Fifty years ago today on May 4, 1961, the first bus of Freedom Riders, carrying 13 people — both black and white — set out from Washington, D.C. for New Orleans.  These men and women took to America’s interstate buses to challenge the racial segregation that had become institutionalized in so much of the South.

To remember this day, the Job o’ the Day features an opportunity with The Southern Poverty Law Center.  The Center’s mission is the advancement and protection of the rights of minorities, the poor, and victims of injustice in significant civil rights and social justice matters.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit legal and educational organization, seeks an attorney/law fellow to join its staff to focus on the educational rights of children, with a focus on immigrant or limited English proficient (LEP) children in the South. This is a new position and will be based in Montgomery, Alabama.

The attorney will be expected to develop and handle cases related to education, particularly related to the rights of immigrant and LEP children and their families in schools throughout the South. Substantial travel may be required.

The attorney will be expected to develop and handle cases related to education, particularly related to the rights of immigrant and LEP children and their families in schools throughout the South.  Substantial travel may be required.   This position provides the chance to help develop a new area of advocacy for the Center, focusing on equal educational opportunities and language access for immigrant and LEP students. The Southern Poverty Law Center is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from people of racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds that are underrepresented in legal professions, immigrants, women, lesbian, gay, and transgendered people, and people with disabilities.

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

Summer is approaching quickly, and folks here at the PSLawNet Blog cannot wait! For many of us, summertime = summer job or internship!

A couple of weeks ago, the PSLawNet Blog highlighted some tips to maximize your summer public interest experience.  As we’re all aware, a public interest experience offers a glimpse  into how  public interest and pro bono attorneys use the law as an instrument of social justice.  A summer experience also allows one to cultivate practical skills that are useful in any number of settings.

Here are some more tips from the experts:

Network, Network, Network.

• Networking ≠ Schmoozing

Even though many of you might equate networking with schmoozing, they aren’t the same thing.  Networking is simply building relationships, and even friendships, among the folks you work with.  It is an extraordinarily valuable tool.   In all honesty, many professionals in the law world would admit that their professional networks are their most valuable professional asset.

• Express a Genuine Interest in Someone 

We realize that it can be intimidating to approach someone and ask he or she to have a cup of coffee with you.  But most public interest lawyers are very receptive to making new contacts, and to helping law students.  Our advice is simply to show a genuine interest in the person you’d like to meet – or the work they do – and go from there.  In the long term, it’s one of the best time investments that you can make.

Plan your exit strategy and stay in touch!

• Identify Loose Ends before Last Week

Be sure to accurately check the status of any of your projects and make sure you’re aware of the right point person to update.  Often, a memo on the status of all that you’ve worked on is a helpful tool for your supervisor and successors.  It’s likely a good idea to start the memo with case or project summaries before your last week, so that you do not leave anything out!

• Keep in Touch!

When folks at your summer job tell you to keep in touch, they are sincere. Harkening back to our point about professional networks, keeping in touch is an excellent way to allow everyone to stay abreast about what you’re up to and where they’re at. You would not want to miss an opportunity perfectly tailored to you because you didn’t make the call or send the email.

Smile, Share & Laugh!

• Take Stress in Stride

Remind yourself that it is summer, after all. Regardless of your experience, no supervisor expects you to be stressed out all the time. Aim to be efficient while you’re at work, but remember that work-life balance is a healthful thing. 

• Share Laughs, Not Just Work!

While we’d warn against inappropriate office gossip and venting to co-workers, be sure to get to know your colleagues. Knowing more about them–and allowing them to know you–will be helpful both personally and professionally. In most offices with which we’re familiar, a good sense of humor goes a long way.

Seton Hall University School of Law is seeking applications for a Practitioner-in-Residence for the Urban Revitalization Project within its Center for Social Justice from July 2011 to July 2012 with the expectation of renewal of the position for one additional year, dependent on grant funding and performance.

The Practitioner-in-Residence will take a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing issues of urban revitalization, with an emphasis on housing and education, and will work in collaboration with faculty in two sections of the Civil Litigation Clinic of the Center for Social Justice, led by Professors Linda Fisher and Shavar Jeffries.  The Civil Litigation Clinic represents clients in cases addressing foreclosure scams, housing discrimination, and public education reform.  Examples of cases/projects undertaken by the Project include representing homeowners against foreclosure rescue scams, representing tenants in a housing conditions case for appointment of a rent receiver to manage their building, challenges to municipalities’ affordable housing plans, and advocacy for an equal education for all children in New Jersey.  The Practitioner-in-Residence litigates cases, undertakes community education, and generally advocates on urban issues.

