By Lauren Forbes

Begin a challenging career with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and you will help shape the workforce of tomorrow.  DOL offers rewarding opportunities to contribute to a noble mission; to serve and protect American workers, prepare them for new and better jobs, and to ensure the safety and fairness of American workplaces.

The Supervisory Equal Opportunity Specialist position is located in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Portland Area Office, in Portland, OR. He or she:

• Plans and directs reviews of Federal contractor programs for compliance with applicable equal employment opportunity law, executive orders, policies, procedures and regulations.
• Directs and supervises a team (module) of at least seven (7) Equal Opportunity Specialists (GS-360-05 and above), plus support clerical(s) as required.
• Oversees and may personally negotiate adjustment of contractor employment policies and practices that are not responsive to the EEO provisions of Federal contracts including drafting conciliation agreements. Oversees and may personally negotiate and develop conciliation agreements with contractors found not to be in compliance.
• Recommends enforcement action to District Director and ensures that enforcement packages are properly prepared for issuance and/or transmission by the District Director.
• Establishes and maintains contacts with minority and women’s interest groups, disabled groups, veterans group, community organizations, trade and business associations within assigned geographical area to obtain information on employment trends and equal opportunity problems and to keep them apprised of relevant developments in OFCCP’s program.
• Directs and participates in surveys of employment trends with respect to equal employment opportunity in the geographical area served.
• Prepares periodic and special reports on operational performance for higher authority (District Director, Regional Director, National Office) as appropriate.

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

By Lauren Forbes and Steve Grumm

Howdy, folks! Every Thursday, the PSLawNet Blog will post a compilation of some of our fave posts from the public interest blogosphere.  Here’s the first edition:

• Depaul Law Career Services posted some alternative career jobs it came across from the past week.
• The Pro Bono Institute’s “PBEye” blog (clever!) carries word of a June 7 webinar called, “The Evolving Law Firm Business Model and Its Impact on Pro Bono.”
• Michael Pratt, Chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service chimed in with some reflections on the recent Equal Justice Conference.  Here’s Pratt’s post on the ABA Center for Pro Bono’s blog.
• Happy 50th Birthday to Amnesty International!
• Phew (for now at least), as the housing crisis in DC is averted.  Check out Washington’s Legal Clinic blog for the story.
• On the Equal Justice Works Blog, our statistically inclined buddy Bill Penn provides a valuable primer for aspiring poverty law advocates: how to define ‘poverty.’

For the next generation’s Jack McCoys and Atticus Finches…the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law’s professional development staff just published a blog post with information about pursuing careers in prosecution and public defense.  The information was drawn from a  recent NALP Conference program on these career paths; the program featured remarks from seasoned practitioners in the criminal justice arena.

Golden Gate University School of Law is seeking applications for its Assistant Director for Professional Development position. The Assistant Director will be part of the Law Career Services team and will report to the Associate Dean for Law Career Services and Alumni Relations.

Among other things, the Assistant Director will:

• Provide individual and group advising to students and alumni in the JD, LLM and SJD programs, with particular emphasis on working with graduating students and recent JD graduates. Coach graduates through the job search process, including self-assessment, identifying target employers, developing a professional network and creating effective materials. Critique resumes and cover letters and prepare for job interviews.
• Develop new initiatives to engage recent graduates in the job search process. Conduct outreach to students and graduates to provide ongoing support with job searches.
• Collect data on graduate employment and collaborate with LCS senior recruiting coordinator to manage annual survey/data collection process.
• Provide advice on job search strategies and exploring career options. Organize and present workshops and presentations designed to educate students and graduates about legal career options and job search techniques.
• Write handouts, blog articles, and promotional materials. Write weekly enewsletter for recent graduates. Supervise LCS Graduate Fellow.
• Cultivate and promote job and networking opportunities for students and graduates. Conduct outreach to law firms and other legal employers via in-person visits to generate new employment opportunities for recent graduates. Serve as a liaison between Golden Gate students/alumni and members of the professional community.

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

By: Steve Grumm

Our neighbors at the Pro Bono Institute are putting on a webinar that focuses on a timely question: as law firm business models evolve in the recession’s wake, how will pro bono programs be affected?  This issue greatly interests me because I used to work at a pro bono clearinghouse in the World’s Most Glorious City.  And here at NALP, many of our law-firm members focus on attorney professional development.  The intersection

The Intersection of Pro Bono and Professional Development

between professional development and pro bono will likely be a very busy place in the coming years.  Increasingly, firms wish to provide hands-on, practical training opportunities for junior associates.  One obvious way to do this is through pro bono; by handling pro bono cases, even junior associates can develop case management/strategy skills, gain courtroom experience, and learn how to build trusting relationships with clients – all opportunities that may not be available to them immediately via fee-paying practice.  So I look forward to focusing more on this issue in the coming months.  And I’m looking forward to the PBI webinar next week. Here’s some detail about the webinar:

Coming up on June 7 at 12:30 p.m. EDT is the webinar, “The Evolving Law Firm Business Model and Its Impact on Pro Bono,” which will examine the changes faced by large law firms and the effect they will have on pro bono. 

Large law firms are changing the way they do business, including major shifts in attorney headcount, recruitment, and compensation; new approaches to professional and skill development and advancement; and shifts in billing arrangements and relationships with corporate clients. More profound changes are likely to come. This timely webinar will review these and other developments and reflect on what the changing economic landscape may mean for pro bono supporters at law firms, legal departments, and public interest organizations. This webinar is the first in the Pro Bono Institute’s Best of the 2011 Seminar/Forum Series.

Speakers include our friends Jim Jones, senior vice president and chief legal officer, Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, chairman, The Hildebrandt Institute (whom we’ve spoken with before, here); and Ron Flagg, chair, Pro Bono and Public Interest Law Committee, Sidley Austin LLP*.

By: Steve Grumm 

The good news for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas is that, this year, it can look back on 60 years of service to low-income Texans.  From the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram:

The group started in 1951 with $500 and an idea that access to justice was not just for those with deep pockets. At that time, 11 attorneys created the Fort Worth Legal Foundation to give free legal advice and aid to people who could not afford legal services.

The Foundation later evolved into Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, which has become the fifth-largest provider of legal services in the U.S. It covers 114 counties, with 100 lawyers in 16 offices in North and West Texas. About 2,000 private attorneys also donate their time, providing over 40,000 hours of legal assistance.

The bad news: the organization has recently lost $700K in funding, and it’s working to pay off expenses related to the opening of a new headquarters building in Ft. Worth.

…[T]he timing of the fundraiser could not be better. Last week, Legal Aid officials learned they had lost $350,000 in funding from United Way of Dallas. That news came on top of a loss of $350,000 in the recently approved federal appropriations bill.

Errol A. Summerlin, Legal Aid’s CEO, said the nonprofit has received funding from the United Way since 1957, and losing all of it came as a “total shock.”

By Lauren Forbes

Vermont Law School seeks a Faculty Director for its Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) to commence in the summer or fall of 2012, or possibly earlier.   Vermont Law School’s top-ranked environmental program includes a curriculum of over 60 environmental law courses, as well as two advanced degrees in environmental law – the Masters in Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and the Environmental LLM degree. Between a third and a half of our JD students are enrolled as joint degree students in the MELP program.

The ENRLC forms a key component of the environmental education we offer our students. The program functions as a public interest environmental law firm and gives students the opportunity to hone their skills in real-world cases and projects. The ENRLC is organized into four main program areas – Water and Justice, Coal and Climate, Healthy Communities, and Biodiversity – and we retain the flexibility to take on cases and projects outside these areas as well. The ENRLC’s work includes a mix of litigation, administrative agency proceedings, client counseling, and other forms of environmental advocacy.

The ENRLC Director is charged with administering the ENRLC and supervising its faculty, staff, and student clinicians, including the following general duties and responsibilities:

• Evaluating and selecting new cases and projects in consultation with other ENRLC faculty and staff.
• Consultation with an environmental faculty case selection advisory committee.
• Serving as lead attorney in several cases and projects and providing close supervision and feedback to student clinicians involved in those matters.
• Supervising staff attorneys and student clinicians involved in other cases and projects.
• Overseeing weekly Strategy Sessions (case rounds) and Seminars (workshops on various environmental advocacy topics).
• Developing the program budget for administrative approval.
• Monitoring income and expenditures.
• Raising funds for the program through grants and donations, with the assistance of the administration.
• Developing and maintaining relationships with other environmental clinics and clinical organizations.

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

By Lauren Forbes

Recently, student loan expert Heather Jarvis shared two very timely and helpful blog posts on Income-Based Repayment,or IBR, an acronym with which this blogette and many other recent grads have become intimately familiar.

Check out “3 Best Things About IBR,” a video in which Heather tells students how to get a grip on student loans.   And to ensure that we’re fully educated, Heather also posted a video about an IBR eccentricity, because IBR is unusual in that a borrower’s monthly payment may be even less than the interest that is accruing each month.  Watch the video to find out what happens to that interest…

By: Steve Grumm

An article on the Southern Maryland Online news site offers a sort of “day in the life of the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center.”  The piece is certainly worth a read for those interested in juvenile justice careers, whether as prosecutors, defenders, or in some other capacity.  The work can be fast-paced and sometimes overwhelming, but it’s immeasurably important. 

It’s 9:30 a.m. at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, and the hallways are crowded with people. Children are crying. Attorneys are yelling out names of their clients. Teenagers are leaning against the walls, waiting for their turn in the courtroom. A woman asks if anyone has a Motrin.

They’re here for juvenile court hearings or for child welfare cases — custody hearings, foster care and abandonment issues.  

…

A snapshot of a day in juvenile court may seem similar to the adult system, but a closer look reveals the differences. The adult and juvenile court systems grow out of different legal theories.

The juvenile system serves youths 18 and under with the goal of rehabilitation, not punishment. For that reason, most of the court’s terminology is different from the language in adult courts. Juveniles are “adjudicated,” not “found guilty.” They commit “delinquent acts,” not “crimes.”

The records in these cases are sealed to protect youths who may have made some immature mistakes and may never again have any legal problems.

By Lauren Forbes

The Family Court Division of the New York City Law Department is seeking an experienced attorney for the Brooklyn office of its Juvenile Delinquency Prosecution Unit. Attorneys in this unit handle delinquency cases from investigation through trial, with the goal of furthering the best interests of the juvenile offenders, while protecting the public safety of the community. Delinquency attorneys investigate cases where juveniles have been charged with violations of New York State Penal Law. They interview victims and witnesses; make and respond to pre-trial motions and appear daily in Family Court, where they conduct arraignments, suppression hearings and trials.

Applicants must have three years or more of litigation experience and must be an attorney in good standing admitted to practice in New York State. Previous criminal justice, juvenile justice, child welfare or related legal experience is required. Knowledge of Family Court procedure is preferred, as is a demonstrated commitment to public service, organizational abilities, an ability to work as part of a team and excellent interpersonal skills.

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