December 15, 2017 at 11:52 am
· Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! We’re headed into a photo-finish for 2017, with a flurry of activity related to student loans, a new report from the Canadian federal government with potentially huge implications for the practice of individual rights law in that country, and additional developments in New York City legal services organizations ongoing attempts to prevent ICE from conducting arrests at local courthouses. Read below for additional details, as well as a few other juicy stories.
Until next week,
Sam
Student Loans
First, the context:
Legislators have a variety of ideas about how to handle the situation:
Meanwhile, state and federal agencies continue their work:
Legal Technology
Access to Justice – Civil
Access to Justice – Criminal
- The acute indigent defense crisis in Missouri–and its relationship to broader trends–continues to climb the news cycle. This week, it earned attention from NBC’s main site.
- A public defender in the Bronx, New York, argued in the Huffington Post that ICE policy of making immigration-related arrests of individual appearing before local courts is threatening his clients’ constitutional rights to defend themselves in court; a coalition of legal groups, including The Legal Aid Society, and defenders in New York County, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Harlem jointly called on New York’s Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to issue rules addressing the practice.
- The Indiana Lawyer profiled the ongoing work of the state’s Task Force on Public Defense, which was created earlier this year and has met four times thus far.
- Meanwhile, an ineffective assistance of counsel case in Indiana may provide the basis for a court-driven systemic reform of the state’s system.
Music Bonus!
Who doesn’t like to watch a virtuoso?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFcPlv9RhEY
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December 14, 2017 at 2:30 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Professional School Associate Dean For Administration and Finance

CUNY School of Law is the premier public interest law school in the country. It trains lawyers to serve the underprivileged and disempowered and to make a difference in their communities.
The Position
Reporting directly to the Dean of the Law School, the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance (the “Admin/Finance Dean”) is the Law School’s principal non-academic officer. As chief operating officer, the Admin/Finance Dean is responsible for the efficient operation of Law School services and systems, and for ensuring that all administrative departments and functional areas engage in best practices, provide excellent customer service and work well together. The administrative departments include: information technology, facilities, human resources and payroll, budget and finance, procurement, purchasing and accounts payable, bursar, financial aid, reprographics, mail, security and public safety, and such other departments that may be created at the Law School. The Admin/Finance Dean is also responsible for providing administrative support to the Law School’s non-tax levy operations, the compliance of all departments, and of the Law School, in general, with all applicable state and federal laws, as well as City University of New York policies and procedures.
Ready to help the next generation of lawyers? Check it out here on PSJD.
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December 8, 2017 at 10:41 am
· Filed under News and Developments, Public Interest Law News Bulletin
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! I’m writing to you live from this year’s annual NLADA Conference; expect to hear more about that in next week’s digest. This week, most stories sound in student loans, with news concerning virtually every aspect of the educational finance system. Also, be sure to read all the way to the end for big news out of Canada concerning civil access to justice.
Until next week,
Sam
Student Loans
Disaster Legal Aid
Access to Justice – Criminal
- The Baltimore, MD public defender’s office increased its estimate of the number of cases affected by recent racketeering charges against Baltimore Police officers, saying more than 2,000 cases may be compromised.
- Oakland County and St. Clair County, MI joined fellow counties in the state in submitting a budget plan for indigent defense in order to comply with new standards set by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission.
- In Winnebago County, IL, a judge ordered the county board to restore $326,852 to the county’s budget, saying that the cuts compromise court services and threaten public safety.
- In Nashville, TN, the chief public defender and chief prosecutor clashed as the defender’s office advocates for alternatives to cash bail; Civil Rights Corps recently sent a letter to Nashville’s top attorney threatening a lawsuit over the city’s “two-tiered system of justice.”
Access to Justice – Civil
Music Bonus!
Something cinematic, I think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tvUPFsaj5s<//a>
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December 7, 2017 at 2:30 pm
· Filed under Career Resources, Faculty/Staff Pro Bono, Job Hunting, Legal Education, Public Interest Jobs

