Find a job you’re wild about at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the nation’s largest member-supported conservation organization, which is at the forefront of global warming issues, reconnecting our children with nature, and protecting America’s wildlife and habitat.

NWF seeks a Conservation Litigation Director to be responsible for leading NWF’s efforts to advance its conservation priorities through litigation. Litigation is one of the key tools that NWF uses to advance its agendas of confronting global warming and safeguarding nature for people and wildlife. NWF litigators build their cases in support of the organization’s advocacy campaigns. This position will therefore work closely with program staff to identify the evolving needs and objectives of advocacy campaigns and help design and implement litigation strategies to meet those needs and objectives. This position will expand NWF’s litigation capacity by filing cases, recruiting other attorneys to provide donations of pro bono or reduced fee services, and fundraising.

Qualified candidates for this position must possess a J.D. and a minimum ten years experience in conservation litigation. He or she must be a highly organized professional, able to identify, articulate and implement effective litigation goals and strategies and be able to work hard while maintaining a sense of humor.

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

The County Prosecutors Association is offering four scholarships to law school students who want careers as prosecutors and police officers hoping to attend college to advance their law enforcement careers.  Three of the scholarships are for applicants who are accepted to law school.

The scholarships, each amounting to a one-year grant of $2,500, will be paid directly to recipients who will be selected by the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey Scholarship Foundation’s board of trustees, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.

To be eligible for the Oscar W. Rittenhouse Memorial Scholarship, an applicant must be accepted for admission to a law school and must have an interest in becoming a prosecutor.

The Harris Y. Cotton Memorial Scholarship is also for applicants accepted for admission to law school who want to be prosecutors with an emphasis on domestic violence or hate crime prosecutions.

Applicants for the Andrew K. Ruotolo Jr. Memorial Scholarship must be accepted to law school or graduate school and exhibit an interest, and commitment to, enhancing the rights and well-being of children through child advocacy programs.

Tomorrows Lawyers Need More Than The Book-Learnin.

In recent years, there has been much debate about the traditional legal education model’s effectiveness in preparing new lawyers for the practice of law.  Well, in reality, various stakeholders in the legal industry have been debating this for years.  New life was breathed into the conversation by the 2007 release of the Carnegie Foundation’s report, Educating Lawyers: Preparing for the Profession of Law.  Among the report’s major recommendations was an increased emphasis on experiential learning in law school curricula.

Fuel was added to the fire when the bottom dropped out of the legal employment market in 2008.  Suddenly, in a hyper-competitive job market,  everyone was talking about whether law schools could produce more practice-ready practitioners by bolstering experiential learning programs.  The PSLawNet Blog has been very interested in this discussion because so many experiential learning programs have public service dimensions to them, e.g. clinicals, externships, pro bono programs, etc.  So we’re pleased to note that our colleagues at NALP have released a report based on our 2010 Survey of Law School Experiential Learning Opportunities and Benefits.  The survey was distributed to law firm associates, with various experience levels, at firms around the country, and garnered over 900 responses.  (It’s noteworthy that we didn’t survey public interest lawyers, and subsequent research that we conduct may target this group.  In any event the report’s findings speak to what kind of experiential learning programs associates value most as having made them better practitioners.)

The report indicates that experiential learning opportunities, such as clinics and externships, are growing in popularity, as more recent law school graduates reported higher rates of participation than earlier graduates. And, whether required or optional, most of the simulated learning opportunities law schools offer are instrumental in preparing new associates for the demands of the practice of law reports the National Law Journal of the NALP research.

The report compares the various experiential opportunities to determine their effects on lawyer preparedness.  While only 30 percent of the associates reported participating in at least one legal clinic, almost two in three of these folks (63%) found the experience “very useful,” the highest value on a scale of 1-to-4.   Similarly, 36% of the associates said they took part in an externship or field placement, and 60% of them rated the experience “very useful.”

Seventy percent of the associates took at least one legal skills class during law school,  but only about 36 percent found the courses to “very useful.”

The ABA Journal also released an article about the research, making pro bono participation its lead.  NALP’s research revealed that 42% of the associates participated in pro bono work during law school; most spent less than 40 hours on the volunteer work.  And interestingly, only 17 percent of those who spent time on pro bono found it to be “very useful.”  (Contrast that against the clinic and extern stats.)

One thing to note about law students’  pro bono participation is that pro bono work categorically is often quite varied.  In parsing out students’ pro bono experiences instead of examining them in the aggregate, one might reach more specific conclusions about how well pro bono work affects preparedness to practice law.  For instance, some pro bono work is done through the auspices of a rigorous law school program with considerable oversight and supervision.  This experience would be closer to an externship or clinic experience, we think.  A lot of pro bono, though, it not nearly as well structured, and this may account for its relatively thin “usefulness” numbers.

