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.

*          *          *

To learn more about DC Pro Bono Week, please visit http://www.dcprobono.tumblr.com/

You can follow Washington Council of Lawyers on Twitter at @WashLawyers.

Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow 2014 – 2015

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:

Ameriqa [Zach Stern, 25 Jan 2011]
Limited License under Creative Commons

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 1^st to March 31^st 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.

• Wednesday, October 8 from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT.
  JDs in Debt: What Law Students & Lawyers Need to Know about Managing Student Loans & Earning Public Service Loan Forgiveness

You can also register for free webinars in November and December.

If you register but cannot attend, you will receive a recording of the webinar you can view anytime. 

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!

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday everyone!

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: If you know someone we should honor, drop me a line.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• Holder files statement backing public defender suit;
• Commission looks at Public Defense system in ID;
• MO Public Defender funding restricted despite deficiencies found in report;
• CA sets $3mil legal aid for unaccompanied minors;
• Atlanta Legal Aid celebrates 90 years of service;
• Federal government to provide $9 mil for direct representation of unaccompanied minors;
• B.C. lawyers set to resume protest of lack of legal aid funds;
• Spotlight on Public Service Servants: Duncan Marsden;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

September 25, 2014 – “Attorney General Eric Holder filed a statement of interest in state court in Albany on Thursday, supporting a class-action lawsuit that alleges New York’s public-defender service fails to meet its constitutional obligations.”  “The lawsuit, Hurrell-Harring v. New York State, was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union, arguing the state’s county-based system for providing legal defense is so uneven and underfunded that it deprives poor New Yorkers of their right to counsel.”  “The statement of interest from the justice department does not specifically detail problems with New York’s system, saying its interest is in ‘ensuring that all jurisdiction—federal, state, and local—are fulfilling their obligation under the Constitution to provide effective assistance of counsel to individuals facing criminal charges who cannot afford an attorney.'”  (capitalnewyork.com)

September 25, 2014 – “A new commission tasked with overseeing improvements to Idaho’s broken public defense system is asking lawmakers to prioritize where the work should begin.  Third District Judge Molly Huskey, who sits on the Public Defense Commission, asked a group of lawmakers Thursday whether they wanted the commission to first come up with recommendations on the minimum qualifications for public defenders or to focus on the contract terms that counties should use in working with them.”  The Commission is concerned that the problem is too complex to evaluate in a couple of months, and that their recommendations won’t be well-vetted.  “Some of the standards the commission will examine include limits on the number of cases a public defender can take on at one time and what resources a public defender should have available. But before recommendations can be made, the commission needs a solid picture of practices across the state — a process that is incomplete, Huskey said”  (Idaho Statesman)

September 25, 2014 – “Despite a recent study that found Missouri public defenders lack adequate time to represent their clients, additional state funding to bolster the overloaded system has been restricted by Gov. Jay Nixon.  The Legislature approved a $3.47 million increase for the Missouri State Public Defender system, but Nixon vetoed that funding.  However, the Legislature then came back this month and overrode that veto.  But despite the Legislature’s override of the veto, Nixon was still able to restrict the extra funding for public defender offices.” (emissourian.com)

September 27, 2014 – “California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill providing $3 million in legal services for unaccompanied minors arriving illegally in the state from Central America.  The bill also eliminated what Brown called ambiguity regarding the jurisdiction of state courts to make findings necessary to enable the federal government to grant the children special immigrant juvenile status.”  (Bloomberg)

September 27, 2014 – “As the primary provider of legal services to low-income people in the metropolitan area, Atlanta Legal Aid works to save children and families, save homes, help people access health care and protect consumers. The society serves clients from Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.  Begun in 1924 by 17 prominent local attorneys and with an operating budget of $600, Atlanta Legal Aid saw only modest increases in funding during its early years.  For nine decades, Atlanta Legal Aid has meant access to justice for countless individuals. Last year, attorneys handled nearly 25,000 cases, primarily involving housing, family, and senior citizens’ issues.”  Read more and wish them a hearty congratulations.  (Neighborhood Newspapers)

