Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! There’s a fair amount of news this week, including some major new developments in law-school public-interest funding at Yale, Harvard, and in Ontario.

It was Louisiana that really caught my eye this week, though. Look at the two crim-law related sections below to read about how the state legislature is looking to slash funding for indigent defense and a local judge is calling into question a method by which some public defender offices have been trying to create alternative funding streams, in partnership with district attorneys.

Until next week,
Sam

Law School Public Interest Funding
& Student Loans

• At Yale Law, a classmate of Hillary Clinton is working to create a Public Interest Fund, in Ms. Clinton’s name, that would allow for two recent Yale grads to obtain year-long fellowships–and ultimately to create additional legal clinics at the school.
• At Harvard Law, students continued their advocacy efforts with the University, aimed at convincing the school to “strengthen its support for graduates pursuing public interest and lower-paying work.”
• In Ontario, the provincial government allocated an additional $7.3m for community legal clinics and law student legal aid services throughout the provinces in 2018-2019.
• In Alberta, a lack of legal aid funding from the provincial government fueled ongoing speculation about a potential legal aid strike.
• In Texas, state lawmakers called for changes to the a state statute barring workers from renewing professional licenses if they are in default on their student loans.
• 29 State Attorneys General wrote a letter to select members of Congress expressing opposition to the PROSPER Act’s provisions that would shield student loan collection companies from regulation by individual states.
• One of the country’s largest student loan servicers “sued the Connecticut Banking Department, challenging the agency’s demands for confidential information about its student loan borrowers.” [full article behind paywall]

Hiring Trends

• In Pittsburgh, PA, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette chronicled the difficulties the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office has had with turnover over the last year.

Immigration

• “More than two dozen elite private law firms filed amicus briefs…backing Hawaii in its U.S. Supreme Court challenge to President Trump’s executive order barring people from several Muslim majority countries from entering the United States.”
• A federal district judge ruled that the Commerce Department International Trade Administration (ITA) must comply with FOIA requests for its records on alien ingress for the same fees as other records. (The ITA had been charging $13,000 per year to access its data.)
• In New Jersey, prominent attorneys argued for the State Supreme Court to “promulgate a rule on an expedited basis imposing a special fee of $100 per year on every lawyer in the state…[with t]he proceeds…dedicated to enlisting attorneys to defend New Jersey residents facing possible deportation.”

Emerging Service Models

• Slate.com published an excellent piece on medical-legal partnerships in the United States.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Idaho, the Idaho Statesman reported on how “[a] growing body of research on Idaho’s overworked and underfunded public defenders has led to consensus across the board — from defendants to politicians to the public defenders themselves — that the system needs to change.”
• In Louisiana, public defenders spoke out against House Bill 167, a state legislature proposal that would shut down efforts to identify and exonerate the wrongfully convicted, cut funding for death penalty defense, and restrict funds for appealing convictions. The defenders warn these changes could slow the administration of justice and possibly cost the state more, long-term, than the status quo.

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Canada, the federal government proposed legislation that would “scrap most preliminary inquires, abolish peremptory challenges and make it easier for accused people to be released on bail as part of sweeping legislation intended to speed up Canada’s snail-like criminal-justice system.”
• In New York, NY, the Legal Aid Society argued to an appeals court that the City made false claims to the court below in a lawsuit concerning transparency for disciplinary records in the NYPD.
• In DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, a judge raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest in a new cooperative endeavor agreement under which the District Attorney’s Office will pay the Public Defender’s Office a portion of money the DA collects from a pretrial diversion program. Meanwhile, the Public Defender moved to recuse the judge, alleging the court itself had a “personal interest” in the matter. All public-defender-represented cases have been suspended until the issue is resolved.

Music Bonus!

William Shatner, “Common People”

By Pro Bono Publico Award Merit Distinction Finalist: Dayna Jones | Lewis & Clark Law School

Each year, NALP confers the PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award, recognizing the significant contributions that law students make to underserved populations, the public interest community, and legal education by performing pro bono work. In addition to the Award winner, we also occasionally recognize one or more Merit Distinction Finalists.

