Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! I hope you all have a chance to take a break from things in the near future, but in the meantime, some news. One big story is featured immediately below. For the other, check out the “Student Loans” section, where a new Senate bill aims to make it easier for debtholders to save for retirement via employer matching contributions, the DoE released new PSLF data, and a report from a new non-profit purports to expose misfeasance in the way the federal government has administered the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Editor’s Feature: “Law Schools are Bad for Democracy”

In a strongly-worded piece, Professor Samuel Moyn of Yale Law wrote an opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education suggesting that legal education misdirects aspiring lawyers’ desire for social change into judicial activism and provides “social-justice work [that] harmonizes [] easily with elite credentialing for power and wealth.” Multiple responses followed, including this one from Dean Raymond of the University of Wisconsin Law School (printed as a letter-to-the-editor in the Chronicle), and this blog post from Prof. Lubet of Northwestern Law.

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• The National Catholic Reporter profiled the logistical and procedural hurdles pro bono attorneys face while trying to represent individuals with pending asylum claims detained by federal authorities.
• Southern California Public Radio also focused on logistical hurdles for asylum seekers, reporting that “California’s high cost of living could push families out of the very places offering the most help.”
• In Denver, CO, the city “officially opened a fund in November for people who can’t afford legal representation in their immigration cases.”

Student Loans

• Senator Wyden introduced the Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act, which “would permit 401(k), 403(b) and SIMPLE retirement plans to make matching contributions to workers as if their student loan payments were salary reduction contributions.”
• The Department of Education released new Public Service Loan Forgiveness Data. Politico used this data to report that “[a]s of September 30, only 206 borrowers have had their student loans discharged under [PSLF]. More than 32,000 borrowers had their applications denied ‘due to not meeting program requirements’ and another 11,892 were denied for ‘missing information.'” MarketWatch reported further on the subject.
• Meanwhile, CNBC profiled one recently-rejected PSLF borrower who has launched a lawsuit against her loan servicer.
• The American Federation of Teachers and the Student Borrower Protection Center released Keeping the Promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a report that purposes to detail how “servicers have created roadblocks for borrowers at each step in the process of qualifying for PSLF”–and to provide a roadmap for holding the federal government and its contractors accountable for “irreparable harm to millions of borrowers.” The Washington Post reported further on the subject.
• Following a court order, the Department of Education prepared to erase $150 million worth of student debt under the “Borrower Defense to Repayment” rule, a move that “will benefit about 15,000 lenders and students who were taken advantage of by “for-profit” colleges.”
• In California, a state senator announced plans to introduce a bill “lift[ing] state income taxes on newly forgivable student loan debt.”
• In Pennsylvania, “a federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit alleging widespread abuse by student loan servicer Navient Corp. can go forward.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• The ABA announced its approval for iQualify Lending as a financing method for client legal fees. Under iQualify’s system, “the attorney can provide the client with an application form that’s submitted to iQualify Lending offices, and within a matter of minutes, qualified lenders will submit bids to the client to help finance the legal fees…The result is that the client is now able to pay their legal fee in full, upfront, [and a]ll loans made to the clients are non-recourse to the attorney.” (See also ABA Formal Opinion 484: “A Lawyer’s Obligations When Clients Use Companies or Brokers to Finance the Lawyer’s Fee“.)
• Meanwhile, the ABA Journal expressed skepticism that novel financing structures can help: “[t]he access-to-justice gap doesn’t exist because of absence of loans (sic) or the lack of technology or the intractable billable hour. It exists–and continues to grow–because the cost of life in America has increased dramatically while wages for most Americans have been stagnant or even falling for decades.”
• In West Virginia, the newly-appointed Director of the state’s Access to Justice Commission discussed his vision for the commission with WVNews.com. (The state’s A2J commission recently came under the administration of the West Virginia University College of Law, as previously reported in the Digest.)
• In New Jersey, the State Senate passed legislation which would “direct the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs to fund a portion of the legal services provided to homeless veterans and veterans at risk of homelessness.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Indiana, the Public Defender Commission sought funding for a pilot project that “would pair public defenders [representing parents in Department of Child Services court cases] with social workers.”
• In Louisiana, a professor of political science published a thorough and thoughtful critique of Louisiana’s newly-revised system for funding indigent defense, created earlier this year after criticism of the old system (as discussed in prior digest editions).