All applicants must be members of a state Bar; New Jersey bar membership is preferred but not required.  All applicants should have a strong academic record, an ability to be proactive and work independently, and excellent written and oral communication skills.  We welcome applications from those with at least 5 years of experience working in one or more of the areas of concentration of the Urban Revitalization Project.  This is not a tenure-track position and cannot be converted to a tenure-track line.

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

Only a few U.S. law schools – like CharlotteLaw – require pro bono work. Often, current students enter law school with a history of service. They did it in high school and college, and they believe in public service.  This week, The Charlotte Observer featured CharlotteLaw’s pro bono program.

It is not a secret that across the country, lawyers for low-income people are in short supply, so pro bono opportunities like the ones CharlotteLaw provides for students are extremely timely.

A 2009 “justice gap” report by the federal Legal Services Corporation shows that 80 percent of low-income people who need legal help can’t get it.

That’s why the American Bar Association requires that all law schools provide some mechanism for pro bono work for students, said Sylvia Novinsky, assistant dean for public service at the UNC Chapel Hill Law School.

“It’s really also a great way to gain some practical skills.”

Pro bono at CharlotteLaw is one of three pillars in the school’s mission statement.  Serving the underserved is an oft-repeated ideal taken seriously at CharlotteLaw, the only law school in the state that requires students to complete pro bono work to graduate.

For five days over spring break, 16 CharlotteLaw students traveled to Biloxi, Miss., to help attorneys at the nonprofit Mississippi Center for Justice, still advocating for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and last year’s BP oil spill.

The students, supervised by Lew and MCJ attorneys, worked on a study on fair housing, explored access to healthy and affordable food. They also worked with residents on the controversial closing of a historically black elementary school. And the BP oil spill.

The Domestic Law Project of Safe Horizon is seeking to hire a Staff Attorney. The Staff Attorney, using complete autonomy and independence, provides legal representation to domestic violence victims in family offense, custody, visitation and child support cases in Family Court.

Safe Horizon is the largest victims’ services agency in the United States, with 57 locations serving more than 250,000 children, adults, and families affected by crime and abuse throughout New York City each year.  The Staff Attorney, using complete autonomy and independence, provides legal representation to domestic violence victims in family offense, custody, visitation and child support cases in Family Court.  Candidate must have a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from an accredited law school, be admitted to the New York State Bar and have 2 to 4 years of related experience.

The good news for new graduates?

New graduates who have completed an approved fellowship may be considered. Candidate must also have prior experience in and/or thorough knowledge of family law, crisis intervention, criminal justice system, working with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, family violence, poverty law, feminist law and/ social justice work.

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

This week: what started as law student project to aid Iraqi refugees has evolved into a shiny new nonprofit organization; LSC cuts impact the grantee up in Maine; Legal Services of New Jersey’s 2011 Civil Justice Gap report is out; Wisconsin’s governor seems to like legal services about as much as labor unions; a week in the life of a deputy district attorney; the loss of government grants could mean the loss of prosecutors in North Carolina; is the Supreme Court going too easy on misbehaving prosecutors?; a grand jury tells Riverside County officials that they’re messing up the county’s indigent defense system; Jacksonville Area Legal Aid gets a $625K HUD grant to help Floridians in foreclosure; the docket’s backed up at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

• 4.27.11 – the National Law Journal reports on the story of a true grassroots nonprofit organization, created by law students,  that aids Iraqis seeking refugee status: “What began in 2008 as an effort by Yale law students to help Iraqis seek refugee status has evolved into a nonprofit organization with student chapters at nine law schools and three more on the way.  The growth of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program reflects both the commitment of law students to pro bono work and the overwhelming need of thousands of displaced Iraqis to secure refugee status, said recent Yale law graduate and project executive director Becca Heller.  The project…appears to be the only organization in the United States devoted to assisting Iraqis seeking to resettle in other countries.”  The Program already has chapters at 8 law schools besides Yale, and more are on the way. 

• 4.27.11 – up in Stephen King Land, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reports on the negative impact that Legal Services Corporation funding cuts will have on the state’s LSC grantee program, Pine Tree Legal Assistance.  (PTLA stands to lose only $64,000 directly, but of course those federal dollars help PTLA leverage additional funding dollars.  Also, with rising client demand, every dollar counts.)

• 4.26.11 – Legal Services of New Jersey has released its 2011 Civil Justice Gap report, documenting the severe impact that the Great Recession has had on low-income client communities, the need within those communities for legal assistance, and the resource limitations that LSNJ is trying to work through to meet clients’ demand for services.

