WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL SERVICES ATTORNEY WANTED

Western Massachusetts Legal Services Inc. (WMLS) seeks an experienced attorney for its Foreclosure Prevention Alliance Project, supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. This is a one year Contract Employee position based in the WMLS Springfield, MA offices.

Project Attorney provides direct legal representation and assistance for low-to-moderate income residents facing foreclosure; mentors pro bono attorneys in consumer law, and foreclosure defense and prevention work; provides community outreach and training about predatory lending practices; and is a member of the Alliance of Providers of Legal Services to Individuals Facing Foreclosure in Hampden County.

Requirements: Admission to the bar; one to two years experience in consumer protection law and foreclosure defense and prevention work; must be, or eligible to be, licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Compensation: Salary competitive & commensurate w/ experience; health insurance; travel and parking.

More information on how to apply for these opportunities and many others can be found within the JobNet section of Symplicity. Log on to https://law-une-csm.symplicity.com/students/.

PILA Veterans Advocacy

The Public Interest LawAssociation (PILA) is starting a Veterans Advocacy Committee.

Their goal is to pair interested students with volunteer opportunities helping provide assistance to veterans facing legal issues.

If you’re interested, please join us at their first meeting: Thursday, March 11 4:30 pm, Room 305.

You can also join the Facebook Group PILA Veterans Advocacy at New England Law | Boston. Must be a member of the New England Law |Boston Network.

Summer Law Clerk (Work Study)

Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy seeks Summer Law Clerks!

Hours: Part-time (10+ hours/week) and full-time (35-40 hours/week)
Pay: $10.00/hour

The Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy (Center) at New England Law Boston’s
Center for Law and Social Responsibility is seeking current, non-graduating students to work
part- or full-time during the summer.

The newly-created Center works with the New York State Department of Health and
communities around New York to develop policies to reduce the availability of tobacco products,
protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke, and minimize or remove tobacco advertising. The
Center is directed by Professor Berman.

Duties:
• Assist with legal and policy research projects by conducting research, drafting
memoranda, creating fact sheets, and working on policy reports.
• Assist with workshop preparation and logistics.
• Other items as assigned by the Center’s director, assistant director, or center
administrator.

Preference will be given to those students showing a sincere interest in public health law or
public interest law.

Please contact Financial Aid to determine work-study eligibility.

Interested students should e-mail a resume, writing sample, (unofficial) transcript, and a brief
statement explaining their interest in working at the Center to tobacco@nesl.edu. Deadline for
applications is March 8, 2010. Interviews will be conducted the week of March 15.

A Community Forum on Queer Immigrants' Rights

WHEN: Monday March 1, 2010 7:00-9:00pm
WHERE: Northeastern University, Raytheon Amphitheater - Eagan Center

* Great Opportunity for Networking if you arrive early at 6:00 pm*

GLAD is pleased to co-sponsor a panel discussion about LGBT immigrants' rights.

Attorneys Anita Sharma Esq with the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, Richard Iandoli Esq with Iandoli and Desai, P.C. and Ben de Guzman from Washington, DC and the National Queer Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) will present on:

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform
• Asylum and Gender & Sexual Orientation
• Immigration Concerns for Binational Couples
• The 2010 Census, Immigrants and LGBT Families.

Discussion will be moderated by GLAD Attorney Nima Eshghi.

RSVP to Noreen Giga at ngiga@glad.org

New England Students Volunteer to Help Haitians

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, the students at New England Law | Boston have been active in assisting Haitian immigrants here in the Boston area. The Department of Homeland Security has extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to nationals of Haiti present in the United States and who were present at the time of the earthquake. TPS is a form of temporary humanitarian immigration relief given to nationals of countries that have suffered severe disasters, natural or man-made.

Once a nation has been designated TPS-eligible, its nationals who are in the United States can apply for work authorization, cannot be deported or put into immigration detention, and can apply for travel authorization, which allows them to visit their home country and return to the United States, even if they do not otherwise have a visa that would allow them back into the country. The work authorization that accompanies TPS will allow Haitian nationals in the United States the ability to work and send back needed money to their family members who may remain in Haiti. For more information on TPS click here.

Organizations have been reaching out to attorneys and law students alike for assistance at TPS Clinics around Boston which aid Haitian nationals with the paperwork and filing of the TPS paperwork with the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). Connected through Professor Haynes’ Immigration Project within the Center for Law and Social Responsibility, and the outreach of students in groups such as the Immigration Law Association, Catholic Charities, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston at Boston Medical Center are just a few of the organizations that have utilized New England Law students and alumni in assisting the Haitian community in Boston.

