Pay attention to not only to what you say but also how it looks.

Typography might sound like the kind of thing that only skinny hipsters with thick rimmed glasses would talk about with words like kerning, and en dash, and pica--not a fuzzy critter that lives on rocky slopes--but it is really a useful thing for everybody to be aware of.  If it hurts to look at what your write, no one will pay attention long enough to get your point.  This is a battle in resumes and cover letters as well as legal pleadings and documents.

Fortunately, the internet has come to the rescue in the guise of attorney Matthew Butterick with Typography for Lawyers (also available in dead tree version). I cannot say I agree with everything he says, but then I have been known to wear thick rimmed glasses...

(via Swiss Miss)

Words, speech, and a free press.

There are some words that make public interest lawyers get out of bed in the morning ready to fight:

Note the contrast between:

"Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

via the US Supreme Court NY Times v. US 1971

and:

Referring to publishing WikiLeaks releases:  “To me the New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship, but whether they have committed a crime is a matter of discussion for the justice department.” Senator Joe Lieberman 2010

via Daring Fireball 

Success and Happiness

Why I don’t care about success

"So forget about “success”, and just find joy, passion, love, awesome-ness right now, in this moment. *That* is a success you can achieve, without any self-help course, without any method. Just go out and do it."

via: Zen Habits

Grammar can be fun!

Bad grammar is the bane of pedantic internet trolls and the source of 47%* of those soul-sucking blog comment that I detest.  Grammar can also be the bane of the cover letter and the cause of your application promptly reaching the soul-sucking recycle bin**, so it is important to pay attention and, when in doubt, check the rules.

Fortunately, sometimes the internet gives something back; when it comes to grammar those gifts from the internet can be lovely.  You can check out some fun web comics from theoatmeal.com where you can learn about grammar along with information about kittens riding goats, bacon hats, hairy knuckles, out-drinking pandas, the dangers of leapfrogging a unicorn, and bears:

• learn about semicolons,
• learn about i.e.,
• learn about words you might be misspelling, and
• learn about apostrophes. 

If you are after grammar advice on a variety of topics, I like

• Paul Brian's Common Errors in English Usage*** and
• Grammar Girl.

*Not scientifically verified.
**The recycle bin only sucks souls when your application ends up there, at all other times it is the source of light and joy in the universe, much like a double rainbow or kittens.
***Also available in book form. I remember when all we had was the internet in book form, we called it the library, and we used Ethel the reference librarian instead of Google...oh days of yore.

Wisdom from blog comments

Sometimes a million monkeys randomly banging away on blog comment boxes do produce a little wisdom, no Shakespeare, but still wisdom.  I typically find blog comments to be the largest waste of time and bandwidth on the internet; for some reason this is particularly true of legal blog comments:  sound and fury in abundance but completely devoid of significance--perhaps it is Shakespeare after all.  Against my better judgement, today, I read the comments on an ABA article.  Along with the usual comment induced heightening of my blood pressure and thoughts that rhyme with "LaRouche Swag" and "Back Sass,"  came the unusual feeling that someone had struck on a moment of ever so slight enlightenment:

"Atticus Finch didn’t work in a law factory and probably made just enough to feed his family. If new attorneys are willing to accept that, they can all be Atticus Finches, too. Want to fight for justice in the courtroom? Become a prosecutor or a public defender or start your own solo practice."  --quote some person called MAC in a blog comment

 Delivery of legal services to the poor depends on countless hours performed by private attorneys in big firms, and many people augment the fulfillment they normally get from a larger firm job with pro bono work and community involvement.  Often those larger firm attorneys are able to give larger contributions to pro bono work and the community because of the money and resources at their disposal.  But there is more to the job of a large firm attorney than what they do in their unbilled time.

New lawyers can and do make profound contributions to justice while working at larger firms, but--pay attention, this is the important part--if your purpose and drive is to help the helpless, to protect the innocent or the innocent victims, or to save the world, you are likely to feel unfulfilled and unhappy if your work's main motivation and driving force is not the same.  At the end of the day, the master of the large firm attorney is the paying client, not the pro bono client.

