Last month, we announced some very exciting news about a new justice AmeriCorps program that will fund legal assistance to unaccompanied immigrant children facing deportation. The new Immigrant Children’s Defense Corps is an initiative of that program, and we are now recruiting fellows to begin by Dec. 1!
About Immigrant Children’s Defense Corps
The Immigrant Children’s Defense Corps is an initiative of the new justice AmeriCorps program. Through this initiative, Equal Justice Works is partnering with Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) to place 55 legal professionals – lawyers and paralegals – in 14 cities across the United States.
We have created a separate website, joinjusticeamericorps.org, with more details on this new initiative, including how to apply and how you can help support the Immigrant Children’s Defense Corps.
Applications are now being accepted
Interested individuals should apply as soon as possible and must be ready to start Dec. 1! Applicants should submit materials directly to the host organization(s) of interest. A list of host organizations and their contact information is available at joinjusticeamericorps.org.
Special opportunity to meet our host organizations
We have set aside a special room at our Conference and Career Fair Oct. 24-25 for host organizations to interview and network with any recent graduates interested in applying for positions this fall. Law school professionals and current students also are invited to stop by and learn more about the program and our host organizations. You can learn more about Conference and Career Fair on our website.
Recent graduates do not have to register for the entire event to take advantage of this opportunity. Fill out this form to sign up for updates, and let us know if you’ll be attending.
by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships
Happy Friday everyone! Next week is National Pro Bono Week! There are great events happening all over the country. Now is the time to recommit to serving your community. One of the events next week is the NALP/PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference. I’m looking forward to seeing all of you there. As such, our next Digest will be on October 31st. Enjoy next week celebrating all the wonderful law students and lawyers who give back to their community so selflessly. And thank you!!!
Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: If you know someone we should honor, drop me a line.
Here are the week’s headlines:
There is still time to register for the PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference;
NLADA launches LegalAidResearch.org;
San Francisco court workers hold one-day strike
UT Law receives gift for Pro Bono Program;
HUD awards $325,000 to combat MN housing discrimination;
Spotlight on Public Service Servants: Celebrate National Pro Bono Week;
Super Music Bonus!
The summaries:
October 13, 2014 – Public interest career counselors, pro bono program managers, and other public-service career professionals from the law school and employer communities are invited to attend the 2014 NALP/PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference on Thursday, October 23rd at the Washington, DC office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP with additional programming for newcomers and a welcome reception on Wednesday, October 22nd. Register here!
October 13, 2014 – The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) has launched a new website called LegalAidResearch.org. “Thanks to a generous grant from the Public Welfare Foundation, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association has developed this research database providing free access to research reports and other documents about evidence-based practices and research results on civil legal aid. The site provides access to over 250 different studies, which are now ready to browse.” (MassLegal Services)
October 14, 2014 – “A one-day strike held by San Francisco Superior Court workers with Service Employees International Union Local 1021 at courthouses across the city Tuesday slowed down the city’s justice system, court officials said. SEIU Local 1021 workers set up picket lines at the city’s three courthouses, alleging that court management is bargaining over their labor contracts in bad faith.” “The union filed charges with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board alleging that the court has refused to bargain over mandatory issues, withheld information from the union so it can bargain properly and has threatened the jobs of union members at the bargaining table. Michael Yuen, the court executive officer for the San Francisco Superior Court, has been bargaining with the union since March and said the alleged unfair labor practices charge is ‘bogus.'” (NBC Bay Area)
October 15, 2014 – “A recent $1 million gift to The University of Texas School of Law from Richard and Virginia “Ginni” Mithoff of Houston will support the school’s Pro Bono Program. The gift brings the Mithoffs’ total contributions to the program to $2 million. By participating in the Pro Bono Program, students increase access to justice and build their professional skills by assisting individuals and communities in need. The program will be renamed the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program to acknowledge the donors who first supported it with an initial $1 million gift at its founding five years ago. The Mithoffs’ recent donation will increase the endowment for the program.” (UTexas News)
October 15, 2014 – “The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Wednesday that it is awarding $325,000 in grants to a Minneapolis group working to combat housing discrimination. ‘These funds support community-based organizations that do great work every day on the front lines in the fight for fairness and equality in our nation’s housing market,’ HUD Secretary Julián Castro said in a news release. Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, which serves the working poor through several offices in 20 counties, was awarded the grant through the housing agency’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program. The money is to be used to help educate ‘housing providers, local governments and potential victims of housing discrimination about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act.'” (StarTribune Minneapolis)
Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:
The National Pro Bono Celebration focuses the nation’s attention on the increased need for pro bono services during these challenging economic times and celebrates the outstanding work of lawyers who volunteer their services throughout the year. It is essential that the entire legal community engage in conversation and action that results in equal access to justice for all. The energy generated by the National Pro Bono Celebration is a powerful force that helps us build a just legal system. The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service chose to launch this important initiative because of the increasing need for pro bono services during these harsh economic times and the unprecedented response of attorneys to meet this demand. Find an event in your area and celebrate!!
