Elizabeth Peck, Director of Public Service at Cornell Law School brought this great job searching tip to our attention after coming across this resource suggestion in Finding and Funding International Public Service Opportunities (an online guide updated annually by NALP members at the Universities of Arizona and Georgia, and at the William & Mary School of Law).

Westlaw maintains a database of federal agencies’ regional offices across the U.S. and the world.  The database gives you the ability to search by more than 100 practice areas to locate the agencies which need lawyers with particular practice specializations.

To search the database:  login to Westlaw and then go to Home –> Career Focus –> Law Student Jobs Online –> Federal Careers for Attorneys.

Also, don’t forget to utilize the federal career resources available to you for FREE on PSLawNet, including the 2010-2011 NALP Federal Legal Opportunities Guide and more.

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   86 new attorney positions,   22 new internships, and  72 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,222 active opportunities in our job database.  To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

Catholic Charities Legal Assistance (CCLA) is currently hiring for three positions:  Program Director, Staff Attorney, and Senior Attorney.  CCLA’s mission is to provide access to compassionate and competent legal assistance to the economically disadvantaged in the Chicago area.  Visit the organization’s website to learn more.

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is looking for 12-15 dedicated, hard-working, and public interest minded students to work in four Northeast Ohio offices for their 2011 Summer Associate Program.  Summer associates work in different areas of the law but all receive the opportunity to learn how to be excellent poverty lawyers.  Generally, summer associates will interview clients, draft court pleadings, research relevant legal issues, attend and assist with court hearings and trials, and gather and analyze evidence.  In addition, all summer associates will participate in weekly trainings on substantive areas of poverty law and observe oral arguments in the 8th District Court of Appeals, meeting afterward with the judges involved.  Brown bag lunches with current Legal Aid lawyers and community members including judges, politicians, and leaders of local non-profit agencies are also held each week.   Check PSLawNet for additional details and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Are you a law student searching for funding opportunities to support your public interest summer experience?  Visit our Summer Funding Resources page for an updated list of funding sources across the country.  We have categorized the summer funding resources into three categories:  (1) funding sources which may be available in various geographic work locations; (2) funding sources available in specific regions; and (3) law firm split summer programs.  Check it out.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .

We took a break for Turkey Day last week (and hope you did too!), but we are back with your weekly public interest news blast.  This week:  New York’s top jurist continues his crusade to bolster support for legal services; Yale Law students put their skills to use creating opportunities for New Haven public school students; UDC’s law school launches initiatives to serve at-risk youth; SCOTUS looks at California’s prisons, which are bursting at their seams; a rise in domestic violence against immigrant women is troubling to West Virginia DV prevention advocates; new public defender positions in Wisconsin – you did not misread that: NEW PUBLIC DEFENDER POSITIONS in Wisconsin; the fight about subjecting a state law school’s clinic to open public records provisions continues in NJ; Kids in Need of Defense is making an impact in Houston; 32 candidates want to be the head public defender in Cincinnati – maybe some of them should move to Wisconsin; speaking of defenders, caseload woes in Missouri persist; praise for the Georgia Supreme Court; pro bono efforts of Wal-mart’s in-house counsel in Arkansas; EJW’s growth and pursuing a public interest career; Dade County Bar Association thinking outside the box to fundraise for local Legal Aid Society; Millennial law students vs. Gen-X predecessors:  who is more public-service oriented;  does Indiana need to define “law enforcement costs” for county prosecutors?; and sentencing for the former Maryland Legal Aid Bureau Chief of Finance and his partner for stealing more than $1 million from the nonprofit.

• 12.1.10 – exciting news for legal services in the Empire State this week with Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman calling for the state legislature to increase civil legal services’ spending by $100 million.  This increase for civil legal services funding in the judicial branch’s budget proposal is a result of recommendations by the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York.  According to WNYC News the Chief Judge explained that while the state is experiencing tough economic times, it still makes sense to increase civil legal services spending “[b]ecause the ones hit hardest by this economic collapse in the state is the poor and the most vulnerable among us and if you let these people fall off the cliff, the consequences in every way are damaging.”  Under this proposal, the spending increase would be phased in over a four year period and by 2015 result in a 50% increase in civil legal services spending in NY.  The New York State Bar Association and the Urban Justice Center are both applauding the recommended funding increase.