The following students and alumni have been volunteering their time to help: Elizabeth Alfred ‘12, Jonathan Antle ’11, Olga Chervatyuk ’11, Ross Denison ‘09, Laura Donohue ‘12, Abbagail Geroux ‘12,Allison Grosz ’12, Kristen Hacket ‘12, Nigel Henry ‘12, Laura Mannion ‘09, Nicole Oribhabor ‘11, Astrid Paniagua ‘12, Zoe Paolantonio ‘09, Naya Pessoa ‘11, Jessica Pettit ‘11, Adonia Simpson ’09, Liz Stapleton 11, and Sapna Tailor ‘09.

Several New England Law | Boston students are also headed off to assist in a multi-university effort in Miami, coordinated through immigration law professors around the country. As an alternative to spring break at the beach, our students, along with students from Stanford University, the University of San Francisco and the University of Memphis, hosted by the University of Miami School of Law through its Health & Elder Law Clinic. The students will be spending their week completing intakes and applications for qualifying Haitians in the Miami area. The President of New England Law's Immigration Law Association, Erin Richards '11, has worked diligently in planning this trip. To read more about the alternative spring break, please click here.

Staff Attorney Position at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center

The Connecticut Fair Housing Center, a statewide nonprofit organization that promotes fair housing and assists homeowners in foreclosure, seeks an energetic self-starter for its fair housing Staff Attorney position. The Center’s work focuses on assisting victims of housing discrimination, conducting outreach and education on the fair housing laws, and engaging in policy advocacy to advance the right of individuals to live in housing of their choice.

Specific responsibilities include:

* Handling a fair housing civil litigation case load;

* Filing court and administrative complaints, conducting discovery, depositions, motions, trials, and post-trial litigation;

* Working under the supervision of the Legal Director to litigate complex cases in state and federal court;

* Educating the public and housing providers in particular on their rights and responsibilities under the fair housing laws;

* Working collaboratively with other fair housing programs and initiatives to promote fair housing.

Qualifications:

* J.D. and admission to Connecticut Bar or ability to waive into the Connecticut Bar;

* At least 3 years of civil litigation experience in state or federal court;

* Demonstrated interest in combating housing discrimination or civil rights violations;

* Superior research, writing, and verbal skills;

* Computer competency;

* Bi-lingual and/or bi-cultural individuals are encouraged to apply.

More information on how to apply for these opportunities and many others can be found within the JobNet section of Symplicity. Log on to https://law-une-csm.symplicity.com/students/.

Work Study Position(s) Available at Clinical Law Office

The Clinical Law Office is seeking two or three summer work study students who are SJC 3:03 certified or eligible. We will give preference to students who will have completed the Lawyering Process, Public Interest Law Seminar and Clinic or Family Law Clinic before the summer, or have similar legal services experience in domestic relations, and/or benefits work.

Responsibilities will include opening the office at 9:00 am and closing the office at 4:30 pm each day, and representing low income clients in domestic relations, unemployment, and social security cases under the supervision of Clinical Faculty. The student will be allowed to represent clients in court and at administrative hearings when possible. The position will include research and drafting pleadings, correspondence, direct client contact, and the customary day to day tasks required for administrative case management.

Successful applicant must be work study eligible. If you are interested in the position, but have not applied for work study, you should do so immediately. The work study deadline is March 12, but our understanding from the Financial Aid Office is that earlier, completed applications might receive a higher priority, so we urge you not to wait until the last minute to apply.

Please submit resume or letter of application immediately to Maria Chang at the Clinical Law Office (617-422-7380); 46 Church Street; mchang@nesl.edu).

Washington and Lee Law School's Oliver Hill Fellowship

Washington and Lee Law School is accepting applications for the Oliver Hill Fellowship, a two-year clinical fellowship at the W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House. The Fellowship is an excellent opportunity for law school graduates committed to social justice and interested in a clinical fellowship with W&L Law’s neighborhood-based community lawyering clinic in Roanoke, Virginia. The 24 month appointment can start as early as May 1, 2010, or as late as August 1, 2010.

The W&L Community Law Center dedicates its entire practice to the mission of social justice and racial equality. It combines direct representation of individual clients with public policy advocacy to advance civil rights and human dignity. For the Fall 2010 semester, the W&L Community Law Center has three practice priorities: immigration visas for victims of serious crimes and/or family violence; voting rights reform of felony disenfranchisement in Virginia; and a general poverty law practice offering representation to low-income residents of Roanoke, particularly those residents of neighborhood communities devastated by Urban Renewal.

The Oliver Hill Fellow serves as the supervising attorney of the W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House. The Fellow’s dual roles of legal educator and managing attorney impose four primary responsibilities: practice management of a legal aid provider; pedagogical supervision of W&L Law students providing direct client service to low-income individuals and qualified community non-profits; independent case management of complex legal matters not suitable to primary handling by law students; and public policy advocacy in collaboration with both public interest attorneys and other social justice non-profits.