If you came to law school because you want to stand on the side of the Tom Robinsons of the world, if you believe Boo Radley deserves his dignity, then make sure your work's purpose is standing up for Tom Robinson or delivering dignity to Boo Radley.  If you take a public service or public interest position, debt be damned, your reward will follow, it may not be in the form of dollars, but trust that your reward will follow.

What Public Interest Lawyers Believe

Everyone is full of grace and beauty.

Reporting Your Volunteer Hours FAQ

Q1: When must my hours be reported?

A1: Monday April 5, 2010.

Q2: My form says hours are due April 2, 2010, are you sure they are due on Monday?

A2: I am sure, you hours are due Monday April 5, 2010. Do not panic; if you ask nicely, and you completed your time before April 1, Bill will probably accept your form later, but you might not be in time for the awards lunch.

Q3: Form? Where do I get a form to report my hours with?

A3: http://www.lclark.edu/livewhale/download/?id=97

Q4: How many hours do I need for an honors award?

A4: 30 hours.

Q5: What do I get if I report 30 or more hours?

A5: You receive an honors certificate (suitable for framing), recognition in the graduation program (suitable for impressing parents), designation on your transcript(suitable for noting on your resume), and lunch at noon on April 15th (suitable for eating, it is delicious Indian food).

Q6: I do not have 30 hours and I am thinking of not bothering reporting my hours, should I report them?

A6: Yes, you should report your time even if you have less than 30 hours. Your time counts toward the school's annual total reported to the Oregon State Bar--if enough people report, we can beat University of Oregon in total hours given. Also, you time can be accumulated toward the Public Interest Certificate if you are headed in that direction. Plus, if you report your hours, Bill will be happy and you will feel like a pillar of your community.

Q7: What counts?

A7: Almost anything that you do for a non-profit, church, social group, court, bar association, government office, or campaign will count as either community service or pro bono time. Have someone sign off on the time you have put in, and Bill will sort it out.

Q8: I volunteered all last summer, does that count?

A8: Yes, report your time.

Q9: What about time I put into the PILP Auction or for another student group?

A9: Generally, student group work does not count. The exception is, if the work has primarily an off-campus effect, then it can count. Things like project work for NEDC, NLG legal observing, some projects with EJA and SALDF, mentoring and supporting the mentoring program through BLSA and MLSA, putting in extra hours at the clinic, and helping with the VITA tax program count. If you can point to someone off campus who directly benefits from your work, you can probably convince Bill that it should count.

Q10: What if I put in more hours than required by my paid internship or more at clinic than required for credit?

A10: If you put in extra time and you do not receive pay or credit for that extra time, it counts and you should have your time signed off on.

Q11: I keep getting eaten by the Grue, what do I do?

A11: Try staying in the light or taking a light with you into dark places and the Gures will never bother you.

Q12: Grue? What are you on about?

A12: Before there were internets, there were electronic bulletin boards and usenet with FAQs like this for things like ZORK. No computer should be without one.

Q13: Hey shut up about the Grue, is there anything else I should know about volunteer hours?

A13: You bet, you can find it all in the Handbook http://www.lclark.edu/livewhale/download/?id=96

Interviewing skills, or "This one time I ..."

The hot trend in human relations for at least the last decade has been using behavioral questions in interviews. Those are questions that get at your skills and experiences by seeking information about a specific time you encountered difficulty or managed a heavy work load or showed whatever skill the employer is looking for. Reports are starting to arrive that law firms have begun to rely on behavioral questions more in order to confront a growing applicant to position ratio.

Many businesses adopted this practice years ago, and the trend applies to the public sector as well. I once participated as part of a panel interviewing candidates for a state investigatory position, and behavioral questions were among the bureaucratically generated questions we had to ask in an identical manner of each applicant.

So, what should the hopeful interviewee do? As always, prepare. Prepare to answer questions about planning and organizing skills, decision making and leadership, taking calculated risks and sometimes failing, and effective communication and working with people from disparate backgrounds.

While you are at it, pay attention to how your answer is formed. The more specific you can be the better; employers are looking for an example of an event that happened to you and not a broad overview of best practices. Focus your attention on the context, your actions, and the results, or if you like the word what: what was going on, what you did, and what came of it.