September 30, 2014 – “The federal government says it will provide $9 million to two refugee organizations that give legal assistance to unaccompanied children who have streamed across the southern border. The Department of Health and Human Services said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants will receive the supplemental funds through the  Unaccompanied Alien Children’s program, which it oversees.”  (Wall Street Journal)(subscription required) (New York Daily News)

October 2, 2014 – British Columbia, Canada lawyers “will resume their protest next week of what they call the chronic underfunding of legal aid.  Lawyers in Vancouver and Kamloops refused to schedule legal aid cases for a month during the summer, as they publicly urged the Liberal government to pump more money into the system.  Birgit Eder, a member of the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C.’s legal aid action committee, said the protest will resume next week, and will continue for the first full week of every month. And, Ms. Eder said, the withdrawal of services will expand to courthouses in Victoria, Surrey and Richmond.” (The Globe and Mail)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) partner Duncan Marsden is the winner of the 2014 Canadian National Pro Bono Distinguished Service Award from Pro Bono Canada.  The award was given at the 5th National Pro Bono Conference taking place in Regina, Saskatchewan Canada last week.  Mr. Duncan was recognized for his outstanding commitment to providing pro bono services throughout his career.  Read more about his great work.  Congratulations!!

Super Music Bonus!  Sometimes you just gotta shake it off.

National Pro Bono Week is only three weeks away! For the past five years, the event has provided an annual, national spotlight on lawyers’ professional responsibility to those unable to pay for legal services. Hopefully, October is a month when all of us ask ourselves what else we might do to contribute in our communities, despite our busy schedules.

Some pro bono work can involve long-term commitments, but we tend to forget how much even a few moments of legal advice mean to someone unable to afford more. Isolated free evenings can make a difference.

The tricky part can be figuring out what to do with them. The legal needs of individuals unable to afford our professional rates are great, and a plethora of organizations in cities across the country need volunteer assistance as they attempt to meet them. Tools like ProBono.net’s National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide and Pro Bono Students Canada’s Community Placement Program and the Court and Tribunal Program do excellent work cataloging these programs. Unfortunately, it is sometimes unclear what these organizations need. Lawyers fill out a form or send an email without knowing where and when they might be asked to contribute.

Starting this year, PSJD would like to make it a little easier to find a use for your free moments. Once or twice a month (depending on demand) we will highlight specific opportunities in each NALP region for attorneys to turn up and get involved in pro bono work on the spot. Some of these opportunities will require activity beyond the initial starting time and date; please read each event page carefully. Also be sure to read event pages to determine whether you must pre-register for the event. Our goal is to let you know when and where your services are needed in your community.

In order for this initiative to work, we will need your help. Public interest organizations that rely on legal volunteers: please reach out to us at psjd@nalp.org if you know of orientation events, trainings, or walk-in opportunities for volunteer lawyering in your community in the coming month and we will consider including your event in the next edition of this feature.

Enjoy giving back!

— PSJD

by Christina Jackson, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives & Fellowships

Happy Friday everyone!  As we start planning Pro Bono Week events, we’re thinking about the great student-run public interest events we’ve seen in the past.  If your student group is putting together an event, let us know.  We’ll highlight it on the PSJD site and PSJD Blog.  We love spreading the word!

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: If you know someone we should honor, drop me a line.

Here are the week’s headlines:

• MI Supreme Court merges indigent defense services;
• NYCLU: New data shows holes in legal aid for poor;
• ID counties want state to run indigent defense system;
• Federal funds to bolster domestic violence programs in NY;
• 2014 Sammies awarded;
• Atlanta Legal Aid Society expanding services by using retirees;
• Drexel Law School launches new legal clinic;
• National pro bono group to aid with access to justice;
• Spotlight on Public Service Servants: Professional Development and Pro Bono staff of University of Connecticut School of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law, and American University Washington College of Law;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

September 17, 2014 – “The State Appellate Defender Office and the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System have been merged by the Michigan Supreme Court.  The merger, effective immediately, was requested by the Appellate Defender Commission to promote efficiency and hold down costs.”  “Under the court’s merger order, SADO will administer the MAACS.”  (Michigan Lawyers Weekly)

