Equal Justice Works will expand to San Francisco
By Amy Yarbrough, Daily Journal – Feb 27

One of the nation's biggest legal fellowship organizations is heading west. Equal Justice Works plans to open a West Coast office in San Francisco in early March, its first outside of its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The organization tapped Diane Chin, a longtime Bay Area civil rights attorney and legal educator, for the helm of the new office. An Oakland native, Chin, 45, served most recently as associate director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at Boalt Hall. Her experience as an advocate and educator goes back 20 years.

Letter to the Editor: Decriminalize Sex Workers
By Sienna Baskin, The New York Times – Feb 24

We need a paradigm shift for adult sex workers. Criminalization of sex work forces both minors and adults who do it into the shadows, making them more vulnerable to violence and making it harder for them to leave if they want to. Those arrested in their homes can be summarily evicted; immigrants who have done sex work can be denied status to which they are otherwise entitled; and sex workers with criminal records are often turned away when they look for other jobs. Written by Sienna Baskin, Equal Justice Works legal fellow for the Sex Workers Project Urban Justice Center New York.

Up against big brother
By Jeanette Borzo, California Lawyer – Feb 2008

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will have to overcome an extraordinary set of legal hurdles, not the least of which is a White House led effort to legislate Hepting out of the courtroom. Since late summer, President Bush has been demanding immunity for the telecom providers that cooperated with the NSA's surveillance. EFF senior staff attorney [and former Equal Justice Works Fellow] Kevin Bankston had spent much of the previous December reading press accounts of the administration's secret surveillance program. "It was all I thought about over the holiday," he remembers. In fact, at his boss's New Year's Eve party the first words out of Bankston's mouth when she opened the door were, "I want to sue AT&T."

Repair-fraud victims wanted; law firm offers free legal aid
By Anita Lee, Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS) – Feb 17

Victims of contractor fraud after Hurricane Katrina will have the opportunity Thursday to receive fee legal advice at clinics sponsored by the nonprofit Mississippi Center for Justice. The center's senior attorney, Reilly Morse, said the clinic will feature legal talent from the international firm O'Melveny & Myers, which is volunteering services to help initiate lawsuits against contractors who have defrauded residents.

"We're always interested in people who can't afford their own lawyers," Morse said. "We're looking for people whose Katrina recovery has been thwarted by a contractor taking the money and not doing the work, or doing only part of it. Once that happens, their finances spiral downward, their house still isn't repaired, they go further into debt trying to pay off material suppliers and sometimes they lose their house."

Municipalities worried by changes to affordable-housing rules
By Lalita Aldor Amuthan, Courier News (Bridgewater, NJ) – Feb 17

A proposal to increase the number of affordable-housing units municipalities must build has drawn the ire of officials in area towns who are worried about the impact on municipal planning and services. But affordable-housing advocates have endorsed the change, citing the increasing need for housing. Adam Gordon, staff attorney for nonprofit organization Fair Share Housing Center, said the demand for affordable housing far exceeds the supply. When we talk about affordable housing, we are not talking about people on welfare, but normal, working people who can't afford homes on their incomes. That number is increasing, and it includes regular folks like teachers and firefighters," Gordon said.

Mississippi wants to divert more hurricane funds
By Mike Stuckey, MSNBC – Feb 13

[Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour] is seeking to shift another $25 million in hurricane recovery money to a highway improvement project far from the storm zone, which would chiefly benefit a new Toyota plant being built in the area…Reilly Morse, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice, a public interest law firm that has been a frequent critic of post-Katrina spending priorities, was incredulous. "Taking money from Medicaid and putting it into a road? Is there no low-income need so sacred that Gov. Barbour won’t rob it?"

More ire over plan to monitor toxic site
By Bill Egbert, Daily News (New York, NY) – Feb 13

One year after an outside consultant found flaws in a plan to clean up the contaminated ground beneath four new South Bronx schools, the city refuses to pay for another independent review of a complicated proposal to monitor the site…"The city used experts to put this plan together," said David Palmer of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, "and the community needs experts to make sense of it."

Katrina grant deadline remains March 15
By Natalie Chandler, The Clarion-Ledger (Mississippi) – Feb 12

A March 15 deadline for Hurricane Katrina victims to apply for federal grants will remain unchanged, despite objections from Gulf Coast recovery advocates critical of the state's efforts to educate residents on the application process.The Mississippi Center for Justice, in a letter to state officials, asked for a 60-day extension. "Others have abandoned the process entirely because of frustration with the speed and nature of the recovery," wrote MCJ officials Reilly Morse and John Jopling.

Public Interest Fellowships Abound at HLS
By Erin Archerd, The Record (Harvard Law School) – Feb 7

Fellowships awarded this year include: Equal Justice Works Fellowships to 3Ls Andrea Saenz.

Timothy Riveria Brings ‘Katrina’ Experience to Legal Aid Staff
Legal Aid of Nebraska – Feb 7

After spending 10 months in Louisiana working with the Katrina Pro Bono Legal Corps, Timothy J. Riveria is back at home in Omaha, working as an associate attorney for Legal Aid of Nebraska.

Setting the Standard
By Richard Acello, The National Law Journal (Law.com) – Feb 5

Susan Hackett spearheads the ACC's pro bono efforts, including joint sponsorship – with Georgetown University Law Center's Pro Bono Institute – of the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge…Additional allies include...Equal Justice Works, in co-sponsoring the Katrina Initiative, which provides legal assistance to hurricane survivors.

Some Law School Grads Don't Go the Firm Route
By Petra Pasternak, The Recorder (San Francisco) – Feb 4

Rachel Knight, a self-dubbed social entrepreneur almost three years out of law school, has more global ambitions…After earning her J.D. at Boalt Hall School of Law in 2005, she took a post as an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County.

To Forgive, Divine
By Joseph Rosenbloom, American Lawyer – February (Print) Edition

“People did not choose that program, because they could not contemplate paying for 25 years before qualifying for forgiveness,” says Heather Jarvis, a program manager and student financial aid expert with Equal Justice Works, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit group that promotes public interest law. Click here to for select articles from American Lawyer.