Poverty Law Prof Blog

Alan B. Morrison to be the GW's first Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law

The GW Press Release is here. 

Congratulations Alan!  -E.R.

Bill Quigley to be the new Legal Director of The Center for Constitutional Rights

Bill Quigley is changing jobs from teaching at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, where he ran the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center, to being the new Legal Director of The Center for Constitutional Rights.  The CCR press release is here.  Congratulations! 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

For those who couldn't make AALS: podcast of Poverty Section's panel

The podcast of the AALS Section on Poverty Law panel at the 2009 AALS annual conference is now available online.  The panel information is below:

Privatization: Promise and Pitfall at the Intersection of Law, Markets and Poverty

This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of market-based approaches to poverty relief in light of more than a quarter century of government disinvestment from low-income neighborhoods. The panel will feature a description of San Diego's Market Creek Plaza, a 10-acre real estate partnership in a culturally diverse, underinvested neighborhood that represents one of the first commercial development projects designed, built and (ultimately) owned by community residents. Panelists will also describe innovative banking and housing efforts designed to expand tenant ownership and access to capital and credit in urban communities.

A commentator will encourage panelists and participants to consider practical, political and philosophical pros and cons of such approaches. Are market-based approaches the "new urban renewal?" Can the market deliver where the government has failed? What are some of the unintended consequences of even the most well-meaning, well-designed programs? What do these projects portend for local residents who all too often have been the objects of reform but not its subjects? What lessons can we draw as the country prepares to usher in a new administration in Washington that might take seriously a renewed anti-poverty agenda?

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Visiting Scholars Program at Michigan's National Poverty Center

The National Poverty Center, part of the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, has an unpaid visiting scholar program that lets you work at the Center.  There are 3 deadlines per year and the deadline for summer visits is Feb. 16, 2009.  More information here. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Call For Newsletter Submissions from Poverty Law Professors

If you are on the poverty law professor listserv, you have already seen this, but if not...

In the interest of sharing what we are doing individually and in the hopes that doing so will inspire connections that might not otherwise happen, I am putting together a Poverty Law Newsletter in advance of the AALS conference.  If you could email me with what you have been up to in the following categories (feel free to suggest other categories as well), I will put together such a newsletter.  Categories:

• Upcoming Conferences
• Books and Book Updates
• Articles and Other Publications
• Speeches and Presentations
• Legislative and Regulatory Activities
• Personal Notes

For inclusion in the newsletter, please email me by Nov. 5th (extended deadline) at erosser@wcl.american.edu.

Entertainment: Scalia is not a fan

UPDATE 2: Jeffrey Selbin's Repsonse. 

UPDATE:  Lawrence D. Wood and Richard M. Wheelock's response (they teach Chicago's Law and Poverty class) and Peter Edelman's response (Georgetown). 

I am not sure how to categorize this but Scalia is not a fan of poverty law classes... on the positive side perhaps ironically his lack of poverty law background is itself an indication of how important the class is.  Here is what the Chicago Sun-Times reported about a recent talk by Scalia:

"I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes, not "Law and Poverty," or other made-up stuff, Scalia said to laughter. He said his advice to law students was: "Take serious classes. There's so much law to learn. Don't waste your time."

The full story is here. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Profile: Clare Pastore

Clare Pastore teaches courses including Civil Procedure, Professional Responsibility, Poverty Law, Administrative Law, and the Access to Justice practicum, while continuing to practice as a leading member of the California public interest community. She has received frequent state and national recognition as an outstanding advocate, including being named one of Southern California’s "Super Lawyers" (Los Angeles Magazine, 2006, 2007 and 2008), one of the nation’s 45 most outstanding public interest attorneys under age 45 (American Lawyer magazine, 1997) and one of California's top lawyers under 40 years old (California Law Business, 1999). She was selected as a Wasserstein Fellow by Harvard Law School in 2005 as part of its program recognizing outstanding public interest lawyers.

