This week: Strong demand for legal services in South Carolina; $350K from DOJ to law school for veterans clinic; 3 deferred law firm associates wrap up their public interest placements; in “brave people taking tough jobs” news, Missouri to get a new public defender; what will a Republican House do to the federal workforce?; loan assistance for U. of Tennessee public interest grads; foreclosure clinics in Kentucky; loan assistance for South Dakota prosecutors and defenders; the Wyoming Access to Justice Commission launches a new legal services program; a new DOJ program brings together law schools, firms, and public interest offices to combat domestic violence.

• 11.3.10 – just FYI South Carolina’s Greenville News is a running a subscription-only article entitled “Legal Services Faces Big Demand in Tough Times.”  We seem to have let our Greenville News subscription lapse, but if you’ve got one…

• 11.2.10 – from a press release we learn that the “Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC) at The John Marshall Law School recently was awarded a $350,000 grant from the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs.”  We covered the announcement more extensively in this Wednesday blog post.  It’s truly heartening to see so many law schools creating and expanding programs to serve veterans.  We’ve covered some past instances of law schools/students working with vets; see the last item in our 10/8/10 News Bulletin for stories about work at the University of San Francisco, Arizona State, and Detroit Mercy.  And for good measure here’s an interview we did with Michael Taub, a staff attorney who runs a successful veterans assistance program at Philadelphia’s Homeless Advocacy Project.  Michael, a friend and former officemate of the PSLawNet Blog, is an outstanding attorney but has so-so taste in music.

Keep reading the bulletin . . .

Congrats to The John Marshall Law School’s Veteran’s Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC)!  The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs has awarded VLSC a $350,000 to support its efforts to “work with the state court system to implement Veterans Courts; . . . develop the partnership with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to administer support for qualifying veterans appearing in Federal Misdemeanor Court;  serve as the strategic depository for all scholarship addressing domestic violence issues . . . and assist other law schools across” the country to develop similar programming in their communities.

“This grant makes it possible for us to provide valuable legal support to those who have given so much to our country – the men and women who have served our nation in time of need.”

-The John Marshall Law School Foundation President John Lee.

VLSC is one of the first clinics of its kind in the country and is committed to addressing the legal needs of veterans seeking benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The program assists veterans by investigating and researching their VA benefit claims.   The clinic also provides referrals to private attorneys for qualified veterans through a statewide network of pro bono attorneys.

“We ask a lot of our veterans. We put them in harm’s way. We ask that they give the last ounce of devotion that they possibly can and then sometimes when they get back state-side, we don’t always give them the support that they need.  That is one of the reasons for our veterans clinic – to try and make sure that we do give the men and women who are veterans the help that they need.”

-John Marshall Dean John E. Corkery

Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL) congratulated the law school during the grant announcement ceremony for both receiving the grant and the school’s “tremendous outreach into the community.”

PSLawNet is always excited to hear about law schools providing legal assistance to our country’s veterans.  Check out our earlier post to learn about two programs at The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law addressing the growing legal needs of low-income veterans.

Students from the  Voter’s Rights Project at Rutgers School of Law-Camden are volunteering their time to monitor participation and provide advice to voters at the polls today throughout Camden.

The Voters’ Rights Project is a non-partisan pro bono program established by Rutgers-Camden students, in 2004, in a effort to mirror the efforts of the national Election Protection program.

“The goal of the project is to ensure that every voter within Camden feels safe and is able to successfully exercise their right to vote without fear of intimidation,” said 2L Matt DePasquale, co-coordinator of the student-run project.

Students have registered dozens of voters, monitored Camden polling places, and developed a strong partnership with the Camden County Board of Elections.  According to Eve Biskind Klothen, Assistant Dean for Pro Bono and Public Interest Programs at Rutgers–Camden

“[t]he Camden County Board of Elections has sought their assistance and input, and in turn conducts training for participating students. They then monitor elections as student observers; and now some students, after additional training, have been deputized to provide further assistance on Election Day.”

The students’ work does not stop after election day, throughout the year the project organizes voter registration drives and implements educational programming at local schools and community centers.  In 2009, the project received national recognition when it was awarded received Equal Justice Work’s Exemplary Public Service Award for a student group.  Read the full coverage.

Interested in learning about more election efforts today?

Today’s guest post is shared by Leeor Neta, the Assistant Director for Public Interest Programs at Golden Gate University School of Law.  After attending the 2010 NALP/PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference and EJW Conference and Career Fair he is sharing key insights from programming he attended at both conferences on GGU’s Law Career Services Blog.