During her time at Lewis & Clark, Dayna has been relentlessly dedicated to environmental justice and Native American Civil Rights issues. Working at the intersection of these two concerns, Dayna helped the Chemawa Indian School launch its Peer Court program, served as Treasurer of the Native American Law Student Association. Her most significant contributions, though, are legislative: when the governor of Oregon convened a Cleaner Air Oregon process to review the state’s air toxic rules, Dayna provided support to OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon; as an intern for State Representative Karin Power, she convinced her boss to advocate for overhauling the state’s air toxics rules on the floor of the Oregon House. We are excited to see what she accomplishes next.

When I came to Portland to study law, I was advised to immediately learn about the systems of injustice in our community and the folks who are most disproportionately affected by these systems. It did not take me long to become overwhelmed with the issues of transportation inequity, housing loss as a result of gentrification, police brutality, toxic air, and juvenile incarceration that plague this beautiful city.

I began showing up at community meetings, volunteering with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon (OPAL) and Law at the Margins, and collaborating with student groups to uplift the resilient work of frontline Native activists demanding environmental justice. During my second year of law school I also served as a volunteer legal intern for Representative Karin Power, a then-freshman legislator whose political platform has been tirelessly dedicated to achieving equity and a healthy environment for all of the diverse constituents of the state of Oregon. I also served as a volunteer Judge for Chemawa Indian School’s inaugural peer court program. In addition, I participated in a collaborative student reading group which paired Lewis & Clark law students with juvenile inmates housed at the MacLaren correctional institution.

If there were ten of me I would do ten times the work; the need for legal and administrative support is infinite. This infinite need is the result of America’s heteropatriarchial, white supremacist society which hoards financial and political access while disenfranchising low-income communities and communities of color. Investing in the organization, education, and power of environmental justice communities is exactly what I came to law school for. We are all connected and I know my children will never have a bright future so long as the children of others are being repressed, exploited, and underserved. I know I will never have a healthy environment as long as the environment of another is being polluted and poisoned. The fight for others is also a fight for myself, there are no lines to be drawn on where my existence ends and the existence of another begins.

Air quality has been a focal point of my pro bono work in Oregon. Despite its green appearance and reputation, Multnomah County has some of the worst air quality in the nation. The toxic air here is primarily a result of stationary air toxics, lax diesel emission regulations, and wood smoke. The neighborhood I live in has diesel pollution worse than 80% of the nation. The neighborhood of the OPAL office experiences an even worse toxic brew of diesel P.M, benzene, and arsenic. OPAL’s office is also located in one of the only majority-minority census tracts in Oregon and provides yet another testament to the fact that communities of color and low income offer suffer a disproportionate burden of pollution and its effects.

Air pollution in Oregon causes several different types of cancer, including skin cancer and lukemia, in addition to respiratory illness, and birth defects. Children, the elderly, and those with preexisting conditions are especially susceptible to the dangers of air pollution. During my work with OPAL, I participated in the Cleaner Air Oregon process. This process was convened by Governor Brown in reaction to a loophole in regulations that allowed a local glass facility to legally poison its neighbors for over forty years. To date, Cleaner Air Oregon is focused solely on stationary air toxic point sources. Despite this, I am hopeful that in the future zealous advocacy will encourage the Department of Environmental Quality, to include background considerations such as diesel into the risk assessment of a community. Participating in the Cleaner Air Oregon process has not been an easy lift for me, but it has been a very important one. Industry representatives are included in discussions and are paid to rebut and contradict all of the public health arguments made in support of the program. Local community groups simply do not have equal resources. Most of community representatives are not only unpaid, but being present in these discussions actually costs them money because of gas, time off work, babysitters, etc. This is one of the reasons pro bono work is so vital; the disproportionate representation that polluting industries have during regulatory processes designed to protect the public is staggering.

Advocating and lobbying for clean air should not be a sisyphean task, but the sheer power held by those who make a profit off of polluting others often makes it feel like it is. Providing pro bono and community service support to grassroots communities helps to shorten the gap in representation and resources and connects legal advocates to the frontline battles being fought in their community. After almost 2 years the Cleaner Air Oregon rulemaking process has finally concluded and I believe all of the unpaid hours advocates invested in this process have paid off with an introductory program we can all be proud of.

The fight for Cleaner Air Oregon is not over, though, as funding has to be approved by Oregon’s state legislature which is notorious for choosing business interests over public health. If funding is approved Oregon will be promoting the longevity of its citizens by transitioning from having some of the worst air in the nation to having some of the most health-protective regulations for stationary point source emissions. Diesel still needs to be addressed, and I hope that new students entering law school in Oregon hone in to the diesel crisis and make themselves available for pro bono support in the fight that is sure to come.