Professor Pastore is also of counsel to the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, where she was Senior Counsel from 2004 to 2007. She serves as co-chair of the California State Bar Access to Justice Commission’s Model Statute Task Force and is a member of the Amicus Briefs Committee and Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar. She is also a past member of the American Bar Association’s Homelessness and Poverty Commission.

From 1989 to 2004, Professor Pastore was a staff attorney at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, where she litigated many state and federal cases involving poverty law and disability rights. She received one of the nation’s first Skadden Fellowships to begin her work there in 1989. Professor Pastore holds a B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Yale Law Review. She clerked for Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in 1988-89.

 

Publications

• "What Advocates Need to Know After Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decisions in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Cases" (41 Clearinghouse Review 345 (September-October 2007)).
• "Life After Lassiter: An Overview of State Court Right to Counsel Decisions," 40 Clearinghouse Review 186 (July-August 2006).
• "The California Model Statute Task Force," 40 Clearinghouse Review 176 (July-August 2006).
• CalWORKs: A Comprehensive Guide to Welfare and Related Medi-Cal Issues for California Families (principal author & editor), Western Center on Law & Poverty 2000.
• Students & CalWORKs: A Guide to Educational Opportunities in the CalWORKs Program (co-author), Western Center on Law & Poverty 2003.
  

-Taken from the University of Southern California's faculty page.  E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu 

Student debt related podcast: interview of Heather Jarvis, Equal Justice Works

Meredith R. Miller, a Touro Law professor, runs The Slippery Slope, www.theslipperyslope.com, a "legal variety podcast," and she recently posted a podcast of her conversation with Heather Jarvis of Equal Justice Works (author of Financing the Future: Responses to the Rising Debt of Law Students (2006)) of interest to professors and students:

From The Slippery Slope's own overview of the interview:

Heather has been a tireless advocate for the new federal loan forgiveness law, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act ("CCRAA"), which was signed into law in September 2007. She is fluent in this complex rubric, and the interview is overflowing with indispensable information for anyone with student loan debt, anyone about to incur student loan debt, and anyone advising or mentoring someone with student loan debt.

The podcast can be found here and more information on Heather Jarvis is here, and CCRAA info is here. 

UPDATE: Equal Justice Works launched a blog this week, http://equaljusticeworks.wordpress.com/, and it has new information on the Higher Education Authorization and Opportunity Act of 2008, which was signed into law on August 14 and created 4 new loan forgiveness programs that will benefit public interest lawyers.

-Thanks to Aaron Pickering with EJW for the update heads up, and as an editorial note, I am now with EJW's National Advisory Committee, E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Profile: E. Carol Spruill

E.Carol Spruill is Associate Dean for Public Interest and Pro Bono and a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School. She has taught a seminar/clinic on Poverty Law every year since 1993. She began work at Duke Law School in 1991 to establish its Pro Bono Project. In the fall of 1993, she initiated the Public Interest Speakers Series and Book Club. She served as Assistant Dean and then Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, she became Duke Law's first dean of its new Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono .

Dean Spruill received both her undergraduate degree with honors in 1971 and her law school degree in 1975 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she studied law at Oxford University in the summer of 1974. She clerked for the Superior Court judges of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1975-1976.

In 1976, she received a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship to begin her work as an attorney with Legal Services. She represented hundreds of clients on cases in areas including domestic violence, bankruptcies, evictions, consumer finance, government benefits and employment, and she also engaged in law reform work. She lobbied on debtor protection laws and child support enforcement laws, and helped draft North Carolina's first domestic violence legislation in 1978. She was on the board in two counties in initial efforts to start groups to protect battered women. She was co-counsel in Carter v. Morrow, one of the first federal class actions against the Child Support Enforcement (IV-D) Agency for failing to assist those not on welfare with their child support cases.

After eight years of representing clients in Legal Services, in 1984 she became Deputy Director of Legal Services of North Carolina, the third largest Legal Services program in the country, and served in that position from 1984 until 1991.