September 17, 2014 – “In a new report examining public defenders in five counties, the New York Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday called state efforts to defend the poor in criminal cases an abject failure.  NYCLU is scheduled to go to trial next month in Albany in a lawsuit arguing that New York systemically provides inadequate staff and money for constitutionally required defense lawyers. The suit first filed in 2007 seeks defense attorneys at all arraignments, smaller caseloads and better funding with the state taking over the county-based system.”  (thedailystar.com)

September 18, 2014 – “County officials in Idaho approved a resolution Wednesday that would give the state the responsibility of managing the system that assigns public defenders to defendants who can’t afford an attorney.  Nearly 200 representatives from the state’s 44 counties voted on the proposal at the annual Idaho County Association conference in northern Idaho. The resolution will now go before state lawmakers for approval when they convene in January for the 2015 Legislature.” (MagicValley.com)

September 22, 2014 – “Two Rochester organizations working to end domestic violence are scheduled to receive money from the Department of Justice, according to Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport.  The Legal Aid Society of Rochester will receive $266,500 and the Rochester Society for the Protection and Care of Children is expected to receive $450,000, according to a news release.”  (Democrat & Chronicle)

September 22, 2014 – “On Monday, September 22, the Partnership for Public Service presented eight outstanding public servants with the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies). Having earned the reputation as the “Oscars” of public service, the achievements of the 2014 medal recipients range from improving the lives of paralyzed veterans to arguing 125 cases before the Supreme Court to recovering nearly a billion dollars in stolen Medicare funds. The top medal, Federal Employee of the Year, was presented to Rana Hajjeh and a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for leading a global vaccination campaign, the Hib Initiative, which will save the lives of millions of children.”  (Partnership for Public Service)

September 22, 2014 – “The Atlanta Legal Aid Society is stepping up its efforts to tap into the retired lawyer community for volunteers to help clients over the phone, thanks to a grant from the federal Legal Services Corp.  The LSC has awarded the group $213,000 over two years to fund a lawyer and a coordinator to organize the effort.  Atlanta Legal Aid is using its Georgia Senior Legal Hotline as the prototype for legal aid by phone. Last year the hotline fielded 8,400 calls and opened cases for 3,500 people 60 and older.”  “The hotline lawyers offer advice, provide necessary forms and undertake limited intervention, calling and emailing government agencies and lawyers for mortgage companies or landlords.”  (Daily Report)(free subscription required)

September 22, 2014 – “This fall, Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law launched a new Community Lawyering Clinic at Drexel’s Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, located at 35th and Spring Garden Streets. The clinic provides law students with the opportunity to gain firsthand experience working with real clients, while empowering and serving the neighboring Mantua and Powelton Village communities of West Philadelphia.”  “The clinic offers referrals, legal advice and direct representation in matters involving family, consumer protection, property and other legal areas affecting the community as well as training, pro bono programs and workshops on community-wide legal issues.” (DrexelNOW)

September 24, 2014 – “As legal aid budgets are squeezed, more members of the public are looking for pro bono services to help with their legal needs. Into that gap comes the recently formed Pro Bono Canada.  Incorporated last fall, Pro Bono Canada is an initiative born out of the five provincial pro bono organizations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec. It will be having it’s coming-out party at the National Pro Bono Conference in Regina this week, which will be for many lawyers their first exposure to the organization.”  “The idea of Pro Bono Canada is that we will not be direct program deliverers, but we’ll be helping support the expansion of pro bono,” says Dennis O’Connor, former associate chief justice of Ontario and chairman of organization.  (Canadian Lawyer)

Spotlight on Outstanding Public Servants: 

University of Connecticut School of Law’s Dash for a Difference allows participants to get to know Hartford while engaging in service throughout the city. Teams venture into the various neighborhoods of Hartford to take part in service projects benefiting social service and community development agencies. This allows for exposure to a variety of service events including cleaning shelters, feeding the homeless, gardening alongside residents of transitional housing and cleaning up parks and community spaces. In addition, participants learn about the rich cultural aspects of the city.   The service project with Hands on Hartford was a voluntary component of the orientation program and was held on Friday, August 22nd.