Best Advice I Know on Pursuing a Public Interest Career

On the last day of the NALP / PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference, I attended a panel discussion that indirectly shared some important advice on how to pursue a public interest career. I say that the advice was “indirectly shared” because the purpose of the panel was to discuss pathways to public policy and think tank careers. Two of the four panelists (Nicole Austin-Hillery, director and counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, and Alejandro T. Reyes, associate counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) are involved in some of the most prestigious impact litigation and legal policy work in the nation.

Both of the panelists agreed that lawyers who work on policy need to understand the nexus between law and enforcement. In concluding that the “best policy percolates up from the street,” Ms. Austin-Hillery explained that a policy lawyer can’t craft effective policy unless she understands her clients and understands how to get them to tell their stories. A policy lawyer needs to make brief and effective arguments under pressure. A policy lawyer also needs to know how to work with opposing forces and different interests to negotiate on her clients’ behalf. Because effective communication and negotiation skills are the key to policy work, the entire panel agreed that a lawyer wanting to work on policy needs a solid foundation in litigation.

The panel also suggested that law students interested in policy work try to work for state legislatures, researching and helping to draft proposed legislation. International work experience, moot courts, and writing opportunities are also considered important. Everyone agreed that working for the Administrative Office of the Courts and State Bar Associations were ideal — and less competitive — ways to acquire policy work experience.

The panel’s best advice pertained to all aspiring public interest lawyers. First, they advised — as I have already done for many of you — that law students identify five to ten offices that they would like to work for and try to join their advisory boards. Many of those offices might need independent legal advice and the work that one does as a board member is a great way to leverage an employment offer once a position opens up. Students should consider a two-week immersion program, some of which are extremely affordable (one of the panelists described a program in Mexico that costs less than $800!).

Finally, the entire panel agreed that the best candidates for entry-level positions demonstrate through their resumes and cover letters that they were born to pursue the job for which they’re applying. Their resumes demonstrate a seamless progression of attention and commitment to a specific area. Therefore, “the sooner you can decide what it is you want to do with your legal career, the better prepared you will be when you apply for your first job.”

Keep reading to learn about postgraduate fellowship opportunities . . .

Perhaps a silver lining to the recession is that it’s given rise to some unique collaborations in delivering legal services to low-income clients and others on society’s margins.  For instance, we have been writing about the development of temporary public -service placements for deferred law firm associates.

Here’s something similar.  According to the National Law Journal, the Department of Justice has launched the Access to Justice for Domestic Violence Victims program:

 The idea behind the Access for Justice for Domestic Violence Victims program is for law firms to hire recent law school graduates who have participated in a domestic violence clinic, then subsidize their full-time work at a legal aid organization for a certain period of time, said Tania Tetlow, the director of the Domestic Violence Clinic at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.

There are two pilot programs at work now, one in New Orleans and one in Baltimore. Tulane is the participating NOLA law school and the University of Baltimore is active in Charm City.  So, while the details are still being sketched out, it seems as if a student would participate in their school’s DV clinic, then would throw their hat in the ring to be hired by the firm, then take a temporary, full-time placement doing DV-prevention work with a legal services organization.

We at the PSLawNet Blog know that students on public service career tracks greet such programs with mixed feelings because the path toward a “regular” public interest job has become so difficult of late – there’s actually a quote in the NLJ story from the DV clinic director at the U. of Baltimore to the effect that $40,000 nonprofit jobs are harder to get than $140,000 law firm jobs.   Nevertheless we are happy to see resources from the law firm world leveraged in favor of serving clients who are so vulnerable.  And hey, it strikes us that a student who shows an unwavering commitment to working on DV prevention would be a very strong candidate for positions like these, maybe even if they aren’t on law firm career paths.

Boo!!!, people.  Boo! because it’s Halloween and boo! because the Phillies got knocked out of the playoffs.  This week’s News Bulletin is bursting at the seams because we took a break last Friday.  This happened because we are lazy we were hosting and/or attending NALP’s Public Service Mini-Conference and the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair.

