Northwest Defenders Association is a non-profit public defender agency representing clients in Seattle, Washington.  Agency attorneys and staff represent adult and juvenile clients charged with criminal offenses, parents and children in dependency actions and respondents in contempt of court proceedings.

Northwest Defenders Association is offering three internship positions with stipends of $1500 each for law students who have completed their second year of school.  They are offered in honor of Kimiko Nagaoka Mukai, mother of former Board Treasurer Don Mukai.  Ms. Mukai was in her second year of college when President Theodore Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, requiring Japanese Americans to report to internment camps.  Ms. Mukai and her family were held at Camp Minidoka in Idaho.  She was never able to complete college but received an honorary degree in 2002 at the age of 90.

If you’re interested, see the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

I don’t think so.

However, some students are frustrated by the “abundance of paperwork” and volunteer hours they have to put in to get their check. Some are even going so far as labeling the requirements an exploitation of student labor.

Apparently, some law schools require summer stipend recipients to do between 5 and 10 hours of volunteer work on campus and at fundraising events [to raise dinero for future stipends].

From U.S. News

Many law students and J.D.’s report that their public service internships were fulfilling, and schools’ websites celebrate students’ and alumni’s decisions to serve the public. But some say that the internship applications come with too many requirements, warning aspiring public servants to carefully consider whether to participate. . . .

A student at Cardozo, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says he didn’t mind the abundance of paperwork he had to fill out to apply for the public interest stipend he received last summer. But as an “already stressed out” 1L, he didn’t think he should have had to do office work for the school and cold call alumni. . . .

[Leslie] Thrope [director of Cardozo’s Center for Public Service Law] says the stipends help students develop legal skills and transform people’s lives, but Cardozo can’t afford to fund them without students volunteering at an annual auction that raises funds for the stipends. “[T]he requirements are right up front when a student chooses to participate,” Thrope says.

In my opinion, offering 10 hours of your time to help out the law school so that another public interest enthusiast can have an opportunity to do good work is not a biggie.

*As an aside, if you do have your heart set on doing public interest work during the summer and have yet to find the bankroll to do so, check out our Summer Funding Page. There are over 50 funding sources listed!

What do you think? Would you apply for a summer stipend with a few strings attached during your 1L year?

by Kristen Pavón

The Official Guide to Legal Specialties, a NALP publication, has some good information about the skills that are most important to public interest lawyers. What do you think of them?

Here are the obvious ones:

• Passion for public service
• Strong interpersonal communications skills
• Oral advocacy skills
• Organizational skills
• Time management skills

And the not-so-obvious ones:

• Patience
• Tenacity
• Foreign language skills
• Ability to cope with crises
• Resourcefulness

I would add flexibility to the list. Is there anything you would add?

by Kristen Pavón

Happy Friday, readers! For those of you gearing up to take rock final exams, good luck! Remember to schedule in some relax time between study time! Here’s a happy-fluffy story to kick off your weekend!

There is a great article in the November/December edition of Diversity & the Bar profiling Sylvia Novinsky, the Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Novinsky founded and coordinated UNC’s Pro Bono Program back in 1996. Since then, the program has grown exponentially. The Program, manned by 12 volunteer law students, matches students with attorneys that work on pro bono cases.

The law school and the North Carolina Bar Association acknowledge the students’ efforts when they hit 50, 75, or 100  hours of service.

Read more about Novinsky’s journey to UNC’s Pro Bono Program and the personal struggles she’s fought past to continue instilling a desire in law students to give back.

by Kristen Pavón

Paul Schiff Berman signed on as George Washington University Law School’s Dean this year, and in the short time he’s been at GW Law, six new pro bono programs have been developed.

The programs allow students to gain valuable hands-on experience while tackling a variety of issues, including illegal and unnecessary school exclusion in D.C. public schools and public charter schools, sealing criminal records, and providing legal assistance to the homeless, as well as to unrepresented litigants in administrative hearings.

Here are the new projects:

• GW Cancer Pro Bono Project
• Homeless Pro Bono Project
• GW Street Law at the Arlington County Detention Facility
• Suspending Suspensions Pro Bono Project
• District Record Sealing Service
• DC Office of Administrative Hearings Resource Center Pro Bono Project

You can learn about each project at Dean Schiff Berman’s blog.

I think the Suspending Suspensions Project is especially interesting! What do you think? What innovative pro bono projects are available at your law schools?

by Kristen Pavón

Last year, we told you all about the controversy surrounding U. of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic’s case against chicken farmers, or as we called it — Big Chicken.