• 11.30.10 – student members of Yale Law School’s Community and Development Clinic have helped draft a multi-million dollar agreement between Yale University and the city of New Haven to establish the New Haven Promise Program.  This program “will pay the full college or university tuition of New Haven public school students who meet its requirements for achievement, starting with current freshman,” for at least four New Haven public school classes.   Contract negotiations began in September and resulted in a formal announcement of the program on November 9.

• 11.30.10 – the Washington Post reports on new initiatives at the University of the District of Columbia’s (UDC) law schoo to protect at-risk youth.  The momentum – and funding – for these projects comes from the law firm of Crowell & Moring, which granted UDC over $600K to create the Took Crowell Institute for At-risk Youth.  One of the Institute’s projects will aim to provide lawyers for students who challenge school suspensions so that they can return to the classroom.  According to the Post:  “In an effort to keep serious school misbehavior from spiraling into even more serious juvenile delinquency, the law school at the University of the District of Columbia is taking up cases of public school students who have been suspended for weeks or months.  Critics of [long-term suspensions] say that far from encouraging better behavior, the suspensions often open the door to more trouble.”  Here’s a fact sheet on the the Institute, a press release about its launch, and past coverage from the Blog of the Legal Times.

• 11.29.2010 – Tuesday the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding overcrowding in California’s prisons and access to health care for prisoners.  This past January, a federal district court held that “overcrowding in the state’s prison system, the nation’s largest, is the main cause of substandard medical and mental health care that violates the prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment . . . The state houses 164,000 inmates in a system designed to hold about 80,000, and the prisons have been beyond capacity for two decades.  The judges ordered the state to cap the inmate population at 137.5% of their capacity within two years, which would be about 110,000 inmates this year.” Inmates, together with prison guards, support the lower court’s decision while the state of California contends that the court “overstepped” its authority and should be overturned.     How did the overcrowding get so bad?  During the 90’s the state legislature adopted tougher sentencing laws, including 3-strikes-and-your-out and parole crackdowns.  What is California’s plan to address the overcrowding?  “[R]eleasing low level offenders, sending fewer nonviolent criminals to prison by changing sentencing laws and building new prisons.”  Stay tuned, a decision from the Court is expected in Summer 2011.

• 11.29.10 – the News and Sentinel reports that domestic violence advocates in West Virginia are seeing a rise in cases involving immigrant women.  In addition to the obstacles faced by every victim of domestic violence, immigrants face additional challenges:  “they speak little or no English, they are isolated, have no support system, can’t work because they don’t have the proper paperwork and have no financial support” (and are not eligible for public benefits).  Further this is not an issue isolated to West Virginia, in an earlier national study, domestic violence was estimated to be three times more prevalent in marriages between immigrant women and U.S. citizens than in the general population. “An estimated 70% of abusive U.S. citizen spouses, including those who consummate relationships through [International Marriage Brokers], withhold the filing of the proper paperwork necessary to validate the legal status of their immigrant female partners to cause them to fall out of legal status and to hold the threat of jail or deportation over the woman.” . . . Further underscoring the depth of this problem is the National Justice Institute’s estimate that more than 73% of domestic violence cases are unreported.

Keep reading after the jump . . .

This UK alternative rock band has received 117 award nominations worldwide, of which they won 43 (we here at the PSLawNet blog decided to trust Wikipedia on this one) and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 since the band got together “sometime in 1997.”  But, MORE exciting (to us anyway in all our public interest legal geekiness) is the band’s recent decision to become patrons of Client Earth.

Client Earth is “an organization of activist lawyers committed to securing a healthy planet” who “work in Europe and beyond, bringing together law, science and policy to create pragmatic solutions to key environmental challenges.”

From ecorazzi: the latest in green gossip,

The band learned of the organization thanks to Coldplay’s creative director and fifth member Phil Harvey — one of ClientEarth’s trustees. What’s more, the producer of their last album Brian Eno, as well as the MP and former editor of the Ecologist Zac Goldsmith, are also patrons of the organization.

“Client Earth is at the forefront of changing the way the planet’s resources are governed,” said the band. “They have a positive and pragmatic approach to environmental issues, improving and enforcing environmental law. Coldplay are proud to support them.”

Now we know there are a lot of jokes out there about lawyers, but lawyers who help save the planet are no joke to us!