Progressive Lawyer is a new digital hub connecting lawyers and law students with socially progressive organizations and law firms active in social justice and public interest advocacy. This week, I had a chance to speak with Mark Boudreau about PSJD and how it connects the public sector community. They had a great conversation with Appleseed last week, and look to be doing some wonderful work in bringing information to the public sector. Check out the PSJD article and this new resource for bringing the community together.
We are very pleased to announce the 2014 Pro Bono Publico Award Winner: Alex Dutton from Temple University Beasley School of Law. This year we selected 6 finalists and then had to choose a winner from a VERY competitive pool. It was so tough, we’ve also selected two Merit Distinction recipients as well. All three will be guest bloggers for the PSJD Blog.
In addition, we will be presenting Alex with his award (and his $1,000) at Temple. I look forward to meeting him, his family, and all those who helped him create the Youth Court Program at Strawberry Mansion High School.
Here is the full announcement, with all the great finalists. We are so grateful to them for their incredible work!!!
20th Annual PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award
This prestigious award honors one law student nationwide for their pro bono contributions to society, and recognizes the significant contributions that law students make to underserved populations, the public interest community, and legal education through public service work.
WINNER
Alex Dutton
Temple University Beasley School of Law
In 2012, as a 1L, Alex volunteered to assist with Philadelphia’s first Youth Court, located at Strawberry Mansion High School—the only high school on the Philadelphia School District’s list of “persistently dangerous schools. Youth Court initiatives are exercises in restorative justice, using positive peer pressure to reshape student behavior and interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by providing an alternative to suspension for students who commit minor offenses. Philadelphia’s new program had significant expertise behind it: it was backed by the US Attorney’s Office and run by Mr. Greg Volz, a seasoned practitioner who had already implemented Youth Courts successfully elsewhere. Even among such company, Alex distinguished himself by teaching as much as he learned. In order to reach students overtly distrustful of anyone associated with the criminal justice system, he convinced his supervisor to set aside the Court manual temporarily and meet with students in small groups so the students could take the lead and educate the program staff and volunteers about their lives and their values. (Alex later added to the manual and helped create new curricula.) Alex’s involvement with the program has continued throughout his law school career, as he has successfully attracted other law students from all six Philadelphia region law schools to support the city’s burgeoning Youth Court programs.
In his letter of recommendation, Mr. Volz summarized best the impact of Alex’s contribution to the Youth Court program and to the Philadelphia community: “Alex[‘s] efforts have sparked a potential paradigm shift in law school pro bono activity and shown how youth courts help disadvantaged youth help themselves.”
MERIT DISTINCTION
Shannon Johnson
Boston College Law School
Shannon is a multi-talented advocate single-mindedly dedicated to immigrant youth—a group whose concerns she has been addressing in one way or another since she first encountered them at age 18. As the inaugural student in Boston College Law School’s hybrid crimmigration clinic, she assisted her clinical supervisors as they developed the program into an official course at Boston College. Shannon’s recommenders focused on her ability to adapt her strategy and tactics to the idiosyncrasies of a wide range of legal fora and to the changing wishes and circumstances of her clients. They speak of her “enormous respect” for her clients, and her “incredible ability” to understand their complicated lives and serve them in a holistic fashion. In addition to her work helping develop Boston College Law’s new clinical program, Shannon partnered with the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project to create a pro bono project in which law students of all levels represent detained non-citizens requesting releases on bond.
Alexander Gamez
Southwestern Law School
Alexander leads by example. As a 2L, he recruited 50 other students (an unprecedented number) to consistently volunteer as part of the Children’s Deportation Defense Project (CDDP), a pro bono program he founded in collaboration with the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project. Esperanza attorneys have been able to screen five times as many children in sessions in which they have the CDDP’s help. Alexander is himself the CDDP’s most prolific volunteer. Without Alexander’s personal and structural contributions to their work, Ms. Carolina Garza De Luna, Esperanza’s Pro Bono Coordinator believes her organization “would not have been able to respond to the surge of demand for legal screenings for unaccompanied alien children.” Alexander also heads Southwestern Law School’s chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, through which he trained and recruited many students to participate in the NLG’s new Immigration Court Watch Program. The NLG’s Mr. James Lafferty believes that Southwestern owes its status as one of the Guild’s most active chapters in the L.A. area to Alexander’s “inspirational leadership.”