She also has worked as a consultant for Legal Services programs in New Jersey, Ohio and North Carolina, and taught for the Arkansas-based Southeast Training Center's Management Institute. She was a consultant for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for five years as coordinator of its Sabbatical Program that awards grants to nonprofit leaders.

Dean Spruill has been active in several bar organizations. She served on the founding steering committee that incorporated the N.C. Association of Women Attorneys in the late 1970's and received its Public Service Award in 1984. She has been active in the Wake County Bar Association and on the board of the Tenth Judicial District Bar Association. She was a member of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and was on the national board of the Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship program.

Dean Spruill has long been a member of the N.C. Bar Association and has been active on several committees, including its Task Force on Legal Education. She was co-chair of its Law School Liaison Committee for three years, and remains a member of it. In 1998-99, she served as a Vice-President of the North Carolina Bar Association. She also serves on the NCBA’s Public Service Advisory Committee. In 2007-2008, she will chair the Loan Repayment Assistance Program Committee as part of the NCBA President’s initiative on access to the civil justice system. 

Dean Spruill has served on numerous civic boards. In 1982, she was appointed to North Carolina's Child Day Care Commission, first by Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan and later by Gov. James Hunt, where she served eight years and advocated to abolish corporal punishment in day care centers and to lower child staff ratios. She was an incorporator and the first Board Chair of the N.C. Association of Nonprofit Organizations. She was a member of the board of Carolina Legal Assistance, a legal services program for people with mental disabilities from 1996 to 2004 and has served as its Vice-President.

In 2006, Dean Spruill was appointed by the North Carolina Chief Justice to the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission, and she serves as chair of its Working Group on Education. She was appointed to the National Advisory Committee of Equal Justice Works in 2004.

Dean Spruill lives in Raleigh with her husband, attorney Jack Nichols. They have two sons, one of whom is a graduate of Duke Law School.

-Taken from Dean Spruill's Duke faculty profile.  E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Profile: Jeffrey Selbin

Jeff Selbin was appointed clinical professor in 2006 and is faculty director of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), Boalt Hall's community-based poverty law clinic. He founded EBCLC's HIV/AIDS Law Project in 1990 as a Skadden Fellow, and served as EBCLC’s Executive Director from 2002 through 2006.

Selbin is active in local and national clinical legal education and anti-poverty efforts. He is currently chair of the Poverty Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and co-chairs the Lawyering in the Public Interest (Bellow Scholar) Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education. He is an elected member of the board of directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association. From 2004-2006 Selbin served on the California State Bar Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, dedicated to improving and increasing access to justice for low-income Californians.

Selbin’s research interests include anti-poverty lawyering and community lawyering with an emphasis on evidence-based approaches. Recent publications include "From 'The Art of War' to 'Being Peace': Mindfulness and Community Lawyering in a Neoliberal Age", with Angela Harris and Margaretta Lin in the California Law Review (October 2007), and "Legal Aid, Law School Clinics and the Opportunity for Joint Gain", with Jeanne Charn in the Management Information Journal (Winter 2007).

In 2003, Selbin was recognized with Mary Louise Frampton as a Bellow Scholar by the AALS Clinical Section for his anti-poverty and access to justice efforts. In 2004, he was named a Wasserstein Fellow – honoring outstanding public interest lawyers – by the Harvard Law School. Since 2004, he has been named annually a northern California "Super Lawyer" by Law & Politics and the publishers of San Francisco Magazine.

Education:
B.A., University of Michigan (1983)
C.E.P., L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques (1986)
J.D., Harvard University (1989)

-Taken from Jeff's Boalt Hall faculty profile page. E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Of interest to those attending AALS this year: Healthcare and the Poor

The AALS Section on Socio-Economics is providing a concurrent session in this year's Annual Meeting Program, entitled "Healthcare and Poor and Working People." 