Check out the report for yourself and share your thoughts in the Comments section.

Prairie State Legal Services (PSLS), a 65-lawyer legal services organization, serving 36 counties in northern and central Illinois outside of Cook County, is seeking applicants to direct its Low-Income Tax Clinic.  The Clinic provides free legal advice and representation in tax controversies to low-income individuals.  The Clinic serves all 36 counties in PSLS’ service area.  The Clinic Director would be responsible for all Clinic activities, including client representation, supervision of interns and volunteers, community outreach, staff training, and grant reporting and preparation.  Prefer candidates with a tax or legal aid background.

Tax issues are of crucial importance to many low-income individuals – and to low-wage workers, single parents, and immigrants in particular.  Critical issues our clients face include denial of anti-poverty credits (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit), wage and benefit garnishments, tax problems stemming from identity theft, tax problems related to domestic abuse, worker misclassification, and deceptive tax schemes.  The Clinic assists clients through litigation (primarily in the United States Tax Court), administrative and agency advocacy, and, where appropriate and permitted, systemic advocacy outside the legal process.

PSLS has 12 offices across its service area, and will consider placing the director in the location which best meets the needs of the program and the interests of the director.  For further information about PSLS and its office locations, see www.pslegal.org

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

A dog-loving law student at the University of Kansas wants to make sure criminal cases of animal cruelty are prosecuted as thoroughly as violence against people. At the suggestion of a professor, Katie Barnett is organizing what her research suggests would be the first animal cruelty prosecution clinic at a U.S. law school.

Law students taking part in the clinic will work with animal control, animal cruelty investigators at the Humane Society, police and prosecutors in Douglas County to make sure cases are prosecuted to a conclusion.

“This is the chance for me to give the animals a voice and a place in the justice system,” said Barnett, a 30-year-old third-year law student.

“She has a long history in involvement in animal rights issues,” said law professor William Westerbeke, who approached Barnett about starting the clinic.

Many law students do clinical work already, and he said designating one to specifically coordinate and keep track of the animal cases would be beneficial for all involved. It also would save the Humane Society money and be terrific experience for the student, he said.

The first student in the program will begin in fall 2011, and Westerbeke said other eastern Kansas counties have expressed interest in the program if it succeeds.

The PSLawNet Blog couldn’t help but notice this innovative program!  High fives from the animal kingdom and public interest world!

Are you a lawyer interested in dealing with emerging legal issues related to law, journalism, and new media on the Internet? Would you like to help online journalism and new media ventures meet their legal needs? Do you want a stimulating yet laid back work environment?

The Citizen Media Law Project (soon to be renamed the Digital Media LawProject) at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society is looking to hire an Employee Fellow / Staff Attorney commencing in June 2011 to assist with the project’s work.  Candidates should be energetic and passionate about working on journalism, online speech, intellectual property, and cyberlaw issues. The offices are located at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School, so the Employee Fellow / Staff Attorneymust be willing to work in Cambridge, MA.

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

The Louisiana Public Defender Board is hiring a Deputy Public Defender – Director of Juvenile Defender Services.  This is a full-time, executive-level staff position with the State of Louisiana. Responsibilities include:

• Work with representatives of all three branches of state government and other criminal justice stakeholders, including judges, district attorneys, sheriffs, probation officers, and law enforcement officials to promote sound juvenile justice policies in relation to fair adjudication processes, and placement and treatment of juveniles charged in delinquency proceedings that focus on rehabilitation of the offender.
• Promote positive changes (state-wide) in educational opportunities, mental health services and other treatment services for juveniles in the court system.
• Conduct a community outreach/education campaign for all stakeholders (including the client community) to raise public appreciation of the cognitive, emotional, decision-making, and/or behavioral capacities of children and young adults and, as such, raise public support for programs/resources that give special attention to the uniform and competent representation of juveniles.

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

Last year, we highlighted two programs– Project Salute and its Veteran’s Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. These programs address the growing legal needs of low-income veterans by assisting veterans access federal disability and pension benefits.

Students at Quinnipiac Law are contributing in the same vein.  They’re utilizing the school’s mountainous backdrop to aid veterans to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).

Racers, runners, and a few dog walkers trekked through the Sleeping Giant Mountain to support this generation’s veterans returning from action in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The WWP, which honors and empowers wounded warriors by raising awareness and enlists the public’s aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women.

Quinnipiac School of Law student groups Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity and the Veterans Advocacy Group hosted the second annual Sleeping Giant 5K Run/Walk Challenge on Saturday, April 16. The sponsors chose the WWP because some of the students are veterans or have veterans in their families.

Luckily, it did not rain this year and enthusiasm levels were high.  The participants could not overstate the significance of raising awareness for veterans issues.