On August 15, new Texas Tech University School of Law students participated in the final project of New Student Orientation: Community Service/Pro Bono Action. This was the second year new Tech Law students have partnered with various organizations around the city to serve their new neighborhoods and communities.  More than 175 students participated at 5 different service locations including food and clothing collections, the arboretum, and local children’s groups.  This service comes at the end of a long week of Orientation classes and transition and serves as a hands-on reminder to the new law students that no matter how long or stressful a work week might be, we all have a responsibility to become involved and serve our local communities.

American University Washington College of Law’s IMBY (“In My Back Yard”) Public Service Day is a celebration of everything good in the WCL community and a chance to be part of positive work being done at various organizations all over the District. IMBY sets the tone for the spirit of public service and community involvement that pervades at WCL.  For 1Ls, IMBY is a fun way to kick off orientation week, get out and see the city, and meet new classmates in a relaxed environment. For 2Ls, 3Ls, faculty and staff, IMBY is a chance to reconnect with the community and to welcome incoming 1Ls in the spirit of public service.

Super Music Bonus!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk

Interested in increasing access to justice while learning more about shelter, housing, and public benefits law? Consider volunteering with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless! Our next New Volunteer Training will take place in October.

Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Time: 11:45 am – 4:00 pm (lunch will be provided)
Location: Arent Fox (1717 K Street, NW)
RSVP: kaitlyn.uhl@legalclinic.org or 202.328.1263

The core of the Legal Clinic’s work is the representation of individual low- and no-income clients through a network of over 250 volunteer attorneys and legal assistants. After attending a New Volunteer Training, volunteers obtain clients at one of seven intake sites run by the Legal Clinic at meal programs, health clinics, and day programs throughout the District. Our intake sessions last for one hour and, on average, about 3-5 clients attend each intake. If clients present legal issues that meet our case selection guidelines, then the intake volunteer acts as the primary legal representative for those clients. Legal Clinic staff attorneys provide advice and guidance on all volunteer cases.

Attendance is required for all new volunteers. Attorneys must be authorized to practice law in the District of Columbia: attorneys must be a current member of the D.C. Bar or have begun the process for waiving in admission; attorneys employed by the Federal Government must be a member in good standing in the highest court of any state. Paralegals may volunteer only in partnership with and under the direct supervision of an attorney authorized to practice in D.C.

Questions? Please contact the Legal Clinic’s volunteer coordinator at kaitlyn.uhl@legalclinic.org or 202-328-1263.

by Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow (2014 – 2015)

PSJD is about legal careers. And legal careers are about networking. (I know you know, but if you’re at all like me you need frequent reminders.) For that reason, we changed one of our key resources last May.

PSJD’s “Public Interest Career Fair Calendar” is now PSJD’s Public Interest Career Fair and Events Calendar. Traditionally, this resource was for helping students find traditional career fairs in their area, such as (for example) the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair happening next month in Bethesda, Maryland (register by October 10^th!). Now, the calendar also includes events covering substantive issues in public interest and government law that are open to the general public, such as the Emory Public Interest Committee’s 11^th Annual Public Interest Conference happening in Atlanta, Georgia this Saturday, September 27^th (the topic is “Legal Issues in Fostering & Adopting”). In the future, we hope to migrate the calendar to a more expected calendar layout. For the time being, at least, we’ll also promote these events through the PSJD Facebook page shortly before they occur.

Unlike our previous system, this means that not every event in the calendar may be meaningful to you. While career fairs often appeal to a wide slice of the public interest pie, these substantive events are narrower. However, we hope you’ll find this shift helpful. Remember: You can’t just look for work by answering job postings and attending career fairs. You need to meet the people in your field and familiarize yourself with their attitudes and issues. Become knowledgeable. Become known. Substantive conferences—especially ones that happen off your campus or outside your city—can help with that. And PSJD, with the help of its law school subscribers, can help you hear about them.