Alexander best expressed the source of his own inspiration: “My parents went through all of the hurdles of obtaining legal status and eventually obtained US citizenship. Now, although people can still question their immigration status, they cannot, however, take it away from them…Each of my clients has had a profound effect on my legal capacity to assist others and my attitude towards life by giving me a newfound appreciation on what it means to live without the constant fear of being taken away at [any] second.”
OTHER FINALISTS
Matt Brooks, Boston College Law School.
Revived Boston College’s chapter of the Foreclosure Taskforce. Created a housing search workshop for Greater Boston Legal Services.
Katherine Collins, California Western School of Law
Worked over 500 hours of uncredited, unpaid pro bono service for Human Rights Watch.
Kristine Cruz, SMU Dedman School of Law [Nominated by Mosaic Family Services]
Went beyond the terms of her internship to design training materials for legal interns and pro bono attorneys, resulting in large-scale, systemic impact on Mosaic’s work.
At this point, though, you may be confused. After all, the initial application deadline for EJW Fellowships was September 17th. But that’s why I’m excited: Equal Justice Works has extended the application deadlines for two subsets of their Project-Based Fellowships. Sites like https://usserviceanimals.org/ are specifically aimed at assisting with these issues, if you’re interested in working on a variety of legal aid issues in Texas or on Animal Law issues anywhere, you should strongly consider reaching out to organizations to create project proposals right now.
In Texas, one foundation issuing EJW grants would like to see a larger pool of applications before it begins to evaluate its candidates. In the Animal Law field, it seems as though the overall demand was greater than initial interest. Either way, if you’re interested in these two areas its not too late to apply for an EJW Fellowship this year! Here’s how EJW explained their decision to extend these deadlines:
Texas Access to Justice Foundation Grantee Fellowships:
“We recently learned that Equal Justice Works’ applicant pool for the 2015-16 Class has very few applicants with [Texas Access to Justice Foundation] grantees as the host organization. While TAJF has made no decision regarding any current applicants, they have asked Equal Justice Works to re-open the application to diversity the pool. Again, the quality of the current candidates has not yet been reviewed or judged—this decision is about the total number of applications received. All applicants will be carefully reviewed once the pool is complete…The new deadline for these Fellowship applications is December 1, 2014 at 5:00pm EST. Should you have any questions please contact Carolyn Schorr at cschorr@equaljusticeworks.org or (202) 466-3686 ext. 137. To speak to TAJF about this opportunity, please contact Lisa Melton at ldmelton@teajf.org.”
“Equal Justice Works is extending the deadline for applicants interested in working on Animal Law issues! There is a growing demand for strong candidates with top quality projects across the country. You now have until November 15th, 2014 to submit an application…If you have questions about Equal Justice Works Fellowships, please visit our website or contact cschorr@equaljusticeworks.org.”
by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships
Happy Friday everyone! Today is World Mental Health Day. Take a little time to assess your own mental health today, and perhaps reach out to someone you suspect is struggling.
Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: If you know someone we should honor, drop me a line.
Here are the week’s headlines:
Neighborhood Legal Services celebrates 50 years;
Social Security seeks MD attorneys for pro bono pilot project;
Ohio agencies awarded $19 mil in grants for crime victim services;
Canada pledges 9.76 mil CAD to Ukranian Legal Aid Project;
New pro bono clinic at UVA Law investigates claims of false conviction;
STAR awarded $1 mil in grants to expand services;
Legal Aid Ontario invests $600,000 to support domestic violence survivors;
Spotlight on Public Service Servants: Former President Jimmy Carter;
Super Music Bonus!
