chief; and speaking of DOJ, some advice on becoming an AUSA.

• 6.9.11 – some terrific news out of Texas.  After a legislative roller coaster ride, the state house and senate are in agreement on funding both civil legal services and indigent defense.   From the Tex Parte blog: “Representatives approved an amendment on a general appropriations bill that would add $17.6 million over the biennium for indigent civil legal aid, as well as $7.6 million for indigent criminal defense.”  There had been some back-and-forth on the senate side, too, but that chamber ultimately came through with funding.  “[Now], the House and Senate versions include the same language about indigent legal aid funding. If the bill moves to conference committee, lawmakers would only focus on smoothing out differences.”

• 6.7.11 – in the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Massachusetts, corporate counsel heavy-hitter and Greater Boston Legal Services board member Thomas Gunning pens an op-ed highlighting the importance of adequately funding civil legal services.   After noting some of GBLS’s most important, recent work in helping low-income clients, Gunning looks at the precarious state of funding:  “The need for services is way up in our tough economy and funding is way down.  While private lawyers give millions in support each year, a large portion of budgets come from state funding and interest earned on money held in short-term escrow accounts… For fiscal year 2010, the state cut the legal aid budget by $1.5 million from $11 million to $9.5 million.  At the same time, [IOLTA funding is down].  So with need at record levels, legal aid organizations have been forced to lay off lawyers and staff. They must turn away many more eligible clients than they can represent resulting in denied justice and avoidable social service costs…. After the painful 2010 cuts, the governor and Legislature ‘level funded’ legal aid in 2011 at the reduced amount. The governor’s fiscal year 2012 submitted budget also proposes level funding and the Legislature has shown signs of doing the same. We should certainly hope the final 2012 state budget level funds legal aid so that those in need have access to justice, and we can protect our social service spending from avoidable additional costs.”

• 6.7.11 – a piece in Vermont’s Bennington Banner looks at the work, and financial woes, of Have Justice Will Travel, a thinly staffed organization that provides legal services to domestic violence victims.  Times are very tough indeed on the finance front.  A reduction in a DOJ grant forced the closure of an office, and this summer most of HJWT’s staff are being asked to take a (hopefully) temporary layoff.  The organization is presently scrambling to cobble together more grant funding.

• 6.7.11 – the Daily Record reports that some of the funding cuts that Jacksonville Area Legal Aid will suffer as a result of the Florida governor’s civil legal services funding veto may be offset by Jacksonville City Council: “City Council member Kevin Hyde introduced bill 2010-766 to establish a $40 court fee on felonies, misdemeanors and criminal traffic infractions to provide assistance for foreclosure programs for the disadvantaged through JALA.  An amendment to the original ordinance requested the fee be increased to $50 because of recent budget cuts for JALA at the state level.”

• 6.7.11 – a piece on MyCentralJersey.com looks closely at the dire funding situation of Legal Services of New Jersey: “[LSNJ President Melville D. Miller, Jr.] said that during the past three years, Legal Services of New Jersey has lost a third of its staff and a third of its funding — going from $72 million to $46 million in operating revenue as its staff fell from 720 to 490 attorneys with another 75 advocate set to be lost this year.  Meanwhile, Miller said, poverty in New Jersey has spiked by 8.4 percent over the last year.”  The article also looks at the efforts of Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes, III and other to restore some state funding, and to shore it up in both the shorter and longer term.

• 6.2.11 – there’s a new sheriff in town at the DOJ’s access to justice office.  Main Justice reports: “About six months after the departure of Laurence Tribe as Senior Counselor of the Justice Department Access to Justice Initiative, his successor is in place.  Mark Childress on Thursday was sworn in as the leader of the program that focuses on access to legal services for the poor.  He most recently was the acting General Counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services.”  Childress has a fairly varied resume, including a stint as a partner at Foley Hoag, some high-level staff work in the White House and on the Hill, and even some work with an aboriginal business development entity in Australia.