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Canada, the National Magazine reported on how the “Jordan Rule” capping the duration of criminal trials is affecting the administration of justice: “[n]ow that [the] backlog of pre-Jordan cases has been larged cleared…Crown and defense lawyers alike report that trial times aren’t speeding up.” Instead, the Magazine reported “a trend…of courts holding defence counsel responsible for questionable delays that violate the Jordan limits…imposing an extra burden on the defence as an ‘escape hatch’ to evade Jordan stays.”

Pro Bono

• In South Carolina, the State Supreme Court “has created a new honor for attorneys who provide over 50 hours of pro bono legal service each year.”

Music Bonus

Dee1, “Sallie Mae Back”

The Organization

The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) has successfully helped Haitians enforce their human rights since 2004. IJDH partners with the Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux(BAI) to support grassroots struggles for justice in Haiti and in the powerful countries abroad where decisions about Haitians’ rights are often made. IJDH and BAI combine traditional legal strategies with organizing, emerging technology and public advocacy to address the root causes of instability and poverty in Haiti. 

We fight with routinely excellent legal work, but also with creativity, humility, inspiration and humor, and a supportive work culture. We effect broad changes with modest resources by nurturing large advocacy networks.

The Position

IJDH is offering a two-year legal fellowship for an emerging lawyer passionate about supporting justice struggles in the Global South. The Fellowship is part of the Bertha Foundation’s Bertha Justice Initiative, a global network of progressive lawyers that provides solidarity and training to movement lawyers around the world.  The Bertha Foundation supports 4-8 fellows at BAI in Haiti, and one fellow at IJDH. The Fellowship at IJDH will focus on developing skills necessary for lawyers from the Global North to support social change movements and progressive lawyers in the Global South and build effective transnational advocacy movements.

The IJDH Bertha Fellow will work closely with IJDH and BAI teams in the U.S. and Haiti on advocacy and legal work, including our groundbreaking project holding the UN accountable for introducing cholera to Haiti. The Bertha Fellow will also serve as a support to the BAI Fellows in Haiti and a liaison between the BAI and the broader Bertha Network.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=87589

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Things continue to be busy here at NALP. Looking forward to checking in with you all more in the New Year. In the meantime, here’s some news:

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• Professors Robertson (Case Western) and Manta (Hofstra) published an article alleging that the manner in which the Trump administration is working to de-naturalize citizens with criminal histories “carr[ies] a disturbingly high risk of mistakenly taking away citizenship from someone who committed neither crime nor fraud.”
• In California, the 9th Circuit conducted an en banc hearing of a case concerning whether the Fifth Amendment’s right-to-counsel guarantee extends to children facing deportation.
• Pro Bono attorneys from Hogan Lovells, in partnership with the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (DC) and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (TX), filed a challenge to the Trump administration’s attempts to keep asylum seekers from entering the United States.

Legal Technology

• In Chicago, IL, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) launched two new websites: www.a2j.org and www.a2jauthor.org. The sites are designed to allow anyone to create and host A2J Guided Interviews that help self-represented litigants complete legal forms or work through legal decisions.
• A survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Your Lawyers Online suggested that 69% of Americans would be willing to use online legal services if it would save them money.

Student Loans

• In Michigan, Eastern Michigan University has launched a program that aims to re-enroll former undergraduates who were unable to continue due to financial challenges by forgiving student debt when students perform community service.

Public Benefits

• In Massachusetts, the state is studying a series of changes to court rules and procedures after Northeast Legal Services revealed that district courts in the Salem area had been routinely “sign[ing] off on settlement agreements and judgments that force many low-income debtors to make payments of of public assistance, Social Security, or workers’ compensation payments.”

Pro Bono

• In Michigan, the State Bar launched its “A Lawyer Helps” Pro Bono Honor Roll, recognizing Michigan attorneys who provide 30 or more hours of pro bono legal services in a calendar year.