The summaries:
October 3, 2014 – Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Washington’s Neighborhood Legal Services Program, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. praised the program’s lawyers for carrying on their work ‘with remarkable tenacity’ despite budget cuts and other obstacles in recent years. “The program, which began in 1964, put lawyers in some of the District’s poorest communities. At one time the program had 10 offices across the city, but budget cuts forced it to scale back its operations. Today, the program has three offices in Wards 5, 7 and 8.” “A grantee of the federal Legal Services Corp., the organization has struggled in recent years to cope with more cuts in funding. But Executive Director Hannah Lieberman said in her remarks Thursday that the program had ‘rebounded’ from those losses and that its ‘future is bright.’ ‘We continue to strive to eradicate many of the same inequities that existed when we started,’ Lieberman said.” (National Law Journal Legal Times)
October 3, 2014 – “Implementation of a pro bono pilot in Maryland for attorneys interested in being a representative payee for a Social Security beneficiary was announced today by Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. Representative payees, she said, provide crucial help to the most vulnerable individuals in our community with their Social Security and Supplemental Security Income payments. ‘The Maryland Representative Payee Pro Bono Pilot offers attorneys a chance to fulfill the Court of Appeals’ aspirational goal of providing pro bono services – by assisting the young, elderly, and disabled with their Social Security benefits,’ Colvin said. ‘Attorneys are held to high ethical standards and will serve this at-risk population with the compassion and integrity they deserve.'” “Payees receive monthly payments on behalf of the beneficiary and use the funds to meet the individual’s basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. They also keep records and ensure that Social Security funds are used to care for the recipient. Once the pilot is successful in Maryland, the agency will consider expanding to states nationwide.” (SeniorJournal.com)
October 3, 2014 – “Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced this week that he has awarded 282 Ohio crime victim services agencies with a total of nearly 19 million in grant funds. The programs receiving funding include: domestic violence shelters; human trafficking outreach centers; aged-out foster youth initiatives; sexual, elder, and child abuse programs; legal aid initiatives; and court appointed special advocate programs. The funding was awarded as Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and/or State Victims Assistance Act (SVAA) grant funding for 2014-2015.” (portsmouth-dailytimes.com)
October 3, 2014 – “The authorities of Canada have pledged 9.76 million Canadian dollars ($8.6 million) to Ukraine within the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid program, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development stated. ‘Today, I am pleased to announce that we are contributing $9.76 million towards the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid project,’ James Bezan from the Canadian House of Commons said in a statement published on the ministry’s website Friday. According to the statement, the project will enable the vulnerable stratum of the Ukrainian population to protect their rights.” (RIANovosti)
October 3, 2014 – “A new extracurricular pro bono effort at the University of Virginia School of Law is giving students hands-on experience investigating potential false convictions in the state’s criminal justice system and supporting the work of the school’s Innocence Project Clinic. The Virginia Innocence Project Pro Bono Clinic recently transitioned from being a student-run organization (the former Virginia Innocence Project Student Group, or VIPS) to an independent clinic, but still operates with the same mission. Students vet claims of innocence from Virginia convicts who have exhausted all other avenues for appeal. The pro bono clinic exists separately from the Law School’s for-credit Innocence Project Clinic, and the work is done under the supervision of Innocence Project Clinic interim director Deirdre Enright.” (University of Virginia School of Law)
October 6, 2014 – “Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response (STAR) was awarded two competitive funding grants totaling $1 million to refine and expand its services, the center announced on Monday. ‘We are thrilled to receive this much-needed funding to expand our services to sexual assault survivors,’ Racheal Hebert, executive director of STAR said in the release. ‘These projects will allow STAR to strengthen our direct advocacy services to survivors, create new services to address the legal needs of survivors, enhance collaboration with our medical and criminal justice partners, and develop regional protocols to address sexual assault in the Capital Region.’ The first $500,000 grant comes courtesy of The Legal Assistance for Victims Program. It is a three-year grant aimed at providing legal services for sexual assault survivors.” “The second grant, totaling $650,000 over a three-year period, comes via The Grants to Encourage Arrest Programs, which awarded the Louisiana Department of Justice and Attorney General the money. According to the release, the Attorney General has subcontracted with STAR to rectify a lack of coordinated community response to sexual assault.” (The Daily Reveille)
October 8, 2014 – “Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is investing $600,000 over three years in a partnership with Luke’s Place, a centre devoted solely to improving the safety and experience of abused women and their children as they proceed through the family law process. This investment is to help improve access to justice for women who have experienced domestic violence. Luke’s Place will work with the new family law service centre in Oshawa to provide a safe, supportive site for low-income abused women.” (CNW)
Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants:
On this day in 2002, former President Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” After he left office in 1981, Carter and his wife Rosalynn created the Atlanta-based Carter Center in 1982 to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. Since 1984, they have worked with Habitat for Humanity to build homes and raise awareness of homelessness. Among his many accomplishments, Carter has helped to fight disease and improve economic growth in developing nations and has served as an observer at numerous political elections around the world. You can read more about the Carter Center and Mr. Carter’s great work.
