The Legal Needs of Immigrant Children: How Attorneys, Advocates, and Service Providers Can Help

Save the Date: December 8th

MCLE*, 10 Winter Place, Boston 9:30-4: 30
*Mass. Continuing Legal Education

There are thousands of immigrant children in Massachusetts. They face issues with language, acculturation, immigration status, education level, and trauma. They are caught up in complex systems and face distinctive barriers to accessing benefits, services, and education.

MCLE's experienced faculty will provide practical advice for attorneys, advocates and service providers working with immigrant children and their families, including:

• Immigration rights: Strategies for obtaining legal residency
• Education rights: Preventing school exclusion based on residency and legal mandates governing language-accessible education
• Rights to accessing benefits and health programs
• Child welfare laws for immigrant children
• How immigration status plays out in probate court proceedings
• Children's status in ICE raids

Faculty includes staff from: The Children's Law Center of Massachusetts, the Department of Children and Families, Greater Boston Legal Services, Mass. Advocates for Children, MIRA Coalition, Mass. Law Reform Institute, Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy, and South Coastal Counties Legal Services.

This program is open to eveyone who works with immigrant children, including community center and school staff.

Registration information will be available at www.mcle.org.

New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement Symposium

CONFRONTING FORENSIC EVIDENCE:

IMPLICATIONS OF MELENDEZ-DIAZ V. MASSACHUSETTS & BRISCOE V. VIRGINIA

New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement 2009 Fall Symposium

November 13, 2009

8:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Radisson Hotel, 200 Stuart Street, Boston, MA

On June 25, 2009, the United States Supreme Court handed down a contentious decision, which many legal practitioners argue will dramatically change procedures for admitting forensic evidence in criminal trials. In Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, held that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause requires forensic experts, whose reports are admitted into evidence, to be made available for cross-examination. The Court found that the introduction of state forensic-lab reports constitutes testimonial evidence, thus requiring lab technicians to appear at trial pursuant to Crawford v. Washington.

The precedent set by the high court sent a wave of concern across the country regarding the insufficient number of forensic experts available to appear in the thousands of cases requiring lab results each year. Consequently, critics of the Court’s decision have characterized the ruling as a crisis, leading to a potential distortion of the criminal justice system. Other practitioners, however, endorse Justice Scalia’s belief that “the sky will not fall after [this] decision,” given that some states already comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

This term the Court will hear Briscoe v. Virginia, and answer the question of whether the state can avoid the Melendez-Diaz obligation by providing the accused a right to call the analyst as his own witness at trial. Unlike the Massachusetts law challenged in Melendez-Diaz, which prohibited defendants from calling lab analysts as witnesses, the Virginia law at issue in Briscoe puts the burden on the defendant to subpoena the lab analyst. As a result, Briscoe provides the Court an opportunity to overrule or significantly limit the Melendez-Diaz ruling.

The Symposium’s first panel will provide a forward-looking discussion regarding the impact of the Court’s decision on criminal prosecution. Litigants from both Melendez-Diaz and Briscoe will revisit their fundamental arguments, and the underlying rationales, facilitating dialogue about how these decisions will alter the practice of forensic analysis. The panel will also present an opportunity to explore where the Supreme Court will go with Briscoe.

Our second panel will provide a forum for academics and practitioners to weigh in on the state of forensic science in the aftermath of the National Academy of Sciences’ Report, while examining the role of legal rules in fostering effective forensic analysis. Panelists will examine procedures necessary to ensure the fair and accurate admission of forensic evidence in court. The second panel’s discussion will build upon the first panel’s evaluation of the Melendez-Diaz decision in state courts.

This year’s Symposium offers an excellent opportunity for scholars, practitioners, and the judiciary to contemplate the future admissibility of forensic evidence in criminal trials.

For more information click here.

Applications for Environmental Justice Exchange Program Posted

The China Environment Forum and the Vermont Law School (VLS) have been awarded a federal grant to support a U.S.-China exchange program for young professionals working on environmental justice issues.

Funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State, the educational and cultural exchange will provide leadership training opportunities to 18 Chinese and American women and men, particularly members of minority groups, who are active in environmental justice efforts. Participants in the program will jointly examine the environmental burdens, including climate change impacts, on minority communities and low-income populations in the U.S. and China and will be mentored in designing projects to advance environmental justice for those communities.

To view the application click here.

Student Volunteer Opportunity at Second Step

Second Step, located in Newton, MA, is accepting applications for 1 to 2 student volunteers. Second Step's Legal Advocacy Program helps survivors of domestic violence resolve crises and achieve stability by accessing their legal rights and remedies. Volunteers will assist a Legal Case Manager with identifying and prioritizing survivors' legal issues; facilitating access to comprehensive legal assistance, including referrals to outside agencies; accompanying survivors to court or other legal hearing when appropriate; and assisting in areas including: family law (retraining orders, divorce proceedings, child custody), landlord/tenant issues, utility shut-offs, immigration issues, children's issues, government/health benefits, tax and employment issues, and work related issues.

For more information about Second Step, please visit our website at http://www.thesecondstep.org/WhatWeDo.aspx.

Volunteers should be in their second or third year of law school and have an interest in domestic violence advocacy, family law, and public interest law. Please submit cover letter, resume, references and writing sample to Alison Klein at aklein@thesecondstep.org.

Ten Reasons to Become a Public Interest Lawyer

At the end of September 2009 Georgetown University Law Center appointed Georgetown Law Professor Philip Schrag to the newly established Delaney Family Professorship in Public Interest Law. The Delaney Family Chair is one of a few chairs that recognize achievements in the field of public interest law. Schrag’s achievements are vast and include starting out as a staff attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, followed by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, then becoming a professor at Columbia Law School in the vanguard of the clinical legal education movement, joining the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and finally settling at Georgetown Law School. At Georgetown Law School, he created and ran the Public Interest Law Scholars program, directs the Center for Applied Legal Studies clinic and its post-graduate fellowship program, and played a role in ensuring the passage of the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007.


Schrag’s used his inaugural lecture as an opportunity to promote public interest work. His inspiring speech lays out ten reasons to become a public interest lawyer. Click here to read this speech.

CSO Event: Pro Bono Work and Your Career

Pro Bono Work and Your Career
Thursday, October 22, 2009
4:00pm – 5:30pm, Cherry Room

Featured panelists:
Gerry Cahill, Suffolk County DA’s Office
Andrew Cornell, Attorney At Law
Dina Haynes, New England Law Boston
David Siegel, New England Law Boston
Maya Sethi, Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

Moderator: Daniel McCabe, Petrucelly, Nadler & Norris, P.C.

Refreshments will be served.

RSVP with the CSO: cso@nesl.edu

Join members of the BBA, Pro Bono Committee, Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Section, and the Center for Law & Social Responsibility as they discuss the benefits of making pro bono work a part of your law school experience and post-graduate career.

This will also be an occasion to learn more about current opportunities for law students through the BBA's Pro Bono Committee and New England Law's Public Service Transcript Notation Program.

Pro Bono Opportunities Fair

Suffolk University Law School’s Rapapport Center for Law & Public Service
and the Boston Bar Association’s Litigation Pro Bono Committee

present

A Pro Bono Opportunities Fair
Monday, October 26th
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Suffolk University Law School
120 Tremont Street, Boston MA
Function Room, First Floor

Participating Agencies Include:

• Community Legal Services and Counseling Center
• Disability Law Center
• Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project
• Health Law Advocates
• Lawyers Clearinghouse
• Legal Advocacy and Resource Center
• Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation
• Medical Legal Partnership Boston
• MetroWest Legal Services
• National Lawyers Guild
• Political Asylum & Immigration Representation Project
• Senior Partners for Justice
• Shelter Legal Services Foundation
• Victim Rights Law Center
• Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
• Volunteer Lawyers Project
• Women's Bar Foundation
  
  Please R.S.V.P. to Senka Huskic at shuskic@suffolk.edu or call (617) 573-8644.