We’ll put up a debriefing post about those events later, but without further ado here’s two weeks of public interest news, including: A Colorado district attorney isn’t high on public defenders; there’s nothing corny about access to justice in Iowa; a public law school’s clinic program subject to NJ open records laws; grayhairs…er…senior attorneys…volunteering on the access to justice front; federal hiring reform is happening about as quickly as most federal things happen; some domestic abuse prevention funding in Southeast PA; a foreclosure clinic at Albany Law; Canada’s feeling the legal services funding pain, too; misguided pro bono efforts in San Fran?; public defender and prosecutor almost come to blows?; speaking of, let’s return to prosecutors and defenders in Colorado; you’re welcome, Alaska Legal Services Corporation, for your organization’s new motto; LSC’s inspector general scrutinizing a Louisiana grantee program; law students fighting foreclosures in Beantown; a goofy and fortunate financial boost for a Chicago public interest organization; Microsoft forks over big donation bucks to Kids in Need of Defense (KIND); Kentucky hops on the AtJ commission bandwagon; New York State Bar’s president wants more government funding for legal services; so does the New York Times’ editorial board.

• 10.28.10 – Kerfuffle alert!  On 10/22, the Aspen Daily News in Colorado ran a story about the funding differences between the local public defender’s and prosecutor’s office.  We summarized that story in Item 11 below, and we indicated that the story closed with comments from District Attorney Martin Beeson that were sharply critical of the role of public defenders in the criminal justice system.  Well, those comments – “Public defenders are not defenders of the public. They are not serving the public good. They are taxpayer-funded attorneys for criminals.” – have caused a stir in the Colorado legal community.  In a more recent Aspen Daily News piece, critics characterized Beeson’s comments as “scary,” “spectacularly ignorant,” and showing a “shocking disregard” for constitutional principles.  Beeson is not backing down: ““I stand by my statement. The so-called public defenders do not defend the public. The law enforcement defends the public. The prosecutors defend the public.”

• 10.26.10 – In a letter to the editor published in the Des Moines Register, two legal services advocates highlight the importance – and the recent successes – of the Iowa Supreme Court in expanding access to justice for low-income Iowans.  The court’s justices have “encouraged Iowa lawyers to provide services to low-income Iowans. Last year alone, more than $2 million in donated legal services were provided.  The Iowa Supreme Court has also fostered the development of self-help court forms that allow unrepresented Iowans the tools needed to seek judicial remedies when they can’t afford to hire a lawyer.”

• 10.26.10 – the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Rutgers law school clinics must prepare for the sunshine: “Defying the wishes of several national associations dealing with legal education, an appeals court in New Jersey has denied the legal clinics of that state’s public law schools immunity from its open-records law, exposing them to new document requests that could greatly complicate their work.”  A Rutgers environmental law clinic is at the center of this decision.  After it represented a citizens’ group in opposing a real estate development plan, the developer tried to subject the clinic to disclosure provisions under the state’s Open Public Records Act.  On the trial court level, the clinic was successful in opposing the disclosure demands; the court found that the clinic’s unique status, not just as a publicly funded institution but as a law office with needs for preserving confidentiality, exempted it from the OPRA.  But the appellate court disagreed.  The clinic’s position was backed by the American Association of University Professors, the Clinical Legal Education Association, and the Society of American Law Teachers.  The Rutgers case and some others around the country involving challenges to law school clinics’ autonomy made waves earlier this year, as we noted in the final item of our 4/16/10 Public Interest News Bulletin.

• 10.26.10 – New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, the state’s top jurist, is making good use of attorneys who are long in the tooth and not short on altruism.  A while back we covered Chief Judge Lippman’s launching of an “attorney emeritus” program that allowed retired attorneys to remain active and provide pro bono services to low-income clients in a variety of civil matters.  This represents one step Lippman has taken in an impressive personal crusade to narrow the justice gap.  (For more see Item 1 and accompanying links).  More recently, according to the New York Law Journal, the emeritus program is expanding to accept more volunteers.  “Last month, the initiative was one of 10 programs in the state to be recognized by Harvard Kennedy School’s ‘Bright Ideas’ program, which was created to share ‘creative government initiatives’ around the country with public sector, nonprofit and academic communities.  Now, eligibility has been expanded to include non-retired lawyers who otherwise meet the program’s age and experience requirements.”

Keep reading . . .

The Celebration of Pro Bono continues with highlights from the pro bono activities organized by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service at Suffolk University Law School to commemorate the ABA sponsored second annual National Pro Bono Celebration.

Today the Rappaport Center is sponsoring a Criminal Record Sealing Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services.  Massachusetts keeps criminal offender record information, known as “CORI,” on every individual who enters the state’s criminal court system. CORI is recorded and kept on file even if the underlying case is ultimately dismissed or the accused is found not guilty. CORI is used in screening processes by employers, landlords, and government agencies. The increased use of CORI by employers and others has resulted in more and more people with criminal records being denied employment, housing, benefits, and other opportunities for economic stability that others take for granted.