Check out the video:  Coldplay support ClientEarth from ClientEarth on Vimeo.

NALP is pleased to release our first ever Public Interest Employment Market Snapshot Report.  The report is based on an online survey of public interest employers conducted in September.  The survey sought responses concerning:  (1) recent law student and law graduate hiring, (2) hiring expectations for the immediate future, and (3) employer advice for job applicants competing in today’s market.

The report’s quantitative data largely confirm what our own experiences and other forms of anecdotal evidence have shown us:  the economic recession had a serious, negative impact on public interest hiring, particularly in all areas outside of federal employment.  Further, in the wake of the recession, it will take time for many employers to achieve enough financial stability to bolster hiring. While not all of the news is positive, we hope that this modest-but-important first step toward a more data-driven understanding of the public interest employment market will be useful to public interest job seekers and employers.

Some useful data points on law student summer hiring trends and expectations include:

• Of the 128 respondents that did offer paid summer positions before the recession, 57% have reduced the number of paid positions offered.
• In Summer 2011, 72.0% of respondents anticipate offering the same number of unpaid positions and 11.5% expect to increase hiring levels for unpaid positions from Summer 2010 levels.

Key points on post-graduate hiring trends and expectations:

• At the time of the survey, 73.7% of respondents with civil legal services organizations, 78.3% of those with public defender offices, and 87.6% of those with nonprofit legal organizations reported hiring zero Class-of-2010 graduates.  The low hiring rates across low across various public interest employer types suggests continued freezes and reductions in hiring of permanent staff. (Advice for Class-of-2010 grads still seeking legal employment.)
• However, there is some good news on the horizon for Class-of-2011 graduates:  13.0% of respondents with public defenders, 9.7% of those with federal government agencies/offices, 9.5% of those with local prosecutors, and 8.3% of those with local government employers plan to hire more Class-of-2011 graduates than Class-of-2010 graduates.

In addition to the quantitative data, the report contains feedback from various types of public interest employers about what experiences/skills they wish to see from job seekers.  A few key insights include:

• Civil legal services providers look for a demonstrated passion for serving low-income communities and for direct experience interacting and working with low-income clients.  Civil legal service providers also highly value bilingual ability in their attorneys, especially knowledge of Spanish or of an Asian language.  (Check out our earlier post on Spanish immersion programs).
• Public defenders desire candidates with clinical and/or pro bono experience working with incarcerated and low-income clients.  According to one public defender,“previous experience in a PD’s office is always a plus for law students and a must for attorneys.”
• Nonprofit legal organizations look for a demonstrated passion about the organization’s mission and a diverse skill set that may include community outreach and exposure to nonprofit fundraising.

What were employers’ predictions for future “growth areas” in public interest practice?

Nicole Vikan is the Assistant Director for Public Interest and Government Careers at Georgetown Law Center’s Office of Public Interest and Community Service. Before moving to Washington DC, Nicole advised  students seeking employment in the private and public sectors as a member of Fordham Law School’s Career Planning Center and practiced law for five years as a criminal prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.  Nicole’s NALP activities include service for the Public Service Section (Chair), LGBT Section, Newer Professionals Section (Vice Chair), and Bylaws Committee.  She has written numerous articles for the NALP Bulletin and participated on panels at the Annual Education Conferences.  Nicole received her J.D. from New York University and her B.A. from Carleton College.

Job Seekers from the Class of 2010 . . . You graduated in May 2010 and passed the Bar—congrats! But (as we all know) the job market is tight, and you’re still looking for a public interest job. What should you be doing as you look for that first legal position?

Volunteer. Find a pro bono position in a practice area of interest so you can meet professionals in the field, make a great impression for when the organization (or a similar employer) is ready to hire, and develop your legal skills.

Make ends meet. I know—this isn’t completely compatible with my first suggestion. But many organizations will be excited to have part-time volunteers, so you can work part-time in a non-legal position (bartending, holiday sales, LSAT tutoring, etc.) to pay the bills.  I understand that this can be a shot to the ego, and not what you expected when you began law school.  But you will get the job you want soon, and a few months from now you won’t care at all about what you did to stay afloat financially in those first few months out of school.