More information on how to apply for these opportunities and many others can be found within the JobNet section of Symplicity. Log on to https://law-une-csm.symplicity.com/students/

Fellowship Application Tips with Prof. Monica Teixeira de Sousa and EJW Fellow Zoe Paolantonio

Monday, February 22nd3:00pm - 4:30pm, Room 502

Join past Skadden Fellow, Professor Monica Teixeira de Sousa and current Equal Justice Works Fellow, Zoe Paolantonio to learn the ins and outs of putting together a successful post-graduate fellowship application. Anyone interested in pursuing a career in public interest should plan on attending this valuable program!

Robert M. Cover Public Interest Law Retreat

Every year, public interest law students, professors, and practitioners gather together at the Robert M. Cover Public Interest Law Retreat to network, strategize, and socialize in a beautiful, secluded setting. The retreat brings to life the vision of Robert Cover, a Yale Law School professor and social change activist. Cover’s vision encompassed four principal goals:

1) to connect students with common goals and interests from across the country;

2) to create a network of professors, peers, and practitioners for students headed toward careers in public interest;

3) to provide a forum for discussions about change and growth pertaining to public interest law; and

4) to provide a platform for change in the public interest sector and perceptions about public interest law.

Schedule of Events

Friday, February 26

12:00 pm Arrival and Check-in

6:30-8:00 pm Dinner, Introduction and short film

9:00 pm Party in Main Lounge

Saturday, February 27

8:00 am Breakfast/ Introduction

9:00 am Breakout Session 1

10:45 am Breakout Session 2

12:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm FREE TIME

4:00 pm Panel on “Surviving Public Interest”

5:00 pm Breakout Session 3

6:30 pm Dinner/Roundtables

7:30 pm Keynote

9:00 pm Party

Sunday, February 28

8:30 am Breakfast

10:00 am Breakout Session 4

11:00 am Closing Thoughts

Registration

The total cost for the weekend is $125 per person and includes all meals and lodging. Participants can either bring their own linens or rent them from Camp Sargent. The early registration deadline is February 11, 2010. Students may register up until February 20, 2010 however the late registration fee is $150.

To register, fill out the form and mail it to Maria Chvirko at Yale Law School or go to http://www.saltlaw.org/events/view/15.

Also join the Robert M. Cover Public Interest Law Retreat group on Facebook.

The Arc of Innocence, with Stephen Saloom

Mr. Saloom (Policy Director, The Innocence Project) will discuss how post-conviction DNA testing has changed the criminal justice system over the past 20 years, ushering in an era of increasingly progressive reforms in areas like eyewitness identification procedures, interrogations, post-conviction DNA access and more. Mr. Saloom will also highlight the Innocence Project’s legislative efforts in Massachusetts and explore why the state still lags behind the rest of the nation in accepting one fundamentally accepted criminal justice reform.

When: Wed. Feb 10 12pm – 1pm

Where: John Chipman Gray, 1563 Massachusetts AvenueCambridge, MA

SOUTH ASIAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, PUBLIC INTEREST FELLOWSHIP 2010 GRANT APPLICATION

South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY) plans to provide at least two $4,000 grants to law students who will be working in unpaid public-interest jobs in the New York area during the summer of 2010. The the application can be downloaded from the SABANY website at www.sabany.org.

Application Instructions:

· Completed applications must be submitted to Moh Sharma at sabanyfellowship@yahoo.com no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 26, 2010. Applicants will be notified of the Selection Committee’s decision before or at the Fellowship Fundraising event on April 14 or 15, 2010.

· A complete application consists of:

· Part I (Applicant & Host Organization Information);

· Part II (Job Evaluation);

· Part III (Personal Statement & Resume); and

· Part IV (Financial Need).

· If submitting your application by email, please submit in two separate documents (PDF or Microsoft-Word compatible) attached to one email. Document 1 should contain Part I of the application (the Applicant & Host Organization Information). Document 2 should contain Parts II-IV of the application. As noted below, the letter from the organization can be submitted via email with the completed application by March 26, 2010.

· Your name should NOT appear anywhere in Parts II-IV of the application. The judges will not be provided with names of the applicants, and the applications will be evaluated based on the point system outlined in the application.

Eligibility Requirements:

To apply for the SABANY Public Interest Fellowship, you must be:

· a first or second-year law student of South Asian descent who will be spending at least ten weeks of the summer of 2010 in an unpaid[1] public interest legal internship in New York State and the greater metropolitan area[2], or

· a first or second-year law student who will be spending at least ten weeks of the summer of
2010 in an unpaid legal internship in New York State and the greater metropolitan area
which specifically focuses on the needs of the local South Asian community.