• June, 2011 – a former Assistant U.S. Attorney contributes a piece to this month’s edition of the ABA’s Young Lawyer, explaining how one may land one of these coveted, federal positions: “Assistant U.S. Attorneys…are experienced trial attorneys who come from a variety of backgrounds, including both the public and private sectors, as well as the military. Generally, the attorneys have five to seven years of litigation experience before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While many aspects of a particular applicant are considered, trial experience is the most significant requirement. A strong working knowledge of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is important.”

Staff Attorney for Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center.  Law degree from accredited school of law, admission to Mississippi State Bar or eligible for admission. Experience in housing and/or civil rights. Salary commensurate with experience.  Log on to www.makeitfair.com for more info.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Perform and/or manage functions related to the provision of client services: intake; investigation; counseling; conciliation; referral to attorney or enforcement agency; follow-up after referral;
• Maintains full and accurate case files for legal proceedings and help maintain database for grant reporting;
• Develop and implement the Fair Housing Center of the Gulf Coast’s intake and testing goals and plans;
• Represent Fair Housing Center of the Gulf Coast at fair housing meetings;
• Track and support relevant legislation and laws;
• Analyze and evaluate complaints in reference to state and federal statutes and case law;
• Keep staff abreast of changes to fair housing laws;
• Provide training to staff to ensure maximum efficiency and accuracy of work; Cross-training opportunities within the department or agency are exercised to promote teamwork and provide necessary back-up for each position;
• Develop and maintain networking relationships within the community;
• Safeguard clients’ security and confidentiality;
• Work as a team and support the mission and goals of the agency and programs;
• Provide accurate and complete information for grant reporting and management;
• Coordinate substantive fair housing audits and studies;
• Recruit and mange the cooperating attorney panel; and
• Other duties as assigned.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

By Lauren Forbes

Happy Thursday! It is time for the weekly roundup of some of our favorite posts from the public interest blogosphere. With no further ado…

• 6.9.11 SCOTUS to Rule on Right to Counsel in Collateral Proceedings. Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog includes a piece on the Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case that will test how firm the distinction between  a right to counsel at the first level of direct appeal and the right to counsel at collateral post-conviction proceedings.
  
• 6.8.11 The Povery Law Blog discusses Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Robert A. Moffitt, and John Karl Scholz’s NBER Working Paper, An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States.  In  which direction does the  U.S. benefit system tilt?
  
• 6.6.11 DC budget and safety net programs cut, but not eliminated. Some of the hardest-hit social safety net programs, TANF,  homeless services, and Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) were restored or preserved.
• 6.6.11 Heather Jarvis tells us five ways IBR beats ICR.  Important bottom line: monthly payments are typically higher under income-contingent repayment than under income-based repayment.
• 6.6.11 Technola’s timely post about igniting your community referenced  last week’s Legal Services NTAP (National Technology Assistance Project) post.  Ideas include TED, CommonCraft, and others.
• 6.3.11 Partnering to aid our nation’s veterans, a piece in the Equal Justice Works Blog. Public Counsel has partnered with the Southern California Salvation Army to help provide legal services to hundreds of homeless veterans and their families in the Los Angeles area. The blog also highlight’s The Salvation Army‘s piece on how legal help is often the missing piece in a veteran’s recovery.

By: Steve Grumm

On the libertarian-leaning Reason website, Bruce Western, a professor of sociology and director of the Program in Inequality and Social Policy at Harvard University, looks at some of the longer-term, negative effects of imprisonment:

Do prisons make us safer? By taking would-be offenders off the streets, prisons clearly have reduced crime in the short run. In the long run, though, imprisonment erodes the bonds of work, family, and community that help preserve public safety.

[Tip of cap to Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish blog.]

By Lauren Forbes

The United States Attorney’s Office prosecutes federal criminal offenses, litigates affirmative civil fraud and enforcement actions, and defends the U.S. Government’s interest in civil cases. The United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, is located in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to the main office in downtown Atlanta, we maintain three intermittently staffed offices located in Rome, Newnan and Gainesville. More information about the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan/.