Now that I have graduated, I hope to make a career out of working toward environmental and social justice in communities most impacted by inequitable systems of representation. Regardless of where this career leads me, I know that pro bono work will be an integral part of my work. Pro bono work allows a person to be on tap, not on top, and provides a fulfilling contrast to the illusory ideas of success many lawyers find themselves surrounding in. True success is helping and loving others, striving to leave this environment better than we found it. I appreciate this nomination and recognition as I strive towards success in my personal and professional career. I hope that the work of PSJD students inspires others to challenge themselves to see how far they can go to make this world a better place for those around them.

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been an eventful week. Many folks have worked to make sense of the many changes wrought last week in Congress’ omnibus bill. A judge in Georgia explained how important law schools are to the access-to-justice ecosystem while mourning the loss of Savannah Law School. And, of course, a tidbit I’ve created a special highlight for immediately below.

Until next week,
Sam

Highlight: Character & Fitness

• The Practice published a conversation exploring potential reforms to the way our profession attempts to ensure ethical conduct through its character & fitness requirements. As with intimated changes to federal hiring & firing (see below), these kinds of ideas would have a profound effect on who attempts to become a lawyer and how attorneys’ work is reviewed. Here’s a representative snippet:
  

  “The more I study this, the more the whole process feels arbitrary, often because the people who make the decisions at the bar associations are people who don’t have experience with the criminal justice system. They don’t understand things like reentry, rehabilitation, and all of the collateral consequences of coming out of prison. And they don’t understand addiction issues either.
  …
  [I]f the goal of character and fitness is to weed out lawyers without integrity, it is not working…[A]s a profession, I think that we should spend a lot less time worrying about character and fitness at entry and more time and more resources monitoring the conduct and behavior of practicing lawyers. I realize that it’s much easier to just keep people out at the front end and not have to deal with issues once somebody becomes a lawyer, but that system is not working.”

Federal Hiring

• The Hill published an opinion piece that picks up where this year’s State of the Union Address left off, arguing “Civil servants can undermine the president too easily.” I’ll be watching the development of arguments like this one, because if these voices are successful they may transform the way professional development happens in federal government.
• On a possibly related note, “[t]op law schools in the nation’s capital say they are seeking an uptick in students’ interest in careers outside of government and public interest.”
• The Treasury Department and the IRS proposed a regulation that would allow the IRS to hire outside specialists under certain circumstances, with a specific prohibition against doing so in situations involving summoned information or testimony under oath.

Student Loans

• Financial Regulation News discussed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Technical Corrections Act, signed into law as part of last week’s omnibus spending bill. The bill aims to ensure that borrowers who should have been enrolled in the PSLF program but were not will be able to receive benefits. The New York Times provided additional background on the change.
• In Massachusetts, state officials spoke out against the Trump administration’s recent declaration that states cannot regulate student loan services. (Chronicled in a recent edition of the digest.)
• A group of Harvard Law students and alumni published an open letter to Havard Law’s Dean proposing five changes to the school’s Low Income Protection Plan “in order to ’empower HLS graduates of all backgrounds to pursue the careers of their choosing.'”

Immigration

• In New Jersey, Governor Murphy’s proposed budget includes a $2.1 million appropriation for immigrants facing deportation.
• In Iowa, “Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque is expanding its immigration legal services as the need for those resources continues to increase.”
• In Ohio, the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation argued that “Ohio’s philanthropic community must fully commit to investing in language, legal and health-care services to launch our newest Ohioans to success…Fewer than 35 attorneys statewide are available to assist Ohio’s immigrants regardless of their legal status or ability to pay.”

Legal Technology

• In Canada, the Law News Times reported that the Federal Privacy Commissioner “is working on developing new guidance on how companies should ask Canadians for meaningful consent [to collect, use, and disclose their personal information].”
• In Montreal, QC, Pro Bono Quebec launched the new version of its boussolejuridique.ca platform: http://boussolejuridique.ca/
• The Atlantic proposed questions for Congress to ask Mark Zuckerberg, solicited from a variety of scholars–including law professors. (Editor’s note: In addition to its effect on modern politics, Facebook’s technology platform provides the foundation for certain legal services tools, making issues surrounding privacy and Facebook relevant to our legal technology discussion. See, e.g. DoNotPay.)