Access to Justice – Civil

• Martha Bergmark, a former LSC President, argued in the pages of USA Today that the new Congress should increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation and make other structural reforms to help narrow the justice gap.
• In West Virginia, West Virginia University College of Law became the home of the state’s Access to Justice Commission. According to WVU, “[o]nly two commissions in the country are administered by law schools.”
• In Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Legal Aid launched a fundraising campaign which aims to raise $10-$15 million over the next four years, 80% of which will go toward new programming at the organization.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Montana, the Office of the State Public Defender

Criminal Justice Reform

• In King County, Washington, the County Prosecutor, Sheriff, Deputy Policy Chief, and a representative of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center announced plans to “work with Legislators to expand the statue of limitations for sex assault crimes.”
• In Solano County, CA, a longtime deputy public defender was appointed to a vacant seat on the County Superior Court bench.

Judicial Appointments

• “Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaker vote in the Senate on Tuesday to confirm a federal appeals court nominee who received a “not qualified” rating from the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary… a second confirmed nominee to the appeals court, Leonard Steven Grasz, [also] received [a] not qualified rating[].” 

Music Bonus!

Brass Against the Machine, “Cult of Personality” (Living Colour Cover)

The Organization

The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization (LSO) provides legal representation to individuals and organizations in need of legal services but unable to afford private attorneys. Students, supervised by Law School faculty members and participating attorneys, interview clients, write briefs, prepare witnesses, try cases, negotiate settlements, draft documents, participate in commercial transactions, draft legislation and regulatory proposals, and argue appeals in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Connecticut Supreme Court.

The Position

LSO seeks to hire 20-25 Summer Fellows to work with clinical faculty in order to continue this client representation. These are paid positions, with a salary of $7,080 for 12 weeks of full-time work ($14.75/hour). The Fellowship will run from May 21 to August 16, 2019, with some flexibility as to start and end dates. Part-time work or full-time work for a portion of the Fellowship period may also be possible. 

LSO clinics perform a wide range of exciting work, including litigation in state and federal court and before administrative agencies, transactional work on behalf of community organizations, and policy and legislative advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. For 2019, LSO seeks Summer Fellows for the following clinics:

• Advanced Sentencing Clinic
• Challenging Mass Incarceration Clinic
• Ludwig Community and Economic Development Clinic
• Criminal Justice Clinic
• Housing Clinic
• Veterans Legal Services Clinic
• Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=87219 

Organization 

Lambda Legal is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV.

Since 1973, Lambda Legal has used impact litigation and other advocacy tools to decriminalize same-sex relationships; challenge discrimination against LGBT people and people living with HIV in the workplace, the home, in schools, in health care, and in the military; and protect LGBT families, including by winning and defending marriage equality. Supporters across the country contribute to a growing budget of approximately $27M. Clients are not charged for legal representation or advocacy and Lambda Legal receives no government funding. Headquartered in New York City, Lambda Legal has regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

Position 

Lambda Legal welcomes applications for the 2019-2021 Tyron Garner Memorial Fellowship for African-American LGBT Civil Rights. This fellowship honors the memory of Tyron Garner, one of the men Lambda Legal represented in our groundbreaking Supreme Court victory Lawrence v. Texas (which struck down all remaining state sodomy laws in the country) and helps expand Lambda Legal’s work in African-American LGBT communities. Mr. Garner died in 2006, after his case vindicated the constitutional right to express sexual intimacy in adult relationships.

Through the Garner Fellowship, Lambda Legal seeks to support law graduates dedicated to LGBT issues within African-American communities in ongoing engagement with civil rights work on behalf of LGBT individuals and people living with HIV. The Garner Fellowship contributes to Lambda Legal’s expansion of our current work to serve communities of color and address the intersection of LGBT discrimination and racism that affects African-American LGBT communities.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=86887 

Organization

A Better Balance is a national legal advocacy organization with offices in Nashville, TN and New York, NY dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace and helping workers care for their families without sacrificing their economic security. Through nationwide policy advocacy, legal services and strategic litigation, and enforcement and education, ABB is fighting back and improving workers’ lives at the local, state and federal levels. The organization has fought for and won victories in improved paid leave, equal pay, pregnancy and caregiver protection, breastfeeding accommodations, LGBTQ rights protections, and other economic justice issues throughout the country.  