Handle your student loan debt. Yes, it’s painful to think about sometimes. But do not bury your head in the sand—defaulting on your loans could be a reason for prospective employers to reject your application. If necessary, find out your options for deferment on the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid site. Learn about debt repayment options – including the Income Based Repayment (IBR) program – on the Equal Justice Works Student Debt Relief page and PSLawNet’s own Financing a Public Interest Career site so you know how different jobs will impact you.

Keep in touch. Write polite, friendly email updates to former supervisors, professors, and mentors to share your good news about the Bar Exam—and to tell them you’re looking for a job. Don’t ask them point-blank if they can hire you; instead, let them know what type of work you hope to find, provide an updated resume so they can see what skills you have developed, and ask them to please keep you in mind if they learn of a position that might be appropriate for you. Ask them if they know people in your field of interest who you can contact.

Which brings me to my next point: Meet more people in the field. Yes, that means NETWORK. Using your undergrad and law school connections, suggestions from family, friends, and professors, and online searching, make a list of two dozen people at various career stages in your practice area and location of interest. Write to at least two of those people each week to request informational interviews: Tell them why their background interests you and ask if you can meet for coffee to learn more about their work. Again, do not ask for a job, but do attach your resume.

Make a To Do list, with a timetable, so you make sure to send job applications and do personal outreach (i.e., networking) on a regular basis. Find affordable ways to reward your efforts—a long walk with friends, an item off the dollar menu at your favorite fast food restaurant, or a new library book, for example.

Take care of yourself and remember that you graduated into one of the toughest legal job markets in history. You shouldn’t despair and give up; instead, remind yourself that you are indeed a talented attorney, and in this economy it will take more persistence, patience, and effort to find that first job—but you can do it!

Visit PSLawNet for more job search fundamentals.

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   21 new attorney positions,   12 new internships, and  7 new law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,236 active opportunities in our job database.  PSLawNet enjoyed a Thanksgiving Holiday as well so we have a backlog of new attorney and internship postings, so make sure to check the database mid-week for a number of new openings.  To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

The Harris County Public Defender is currently hiring for both an Assistant Public Defender to serve as Division Chief for their Mental Health Division and an Assistant Public Defender to serve as Division Chief of their Appellate Division.  Harris County, Texas hired its first public defender earlier this month and the office is gearing up to begin operations in 2011 (Read local coverage from Houston and check out our earlier coverage of this issue in the June 11, 2010 issue of the Public Interest News Bulletin).

The Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project (CDP) is currently seeking law student interns interested in working with them in Summer 2011 to protect the rights of low-income people and to provide legal and technical assistance to advance diverse community development projects.  The CDP provides legal, technical, research, and policy support to community-based organizations working to improve conditions in low-income communities in New York City.  Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, but must be received by January 10, 2011.  Check PSLawNet for additional details about the internships and application instructions.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Considering a career as a public defender?  The University of Virginia School of Law has shared their How to Get a Job in a Public Defender’s Office guide with PSLawNet’s Public Service Career Library.  The guide is designed to help students decide if they would like a career as a public defender.  It was also created to assist committed students in successfully landing a job at a defender’s office.  Among other features, this publication includes information on how to choose the right public defender’s office for you, how to develop a public defender resume, and how to prepare for a public an interview for a public defender’s office.   Check it out.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .

In the current economic climate, as a public interest lawyer it is more important than ever to expand and strengthen the skill set you bring to employers.  At our annual NALP/PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference,   Alejandro T. Reyes, associate counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, highlighted the need that exists for Spanish-speaking attorneys and recommended law students and lawyers consider a two-week immersion program in Latin America.

After a guest post earlier this month from Leeor Neta, that shared this piece of advice about immersion programs the PSLawNet Blog was asked about how to find credible and affordable programs.  We researched the issue as promised and here are a few recommendations we received for reputable programs:

• Intercultura Language School and Cultural Center (Heredia and Samara Beach, Costa Rica):  This program was recommended to one-half of the PSLawNet Blog by her friend who is a teacher in Seattle and attended a program at the school a couple of years ago.  He really enjoyed the experience and highly recommends the program.

From their website:  The primary goal of Intercultura is to teach you the Spanish language in a warm yet intellectually challenging environment. Classes at our city and beach campuses are conducted entirely in Spanish, providing students from all over the world with a complete and intensive learning experience. Our professors have advanced university degrees and teaching certification, and we are accredited through the US university system, offering undergraduate credit to those interested. In addition, you have the opportunity to come to know Costa Rica, its traditions and its rich cultural heritage by participating in our daily cultural and extracurricular activities.