Due to budget constraints, we are only accepting applications from lawyers who are already employed by U.S. Attorney’s Offices.

The Northern District of Georgia is currently seeking applicants for Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) vacancies in our Criminal Division. Selected AUSAs may be assigned to any of the three sections described below:

• Economic Crimes focuses on mortgage and bank fraud, securities and corporate crime, government and procurement fraud, health care fraud, tax offenses, computer-related and intellectual property crimes, and other complex cases.
• Major Crimes focuses on cases involving violent street gangs, sexual exploitation of children, human trafficking, civil rights violations, kidnaping, armed robbery, illegal alien status offenses, firearms offenses, national security cases, and other complex cases.
• Narcotics/OCDETF focuses on complex international and organizational drug cases and money laundering and financial offenses, and related immigration offenses, many of which involve Title III and other electronic surveillance.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

Some news affecting legal Wolverines:

My career planning office is now a one-stop shop.

A beefed-up and retooled Office of Career Planning debuted this week with the aim of helping Michigan Law grads become even more marketable to employers than they already are—which, based on the office’s existing strengths, is no easy task.

The most dramatic change in the new office—which will be known formally as the Office of Career Planning for the Public, Private, and Nonprofit Sectors—is the merging of the Office of Public Service and Office of Career Services. The new entity will be led by assistant dean Susan Guindi, a 1990 Michigan Law grad who began her career at the law school in 1995, as the first associate director in the Office of Public Service, before being selected to lead the Office of Career Services in 1998. Her own path—which includes two clerkships and private practice at a large D.C. firm—equips her well for carrying out one of the missions of the new office: allowing students to more seamlessly explore opportunities in a variety of practice areas.

But the key motive for reorganizing the office, Guindi said, was the actual course of most students’ and graduates’ professional lives.

“In studying the careers of our students and alumni, we’ve learned that most enjoy a combination of opportunities across public, private, and nonprofit sectors,” said Guindi. “It makes sense to structure the office to mirror that fact.”

By: Steve Grumm

The ABA’s Young Lawyer reecently ran a piece from a former Assistant United States Attorney on how to get AUSA jobs:

Assistant U.S. Attorneys (i.e., those attorneys managed by the U.S. Attorney for that district) are experienced trial attorneys who come from a variety of backgrounds, including both the public and private sectors, as well as the military. Generally, the attorneys have five to seven years of litigation experience before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While many aspects of a particular applicant are considered, trial experience is the most significant requirement. A strong working knowledge of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is important. An ability to master the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is a must. If your current practice area does not allow you much time in court, seeking out criminal pro bono appointments is a great way to supplement your skill set.

In addition to trial work, being well versed at the appellate level is also an asset. Many AUSAs handle their own appeals to the various U.S. Courts of Appeals. This requires experience with both written and oral advocacy, which is often very different from trial work.

By Lauren Forbes

Apologies for the alliteration here, but the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center (MFHC) is seeking a full-time Staff Attorney.  MFHC is a private non-profit fair housing organization that serves Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester Counties. Established in 1989, MFHC is the oldest fair housing agency in Massachusetts. Its mission is to enforce civil rights laws in housing, provide education and community outreach on fair housing issues, and work toward equal housing opportunities for all people.

Responsibilities:

• Represent victims of housing discrimination by investigating, developing and litigating fair housing cases before administrative agencies and in federal and state court;
• Represent victims of unfair home lending practices by analyzing, investigating and advocating for distressed homeowners facing foreclosure;
• Supervise fair housing testing activities;
• Supervise law students, interns and volunteers;
• Conduct fair housing/fair lending educational workshops and seminars in a variety of settings;
• Maintain full and accurate case files and assist in maintaining data base for grant reporting;
• Assist with other projects as assigned.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).