• 4.25.11 – this is the umpteenth time we’ve covered it, but here’s yet another article – this one from the Green Bay Press Gazette – about Wisconsin governor’s Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate funding for civil legal services.  Essentially, filing fee proceeds, part of which now go to support legal services, would be reallocated elsewhere.  This is an interesting turn of events, as the exact same funding scheme – filing fee revenues – has been proposed to help support cash-strapped legal services programs in states like Texas and Nevada (and on a related note, the Minnesota Supreme Court is using attorney licensing fees to boost legal services funding).  And back in Wisconsin, the editorial board of hte Appleton Post Crescent ain’t happy with the funding cut proposal.

• 4.25.11 – want to learn a little more about a week in the life of a deputy prosecutor?  The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon follows Chris Parosa, a deputy district attorney in Lane County, for a few days to get a sense not only of what goes into his more public functions – like courtroom work – but the array of responsibilities that prosecutors have behind the scenes: making decisions on whether to charge arrestees, and sometimes explaining to crime victims that he can’t prove guilt in court.

• 4.25.11 – in North Carolina, the Post and Courier reports about the impact that government grant cutbacks can have on local prosecutors: “The Berkeley County solicitor’s office could lose two prosecutors within the next couple of months, unless the county comes up with an extra $143,651.  The Moncks Corner office is losing grants that are supporting two of its seven assistant solicitors. A Department of Justice grant for general prosecution expires at the end of this month. A state Department of Public Safety grant to prosecute criminal domestic violence cases expires at the end of June.  It’s another example of those state and federal budget cuts that leave local municipalities scrambling to make up.”

• 4.25.11 – in a National Law Journal op-ed Erwin Chemerinsky, a Supreme Court advocate and current dean of UC Irvine’s new law school, lays into the Supreme Court about a failure to adequately address prosecutorial misconduct cases: “The U.S. Supreme Court is oblivious to a serious problem in the American legal system: prosecutorial misconduct. Study after study has demonstrated serious prosecutorial misconduct at both the federal and state levels… Twice in the past three years the Court has considered lawsuits by innocent individuals who were convicted and spent years in prison because of prosecutorial misconduct. In both instances, the Court held that the victims could not recover. Together, these cases send a disturbing message that the Court is shielding prosecutors from liability. The result is no compensation for wronged individuals and a lack of adequate deterrence of prosecutorial misconduct.”  (Irrelevant Fun Fact: Chemerinsky taught the PSLawNet Blog’s BarBri constitutional law course.  “Big A, little 2, sub b…”.)

• 4.24.11 – in California, the Press-Enterprise reports on controversy surrounding the indigent defense system in Riverside County: “Riverside County supervisors failed to follow their own policies when awarding a new criminal defense contract earlier this year, a newly released grand jury report concludes. The report, made public this month and set to go before supervisors Tuesday, asserts the board’s action circumvented the recommendations of three Northern California public defenders brought on to evaluate competing bids. As a result, the grand jury is recommending that supervisors construct a bidding process that ensures transparency on future criminal defense contracts.”

• 4.22.11 – the Florida Times-Union reports on over a half-million dollars in HUD grant money going to a Florida legal services provider: “A $625,000 federal grant will help Jacksonville Area Legal Aid give legal assistance to people victimized by businesses promising foreclosure rescue services and debt relief aid.”

• 4.22.11 – the Washington Post reports on the swelling case backlog at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, which hears appeals from vets who are denied benefits by the Veterans Administration: “The caseload at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has doubled in recent years, with the court deciding more than 600 cases per judge each year — far more than other federal appellate courts. Judges are working nights and weekends but say they still have difficulty keeping pace.”

CharlotteLaw seeks to add to our faculty a full-time professor who will start and run an Immigration Law Clinic and teach related podium courses. The successful candidate will preferably begin January 2012. He or she will join a growing faculty dedicated to experiential learning integrated throughout the curriculum and an academic team that includes a Director of Experiential Learning and three additional full-time professors who teach in and run clinics, an externship program and a pro bono program. We also have adjunct professors who teach clinics.

The mission of CharlotteLaw is to provide a legal education that is student-centered, facilitates practice readiness in a way that stimulates intellectual excellence and fosters personal integrity, and serves underserved communities. We seek candidates with distinguished academic records, excellent written and oral communication skills, practice and teaching experience, as well as a strong commitment to public interest law and clinical legal education.

Applicants should have at least 5 years of practice experience in the field of immigration, or a combination of immigration and criminal law, as well as experience or a strong interest in clinical teaching. All applicants must be members of a state Bar; North Carolina bar membership is preferred. We are looking for a candidate who is the best fit for this faculty position and, thus, the position may be filled by a candidate who is interested in either a tenure track or a non-tenure-track faculty appointment, subject to long-term contract renewal, with a ten or eleven month contract. All full-time faculty have full faculty voting rights, except in the area of promotion and tenure. Opportunity for research and scholarship development is available.