Super Music Bonus! On this date in 1935, the first American opera Porgy and Bess opens.
As we get ready for Pro Bono Week 2014, here is a great example of how a community came together to do good work and sustain pro bono throughout the year in Washington, D.C.
The Evolution of DC Pro Bono Week
Each week in October, DC Pro Bono Week serves as a companion to the ABA’s Celebrate Pro Bono Week. Although it started small, DC Pro Bono Week is now a vibrant celebration – featuring a range of activities, events, and trainings designed to provide legal services and get more people involved in pro bono work. The evolution of DC Pro Bono Week into its current form has resulted from extensive collaboration, with many people from many organizations rolling up their sleeves.
The Inception
In 2009, Dechert’s pro bono partner, Suzie Turner, launched an informal working group that planned activities to promote DC Pro Bono Week. Merely by announcing a meeting on a listserv of DC legal services providers, she got attorneys from nonprofits, law firms, and law schools to come together and think about ways to celebrate DC’s pro bono community and encourage more attorneys to do pro bono work.
These haphazard meetings produced concrete results; for several years, this working group planned a series of activities around DC Pro Bono Week. The group planned pro bono fairs, where attorneys and law students could meet with pro bono coordinators at legal services organizations – making an initial connection that could grow into a serious pro bono relationship. The group also facilitated a reception in which local judges recognized attorneys who volunteered in court-based programs and thanked them for their service; as well as several other activities and clinics.
A Growth Spurt
The Pro Bono Week committee continued to expand and create major new initiatives:
Go Casual for Justice: Go Casual is a citywide fundraiser for the DC Bar Foundation, the largest funder of civil legal services in the District of Columbia. Employees at participating workplaces donate $5 (or more) to wear jeans to work on any day the office designates. In its first year, in 2009, thirty law firms raised $30,000. Over the years, the effort has expanded to include more than 100 law firms, corporate law departments, banks, and other workplaces. Last year, over 100 workplaces of all sizes raised nearly $90,000. These funds have helped to support the DC Bar Foundation’s legal-services grants, trainings, and loan-repayment assistance programs.
Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll: Each year, lawyers who did more than fifty hours of pro bono work are encouraged to register for the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll. Those who did more than 100 hours of service are recognized on the High Honor Roll. Attorneys also receive letters of thanks from the Chief Judges of DC Superior Court and the DC Court of Appeals. The size of the Honor Roll has grown each year.
Virtual Pro Bono Fair. Marcia Maack (Mayer Brown) and Becky Troth (Sidley Austin) coordinated this major effort, producing an online resource that is always available to attorneys who want to make a pro bono connection – without leaving their desks. The Pro Bono Week committee was able to obtain free video services, and the gracious hospitality of Pro Bono Net, to host the Virtual Pro Bono Fair online.
A New Home
In 2013, DC Pro Bono Week had grown so much that it needed additional structure – a home, if you will. Washington Council of Lawyers volunteered to be the steward of DC Pro Bono Week. The “open door, all are welcome” approach to DC Pro Bono Week has continued – with the inclusion of law schools, bar associations, and Equal Justice Works, in addition to the law firms and service providers that have participated for years.
Jen Tschirch is a member of the Washington Council of Lawyers board of directors, and the Pro Bono Coordinator at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She chaired the DC Pro Bono Week committee in 2013 and is co-chairing this year (along with another WCL board member, Georgetown Law’s Sara Jackson). According to Jen, “It’s amazing how much this group is able to accomplish by having every participant contribute their small piece of the puzzle. From credit counseling sessions to court and clinic visits to an all-new immigration clinic, it has been inspiring to see so many groups work together to highlight and expand the important pro bono work taking place in Washington, DC.” Perhaps the most amazing part is that DC Pro Bono Week is powered almost entirely by volunteer service and voluntary contributions.
The mission of Washington Council of Lawyers is to promote pro-bono service and public-interest law. Organizing DC Pro Bono Week is a natural fit for this collaborative organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality legal services to those in need.