Keep in mind that some behavioral questions ask for situations where things did not go your way. It is important with these questions about negative situations to end with a positive; there is always a lesson to be learned, and if you find that lesson, even a story of a bad experience can be an example of building character and skill.

For more information, check out the ABAJournal story and follow the link in that article to a 2005 reprint from the NALP bulletin.

So you want to volunteer, are you missing the postings?

If you are looking for volunteer opportunities and you did not receive the latest pro bono listserve email, here is what you are missing:

Hello Pro Bono List People,

Two volunteer opportunities to publicize today:

1. The Washington County Circuit Court Family Law Facilitators Office
has its posting up for volunteers to help file family law cases. This
is a great opportunity to learn some of the basics of family law, to
see how civil practice works, and to gain experience with client
contact. Open to all levels from 1L through practicing lawyer.
Shifts are flexible and the commitment is minimal. Mandatory training
is this Friday the 9th 2:30 to 4:30 at the law school in Seminar
Smith. Email me at wcpenn AT lclark.edu by 4 pm Wednesday the 7th if you
are interested.

Full Posting:
The Washington County Circuit Court Family Law Facilitators Office
operates in the Washington County Courthouse in Hillsboro. This
office helps people who are filing family law cases pro se (meaning on
their own without an attorney). The court facilitators direct clients
to the correct paperwork and answer non-legal questions about the
process of filing a case. Students who volunteer with this project
assist the facilitators in assisting pro se clients following the
guidelines set in ORS 3.428.

Staff facilitators rely heavily on Lewis & Clark volunteers. If you
have any interest in family law, or on working on client interaction
skills, this is the project for you! The Courthouse is about a 40
minute drive from campus, but there is a MAX stop only a couple of
blocks from the courthouse. In the past students have coordinated
their shifts and carpooled.

2-4 hour shifts either weekly or bi-weekly for the Semester or the
year. Scheduling of shifts is VERY flexible (anytime that the
facilitation office is open). There is a mandatory two-hour training
scheduled on Friday, October 9th from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on campus in
Seminar Smith in Wood Hall.

Indicate interest by 4 pm Wednesday, October 7, 2009 to wcpenn AT lclark.edu



2. The Health Law Section of the Oregon Bar is looking for students
to write articles. Writing for bar section newsletters can be a great
way to meet people who work in a particular area of the law and can be
a great way to get your name in front of lawyers across the state.
Sections are always looking for people to write, and there are
sections in many areas, check out the list of sections at:
http://www.osbar.org/sections.

Full posting:
We are providing students the opportunity to publish short articles on
different areas of health law- whatever they are interested in or want
to write about. We ask for at least 2-3 paragraphs, but not a
multipage article. We will not edit the articles, or check cites, but
we could see if someone would be willing to mentor if that is an
issue. The articles will be published on the website with the
student’s name- and this could be a great opportunity for students to
get their name out there. If students are interested, need more
information, or want to submit something, they can contact Amy
Vandenbroucke: vandenbr AT ohsu.edu.

Best regards,

Bill

Signup for the listserve today. You can either send an email to majordomo@lclark.edu with "subscribe probono-list" in the body or email wcpenn AT lclark.edu and ask to be added. Volunteering, it is a great way to get experience, a great way to give back to the community, and a great way to remember the reasons why you came to law school.

Fellowship Season

It is fellowship season. Checkout the convenient fellowship calendar at pslawnet.org to find our where and when to apply. Some fellowships are simply jobs with a set term (1 year or 2 year), but others require you to develop a project and find a host organization in addition to finding a source of money.

Two of the largest funders of the latter type of fellowship are Equal Justice Works and Skaden Arps. Sometimes host organizations go out looking for people who want to apply for fellowships. These searching hosts can usually make a fast fellowship application possible (without a searching organization it takes months to develop a project find an organization and put together an application).

PSLawNet.org has many nationwide searching organizations in their database (signup for a free account to search), and there are some right her in the Pacific Northwest. One of these is the Northwest Workers' Justice Project (NWJP):

NWJP SEEKS FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTS

The Northwest Workers' Justice Project (NWJP) is seeking to sponsor fellowship candidates for Equal Justice Works and/or Skadden Arps fellowship programs. See www.equaljusticeworks.org/ or www.skaddenfellowships.org/. NWJP staff will help the successful applicant design a project for the proposal and act as the sponsor. Please submit resume and letter of interest to D. Michael Dale,michael@nwjp.org as soon as possible (final applications for the fellowships are due September 17 and October 5).