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

The Iraqi Assistance Program, an effort by law students to help Iraqis seek refugee status, has grown immensely. This week, The National Law Journal reported that the program began in 2008 with 100 Yale Law students and now has student chapters at nine law schools and three more on the way.

The growth of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program reflects both the commitment of law students to pro bono work and the overwhelming need of thousands of displaced Iraqis to secure refugee status, said recent Yale law graduate and project executive director Becca Heller.

The project — which Heller projected could expand to as many as 20 chapters by 2012 — appears to be the only organization in the United States devoted to assisting Iraqis seeking to resettle in other countries.

The idea came about when Heller spent the summer after her 1L year in Tel Aviv. She learned about the problems facing Iraqi refugees, many of them stuck in limbo in Jordan and Syria, where they lack legal status. She traveled to Amman, Jordan, and met with six refugees.

“All were in heartbreakingly tragic situations,” she said. “They didn’t really understand the refugee process. I was sort of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and thought, ‘Law students can help with this.’ ”

Back at Yale, Heller joined forces with fellow law student Jonathan Finer, who was working to resettle some Iraqi interpreters he had met while embedded with the U.S. military as a reporter for the Washington Post.

They discovered myriad hurdles facing refugees — including a lack of understanding about the process; the numerous interviews they must complete; and the massive amounts of paperwork they must submit. Many refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the prospect of repeated interviews — in which they must discuss why they are persecuted or unsafe in Iraq — can be difficult and painful, Heller said.

The project has secured the declassification through the Freedom of Information Act of more than 5,000 pages of government documents pertaining to refugee processing. Heller finds that these refugees are fighting so hard for their own survival and recognizes  that the United States has “special obligation” to take in Iraqi refugees displaced from the war.

Greetings from NALP’s annual conference in sunny Palm Springs, California.  Earlier today we sat in on a terrific program called “Counseling for International Public Interest Careers.”  Several dozen law school public interest career counselors were in attendance to pick up best practices and strategies for advising students and alumni.

One of the panelists, Akua Akyea of Yale Law School, laid out five qualities that successful candidates for international public interest jobs typically possess:

1. Substantive Knowledge of International Legal Issues – sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s important for law students who wish to work in the international arena to figure out  how they can soak in the most knowledge through classes, writing opportunities (journal, etc.), experiential learning opportunities, attending extracurricular lectures/programs, networking with faculty and practitioners, and of course, through summer work.
2. Demonstrated Commitment to Becoming an International Public Interest Advocate – this career path is not a backup plan.  Aspiring international public interest lawyers should take advantage of every opportunity they can get to build their credentials.  (See no. 1 above.)  It’s one thing to tell a job interviewer that you’re committed; it’s another to show that you’re living out that commitment through your legal education.
3. Language Skills – when the PSLawNet Blog practiced in civil legal services, he often found himself regretting that he never developed anything even approaching a proficiency with a second language.  (Some would say the PSLawNet Blog is still struggling enough with English.)  In any case, possessing  foreign language skills – or not – can make a break a candidate for an international public interest law job.  It’s not too late to build skills.  Look into foreign language offerings within your law school’s larger university system.  Some students even take temporary leave to pursue language immersion courses – or do it during the summer.
4. International Travel Experience – in two words: “Go abroad!”  Travel abroad – even for leisure – helps us to build awareness of different cultures, and it helps us to at least begin to understand what might be involved in integrating and working in a different culture.
5. Gain Relevant Work Experience – this will help you take care of tips 1 and 2, and at the same time you’ll figure out what kind of work setting is right for you, what areas of law/policy interest you, and where in the world you might like to work.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will hire 2-4 1Ls and 2Ls for its volunteer Summer 2011 externship program. Program dates are flexible, but externs must work 20-40 hours per week. Externs conduct legal research and writing, as well as substantive work relating to the investigation of charges of discriminations. They may assist with interviewing claimants and witnesses, prepare discovery responses, or aid in the preparation of witnesses for depositions. They also attend intake interviews, mediation sessions, court hearings, and trials. Externs are assigned to mentors and encouraged to interact with as many attorneys and administrative judges as possible.

The EEOC is responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the federal sector. The Minneapolis Area Office has jurisdiction over the States of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Candidates will be evaluated based on academic performance, demonstrated research and writing skills, and interest in furthering the mission of the EEOC.

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