As I write, my co-workers are festooning my desk with plastic ghosts and rubber spiders. It’s fall. But while DC’s nights may only be beginning to bite, for homeless advocacy organizations it’s already time to start preparing for winter, when shelter can be a matter of life or death for individuals experiencing homelessness here and in cities around the country. In one way or another, volunteers are often crucial to helping their neighbors make it through the winter. If you want to be involved, the time to begin is now:
For example, in the District of Columbia formal responsibility for ensuring homeless individuals survive the winter lies with the city. DC’s Homeless Services Reform Act of 2005 provides that the District “shall” provide space indoors for homeless people when the temperature falls below freezing [§7(c)]. It’s one of the few cities in the United States that does so. But as DC’s homeless population has grown to include more families (who have an additional, more expensive right to separate facilities [§7(d)]), these families have become increasingly less welcome in District shelters. In recent years, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has found DC officials shutting the door on homeless families through “unlawful procedures that have created almost insurmountable obstacles.” According to the Legal Clinic’s 2013 report, DC officials have failed to call hypothermia conditions in a timely fashion after freezing forecasts, denied pregnant women and single fathers shelter placement, and threatened to expel families for unauthorized reasons. This is where you come in.
The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has responded by creating the Homeless Family Outreach Project. The project depends on law students and community members willing to serve as volunteers. These volunteers stand in front of the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, DC’s central intake center for families seeking shelter (920 Rhode Island Avenue NE). They pass out flyers and speak one-on-one with families about the family right to shelter under DC law and other rights crucial to survival under severe weather conditions. They provide families with contact information for local officials so homeless families can speak to decision-makers about their needs. Finally, volunteers connect families who believe they have been unlawfully denied shelter or who have suffered from other legal violations to legal counsel at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless so that an attorney can try to assist them.
The project itself won’t begin until next month: volunteer outreach runs Monday – Thursday from November 1st to March 31st in two shifts (8:00 – 9:30am and 3:00 – 4:30pm). But volunteers must attend a training before doing outreach. (For more information or to RSVP for a training, contact the Legal Clinic’s volunteer coordinator at Kaitlyn.uhl@legalclinic.org or call 202-328-1263.)
Homeless advocacy groups in other cities may not have as strong a legal hook to hang their winter efforts on, but there are groups across the country doing what they can within their own communities to help folks see another Spring. If you’re curious about what work is happening in your own area, you might try looking up the respondent organizations to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ 2010 Report on Winter Homeless Services. If you know what work is happening in your own area and you’d like to receive the same attention from PSJD as the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, write to me at psjd@nalp.org and I’ll post your volunteer information as an update to this article.
Equal Justice Works offers free monthly webinars to educate attorneys on how federal programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness can make public interest legal careers financially feasible. Our next webinar is on Wednesday, October 8 from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT.
There has been a spate of proposals recently purporting to “fix” Public Service Loan Forgiveness, including one proposed in a recent task force report from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Unfortunately, it would gut the program by making it ineffective for many graduate and professional students.
NASFAA recommends forgiveness up to 100% of the independent undergraduate loan limit (currently $57.5K) and 50% of any remaining loan balance up to the graduate aggregate Stafford Loan limit (currently $138.5K). Let’s see how that would work for an average public interest lawyer.
Assume our lawyer has $125,000 in loans (about the average amount borrowed for a private law school) and starts a public interest job at a starting salary of $45,000 (about the mean for a public interest legal job). If she repays her loans in Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and earns Public Service Loan Forgiveness under NASFAA’s formula, she will still have about $52,000 remaining on her loans. If she remains in IBR to ensure her payments remain affordable, she will be repaying her loans for almost 13 more years.
With tens of millions of low- and moderate-income Americans unable to afford legal services, we need dedicated public interest attorneys more than ever. NASFAA’s proposal to limit the forgiveness graduate and professional students can earn in return for 10 years of dedicated work would erode the law’s core purpose of encouraging a wide range of public interest careers. The result will be far fewer public interest attorneys, as well as teachers, social workers, nurses, and others.
To learn how Public Service currently works – and should continue working – and get information on what’s happening in Congress, register for our free October webinar.
Uncle Sam is now seeking applications through Oct. 15 from students and recent graduates of advanced degree programs for the next crop of Presidential Management Fellows.
The prestigious program is open to those who will have received an advanced degree between Oct. 1, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2015. Candidates go through a rigorous application process, which includes in-person interviews, and finalists will be notified of their status in spring 2015.
The extremely competitive PMF program, formerly known as the Presidential Management Intern program, gives current graduate and doctoral school students and recent degree recipients the opportunity to work for two years at a federal agency, earning the full pay and benefits of a General Schedule Grade 9, 11 or 12. Fellowship finalists are not guaranteed an appointment; however, once a finalist receives an appointment, he or she is usually offered a full-time position at the end of the two years.
More information is available at www.pmf.gov. Good luck with your applications!
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