Urban Alliance, founded in Washington, DC in 1996, is seeking its first Chicago Program Director to implement a proven program model during an exciting expansion into Chicago, IL.

The mission of Urban Alliance is to empower under-resourced youth to aspire, work and succeed through paid-internships, formal training, and mentoring. Urban Alliance provides high school students with long-term, paid internships in professional settings where each student’s supervisor also serves as his/her mentor. Additionally, we provide job readiness, life-skills, and financial literacy workshops, as well as assistance with college and vocational planning. Over the last decade, Urban Alliance has served over 10,000 youth, maintained a 99% high school graduation rate, and facilitated 88% of program alumni enrolling in college.

As the focus of the non-profit and foundation community has shifted to evidence-based practices, Urban Alliance has been consistently recognized for measuring and delivering outcomes that make a difference in the lives of youth, and the results have led to increased funding and rapid growth. Urban Alliance opened its first Program Office outside of Washington, DC in 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland. Building on that successful expansion, Urban Alliance is currently opening a Chicago Office and will serve Chicago Public School students in the fall of 2012.

Urban Alliance is looking for a youth development professional to implement its proven program model and establish Urban Alliance as the standard for excellence in youth employment in Chicago. The position will report to the Chicago Executive Director as well as to the Chief Program Officer. The Program Director is charged with ensuring that program fidelity is maintained while the Urban Alliance core values are followed in the new office. Urban Alliance is seeking a youth expert, who is as comfortable speaking with youth as speaking with business and community leaders in all sectors. The individual must be committed to Urban Alliance’s mission and values and willing to put youth first while working to realize the larger organization’s goals.

Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

By: Maria Hibbard

Since it’s intern season here in Washington, D.C., many bright-eyed and bushy tailed students with hopes of potentially working for the federal government are streaming into the city.  I may or may not be one of them!  My name is Maria Hibbard, and I’m the resident PSLawNet Intern and Publications Coordinator for the summer. I’m a rising second year law student at Case Western Reserve University. Since I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and am now in Cleveland for law school, D.C.’s vast system of public transportation and plethora of free summer activities (see the Having Fun on the Cheap page!) definitely has a big-city allure for me as well. I’ll be blogging throughout the summer here while avoiding the D.C. heat in the air conditioned office, of course.

Until recently, the path to employment at a federal agency or department has been a mystical jumble of various opportunities only found through a great degree of research: volunteer internships, compensated internships, fellowships, short-term and long-term programs. Hopefully, this jumble will soon become clearer–when President Obama’s Executive Order 13562 takes effect on July 10, 2012, current students and recent graduates will have three clear paths to federal employment via The Pathways Program. To break it down, everyone loves a list:

• Some aspiring federal employees may have heard of the Student Career Experience program (SCEP) and the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP); both of these programs are being replaced by the all-encompassing Internship Program. While the program is still administered primarily by the hiring agency, students can possibly earn conversion into a permanent position after the completion of 640 hours of work experience.
• The Recent Grads program is a new opportunity for recent graduates within two years of obtaining any degree. Like the internship program, it is administered individually by the federal agencies, but the one year program provides structured mentorship opportunities, 40 hours of formal training, and the creation of an individual development plan. After 1 year, the graduates of the program can be eligible for conversion to permanent employment at the selected agency.

Starting in July, agencies will have to provide information about both of these programs, their specific opportunities, and application procedures on www.usajobs.gov/studentsandgrads/.

• Finally, the Presidential Management Program, while obviously not new, has been reworked to provide for a more seamless application process and administration (especially after last year’s acceptance snafu). This prestigious program, for professionals of all disciplines, places fellows at the center of federal policy making, provides at least 80 hours of formal training, and encourages the development of a performance plan.

We’ll remind you in July to start looking for opportunities on the reworked federal website; hopefully, the Pathways Program will lead more aspiring students and recent grads down the yellow-brick-“pathway” to federal employment.

Prairie State Legal Services, Inc., a 65-lawyer legal services organization, serving 36 counties in northern and central ILLINOIS outside of Cook County,

is seeking applicants for a STAFF ATTORNEY position in our community legal services office located in BLOOMINGTON.  The successful applicant will participate in a full range of legal activities, including the preparation and
Prairie State Legal Services offers free legal services for low income persons and those over 60 who have serious civil legal problems and need legal help to solve them.conduct of administrative hearings and trials of cases for elderly and low-income persons.

Learn more at PSLawNet!

Michael P. Maslanka, the managing partner of the Dallas office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, penned Five Tips for Writing a Get-Noticed, Persuasive Resume for LawJobs.com. He offers creative advice specifically for attorneys (like “Be vivid.” Bet you haven’t hear that before!)– it’s a quick and easy read, so check it out here!

Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit organization using innovative technology to increase legal assistance for poor persons, seeks a highly qualified candidate to spearhead pro bono recruitment campaigns and support and maintain partnerships with nonprofit legal aid organizations in New York and nationally building legal resource web sites to serve pro bono, legal aid and human rights advocates. This full-time position reports to the Deputy Director and is based in New York City.

Pro Bono Net (PBN) works in close partnership with other nonprofit legal organizations across the U.S. and Canada to increase access to justice for poor and moderate-income people. It does so by (i) supporting technology innovation by the nonprofit legal sector, (ii) increasing participation by volunteers, and (iii) facilitating collaborations among advocates working on
similar issues or in the same region. Pro Bono Net’s programs include LawHelp.org, probono.net, Pro Bono Manager, and LawHelp Interactive. To learn more about Pro Bono Net’s programs, visit http://www.probono.net/about/item.Mission

To learn how to apply, check out the full listing at PSLawNet!

The Student Affairs Officer for the Career Services at UC Irvine School of Law is responsible for developing and coordinating job opportunities for students, with a particular emphasis on law firm and corporate counsel placement.

Also, the Assistant Director will develop and interpret internal and external policies affecting the operations of the Career Development Office, make recommendations and implements decision on administrative/operational issues affecting strategically important department functions.

The Assistant Director will also develop goals to meet the department’s objectives, provide employment counseling and career education for law students, develop relations with the legal employment community and expands the traditional and non-traditional employment market scope both substantively and geographically, and build relations with bar associations for networking and employment opportunities.

To learn more about what a typical day might look like for this position, read this. To apply, check out the listing at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

Summer is finally here! What better way to celebrate than by sipping Piña Coladas poolside reading?! For pleasure! Imagine that.

Photo courtesy of http://waterytart23.blogspot.com

Last year, after graduation and the bar exam, I went on a leisure-reading binge — I must’ve read 10 books in less than 6 months! I had forgotten how colorful the world of non-case law books could be!

Well, now we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of 35 fiction and non-fiction books for the public interest-minded crowd. You can check them out here.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think!

by Kristen Pavón

Today’s the day we celebrate our commitment to the rule of law! President Dwight Eisenhower established Law Day in 1958 and 3 years later, Congress made it official.

I never celebrated Law Day while in law school (probably because it lands during finals high-time), but today, I will take a step back to think about the current state of the legal profession, public interest law, and my role in it all.

How are you celebrating Law Day 2012?

If you’re looking for some Law Day fun, check out the ABA’s Law Day page.

by Kristen Pavón

Hello! We are back in Washington, D.C. after a fun-filled week in “weird” Austin! If you’ve read last week’s blog posts or you were in Austin with us, then you know about the fabulous delicious BBQ programming at NALP’s Annual Education Conference.

One session I attended — “Be a Compelling Communicator” — had some great tips on delivering more effective presentations. Public speaking is one of those “soft” skills that is crucial to lawyering at basically every phase of litigation — with clients, adversaries, witnesses, senior/supervising attorneys, in court, etc. It also doesn’t hurt to have some communication tricks up your sleeve when networking and/or interviewing.

Here are a few nuggets of truth from Brent Baer‘s session:

1. What kind of speaker do you want to be? Good speakers inform their audiences, while great speakers influence them.

2. What are compelling communicators made of? Compelling communicators are engaging, confident, inspiring, knowledgeable and memorable.

3. Don’t make your audience yawn! Use the classic question, “How many of you…,” to include and engage your audience.

4. Get to taping! Record your presentations, then watch your performance to find out where you need improvement.

5. Take it easy! Focus on improving one skill per week.

6. Fashion matters. Speakers look most credible in navy, black, and gray.

The Legal Action Center (LAC) of the American Immigration Council is looking for second-year law students to join the LAC staff as legal interns this summer. Interns must be dynamic, self-starters with strong research and writing skills and a commitment to the LAC’s mission.

Intern projects may include: monitoring and analyzing immigration decisions; legal research and memo writing; and drafting practice advisories, pleadings and briefs. The LAC advocates for fundamental fairness in U.S. immigration law. It is staffed by experienced immigration lawyers who play a leading role in immigration litigation across the country.

For more information, see the listing at PSLawNet!