At NWJP we believe that all workers share the fundamental human right to live and labor with dignity, safety, and hope. Whether harvesting the food on our tables, cleaning our offices, houses, and hotel rooms, or constructing and landscaping the buildings in our communities, all workers deserve freedom from fear in the workplace, the assurance of payment for their labor, a wage that is enough to meet their basic needs, and the right to bargain collectively a wage and working conditions – in short, fair and lawful working conditions. People who work hard ought to have enough time to spend with their families and be able to participate in civic life, to contribute to making their community a better place to live.

Founded in 2003, NWJP uses advocacy, education, organizing, and direct legal services to protect workers’ right to organize, defend and strengthen the rights of contingent¹ and immigrant workers, and challenge the negative effects of international trade on low wage workers. Over 95% of the workers that NWJP supports are people of color and immigrants from Mexico and Central America who speak little or no English. They work in diverse industries, including agriculture, construction, manufacturing, child care, janitorial, automotive services, food service, landscaping, and food processing. At work, they face employers’ wage and hour violations, retaliatory acts for organizing, illegal and unsafe working conditions, and race and sex discrimination (including severe sexual harassment). While our primary focus is on improving the wages, working conditions, and legal protections for low wage workers in the Pacific Northwest, we engage in national and even international strategies where necessary and appropriate. A key part of our strategy for social change begins with the understanding that the problems facing low wage workers today are global.

Everybody does it, even the judges, so why don't you?

Last week in an article on the Law.com Legal Blog Watch Blog, they reported on a number of judges with LinkedIn profiles, including five US Circuit Court Judges. Like it or not, between Facebook and LinkedIn more and more social and professional interaction is taking place online, so why not just dive in, talk to people, and share your life online?

Well, as an earlier article on the Legal Blog Watch Blog shows, even the best of us, judges included, can get carried away with the social networking. There are, of course, the issues of sharing too many of your youthful indiscretions too freely. (I am personally thankful that, even though photos of me--both strangely messianic and less flattering--are freely available online, I came of age in the era before ubiquitous camera phones and Facebook; otherwise I might regret some of my wilder days, or that toga party when I was in law school...) But beyond unseemly photos of your last kegger, there are more complex social networking considerations for lawyers and law students.

The judge who got reprimanded for using Facebook fell into the trap of commenting without enough thought. You see the Judge's Facebook Friend was an attorney who had an active case in front of the judge, and Facebook comments can be ex parte communications; hence, a trial no-no and a reprimand. The judge did some other mis-deeds like Google a litigant and read the litigant's online poetry into the record, but this story is about caution in social networking...

So you might do well to network in the electronic world possibly even finding a judge to be your friend, but you should not leave your reason and ethical considerations at the keyboard.

Helping clear up some of the fuzzy details of OSCAR

OSCAR the online application for federal clerkships can be a bit of a bear to deal with, and there are many aspects are not well documented. To help you out on your journey through OSCAR, I prepared a step by step (with pictures and little red circles with shadows) Guide to Starting Applications and Adding Recommenders in OSCAR.

The Guide tries to clear up the process and, along the way, answer a couple common questions from this year:

1. When are recommenders notified? Notification happens only after you have BOTH added recommenders to the My Recommendations tab and created a draft application with the recommender attached.
2. I think I am done, is there anything else I have to do? Possibly, make sure to Finalize your applications. If your application is in all other respects complete but you have not Finalized it, it will NOT be released to judges.

Adding recommenders, attaching them to applications, and finalizing applications are all covered in the guide.

As an added bonus, here is a template excel file that you should use to supply lists of your judges to your faculty recommenders and/or their faculty assistants.

Sometimes someone else sums up your feelings completely

Feeling bad about not blogging.

Hopefully very few of you have been feeling this way during the first week of classes.

Welcome back returning students and hello new students!

Perspective on Seventy Cents

Seventy Cents an hour, or about $1,400 a year for full-time workers is what today's minimum wage increase means. In Oregon, though, it will not mean any change because the state minimum wage is already $8.50 per hour, that is $1.25 more than the new national minimum wage of $7.25.

What does $7.25 per hour mean for the working poor? First it means that, in states where the federal minimum wage applies, a single parent of one who works a full-time minimum wage job will make just slightly more than the federal poverty guideline for a two person family. But beating the poverty level (just $14,570 annually for a family of 2 in 2009) is far from a comfortable or secure life.

The State of Oregon Housing and Community Services attempts to make a more realistic estimate of what constitutes poverty in each of Oregon's County and reports the results in an annual report. According to the most recent, January 2009, report that single parent with one child living in Multnomah County would require $35,556 per year to afford a basic family budget. In order to create that income, the single parent working full time would have to earn $17.09 per hour. More than twice Oregon's minimum wage, and nearly ten dollars an hour more than the new national minimum wage. It would take $41,316 for two parents with one child to afford a basic budget in Multnomah County, equivalent to $9.93 per hour with both parents working full-time jobs; still well in excess of Oregon's and the nation's minimum wages.

Surely the 24 hour news channels and the Sunday TV Politics and Press shows of the chattering class will be full of people alternately calling the minimum wage increase salvation for the poor and the death knell for our economy, but neither of those things loudly proclaimed straight from the gut of their speakers will prove to be true. When talking about those who live at the edges of poverty, it is easy to react from the gut, but a little perspective can provide more meaning.

Even with the 70 cent increase in the minimum wage, it is still possible to work hard, to work full-time in American and not make ends meet. It is possible for a woman to work full time and come home to wonder how she will find enough money to pay a lawyer to get a restraining order to help keep herself and her child safe from an abusive relationship she just escaped. It is possible for man to work full time and wonder where the money will come from to pay a lawyer to help get back what was lost when a shady mechanic took advantage of him. It is possible for a couple, both working full time to find themselves staring at a retaliatory eviction notice without money for a lawyer to fight and afraid that they and their kids will be kicked out into the street.

These are some of the people served by public interest attorneys. To leave you with a little more perspective: some of these public interest attorneys do not even make enough to afford the state of Oregon's budget for a single parent in Multnomah County. See the national distribution of attorney salaries for the class of 2008.

Returning to Plan A

Sometimes when the job market is tough, it can be important to embrace your ideals and return to the reasons you came to law school to guide your search for work.

Law school entrance essays across the country are filled with people expressing their mission to fight for civil and human rights, help the downtrodden, and contribute to the increase of human development around the world. By law school graduation time, many have shed that mission, citing finances or a lack of opportunity in the place they want to stay. Nationally this means that, for the class of 2008, only 5.4% of law graduates took public interest positions with an additional 11.8% working for the government in public service positions. Lewis & Clark does better with our 2008 class sending 11% to public interest careers and 17% to government work, but there are still many who have a change in direction while they are students.

For those concerned with money, it is worth looking into the new loan repayment programs for federal school loans that allow graduates to pay only 15% of discretionary income and have their loans canceled after 10 years if they work public service positions (non-profits and government).

For those looking for positions in a certain local, it can pay off to go all in and let the world be the place that you consider. Jobs with places like the Peace Corps, USAID, and the Department of State fit those Plan A ideals of many entering law students, but relatively few take these jobs after graduating. This is the time to return to ideals and seriously consider these careers.

The Peace Corps offers the chance to have hands on involvement in developing countries with a commitment of a little over two years. When you return, you will have had an extraordinary experience and fantastic material for your resume whether you seek to continue in the direction of international social development, take a legal services job, or head into the private sector. If the three mission goals of the Peace Corps--

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

appeal to you then check out the Peace Corps. There will be presentations on the Peace Corps in Portland on August 26, 2009 and September 16, 2009.

USAID works to provide a better future for everyone in the world by

• Supporting Agriculture & the Environment
• Expanding Education & Training
• Fostering Democracy & Governance
• Advancing Global Health
• Promoting Economic Growth & Trade
• Cultivating Global Partnerships
• Providing humanitarian assistance

Graduates start in Foreign Service positions through the Junior Officer Program. Applicants respond to postings for specific subject areas relating to USAID's mission. A listing of current openings is available. Junior Officers receive training including language training in DC before they go abroad for additional training. For those seeking careers in international humanitarian work, USAID can be a great start.

Foreign Service Careers through the Department of State allow you not only to represent the United States Government abroad, but they also let you escape the job search. If you have ever wished there was just a test that would result in an appropriate job at the end if you pass, then you will appreciate the application process for becoming a Foreign Service Officer through the Department of State. The process starts with the Foreign Service Officer Test, and continues on with an Oral Assessment. Foreign Service Officers work throughout the world in Management, Consular, Political, Economic, and Public Diplomacy Positions. The next written test dates are October 3 through 10, 2009 nationwide including Portland, Eugene, Salem, and Medford.

Volunteers needed to serve on the Portland Police Citizen Review Committee

The Portland police are looking for people to serve on the Citizen Review Committee. The work involves looking into complaints about the police and reviewing police bureau policies. You must be a Portland resident or business owner and you must commit to a two-year term with 5-7 hour a week of committee work. Applications are due July 20. Full details and application.

Go federal, apply or be appointed.

The federal government has been bracing for a mass retirement of baby boomers by ramping up efforts to recruit new employees. The focus of that recruiting has been through Making the Difference, check out the site for where the feds have need and how you can get headed toward a government career.

Who needs a job when you can get appointed? The Plum Book is the government's directory of appointed positions is 210 pages long and is published every 4 years. There are many appointed positions beyond the big name ones, and with lower level political positions, there is no confirmation hearing so your skeletons can stay hidden safely away. Thumb through the Plumb to see what the possibilities are.

William is wondering if he will be destroying his career with his status message

The weblogs and even the NY Times have been all Henny Penny concerning a beta and possibly broad changes to how people can control privacy on Facebook, but the reality sounds much more subdued than the initial end of June panic. Despite reality being less frightening than some have predicted, this is a good time to do a social networking privacy checkup.

What is going on with Facebook and privacy?

Fecabook rolled out a beta of the new publisher (that box where you enter your status message, links, and other things) that allows people to select the privacy level they want on a per post basis. A combination of the fact that one of the options is to make your post visible to everybody, and the fact that the beta was only provided to people who previously set their status to visible by everyone caused some fear that we would all be soon living in a brave new Facebook naked of privacy settings and having to remember to lock away every single post. From what I can tell, past the hype, your default settings will remain if/when the new publisher goes beyond the beta tests. So let us checkup on your defaults.

Defaults?

In Facebook you can control your default privacy settings on several elements of your profile. You can even partition your friends into lists and specifically block certain profile elements from certain friends; this can be useful for separating things you want professional colleagues to see from all your friends/acquaintances/angry towns people who remember that wicked awesome toga party you once threw--no matter what you think, there are photos, and they will be posted one day. Facebook has detailed help on privacy settings. Pay attention to friends of friends and network settings thinking hard about who this might include.

Do not forget the search settings.

Separate from your default privacy settings are your search settings. These control what shows up when people search for your name. It is worth noting that one of the items you can turn off in your search settings is the listing of the pages you are a fan of. If you tighten down all of your other privacy settings and forget this one, everyone will be able to see that you are an enormous fan of Emo Sponge Bob and judge you based on that revelation.

2010 Equal Justice Works Fellowship Applications Now Available

The Equal Justice Works Fellowship application for 2010 fellowships is available now. Deadline to apply September 17, 2009. Do you have a project that will change the world? To apply you need a well thought idea and a host organization. Interested students entering their final year should come to Career Services and talk to Bill as soon as possible to brain storm and discuss strategies.

Read all about fellowships in the Post Graduate Public Interest Fellowship Handbook

Make a free account and search for other fellowship sponsors and host organizations at PSLawNet.org.

Lewis & Clark Graduates have received this fellowship in the past, will you be our next recipient?

Alum fights for the right to heat, light, and telephone

There are many ways to fight for the little guy, some of them at legal services organizations like Legal Aid, others in the government like Attorney General consumer rights divisions. Alumnus Simon ffitch has done both. Read about his path and how he fights to see that the people of Washington have power in utility rate cases.