During the Criminal Record Sealing Clinic, law student volunteers will meet with clients to answer CORI questions and provide information on how to get a copy of a CORI and how to seal a CORI.  The students attended a training earlier in the week and will be supervised by attorneys from Greater Boston Legal Services and the Legal Advocacy and Resource Center.

On Saturday, Suffolk Law students will participate in foreclosure prevention canvassing in Chelsea.  The foreclosure crisis is predominantly affecting Boston’s low and moderate-income neighborhoods, with minorities and single women as its most common victims. After foreclosure auctions, banks take ownership of the homes and evict everyone living there, whether they are owners or renters, even if everyone tries to continue to pay a fair rent to the bank.

The Rappaport Center, the Student Bar Association, the No One Leaves Project, and the Chelsea Collaborative are partnering to train students and then hit the streets of Chelsea to inform tenants and former owners of foreclosed properties that they have rights and may stay in their homes.

For a full schedule of this week’s events visit the official 2010 Celebration of Pro Bono site.

We continue PSLawNet’s participation in the 2010 National Celebration of Pro Bono with today’s expert opinion interview with Sylvia Novinsky, the Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs at UNC School of Law.  Novinsky has been with UNC School of Law since 1996, after practicing public interest law representing migrant farm workers and immigrant workers in Virginia and New York. She served as the school’s first public interest career counselor and, in 2000, became the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs.  Novinsky launched the Pro Bono Program at UNC in the fall of 1997 and since has been the driving force behind the development and expansion of the program.  The program has filled thousands of placements with attorneys in non-profit organizations, private practice, and legal services organization across the country – the Class of 2010 completed more than 10,000 hours of pro bono.

In our interview with Novinsky, she shares her insights regarding best practices and the challenges involved in developing and expanding pro bono programming at law schools.  Learn more about UNC School of Law’s program and their Celebration of Pro Bono events.

Why do you believe it important for students to incorporate pro bono into their law school experience?

I believe it is our ethical responsibility as lawyers because we have this special skill set to do pro bono service – and students should begin honoring this commitment to pro bono while still in school.  Additionally, pro bono is an important learning tool to assist students in building their skills outside the classroom.  It also allows students to experience different areas of law, which is helpful in planning their career path.

How did the Pro Bono Program at your school grow into what it is today?

Our program development was guided by student input, student needs, and the community’s needs.  It really is this sort of thing that if you build it they will come.  As students realize what pro bono service can offer they gravitate towards it, especially if the projects have already been organized and are right there in front of them.  If a formal structure is not in place, it takes a lot of time for students to set up their own pro bono opportunities and that can be deterrent for busy law school students.

I believe our program has also grown because we as a profession have become more aware of how lawyers can help – not just in a community service oriented way, but using our unique skills and training.  As a member of the legal profession, one of the great things about the last 10 years is that the group of students entering law schools arrives with a volunteer ethic – their belief in volunteering and giving back as lawyers is a natural outgrowth of their community service experiences as college and high school students.

Based upon your own experience at UNC School of Law, what do you believe are the greatest challenges law schools face in developing and expanding pro bono programs?

I think greatest challenge is figuring out what works for your school – what is the best programmatic structure and what is the mechanism for developing that structure?  Even though our program is now thirteen years old, it was not until the last three years that we achieved a workable system for tracking data.

What is your advice for figuring out what will work at a particular law school?

You really need to understand your community, both your law school and the surrounding legal community.  By legal community, I mean the needs of those low-income individuals seeking legal services and those providing the legal services.

You need to create relationships.  Lawyers in your community need to know that there is a point person at the law school that they can rely on to ensure all the logistics involved in student pro bono projects are being accomplished – that you are not going to let them down.

To some extent you have to take risks – some things are going to work and some things are really not going to work.

Keep reading . . .

In honor of the National Celebration of Pro Bono, October 24-30, 2010, the PSLawNet Blog will be highlighting the pro bono efforts of several of our subscriber schools across the country throughout the week.

Capital University Law School is launching a new Foreclosure Mediation Preparation Project in coordination with the National Pro Bono Week Celebration.  This pilot pro bono program was developed by Professor Margaret M. Cordray in response to the record growth in foreclosures filed in Ohio this year.  The mission of the program is to equip homeowners with the information and tools they need to prepare for foreclosure mediation.

Through this innovative new program, students will counsel homeowners by phone about what mediation is, what they can expect when they go to mediation, and how to prepare for mediation.