Just to catch you up to speed —

The clinic is representing the Waterkeeper Alliance, a New York-based environmental group with 18 chapters in Maryland. The group filed suit in March 2010 against Perdue and the Hudsons, who raise more than a half-million chickens a year on their 293-acre farm, after spotting water running into a drainage ditch from a pile of what was later identified as treated sewage sludge. The group also measured high levels of bacteria from waste in the ditch, which ultimately drains into the Pocomoke River.

[Gov.] O’Malley voiced his concern last year about the clinic’s lawsuit, when rural legislators unhappy with the case threatened but eventually backed off from withholding funds for the law school.

After about 19 months, Gov. Martin O’ Malley has renewed his complaints about the ongoing case.

In a letter that became public Thursday, O’Malley wrote to law school Dean Phoebe Haddon this week to complain about the “ongoing injustice” of the environmental law clinic pursuing “costly litigation of questionable merit” against Alan and Kristin Hudson, who raise chickens for Perdue on their Worcester County farm.

“He just thinks it’s gotten to the point of being a misuse of resources,” Guillory said. . . .

Haddon countered that the governor’s letter contained “some inaccuracies,” though she did not cite any. She noted that a judge had denied an early motion by the Hudsons and Perdue to dismiss the case. She told O’Malley that the state’s rules of professional conduct bar the clinic from dropping its client, and she warned that his views, which have now become public, could prejudice the case and interfere with the student lawyers’ relationship with their clients.

“I urge you to let the judicial process resolve this matter,” she concluded.

Read more here.

by Kristen Pavón

Now that our  annual Public Service Mini-Conference is over, we will now resume our regularly scheduled program here at the PSLawNet Blog!

The conference was a great success! On Wednesday, we hosted the Public Interest Advising 101 program for new or newish law school career advisors.

During our 101 program, panelists talked about student debt (by the wonderful Heather Jarvis), how to use PSLawNet to find PS jobs and career resources, and common challenges a public interest advisor faces in their first years on the job. In addition to the useful tips and information, the program was a fab opportunity for advisors to meet colleagues from across the country.

After PIA101, some attendees braved the nasty weather and kept the party going at the Round Robin Networking Dinners — at Zengo, Old Ebbitt Grill and Matchbox — to nosh with colleagues. Zengo got particularly high marks for tastiness and ambiance! (We’ll see, I have a reservation for tonight!)

Yesterday, at Arnold & Porter, LLC, more than 150 law school professionals and attorneys gathered for public service-focused programming.

The day started with introductions, NALP’s Public Service Section Workgroup updates, and NALP & PSLawNet updates.

Then, after presenting Felicia Cantrell, ASU Law 3L, with the 17th Annual Pro Bono Publico Award and Deb Ellis with NALP’s Award of  Distinction, groups broke out for sessions on labor & workers’ rights careers, teaching professionalism and advocating public service programs within law school administrations.

After the breakout programming, everyone reconvened for a “whirlwind tour” of hot topics affecting public interest career professionals. Panelists let attendees in on some techie secrets (topsy.com, google news alerts for your name and Klout.com), talked about student debt, Uncle Sam’s attempt to streamline the federal attorney application process, best practices for employer outreach, and ABA accreditation standards.

Finally, at the end of the day, federal legal recruiters joined us for a networking reception to mix and mingle with law school career services professionals.

Were you at the mini-conference? What did you think about the programming?

Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), a Chicago-based public interest law and policy center that addresses compelling issues of social justice and quality of life in the Chicago region, is hiring interns for the summer of 2012.

BPI’s staff of lawyers and policy specialists works to increase the availability of affordable housing for working families, transform segregated public housing, improve Chicago’s public schools, and help restore open, honest, responsible, and accountable government in our state using a wide variety of approaches, including legal and policy research, advocacy, organizing, litigation and collaboration with non-profit, business, community and governmental organizations.
Interns work closely with our staff on important public interest projects in BPI’s program groups: affordable housing, public housing, public education, and political reform.

Interns receive excellent supervision and mentorship, the opportunity to contribute directly to solving pressing policy issues, and the chance to learn more about Chicago’s ever growing public interest community.

1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls are encouraged to apply. BPI is frequently able to offer summer funding assistance to legal interns through the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) program. PILI provides funding for law students to work at various public interest legal organizations in Chicago.

To apply or learn more about the position, see the listing at PSLawNet!