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Canada, CBC reported that “a growing number of Canadians are representing themselves in court.”
• In a statement, the ABA President commended Congress for increasing appropriations for the LSC by $25 million, while noting that more funding is still needed.
• In Indiana, Indiana Legal Services also welcomed the news of the expanded LSC budget.
• Nonprofit Quarterly analyzed the ways in which the recent two-year budget agreement, which provided an “unexpected funding boost” for nonprofits, will affect the operations of civil society organizations.
• In Kentucky, the state senate voted to eliminate funding for civil legal aid. Negotiations are ongoing. If senators are successful, Kentucky will become the third state without civil legal aid funding (alongside Delaware and Idaho).

Access to Justice – Criminal

• The 6th Circuit issued its en banc opinion in Turner v. U.S., finding no 6th amendment right to counsel prior to criminal indictment. The Volokh Conspiracy analyzed the ruling.
• In Savannah, GA, the Chief Judge for Chatham County State Court mourned the loss of Savannah Law School:
  

  “Over the last seven years, students have given 1000s of hours of unpaid labor to our courts, the Public Defenders office, the District Attorneys’ Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Courthouse and in other practices across the low country. If you calculated those hours in terms of salaries (conservatively for a $12 per hour wage), it is safe to say the Law School as provided more than $1,000,000 worth of labor to the local community.”

• In Philadelphia, PA, the Chief Public Defender “is accusing the city’s court system of systematically depriving thousands of people of their due process rights by locking them up for probation violations without proper hearings.”
• In Galveston, TX, a lawyer brought suit against a local judge alleging the judge improperly removed him from cases because “he sought to provide a vigorous legal and factual defense for his clients.” As the New York Times puts it, the case aims to call attention to “[a] potential problem: Indigent defense lawyers often get their assignments from judges in whose courtroom they appear. This discourages a robust defense, experts say, and leads to an emphasis on resolving cases quickly.”
• In El Paso County, TX, the Texas Indigent Defense Commission released a report commending county officials for their successful efforts to address a series of problems discovered by the commission’s 2014 audit.
• In Michigan, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners unanimously opposed Governor Snyder’s proposed adjustments to Michigan’s indigent defense budget for fiscal year 2019, “stating it would unfairly shift financial burdens from the state onto counties.”

Music Bonus!

Janelle Monae, “Django Jane” [clean]

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The big news this week is out of the Philadelphia DA’s office; if you haven’t read Larry Krasner’s memo yet, it’s well worth a look. On a related theme, “The Nation” magazine discusses ways in which law schools are attempting to step into the legal aid gap in the face of federal indifference. (There’s a lot of access to justice news this week, but those are the two standout bits.)

Until next week,
Sam

Student Loans

• In Congress, the $1.3 trillion, six-month spending plan expanded Pell Grants and Public Service Loan Forgiveness funds.
• Meanwhile, the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University filed a motion for an injunction seeking to prevent the US Department of Education from using earnings data to grant only partial student loan forgiveness to defrauded borrowers.

Access to Justice – Civil

• “The Nation” Magazine takes stock of the current environment in which indigent legal services –criminal and civil– are being provided, and the ways in which law schools are attempting to fill the gaps created by the retreat of the federal government.
• In Canada, lawyers were critical of the federal justice minister’s response to recommendations by a Commons committee on how to improve legal aid.
• In Massachusetts, legal aid organizations are calling on the state to increase its budget for civil legal aid by $5 million.
• In Alberta, legal aid workers voted to strike if their demands are not met, in response to staff reductions, office closures, and increased demand for services.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Newfoundland, the provincial government amended the Legal Aid Act to remove recipients’ option to retain private defense lawyers for serious criminal charges.
• In South Carolina, two state legislators proposed a bill that would mandate and centralize indigency screenings for potential public defender clients.
• In Mississippi, the Mississippi Public Defender Task Force released a report finding that (as the Jackson Free Press put it) “access to adequate representation across 10 Mississippi counties is lacking and far from consistent.” The full report is available at the Mississippi Judiciary’s website.
• In Maryland, the Office of the Public Defender released a study concluding that (as the Frederick News Post put it) “Maryland judges need more alternatives to pretrial detention, even as courts have successfully reduced their reliance on cash bail.”
• In Pennsylvania, a federal judge ruled that students facing criminal charges have to right to an attorney during related disciplinary hearings at their school.
• In St. Louis County, MO, a judge ruled that the public defender’s office has too many cases to effectively represent its clients.