Position

Based in Nashville, TN, the Staff Attorney would advance the goals of A Better Balance by promoting fairness for working families in the South and raising awareness nationally of local issues affecting Southern low-wage workers, especially marginalized communities. The Staff Attorney would work in the following areas: combating discrimination and unfair practices against women and caregivers, such as pregnancy & breastfeeding discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act violations, staffing our free legal helpline to assist low-wage workers, being part of a team working on impact litigation cases, drafting and disseminating public education materials, and conducting legal research.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=86603 

Organization 

The Institute for Justice is the National Law Firm for Liberty.
IJ litigates to limit the size and scope of government power and to ensure that all Americans have the right to control their own destinies as free and responsible members of society.

The Institute for Justice combines cutting-edge litigation, sophisticated media relations, strategic research, boots-on-the-ground advocacy and much more to fight on behalf of those individuals who are denied their constitutional rights. Despite the challenge of taking on powerful government officials and entrenched precedents, IJ is successful in winning 70 percent of its cases in the court of law, in the court of public opinion or through legislative reforms.

Position 

The Institute for Justice’s Dave Kennedy Summer Fellowship program provides an unparalleled opportunity for select law students to substantively contribute to IJ’s cutting-edge civil-rights litigation. Fellows conduct legal research; help develop litigation strategies for active and potential cases; and draft discovery requests, motions, and briefs filed in both state and federal court.

IJ’s Dave Kennedy Summer Fellowship positions are highly competitive. The fellowship is a paid opportunity, $7000 for the 10 week program, and generally runs from the last week of May through early-August. Fellowship opportunities are available at all six of IJ’s offices:

Arlington, VA (Headquarters)
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Tempe, AZ

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=86481 . 

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! I won’t dodge. Things have been busy here at NALP, both with the PSJD Mini-Conference that happened at the end of October and with a number of projects in the office that I’m hoping to share with you all later this year. But also, it’s been hard to face the news the last few weeks and find a face to wear for all of you.

But the world continues to turn and the digest is back. Major news this week includes the likely demise of a successful and critical legal aid program in Ontario, ominous questions concerning the legitimacy of cy pres from the Supreme Court, a new, free, online caselaw library from the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab, and a number of high-profile district attorney elections that went to candidates promising substantial progressive reforms.

See you around,
   Sam

Immigrants & Refugees 

• The Justice Department began using video hearings to have migrant children testify in immigration proceedings from detention, according to the Associated Press, “some attorneys and judges say[] that technical glitches…are actually making it much harder for teens in shelters to have a fair hearing.”
• In Seattle, WA, Seattle University suspended its externship program with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “based on its current policies and practices.” 

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington, Justices Roberts, Alito, and Kavanaugh made comments during oral argument in Frank v. Gaos  that questioned the legitimacy of cy pres deals by extending reasoning from the Court’s recent holding in Janus v. AFSCME: According to law360, “Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether it’s appropriate to hand out funds to charities–which may make political or other speech–that class members have not approved.” As the publication notes, “the scrutiny of these deals indirectly threatens a system that the American Bar Association estimates sends approximately $15.5 million every year to legal aid service organizations.”
• In Ontario, “[a] program that gets lawyers to volunteer their time to help people navigate the civil court system in Toronto and Ottawa is shutting down next month for lack of funding–even though a study shows it saves Ontario’s justice system more than $5 million a year.”
  • A former president of the Ontario Bar Association launched a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to save the program.
• In the Ohio News-Herald, the Managing Director of Ohio State University’s Student Legal Services program discusses the student-legal-services model.

Veterans Services

• In Washington DC, the Department of Veterans Affairs led other government agencies (including Labor, Justice, Defense, and the US Navy), “signed a joint statement aimed at improving access to free legal services for Veterans in need.”

