The PSLawNet Blog

Happy Friday, dear readers.

“May you live in interesting times.”*  Is this a well-wish or a curse?  It could be either, and I was reminded of this while attending the Equal Justice Conference earlier this week.  I was heartened to learn of so many creative approaches taken by access-to-justice stakeholders in trying to serve increasing numbers of clients even in the midst of crushing funding shortages.  But the fact remains that these are dark times for the AtJ community.  One legal services executive director, while contemplating funding cuts, the disappearance of government support programs for low-income communities, and swollen caseloads, said simply, “I feel like we’re losing.”  It was a sobering experience for me to hear that from someone who’s spent her entire career fighting for those on society’s margins.

Still, I left the conference with a sense of optimism.  After all, the EJC brings together a highly diverse group of legal professionals – legal services and law firm lawyers, bar association officials, judges, law school faculty and administrators, etc. - who are unified by a commitment to making our justice system work for all, especially our most vulnerable.  Many of the older more senior attendees have weathered storms like the present one before - funding cuts on federal and state levels, IOLTA shortfalls, staff layoffs, client-support programs eroding.  And yet here they are, year after year, sharing the solutions they’ve developed to make due in tough circumstances, and brainstorming to generate new solutions.  They are accustomed to uphill battles.  In these interesting times, I’m so grateful for the creativity and resilience which has long characterized the access-to-justice community.  (And I’m grateful that Angela Vigil makes us all laugh.)

(*I stole this proverb from David Udell of the National Center for Access to Justice at Cardozo Law.  Thanks, David.)               

This week:

• a new diversionary court for vets in Illinois;
• filing-fee increase in Connecticut will boost legal services funding;
• Governor Brown may siphon mortgage settlement cash away from legal services providers;
• a nicely written piece on the importance of pro bono in the profession;
• in PA, class action residuals will better assist the legal services community;
• the financially strapped NOLA public defender’s office may have been shorted thousands in $;
• a Houston Chronicle editorial supports the controversial public defense program in Harris County;
• a call for indigent defense reform in PA.

The summaries:

• 5.17.12 – http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/def1-m17.shtml

• 5.16.12 – as has happened in many other county court systems, a new diversionary court for veterans has launched in Joliet, IL (Will County).  “The new court will function like the existing drug court in Will County… In many cases, selected defendants will be required to plead guilty to their crimes up front before they are allowed into the court. They will be required to remain drug free, submit to random drug tests, find work, follow through with treatment and attend weekly counseling sessions. If they comply with all of the court terms, they will graduate and their charges will be dismissed.  In certain cases, the court may not require a guilty plea upfront, or the state may forego filing criminal charges at all if the participant successfully completes the program.”  (Story from the Herald-News.)  

• 5.14.12 – in Connecticut, a boost in court filing fees will generate funds for legal services providers.  “State lawmakers have provided cash-strapped legal aid programs with a financial shot in the arm, as they agreed last week to increase court filing fees for the second time since 2009…. The latest increases are expected to generate more than $4.8 million annually for legal aid agencies, which have been hit hard by layoffs and service cuts in recent years. Agency leaders say they think the new money will stave off further cuts — for the time being…. By all accounts, the higher filing fees were the topic of intense negotiations by lawmakers, legal aid officials and lawyers. Some trial lawyers were not pleased with the latest round of increases.”  (Story from Connecticut Law Tribune.)  

• 5.14.12 – [In California,] Gov. Jerry Brown apparently has his own plans for a $410-million all-cash slice of a national mortgage settlement: Plug some of the holes of California’s massive deficit.  The state attorney general’s office told The Times last Friday it hoped to use about half the cash from the settlement with the nation’s five biggest banks to aid housing counselors and legal services agencies. But the governor plans instead to use the money to make interest payments on bonds for housing projects that include low-income and senior housing as well as shelters for battered women (see page 89 of the revised budget).  Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris immediately objected to the redirecting of the money, which was won as part of a massive settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks over mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses.”  (Full story in the L.A. Times.)
  • here was an earlier L.A. Times report: “About half of the $410 million flowing into California’s coffers from the national mortgage settlement with major banks will be pumped into the state’s housing counselors and legal services agencies that help struggling homeowners.”

• 5.14.12 – here’s a nice post on the Marquette Law School blog about the importance of pro bono to the legal profession. 

• 5.14.12 – “New rules announced May 11 by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania direct unclaimed money from class-action lawsuits be mandated to provide legal services for low-income Pennsylvanians.  Prior to this, the disposition of residual funds was left to the discretion of the trial judge.  The new civil procedure rules take effect July 1.”  (Story from LegalNewsline.com)  (And here’s a little more coverage from the Allentown Morning Call.)

• 5.14.12 - a brouhaha concerning statutorily required funding transfers among various NOLA city agencies seems to have shorted the already strapped public defender’s office by potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 

• 5.13.12 – criticism of the much-discussed plan to require 50 hours of pro bono service for admission to the New York bar.  “Mandatory pro bono work for lawyers is a good idea. But Judge Lippman’s plan is deeply flawed, as it affects only aspiring lawyers who have not yet gained admission to the bar. As a result, the beneficiaries of Judge Lippman’s largess will be served by people unlicensed to practice law — who by definition have no real practice experience. (Though internships and law school clinics are useful training grounds for future lawyers, they are no substitute for the rigors of licensed practice.)”  Full op-ed, by Prof. Ben Trachtenberg of the U. of Missouri School of Law, in the New York Times.