Here are the participants:

• Arthur La France  - Moderator: (Lewis and Clark)   
• Kenneth Gattner (Oregon Health and Science University)
• Sharona Hoffman (Case Western)
• Frances Miller (Boston University)

And here is the program description:

"The panel will address current healthcare developments of very different kinds, with a focus on how each affects the poor and working people. Professor Frances Miller of Boston University will discuss the Massachusetts healthcare reforms, one year out, with comparison to the Hawaii experience,  now decades out. Senior Associate Dean Sharona Hoffman of Case Western will discuss the national electronic health records reforms and their capacity to reduce health disparities. Professor Kenneth Gattner of Oregon Health and Science University will discuss the successes in pediatric oncology and the implications for adult cancer treatment among poverty patients. In varying degrees, each of these important developments stems from, or has implications for, social economics and justice. The panel will be chaired by Professor Arthur LaFrance of Lewis & Clark Law School."

As in years past, there are a  number of other sessions in this year's Socio-Economics program that have a bearing on the interests of poor and working people.  These sessions include "Family Formation and Wealth Inequality," Socio-Economic Perspectives on Sub-Prime Lending,"  "Wealth Distribution, Efficiency and Growth,"  "Corporate Governance, Fiduciary Duties and Social Responsibility," "Socio-Economics and Racial Justice," "The Inefficient Capital Market Hypothesis" and "Socio-Economics and the Critical Schools." 

-Thanks to Jeff Selbin, Art LaFrance, and Robert Ashford.  E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu 

Grant Opportunity for Research Related to Aging

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging has a Request for Proposals and Application for academics interested in studying aging, with the objectives given below:

The objectives of the grants are to further research and scholarship about new or improved public policies, laws, and/or programs that will enhance the quality of life for the elderly, including those who are poor or otherwise isolated by lack of education, language, culture, disability, or other barriers.

-Thanks to the Center for the heads up.  E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu 

Advice on Entering the Law Teaching Market/AALS

A number of friends have recently emailed seeking advice on entering the law teaching market, inspired by the upcoming deadline to make the first AALS deadline (this FAR deadline is important), and with that in mind I have complied here a number of resources available online and added a few observations.

A great listing of Fellowships for Aspiring Law Professors from Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog.  Some schools have someone in their career service office that can help with the law teaching market.  Note: at the bottom of the list, Prof. Caron has also made a list of other resources/articles that discuss becoming a law professor; Caron's list is below:

• Jack Chin (Arizona) & Denise Morgan (New York Law School), Breaking Into the Academy: The 2002-2004 Michigan Journal of Race & Law Guide for Aspiring Law Professors, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 457 (2002)
• James D. Gordon III (BYU), An Insider's Guide to the Faculty Recruitment Conference, 43 J. Legal Educ. 301 (1999)
• Eric Goldman (Santa Clara), Careers in Law Teaching
• Law Crossing, Becoming a Law Professor: Part 1 and Part 2
• Brian Leiter (Texas), Information and Advice for Persons Interested in Teaching Law
• Rick Swedloff (Temple VAP), The Fellowship of the (Hi)Ring
• Brad Wendel (Cornell), The Big Rock Candy Mountain: How to Get a Job in Law Teaching
• David Zaring (Washington & Lee), Whether a Fellow or a Visitor Be
• Don Zillman (Maine), Marina Angel (Temple), Jan Laitos (Denver), George Pring (Denver) & Joseph Tomain (Cincinnati), Uncloaking Law School Hiring: A Recruit's Guide to the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference, 39 J. Legal Educ. 345 (1988)

My own experience was that while a fellowship at Harvard, Chicago, or Georgetown (they have a great 18 month one that based on its description gives you a great deal of freedom) may be great, I really appreciated being a fellow at a less prestigious institution, Loyola University New Orleans, both because of the mentoring that can take place as part of these fellowships and for the chance to write they can offer.  As I now am a "regular" faculty member, looking back I am even more appreciative of the time these fellowships open up for doing research, time that seems more precious now with committee, class, and student demands higher than they are during a fellowship.  The key to a fellowship is to use that time to write enough that law schools pay attention to your CV and FAR form. 