The National Consumer Law Center is seeking an attorney to specialize in consumer issues affecting low-income Americans. As a member of NCLC’s advocacy staff, the attorney will develop and implement strategies that help combat exploitive practices in the marketplace. The attorney will concentrate primarily on policy and systemic advocacy, research and writing, training, and special reports and projects, including work on the Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project for at least the first one to two years. The position is located in NCLC’s main office in Boston. Some travel is required.

Founded in 1969, NCLC is a non-profit advocacy organization that challenges predatory and destructive business practices that drain income and wealth from low-income families and their communities.  NCLC is the leading source of legal and public policy expertise on consumer issues for lawyers, federal and state policymakers, consumer advocates, journalists, and social services providers.

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

This week’s Bulletin, cats and kittens, is shorter than normal.  But it’s packed with legal services funding news, including: how LSC $ cuts will affect New York programs; Equal Justice Works’s CEO David Stern talks public interest careers; a look at the fiscal challenges confronting Western Massachusetts Legal Services; coverage of the FY2011 federal budget agreement which pared down LSC funding by about 4%; a law school/legal services partnership provides pro bono services to those who serve in uniform; Wisconsin may cut all state funding for civil legal services. 

• 4.14.11 – a New York Law Journal piece looks at the impact the Legal Services Corporation funding cuts will have on Empire State legal services providers.  (Note: the LSC funding cuts are covered in item 4 below.)  From the NYLJ: “Even though a $15.8 million funding cut for the Legal Services Corp. included in a federal budget agreement is smaller than legal aid advocates had feared, the reduced funds will be acutely felt by New York groups already struggling with state funding cuts…. New York City-based Legal Services NYC will suffer the biggest cut in LSC funding, losing $701,411. That will probably mean having to let go of six or seven lawyers or paralegals, according to Raun J. Rasmussen, the chief of litigation and advocacy for the 220-lawyer group.”  The piece goes on to detail how cuts will affect other LSC grantees in New York.

• 4.12.11 – our friend David Stern of Equal Justice Works is profiled in the Washingtonian’s “Capitol Comment” blog.  David explains how his career path took him to Equal Justice Works’s helm, and offers a criticism of legal education’s emphasis on cold, analytical thinking: “Unfortunately, yes, law school strips [the desire to practice in public interest] away in many respects. It tries to teach lawyers to think in sterile, analytical ways without a lot of heart. There’s also a lot of competition in law schools for those coveted six-figure-salary jobs, and so people are malleable, they’re generally young, and all of these activities—the sterile thinking, the going after the coveted job, the very large educational debt—often strips away those public-service aspirations. Our job is to keep those embers burning.”  Bonus trivia: quite aside from being one of the nation’s most vocal advocates for the value of public interest work, David’s a pretty solid softball player.  Good glove, surprising power, and he can pitch.

• 4.12.11 – the Business Journal of Western Massachusetts looks at the fiscal challenges confronting Western Massachusetts Legal Services – “its current budget of $2.5 million is roughly half of what it was just a few years ago” – and the organization’s recent fundraising efforts.

• 4.12.11 – the Blog of the Legal Times reports on the federal budget compromise’s impact on Legal Services Corporation funding (which we also blogged about earlier this week).  From the BLT: “The bipartisan deal on the federal budget includes a $15.8 million midyear cut for the Legal Services Corp., according to new details released on Tuesday. The cut is smaller than the $70 million that House Republicans proposed to take in February from the Legal Services Corp., which is the nation’s largest funding source for civil legal aid to the poor. Still, program officials had hoped to avoid any cut because demand for legal aid has increased during the economic downturn. Legal Services Corp. received $420 million from Congress last year, so the cut represents a 3.8% reduction in its full-year budget. But because the federal government’s fiscal year began Oct. 1, officials will need to find the money with more than half the year already passed.”  Also, here’s LSC’s press release about the funding cut.

• 4.11.11 – the Jacksonville Daily Record looks at a terrific pro bono project that serves Army reservists with legal needs.  In particular, volunteer law students and attorney help reservists, who can be called up to active duty on very short notice, with “the creation of advance directive documents: Durable Power of Attorney, Health Care Surrogate Designation, Designation of Preneed Guardian, a Living Will and a Simple Will.”  The model for this program, set up by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Florida Coastal School of Law, is simple and easily replicable.  The “legal teams” consisted of a volunteer attorney and a law student, and they worked off of laptops that had the necessary form templates loaded on to them.

• 4.11.11 – a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blog notes that Wisconsin legal services providers face sharp cuts in state funding: “Among the big losers in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget are groups who provide legal services to the indigent in civil cases — all $2.6 million that used to help finance such representation would be cut.”