• 5.11.12 - a Houston Chronicle editorial voices strong support for the city’s public defense program which, two years after its creation, is being sharply criticized by some judges and the local Republican party.  

• 5.10.12 – a blog post from the ACLU of Pennsylvania makes the case for reforming the Keystone State’s indigent defense system. 

By: Steve Grumm

Because everyone loves to think about student debt as they begin their weeks…

• In a Minnesota Lawyer piece, legal management analyst Edward Poll notes that the landscape is changing with respect to the value of legal education, and cites alarming statistics about loans as he wonders whether law student loans are a “debt bomb” in the making.
• Will Congress move to make student debt dischargeable – or at least subject to more flexible treatment – in bankruptcy proceedings?  The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend:

The growth of student debt is stirring debate about whether the government should step in to ease the burden by rewriting the bankruptcy laws—again.

In 2005, Congress prohibited student debt from being discharged through bankruptcy, except in rare cases, because of concerns that many young graduates—who often have no major assets such as a house or a car—would be tempted to walk away from loan obligations.

Some lawmakers now want to temper that position, pointing to concerns that a significant number of Americans could be buried under education loans for decades. Their efforts, however, would apply only to private loans—a fraction of the market.

All of this suggests to me it’s dawning on high-level policymakers that decades of increased tuition costs and student borrowing have saddled millions with debt that they’ll be servicing for years to come.  (Including yours truly!) 

The single most important key to managing your educational debt is educating yourself about it.  Use resources provided by our friends Heather Jarvis and the folks at Equal Justice Works to understand what it is you’ve borrowed and how you can minimize your debt obligations most quickly.

By: Steve Grumm

Picked this up from the Philadelphia Business Journal, which is my non-Wall Street Journal business journal of choice.  Advice geared toward those who are very active networkers on Linked-In.  I use LI only passively, so this kind of behavior seems way aggressive to me.  But I suppose it’s useful for the more active users to draw some lines of appropriate/inappropriate use of the site.  FWIW.

By: Steve Grumm

Here’s a piece by the Brennan Center about a law which, interestingly, funds the indigent defense program via fees paid by those who are convicted after being represented by a public defender:

In Louisiana, people who are represented by a public defender and are later convicted must pay a $35 fee to augment funding for public defenders even though they have already had a judicial determination made that they cannot afford an attorney. The fee creates a system that undermines the Constitutional right to conflict-free counsel by forcing attorneys to rely on their clients’ convictions for much needed funding. The existing fee already acts as an illogical tax on indigent defendants. And now there are two bills before the Louisiana House that would raise the fees on people who are likely unable to pay.

One question this piece doesn’t address is how many jurisdictions in addition to Louisiana also use a fee system like this one.

By: Steve Grumm

Hello, dear readers.  This week Kristen and I are staffing NALP’s annual conference in Austin, Texas.  Dozens of law school public interest career advisors and public interest employers will attend.  They will share the latest on lawyer hiring, professional development, and other news affecting public interest law students and lawyers.

Programming focused on the public interest arena includes:

• Beyond the Beltway: Opportunities in Federal, State, and Local Government
• Running a Successful Field Placement Program: An A to Z Primer on the Academic and Practical Grounding for Career Services Professionals
• Beyond the Basics: Leveraging Employer, School, State, and Federal Loan Repayment Assistance Funds
• DOJ Decoded: Answering Questions and Debunking Myths about Getting a Job and Getting Ahead at the Department of Justice
• Hypothetically Speaking: Preparing Students for Prosecutor and Public Defender Interviews
• Judicial Clerkships as a Career Accelerator
• Careers in the Military: Panel Presentation with Representatives of the Sister Services
• Children’s Rights, Parental Rights, and Juvenile Justice, Oh My!  How Knowing the Nuances Can Get Your Students Jobs
• Learning by Doing (Good): Pro Bono and Lawyer Professional Development

Kristen and I will be blogging and tweeting this week to share what we learn.  If you have any specific issues you’d like us to address while we’re at the conference, leave a note in the comments section.  Also, follow us on Twitter at:

• @PSLawnet
• @KristenPavon
• @SteveGrumm
• Follow all NALP Conference developments via the hashtag #nalp12

The United States Department of Justice is seeking law students for a Fall 2012 internship with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, United States Immigration Court, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Volunteer Law Interns work in a clerkship capacity to research and draft decisions and memoranda for executive branch judges who preside over deportation, exclusion, removal, rescission and bond cases. Typical assignments include drafting decisions on applications for asylum, researching and writing memos on whether a particular criminal offense renders a person subject to removal, and drafting decisions on motions to reopen in cases where a final order of removal has been issued. Students will develop research and writing skills and gain increased understanding of immigration law and procedure.

Learn more at PSLawNet!