There has been an overwhelming response from Capital students willing to volunteer their time with the program.  More than 90 students have already signed up to donate pro bono hours to the program during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Other Celebration of Pro Bono events today included . . .

This Week: Memphis Area Legal Services and Liz Lemon share something in common; a new report highlights Access to Justice troubles in the U.S.; Massachusetts D.A.’s are sounding alarms about budget cuts, pointing fingers at public defender; an access-to-justice op-ed continues its tour of Texas newspapers; some Harvard Law students do good work in the Big Easy; funding woes for Seattle public defenders (and it’s probably raining there, to boot); Michigan Law to develop cross-border human trafficking clinic with Mexican advocates; learn about the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center; mandatory pro bono in Mississippi isn’t that big a deal, so calm down; New York State bar chief chimes in on the need to shore up legal services funding; New Mexico Legal Aid’s executive director explains what’s at stake if poor people can’t access the justice system; proposed federal legislation would support public defenders, but probably won’t see a vote.

• 10.15.10 – Guess who’s turning 40?  Happy Birthday, Memphis Area Legal Services!  The Memphis Daily News runs a story recounting MALS’s humble beginnings, its transformation as a recipient of Legal Services Corporation funding, and the opportunities and challenges it faces today.  As with most legal services providers these days, demand for services outstrips service capacity: “MALS was able to serve just 37 percent of those who applied for legal assistance [in 2009].”  Harrison McIver, MALS’s executive director, notes that goals for the future include not only expanding service capacity, but also boosting salaries to improve attorney retention.  Good stuff!

• 10.14.10 – according to the Huffington Post, a new report by the World Justice Project suggests that, “particularly when it comes to access and affordability of legal counsel in civil disputes, the U.S. ranks 20 out of the 35 nations surveyed, below not only developed nations but also such countries as Mexico, Croatia and the Dominican Republic.”  The report paints a picture of “a significant gap between the rich and the poor in terms of their use and satisfaction with the civil courts system.”  A lot of poorer Americans surveyed didn’t feel the justice system treated them fairly, while the wealthier had a more favorable impression of the system.  The HuffPost piece notes that Legal Services Corporation has also been sounding the alarm about the poor not having access to justice, and that the Obama Administration appointed Prof. Laurence Tribe to address AtJ issues. Here’s a link to the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index.

• 10.14.10 – from the Salem News we learn that Massachusetts prosecutors are questioning a disparity between funding for the state’s indigent defense program and for their own offices.  “The Massachusetts District Attorneys Association says taxpayers now spend twice as much to defend accused criminals as they do to prosecute them.”  The MDAA argues that caseloads are much higher in prosecutors’ offices than with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the public defender.  CPCS retorts, however, that many of the cases it handles are civil matters in which prosecutors are not involved, and that the prosecutors’ budget figures don’t include the budget for police, who do investigative and support work.  This article, while short, does a good job of highlighting the major sticking points in prosecutor/defender budget battles throughout the country.

• 10.12.10 – the Austin American-Statesman runs a terrific – and apparently immortal – op-ed about the struggles of the legal services community in the Lone Star State.  The piece, authored by Texas Supreme Court justice Nathan Hecht, has previously run in the Cherokeean Herald and the Houston Chronicle.  It calls upon the state legislature to appropriate funding in support of civil legal services.

• 10.12.10 – the Harvard Law Record, the school’s independent newspaper, reports on 13 law students who “completed over 500 pro bono hours with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services”  during the school’s “fly-out” week.  The PSLawNet Blog did not participate in OCI, and we certainly did not go to Harvard (we just didn’t apply is all), but we assume this “fly-out week” is the period when students leave Boston to do law firm interviews.  Kudos to the students who went down to Louisiana to lend a hand.

• 10.12.10 – according to Publicola, a Seattle-based news website, King County (that’s Seattle) public defenders are fighting budget cuts, armed with a recent report showing that defenders are in no position to a absorb a loss of resources.  “The Spangenberg report, an independent study on the Office of the Public Defender delivered to the county in June, concludes public defenders are overburdened by King County’s payment system, which pays a flat rate for all cases argued by public defenders, instead of paying a flexible rate based on the complexity of the case.  The Spangenberg [report] also concludes that public defenders in King County work 20 percent over capacity…”  The PSLawNet Blog is familiar with the Spangenberg Group, which has contracted to do indigent  defense and criminal justice system evaluations with governments throughout the U.S.  But we couldn’t find a copy of the King County report online.  Update (10/18):  Courtesy of David Newhouse we are now able to provide you with a link to the full report.