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License
Emergency Response Staff Attorney
The Organization:
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) is the first organization in the country dedicated exclusively to serving survivors of human trafficking, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (www.castla.org) assists persons trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and slavery-like practices and to work toward ending all instances of such human rights violations. CAST was established in 1998 in the wake of the El Monte sweatshop case where 72 Thai garment workers were kept for eight years in slavery and debt bondage. Following a community outcry for an organization to respond to surfacing cases of human trafficking, CAST was and remains one of a handful of providers nationally that provide comprehensive services to survivors of slavery and trafficking. CAST is amongst the few organizations that carry the mission of both serving victims while also conducting advocacy to promote change that will better protect victims and prevent future cases of trafficking.
CAST serves a growing community of trafficking victims who are brought to the United States and suffer unspeakable violence at the hands of traffickers. They have an enormous array of needs, ranging from urgent medical and mental health services to complex legal issues. CAST has served hundreds of victims and their family members through both direct service delivery as well as technical consult to service providers across the country. CAST alone has secured nearly 100 T Visas for survivors of trafficking, constituting almost 1/6 of the total number of T Visas issued nationwide. Our accomplishments are due, in part, because CAST’s Client Services staff works closely together to partner with clients in setting goals, monitoring progress, advocating for access to services, and cooperating with law enforcement agencies to access long-term immigration benefits that keep victims safe from their traffickers.
CAST’s legal department provides innovative direct legal services to survivors of trafficking, and also provides technical assistance to survivors of trafficking, law enforcement agencies, and service providers to inspire creative and appropriate responses to the problem of human trafficking in the United States.
The Position:
The Emergency Response Attorney (ERA) will be responsible for responding to urgent calls from law enforcement, agencies, and survivors themselves for legal assistance and advice. The ER Staff Attorney will also provide ongoing comprehensive legal services to survivors of human trafficking including assisting clients seek immigration, criminal and civil relief, with an emphasis on criminal victim-witnesses advocacy and United States citizen survivors. This is a full- time, exempt position.
Essential Duties:
- Respond to all ER breaking cases during normal business hours, coordinate rotation with staff attorneys for ER on-call during nonbusiness hours
- Assume caseload of trafficked clients
- Develop and implement creative, alternate legal strategies to assist trafficked persons
- Work collaboratively with social services and shelter staff
- Provide outreach and training to legal aid organizations, law firms, and law enforcement to assist trafficked clients
- Participate in LAPD task force for human trafficking victims
- Coordinate ongoing legal emergency response protocol and safety efforts.
- Support CAST’s involvement with DA diversion program and LA county wide protocol
- Participate in legal emergency response efforts; and
- Respond to Emergency Response breaking cases in rotation with legal team in support of CAST’s 24-hour ER services.
Want to make a difference? See the full post on PSJD.
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December 1, 2017 at 10:48 am
· Filed under News and Developments, Public Interest Law News Bulletin
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! Hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving. Recent news concerning our community involves a few themes, including strategic disputes when considering court reforms (cash bail and right to council in eviction cases, in California), concerns about the Sixth Amendment (in South Carolina and California, again), and the role of technology in access to justice (in Ontario and among law schools).
Welcome to December,
Sam
Student Loans
Immigration
Access to Justice – Criminal
- The Huffington Post drew nation-wide parallels between far-flung disputes over indigent defense shortfalls in Missouri, Louisiana, and Nevada (covered previously in the Digest) as well as in several other states.
- In Oskaloosa, Iowa, the city council approved an ordinance eliminating jail penalties for many city ordinances in order to reduce the cost of its indigent defense program.
- In Louisiana, funding for indigent defense in capital cases ran out for the year and defenders’ offices began refusing clients.
- In California, a dispute arose around how best to reform problems with cash bail, as San Francisco’s chief Public Defender criticized the state judiciary for expressing an interest in moving to an algorithm-based system for determining whom to remand and whom to release in criminal cases, as popular support builds for a state bill that would provide “widespread release for all misdemeanors and low-level felonies.”
- In South Carolina, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court issued a memo ordering lower court judges to stop issuing bench warrants for traffic violations because these warrants often resulted in Sixth Amendment violations.
- West Virginia University College of Law received a five-year grant of $100,000 from Wilson, Frame, and Metheny to fund its Innocence Project clinic.
Access to Justice – Civil
Music Bonus!
All that, and a trombone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxmDKtAvqpM
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November 30, 2017 at 2:30 pm
· Filed under Career Resources, Job Hunting, Legal Education, Public Interest Jobs

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License
Anti-Corruption Fellowship
The Organization
The Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (CAPI) aims to improve the capacity of public offices and practitioners to deter, identify, and combat corruption. We work to:
Build and support a vibrant community of leaders in the public integrity field.
Develop tools and resources to help governments and practitioners fight corruption.
Promote research and scholarship on important public integrity issues.
The Position
The Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School invites talented law school students from the Class of 2018 to apply for a post-graduate one-year fellowship at CAPI.
We are looking for a fellow for a one-year posting, starting in August 2018. Those interested in the substantive areas of political corruption, public ethics, criminal justice, and related fields who have strong legal research and writing skills, are welcome to apply.
The CAPI fellow will primarily work on CAPI’s research projects and written publications. He or she will spearhead various projects, working with anti-corruption scholars and practitioners, law students, and others to conceive appropriate topics, conduct necessary research, and draft and/or edit original CAPI work products such as reports, best practices issue briefs, longer form articles from community members, practitioner toolkits, and material for our website.
Is this your dream opportunity? See the full-post on PSJD.
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November 22, 2017 at 2:24 pm
· Filed under Career Resources, Legal Education, Public Interest Jobs