Student Debt

• Citing reports from the Urban Institute and Brookings, Forbes reported that “40% of student loan borrowers may default on their student loans by 2023.”
• AboveTheLaw suggested “law students should join ROTC to help minimize their student debt.”
• In Washington DC, “[DC] Attorney General Racine and a coalition of 20 states called on U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary Betsy DeVos to help student borrowers who attended schools that abruptly closed have their loans discharged.”
• In Maine, lawmakers extended the state’s “Educational Opportunity Tax Credit” program, a state policy that offsets student loan payments for recent graduates who stay in the state, “making a similar offer to graduates from outside the state; in effect, trying to lure them to Maine.”
• In Newburgh Heights, Ohio, the mayor has proposed a program which would offer $50,000 in loan forgiveness to people who move to the town, buy a home, and stay for at least 10 years.
• In Washington DC, Bustle.com speculated that the influx of younger congress-members may create an institution more inclined to treat student debt reform as an urgent issue.
• In Milwaukee, WI, the state journal reported the story of a former student loan debtor who reports that the Department of Education began requesting additional payments months after he received official notice his debts had been paid.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Michigan, “[t]he Michigan Indigent Defense Commission is preparing to distribute $84 million in grant money to counties in an effort to provide fairer legal representation to those who cannot afford it.” (This disbursement will be the culmination of many months of work by the commission, documented in earlier editions of the digest.)

Criminal Justice Reform

• In jurisdictions across the country, voters elected district attorneys promising to reform their offices:
  • In Dallas County, TX, John Creuzot won with a platform of police accountability and bail reform.
  • In Bexar County, TX, Joe Gonzales won with a platform of cite-and-release for minor offenses.
  • In St. Louis County, MO, Wesley Bell won with a platform of diversion and drug treatment.
  • In Boston, MA, Rachel Rollins won with a platform of eliminating cash bail, dismissing minor offenses, hiring a more diverse staff of prosecutors, and collecting data to discover biases among her staff.

Legal Technology

• In Cambridge, MA, Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab launched the CaseLaw Access Project: “a new free website [that] makes available nearly 6.5 million state and federal cases dating from the 1600s to earlier this year.”
• According to Gizmodo, “[i]n a company-wide meeting[], Amazon addressed its relationship with law enforcement agencies, including Immigrations Customs and Enforcement–its first direct response to employee concerns raised in June about the company’s often successful attempts to provide cloud infrastructure and facial recognition software for these government authorities.”
• The Chief Program Officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts wrote for governing.com on how “[t]echnology can help people who don’t have lawyers and make courts more efficient.”
• A new report, “Government Jobs of the Future,” examines how changes in technology might affect the types of roles humans play in the administration of government.

Music Bonus

Dolly Parton, “19th Amendment“

Organization 

DNA People’s Legal Services, Inc. (“DNA”) is the largest and one of the oldest Indian legal services programs in the United States. It was established on the Navajo Indian Reservation in 1967 under the name Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe, a Navajo phrase which means “contributing to the revitalization of the People through the legal process”.

DNA’s primary source of funding is the Legal Services Corporation, which was created by federal statute to provide civil legal services to indigent persons. In addition, DNA seeks funding from other sources, such as private foundations, to support particular community legal education endeavors, major case litigation and other special projects.

Position 

DNA People’s Legal Services is hiring 8 attorneys in their various offices across Arizona and New Mexico. They are also accepting applications from 2L’s for their summer law internship program.

See a full list of DNA’s openings on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/search?SearchTypeID=2&OrgID=113674 

Awa Sowe, PSJD Fellow

October was a big month for us here at PSJD. Our annual mini-conference went off without a hitch- many thanks to all the employers and career services professionals who attended!  PSJD was also an exhibitor at the Equal Justice Conference and Career Fair and witnessing the next generation of social-justice-minded lawyers was exhilarating.  These past few weeks are just a continuation of PSJD’s successful year, which is highlighted by our ever-expanding job database (our 2017-2018 overall jobs present exceeded the three-year average).

 As our database continues to grow, we want to ensure that all geographic regions in our subscribing schools’ network are being represented in proportion to the size of the public interest legal market in each individual state. Therefore, we have developed a method for calculating each state’s job market for entry-level legal positions and comparing this information to the state’s presence on PSJD’s job database.  

This automated method allows us to identify any imbalances between the number of recent law graduates entering the public interest legal market in a state versus the number of entry-level positions on PSJD for that state. With this information in hand, the next step is developing a framework for reducing such gaps.

Interested public, PSJD subscribers and friends, be on the lookout for exciting developments with this new project in the coming months. As always, shoot us an email at psjd@nalp.org if you have any opportunities you’d like to forward our way.