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Philadelphia, PA, newly-elected DA Larry Krasner’s intra-office memo of February 15th became public. The memo details a variety of sweeping changes to the way the Philadelphia district attorney’s office will conduct its business, with the stated aim of “end[ing] mass incarceration and bring[ing] balance back to sentencing.”
• In New York, in an open letter in New York Magazine’s “The Cut”, the “Time’s Up” movement called on Gov. Cuomo to investigate the New York County district attorney’s office for its decision not to prosecute Harvey Weinstein for sexual abuse crimes against one of his accusers.

Music Bonus!

Marvin Gaye, “Inner City Blues”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Student loans made for the most noteworthy news again this week, as the Department of Education weighed in on state government’s recent efforts to regulate lending. The LSC also announced a new disaster legal aid initiative. For these stories and more, read on!

Until next week,
Sam

Student Loans

• The Federal Department of Education issued guidance warning state regulators that “[s]tate regulation of the servicing of direct loans impedes uniquely federal interests.”  Experts consulted in the Washington Post article linked here believe that “[m]any states are likely to view this document as legally dubious.”
• The National Review published a piece endorsing the idea of offering student loan relief to borrowers who forgo collecting Social Security, lending support to the student loan solution proposed earlier this year by Rep. Tom Garrett (R-VA).
• Responding to claims that student debt is ruining borrowers’ lives, Ameritech Financial warned against “us[ing] blanket statements…when student deb situations vary so much from borrower to borrower.”

Immigration

• In New York, NY, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest relaunched a hotline that people can call to determine if they are eligible for naturalization and register for immigration clinics.
• In San Francisco, CA, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy apologized for her office, while allowed two US ICE agents access to interview rooms at San Francisco County jails–a breach of the city’s Sanctuary City policy.

Legal Technology

• In Florida, Southern Legal Counsel and the Florida Justice Technology Center partnered to create FloridaNameChange.org, a tool to assist transgender Floridians with updating government-issued documents to reflect their new names and gender markers. (You’ll be able to hear about the Florida Justice Technology Center’s work at NALP’s Annual Education Conference, where their Executive Director will be speaking at the Public Interest Lunch on Thursday, April 26th.)
• In New York, NY, TechCrunch.com profiled JustFix.nyc — a smartphone-based service that helps tenants document issues, draft letters of complaint, and file cases in NYC Housing Court.

Disaster Legal Aid

• At a Congressional briefing, “[t]wo state chief justices and legal aid experts from states recently affected by natural disasters [discussed] how legal aid programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) assist survivors.” LSC’s Board Chair also announced a new taskforce “to improve legal aid disaster relief coordination and effectiveness across the country.”
• In Florida, the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida “opened a nonprofit legal clinic focused on providing legal services to Puerto Ricans who have settled in Florida after fleeing Hurricane Maria.” The clinic itself employs displaced Puerto Rican attorneys.

Criminal Justice Reform

• Professor Besiki Luka Kutateladze of Florida International University embarked on a two-year study of prosecutors’ offices in Jacksonville, Tampa, Milwaukee and Chicago. Professor Kutateladze’s team plans to “comb individual case files and implement new data-tracking tools that will detect racial bias, explain how plea deals work and see if policies are increasing the community’s trust in the justice system.”
• In Yolo County, CA, the District Attorney and the Public Defender announced a collaborative effort to expedite relief to individuals with marijuana convictions affected by California’s recent ballot measure legalizing the drug.
• In Montana, the state appointed a new Director of the Office of the State Public Defender, tasked with “continuing implementation of a package of bills passed during the 2017 legislative session to reform the Office[.]”
• In Glynn County, GA, the ACLU filed a lawsuit accusing country officials of “an unconstitutional cash bail system that discriminates against people who are financially strapped.”
• In Ottawa, Ontario, Yahoo News! examined the impact of the city’s indigenous people’s court six months into its operation.

Music Bonus!

Thundercat @ NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert Series (10/25/17)