• 10.11.10 – the National Law Journal reports that the University of Michigan Law School ” has received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State to establish a human trafficking clinic at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Unidad Académica de Derecho, a law school located in north central Mexico. The Mexican clinic is an offshoot of the human trafficking clinic that Michigan launched in 2009, which was the first of its kind in the United States …  One of the goals of the Mexican clinic, which will represent a partnership between the two law schools and a local nongovernmental organization called Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (Center for Migrant Rights), is to educate people about human trafficking. Although it will officially be part of the Mexican law school, the Michigan law school will help set up the clinic.”  We at the PSLawNet Blog think this is an interesting approach to addressing a problem – human trafficking – that by definition defies international border controls, while at the same time exposing the Michigan and the Mexican law school’s students to transnational practice issues.

• 10.11.10 – the Detroit News catches up with Nick Schroeck, the executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, an outfit that was created in 2008 “with ties to Wayne State University.”  In the short interview, Schroeck speaks generally about the Center, and about its recent involvement in Anglers of the Au Sable v. Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Merit Energy Co.  We’re exhausted after typing out that caption, so you’ll have to click in to learn more about the case.

• 10.10.10 – Luther Munford, a Jackson, Mississippi based lawyers, pens an oped for the Clarion Ledger in which he noted the controversy over a proposed ethical rule that would require the state’s lawyers to provide 20 hours of pro bono work per year or donate $500 to the cause.  Munford observed that what he thought of as a harmless idea “hit a buzz saw” when it met with opposition from the state’s board of bar commissioners and criticism by some of his professional colleauges.  Munford argues, using data on pro bono hours, lawyer salaries, and other evidence, that the proposal’s requirements should not be so controversial and should not be difficult for lawyers to meet.  He also notes that 1/3 of Mississippi’s population is “poor enough to qualify for legal aid.”  The PSLawNet Blog has been keeping up with developments on this controversy.  Stay tuned for more, and join us in appreciating how great a name Luther Munford is for a Southern lawyer.

• 10.10.10 – on LoHud.com, New York State Bar Association president Stephen P. Younger chimes in with an op-ed about the importance of access to justice for the state’s poor.  He joins with New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman in seeking solutions to the under-funding of the state’s legal services infrastructure.  “It runs counter to our basic concept of fairness to deprive someone of shelter, their child, or much needed government benefits without the aid of a lawyer.”  Funding for legal services is “woefully inadequate.  Our state’s core operating funding for these critical legal services amounts to only $3.68 per indigent person, compared to an average of $23.51 funded by our neighboring states.”  Younger moves on to make a fiscal case for boosting government support of legal services.  “Ironically, New York’s funding levels are not just morally unjust, they are also fiscally irresponsible. Last year, for every dollar spent on civil legal services to poor New Yorkers, more than $1.50 came back to our state — for a total of $361 million — through added federal benefits such as disability payments, supplemental social security or federal grants for civil legal services.”  Younger calls on the state’s legislators to create a “permanent and adequately funded Access to Justice fund.”  Good stuff.  The PSLawNet blog is pleased to see legal luminaries in the Empire State addressing an acute crisis.  As we’ve noted before, Chief Judge Lippmann has made access to justice a priority.

• 10.10.10 – on the NMPolitics.com website, New Mexico Legal Aid executive director Bill Strouse writes that access to justice means the ability to understand basic precepts and processes under-girding the justice system, and to navigate through the system.  This is best accomplished with a lawyer’s help, and New Mexico Legal Aid’s 40 attorneys “provide help to the approximate 350,000 people in New Mexico who live below the poverty line.”  However, a critical source of NMLA funding – a state appropriation – was recently cut by almost 25%.  And there “are already proposals to cut or eliminate [more] funding” in the next legislative session … This is not the time to cut or end funding for legal services to poor New Mexicans.  All New Mexicans…deserve access to the courts. Justice exists when people can access it.”

• 10.7.10 – from The Crime Report website, we learn about proposed federal legislation that would serve as a boon to the nation’s struggling indigent defense programs.  “The omnibus Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2010, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) contains language earmarking $20 million between fiscal years 2011 through 2015 for the country’s under-funded and over-worked legal aid providers.”  The problem?  According to the story the bill has little chance of passage, having been introduced so late in a busy legislative term.  The story’s worth checking out because it explores the difficulties which indigent defense programs have had – both in the distant and more recent past – in fulfilling Gideon’s promise.