Terms of the Fellowship:

In submitting an application electronically, each applicant certifies that all statements contained in the application are true and correct, and consents to the following terms:

· SABANY reserves the right to change the number of fellowships awarded, the amount of the fellowship, or whether a fellowship is awarded in 2010;

· The Fellowship recipient must immediately notify SABANY in writing if the recipient (a) leaves the identified summer position early, (b) changes host organizations, or (c) becomes subject to academic discipline or ceases to become enrolled in law school; and

· The Fellowship recipient agrees to submit a brief report following the completion of the internship and consents to SABANY using his or her name and the report in future SABANY events or endeavors.

· The Fellowship recipient must notify SABANY of any other sources of funding that they will receive to support their unpaid internship for the summer of 2010. Such sources include stipends from host organization, funds from other employers, or other public interest grants for either the SABANY Public Interest Fellowship-funded position or any other work. Recipients may only receive a total of $6,000 in fellowship awards, including the SABANY fellowship, for the summer of 2010.

About SABANY

The South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY) is an organization of South Asian attorneys practicing in the New York Metropolitan region. SABANY is dedicated to ensuring the civil liberties of the South Asian community in New York, by acting as a conduit between the South Asian community and legal services and educational programs in the area. In addition, SABANY is committed to promoting the professional development of the South Asian legal community through networking, advocacy and mentoring. It is SABANY’s goal to educate South Asian Americans about their legal system and to encourage more participation by the South Asian community in the legal profession. More information about SABANY is available at www.sabany.org.

If you have any questions about the application process or the Fellowship, please contact Moh Sharma at sabanyfellowship@yahoo.com. This application may be copied and distributed freely.

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[1] Stipends from a Host Organization may or may not qualify as an unpaid internship. The judges will make a determination on a case-by-case basis. Please include any potential money from the Host Organization in Part IV.

[2] “New York State and the greater metropolitan area” means New York State, the counties of Hudson, Essex, Bergen, Union, Passaic, Morris, and Middlesex in New Jersey, and the county of Fairfield in Connecticut.

CLSR seeks a 2010-2011 Fellow

About the Position:

The Center for Law and Social Responsibility (CLSR) is seeking a New England Law graduating student to serve as its Fellow for the 2010-2011 academic year. Applicants must be interested in completing public service legal projects in one or more of the following areas:

· Criminal Justice

· Environmental Advocacy

· Immigration Law

· Tobacco Policy

· Women and Children’s Advocacy

· Public Interest Law

The position runs for 10 months, beginning mid-August. During this time the Fellow is a full-time employee of New England Law | Boston, and as such receives salary and benefits.

The CLSR Fellow provides both substantive and administrative support for all Center Projects. In addition, the Fellow must develop and complete one or more substantial public service legal projects in one or more of the above-listed areas. The position is highly flexible, and requires creativity, independence, initiative, and a genuine desire to spend ten months working as a lawyer and advocate in the public service field.

Past Fellows have represented clients in agency proceedings, teamed with other attorneys to write briefs, and joined advocacy groups to foster regulatory change. Fellows are encouraged to write and teach as part of their experience.

To Apply:

Please submit the following application materials, via email, to Professor David Siegel, Co-director of the CLSR at dsiegel@nesl.edu, by March 10, 2010:

· letter of introduction explaining your interest in the position

· resume

· official New England Law | Boston transcript

· legal writing sample no longer than 5 pages– must have been written by the applicant alone

· list of three references with telephone and e-mail contact information

Please contact the current CLSR Fellow, Adonia R. Simpson at adonia.r.simpson@nesl.edu for more information or visit the CLSR website at www.nesl.edu/centers/clsr.cfm.

TPS Clinic at The Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston

The Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston at Boston Medical Center is currently recruiting law students and attorneys to assist with a legal clinic that will help eligible Haitians apply for Temporary Protected Status.

The clinic will be held on Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Boston Health Care for the Homeless at 780 Albany St., and will be open to patients of Boston Medical Center who meet financial and other eligibility requirements. The clinic will begin on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 and will operate until the close of the TPS application process in July 2010.

All volunteers will be asked to attend a one-time training for two hours, and to commit to staffing at least two clinic sessions over the course of 6 months. Students, faculty and clinic staff are welcome and encouraged to participate if they are interested and able to make this commitment.

If you are interested in staffing the clinic, simply come to a training session on February 11th (details below). Further information about the clinic and staffing schedules will be provided that night. We are unfortunately unable at this time to accommodate volunteers who are unable to attend the training.

TPS Training

When: Thursday, February 11th from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Where: Suffolk University Law School, Room 365

RSVP: Please email your name, school, year/position and contact information to mlpboston@gmail.com.