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License
Internship
Legal Services of Southern Piedmont
The Organization
Legal Services of Southern Piedmont (LSSP) is a non-profit agency that provides legal assistance in civil matters to low-income persons in Charlotte and mid-western North Carolina.
LSSP provides an intense, practical, and worthwhile internship for students interested in providing legal services to low-income people. LSSP has a long tradition of aggressive and effective advocacy, including individual cases, complex litigation and other advocacy projects. Our interns work with staff attorneys on routine cases, handle administrative cases as the primary advocate under the supervision of an attorney, and participate in significant client advocacy projects, as described in the job description below. You can find more information about our organization and our work on our website at www.lssp.org.
The Position
Help LSSP Attorneys Represent Clients
Assist attorneys as directed on specific cases, including interviewing clients and witnesses; collecting, evaluating and preparing evidence for presentation; performing legal research; drafting pleadings, briefs and other legal documents; consistent with LSSP standards for representation. Interns are generally assigned to one attorney supervisor for each half of the summer, and work primarily with that attorney on routine cases such as eviction defense, public assistance and social insurance eligibility, protection from domestic violence and predatory lending. Interns have the opportunity for extensive client contact, participate in all stages of case development, and accompany the staff attorneys to court hearings.
Handle Administrative Cases
As primary advocate under attorney supervision, handle limited number of administrative cases such as Unemployment Insurance appeals, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid disability appeals, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamp or other administrative cases; attend to cases on a timely basis; keep clients notified of progress on cases; maintain case files in accordance with program policy; maintain tickler system, prepare periodic case reports as required; close cases promptly upon completion of representation. Interns will be primarily responsible for at least one administrative hearing and generally will handle between two and five hearings during the summer. Although opportunities are presented to watch one or two hearings and close attorney supervision is provided, the interns will actually make the presentation of cases.
Participate in Significant Client Advocacy Projects
Under the supervision of a staff attorney, participate in significant client advocacy project such as major litigation, community education, outreach, and other non-case related program activities. Interns will participate in a major advocacy project to permit them to see how broad problems affecting many individuals can be addressed through the legal process.
Ready to make a difference? Check out the full-post on PSJD.
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November 17, 2017 at 2:57 pm
· Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! After a Veterans’ Day hiatus and some technical difficulties with the collection of woodland creatures that bring me the news, the Digest returns! Among other things, this week has seen minor disagreements between judges and defenders over caseloads in Michigan, and major ones in Missouri. Student loan debt was also a theme, as legislators in DC and Wisconsin floated new loan relief assistance plans.
Enjoy Thanksgiving next week; more from me here, after the holiday,
Sam
Student Loans
Federal Hiring
News in Canada
Access to Justice – Criminal
Access to Justice – Civil
Music Bonus!
Just because:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSW1kUtuVQk
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November 16, 2017 at 2:30 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Employment Rights Litigation Attorney

The Equal Justice Center is a non-profit, public-interest employment rights law firm and systemic justice advocacy organization. The EJC’s mission is to empower low-income workers, families, and communities to achieve fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in the broader community – regardless of immigration status. With eleven attorneys in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, the EJC gives low-wage working people the power to use plaintiffs’ employment litigation to enforce their wage rights and other basic employment rights as well as the power to reform public policies and private employment practices.
The Position
The Equal Justice Center—a public-interest employment rights law firm and systemic justice advocacy organization—is seeking an employment litigation attorney for its Dallas office. The attorney will join EJC’s staff of fourteen attorneys (Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio) and will primarily engage in plaintiffs’ employment litigation representing low-wage working people to enforce fundamental employment rights, especially: wage rights; protections against workplace sexual assault and harassment; and immigrant employment rights. The attorney will also play a vital role in the Equal Justice Center’s systemic reform advocacy to empower low-wage and immigrant workers—regardless of their immigration status—enabling them to win fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in the broader society.
Ready for this new opportunity? Check it out here on PSJD.
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November 9, 2017 at 2:30 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized

Photo: Brenda Gottesman – CC License
Staff Attorney
The Organization:
San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, Inc. (SDVLP) is a public interest law firm whose mission is to involve the private bar in the delivery of free legal services in civil matters to indigent San Diego County residents. SDVLP is seeking a full-time Staff Attorney to provide legal services to victims of domestic violence.
The Position:
The staff attorney will spend half of the week in a legal clinic setting at the El Cajon courthouse, and will spend the remaining half of the week in SDVLP’s main downtown office. The legal clinic assists domestic violence victims in completing and filing temporary restraining orders. In the main office, the staff attorney will provide representation to domestic violence victims in their family court matters. Additional job duties include recruiting, training and mentoring volunteers, and performing community outreach and education.
Know you have what it takes? See the full post on PSJD.
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