• ICA Language School (Xela, Guatemala): This recommendation comes from a D.C. attorney who attended the program.  She characterized the program as “very intensive 1:1 training” and “felt [she] learned a lot.”

From their website:  The Instituto Central America (I.C.A.), founded in 1976, is the first Spanish school in Quetzaltenango to be fully accredited by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) and the Guatemalan tourist institute (INGUAT). We offer a personalized learning program with one-on-one instruction to students of all levels. Every teacher at I.C.A. offers years of experience and training, a private classroom for each student-teacher pair and we use our very own textbook, researched and written by our teachers.

Our instructors are professionals with extensive knowledge of grammar and experience in methods, techniques, and activities to apply what you learn in the classroom in the real world. In addition, all of our teachers participated in the Diploma for Teachers Specialized to Teach Spanish as a Second Language given and evaluated by the San Carlos University, the Ministry of Education, and the Tourist Institute of Guatemala, to name a few of the institutions involved.

• Convinced that Guatemala is the destination for you?  Check out Guatemala365. This site was recommended to us by another D.C. attorney and lists “about 30 selected Spanish schools in different towns of Guatemala. There are photos and descriptions that charactarize these schools.”  Guatemala365 “selected and ranked [schools] based on reports of over 1000 students.”  The site also provides you with information about how to apply for the various programs and advice for planning your travel.

Through searching “the internets” we also came across the following sites that may be of assistance to you if you are looking for immersion programs.

Legal Language Services is sponsoring an immigration writing contest for law school students.  From their website:

Law school students: Are you studying immigration law? Have you noticed any trends in US or international immigration? Legal Language wants to hear what you think!

Submit an unpublished article on legal issues that affect immigration in the United States and/or abroad. Articles should reflect recent developments in immigration, bring forth new ideas about the subject or introduce a discussion.

Articles should be between 500 and 1,000 words and written for an audience of legal professionals. The articles will be judged on subject matter treatment, scholarship and analysis.

The winner will be awarded a $500.00 cash award and two runners-up will receive $100.00 cash awards. The winning articles as well as a number of additional articles receiving honorable mention will be posted on the Legal Language Services website.

The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2011.  Visit their website for full details and rules of eligibility.

Need a job or internship? During the past week PSLawNet has posted:   75 new attorney positions,   49 internships, and  19 law related opportunities.  Additionally, there are currently 1,267 active opportunities in our job database. To search the database visit PSLawNet. 

Featured New Positions:

Legal Services NYC-Bronx (LSNYC-Bronx) seeks a Project Director to lead its borough-wide program as it seeks to build on existing strengths and expand its capacity and impact for clients and communities.  Its areas of practice include housing, family law, public benefits, education, employment, consumer, homeowner protection and tax. Specialized program projects serve particularly vulnerable low-income populations such as seniors, survivors of domestic abuse and people with disabilities.  LSNYC-Bronx is a separately incorporated constituent corporation of Legal Services NYC, the largest provider of free civil legal services to low-income people in the nation.   Check PSLawNet for application details.

East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is seeking full-time law student interns for its 2011 Summer Program.  EBCLC is a nationally-recognized poverty law clinic founded by Boalt students in 1988 with the dual mission of providing high quality legal services to low-income clients and first-rate clinical education to law students. EBCLC provides free civil legal services to low-income clients of Alameda County, California.

EBCLC is the community-based clinic for Berkeley Law School (University of California, Boalt Hall) during the academic year. During our summer session, EBCLC welcomes students from all law schools. Check PSLawNet for application details.

Featured Public Service Career Resource:

Believe it or not, it is possible to work as a full-time public interest attorney with a . . . gasp . . . for-profit law firm.  While still considered a niche practice, many “public interest law firms” represent individuals, groups (such as labor unions and member associations), and government bodies on myriad legal matters, including employment and housing discrimination, labor issues, land use and property rights, and much more.  The  Center for Public Interest Law at
Columbia Law School (CPIL) and Harvard Law School Office of Public Interest Advising shared their Private Public Interest and Plaintiff’s Firm Guide with the PSLawNet’s Public Service Career Library.  Check it out.

Learn more about getting a PSLawNet job seeker or employer account . . .