One "resource" not included in the above list is an article that is illuminating, hilarious, and well worth reading: Robert A. Williams, Vampires Anonymous and Critical Race Practice, 95 Mich. L. Rev. 741 (1997). 

Other things perhaps of interest to those thinking about a legal academic job:

• Daniel J. Solove, Law Professor Hiring: Statistics on JD Placement on Concurring Opinions
• Lawrence B. Solum, Entry Level Hiring Report on Legal Theory Blog
• Dan Merkel, Hiring Chairs 2008-2009: Announce Yourself at PrawfsBlawg (check the comments for self-identified chairs)

Note: I have no clue about the effectiveness of reaching out yourself to hiring chairs or really when to send a letter if you do decide to contact those hiring in your field (I haven't seen a listing specifically looking for "poverty law") that you find out about through either the FAR Bulletin or the Announce Yourself listing above.  Another purely personal observation is that it does seem to matter if your mentors reach out to schools on your behalf and with that in mind, the summer before you enter the market it is worth emailing your mentors, updating them with what you have been doing and expressing your hope that they will help you as you enter the market. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

AALS Section on Poverty Law Panel Announcement

The AALS Section on Poverty Law has announced the details of the coming AALS panel.

Section on Poverty Law Program
“Privatization: Promise and Pitfall at the Intersection of Law, Markets and Poverty”
Friday, January 9, 2009, 3:30-5:15 pm; A meeting of the Section on Poverty Law will immediately follow the session.

This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of market-based approaches to poverty relief in light of more than a quarter century of government disinvestment from low-income neighborhoods. The panel will feature a description of San Diego's Market Creek Plaza, a 10-acre real estate partnership in a culturally diverse, underinvested neighborhood that represents one of the first commercial development projects designed, built and (ultimately) owned by community residents. Panelists will also describe innovative banking and housing efforts designed to expand tenant ownership and access to capital and credit in urban communities.

A commentator will encourage panelists and participants to consider practical, political and philosophical pros and cons of such approaches. Are market-based approaches the “new urban renewal?” Can the market deliver where the government has failed? What are some of the unintended consequences of even the most well-meaning, well-designed programs? What do these projects portend for local residents who all too often have been the objects of reform but not its subjects? What lessons can we draw as the country prepares to usher in a new administration in Washington that might take seriously a renewed anti-poverty agenda?   

Moderator

• Susan Bennett, American University Washington College of Law

Panelists:

• Barbara Bezdek, University of Maryland School of Law
• Louise Howells, UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
• Jennifer Vanica, Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (San Diego)

Commentator:

• Angela Harris, University of California, Berkeley School of Law

-Thanks to Jeff Selbin for the heads up. E.R.  erosser@wcl.american.edu 

End of the Semester Blues - a quick link

Academic Aside: If you are in the midst of either taking exams, or grading exams, it is worth checking out this old post from Daniel J. Solove on Concurring Opinions. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Harvard announces Zero Tuition for Public Interest Students in their 3L year

HLS announced that it "plans to waive tuition for third-year students who pledge to spend five years working either for nonprofit organizations or the government" from NY Times coverage, the story is here and the HLS press release is here.  Though such a program may have little role practically compared with a strong LRAP/LIPP program, it does help build student pre-commitment to public-interest careers.

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Marion Crain changing schools but Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity staying at UNC

As reported by Brian Leiter, Prof. Marion Crain is moving from UNC to Wash U/St. Louis, but according to Prof. Crain, the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity is staying at UNC and the school will be picking a new Director to replace her. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Query: procedural court losses based on not having a lawyer

A civil procedure professor emailed me requesting that I see if anybody has a good case or story in which someone loses a lawsuit on procedural grounds because they could not afford a lawyer to be included in a civil pro syllabus.  If you have particular ideas, email me and I will forward them on. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu