Contra Costa judge overturns Deer Valley student expulsions
By Paul Burgarino, The East County Times – May 23

A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge has overturned the expulsions of two Deer Valley High School students, ruling that the Antioch Unified School District violated their rights during an off-campus melee in 2007 when Antioch police officers pepper-sprayed and arrested the students. "The key thing to take away from this is that all students deserve to be treated fairly and to be disciplined appropriately," said Greta Hansen, an attorney with the ACLU [and Equal Justice Works Fellow]. "It sends a message about the limits of district authority to punish students for conduct with no legitimate connection to school. Since it happened off-campus, it doesn't constitute an expellable offense."

Putting public interest into practice
Northeastern Law Magazine – Spring 2008

For many Northeastern graduates, the most rewarding aspect of being a lawyer is advancing the public interest — something instilled and cultivated in them throughout their experience at the law school. “I think there is a newfound idealism among today’s law students and a desire to engage in public service,” says David Stern, CEO of Equal Justice Works, the public interest law advocacy group that runs the nation’s largest postgraduate legal fellowship program. “Look at the dramatic growth in the number of law students who participate in public service between college and law school in programs like AmeriCorps or Teach For America. Those students want to change the world.”

Same-sex weddings rescheduled for June 17
Wyatt Buchanan, The San Francisco Chronicle – May 29

Dozens of same-sex couples planning to marry in San Francisco will have to reschedule their weddings after the state Office of Vital Records decided Wednesday that gays and lesbians can legally marry in California beginning June 17. There is a chance the weddings might not happen, however, as the Supreme Court is considering the request to put its decision on hold until November. The request came from attorneys with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund. But Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represented couples in the case, said that the organization has no standing to make such a request and that only the governor or attorney general could do so.

Headed for public interest careers, NYU grads are free of tuition debt
By Thomas Adcock, The New York Law Journal – May 29

Thanks to the resuscitation of a venerable financial aid program at New York University School of Law, 16 graduates filed out of Madison Square Garden following May 21's commencement ceremony with mortarboard tassels shifted, sheepskins in hand, jobs awaiting - and something more: the comfort of zero tuition, which ordinarily retails for about $120,000. For the first time in more than two decades, the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program has been able to give a full three-year ride for select NYU Law students committed to public service careers. Last week's new crop of Rooters includes Randi Levine, set to work at Advocates for Children in New York as an Equal Justice Works Fellow.

Pfizer names Amy W. Schulman as Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Business Wire – May 28

Pfizer Inc today named Amy W. Schulman as Senior Vice President and General Counsel, effective June 23. In her new role, Ms. Schulman will be responsible for leading Pfizer’s legal division. Ms. Schulman joins Pfizer from DLA Piper, where she was a partner and co-leader of the firm’s mass tort/class action practice. Ms. Schulman serves on the board of directors of Equal Justice Works.

Conservative group acts to delay ruling striking down gay marriage
By Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News – May 22

Gay couples who were eager to tie the knot as soon as mid-June may want to hold off on ordering that cake or etching a date on their wedding invitations. A conservative organization on Thursday asked the California Supreme Court to put a hold on last week's ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex nuptials. The maneuver is virtually certain to push the first gay weddings into at least mid-July and possibly August because of routine procedural delays. Civil rights lawyers immediately vowed to oppose the stay. "Every day that goes by hurts these families," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights [and former Equal Justice Works Fellow].

Dan Rather Reports: Waveland
HDNet – May 21

Rather: Reilly Morse works for the Mississippi Center for Justice. And his job is to make sure affordable housing returns to the area. On the day we met him, he was training volunteers from a law school in Washington, DC to help in the effort. But for Morse, this isn’t just a job, it’s personal.

Morse: The housing that was affordable before the hurricane for people at that income simply doesn't exist today. Almost no money has been spent to restore affordable rental housing. And understand, I'm not talking about giving renters vouchers or giving renters money. I'm talking about getting landlords enough construction money to be able to repair their structures or rebuild multi-family rentals or single-family rentals. And that's just trickled out,” said Reilly Morse, attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice [and Equal Justice Works Fellow].
Watch the Waveland segment, beginning at approximately 39:00.

Innovative legal check-up program services HIV/AIDS clients
Pro Bono Matters (Public Law Center Newsletter) – Spring 2008

In Orange County, nearly 4,000 people are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Since 1993, the Public Law Center (PLC), through the AIDS Legal Assistance Project (ALAP), has been the sole provider of comprehensive legal services to this community. Through its new staff member, Equal Justice Works Fellow, Alexis McLeod, PLC introduced the Legal Check-up (LCU) program in September 2007. The LCU is an innovative approach to serving the population afflicted by HIV/AIDS, whereby a legal advocate and client proceed through a series of diagnostic questions designed to pinpoint potential legal issues, referred to as “legal soft-spots.”

The 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years: Champions
By Jeff Jeffrey, The Legal Times – May 19

David Stern doesn’t mince words when talking about his goals as the chief executive of Equal Justice Works. “I want to change the face of the legal profession,” Stern says. Stern’s organization provides fellowships to about 55 lawyers each year, allowing them to spend two years with a nonprofit organization providing legal services to individuals who otherwise couldn’t afford counsel. “Our strategy is ‘get them young, get them while they still want to make a difference,” he says. Equal Justice Works’ fellowship program has grown exponentially since Stern was hired to get the program started in 1992. When the program awarded its first fellowships in 1993, it only had seven fellows. The organization now counts about 1,100 lawyers who have gone through the fellowship program and a little over 100 in the field at any one time.

The 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years: Champions
By Jeff Horwitz, The Legal Times – May 19

Judith Areen [Equal Justice Works board member] developed an interest in the law during her undergraduate years at Cornell, watching lawyers defend her fellow anti-war activists when they got arrested. Following Yale, she found a home at Georgetown University Law Center as part of the early wave of women professors in the 1970s. A four-year leave of absence during the Carter administration took her to the Department of Education, where she helped build that fledgling enterprise. Then she returned to Georgetown.

Paying for college: We could all use a little help
By Jeanine Kendle, The Daily Record (OH) – May 17

According to an Equal Justice Works report, the average 2005 graduate of a private law school generated a debt of more than $78,000, just from law school. The average pay for a public interest lawyer, including public defenders, was $36,000. College costs continue to increase and that means the class of 2008 is going to be one that can't change the world or help the poor or heal the sick because they are too busy making loan payments.

California gay-marriage fight could propel issue to U.S. Supreme Court
By Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News – May 17

With social and religious conservatives moving to erase Thursday's California Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage with a fall ballot initiative, California is in a unique position. While dozens of states have enacted gay-marriage bans, none has done so after a state Supreme Court found a legal right for gay couples to wed. "We'd be in uncharted legal territory," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights [and former Equal Justice Works Fellow], a lead attorney in challenging the gay-marriage ban.

California's top court legalizes same-sex marriage
By Lisa Leff, The Associated Press – May 16

In a 4-3 ruling on Thursday, the state Supreme Court said that tying marriage to a couple's sexual orientation was a civil rights violation, paving the way for same-sex marriages in the nation's most populous state in as little as a month. Shannon Minter, [former Equal Justice Works Fellow] who argued the case on behalf of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said same-sex marriage advocates couldn't have hoped for a more favorable ruling from the Republican-dominated court.

Mandatory evacuations will be ignored if Border Patrol involved
By Steve Taylor, Texas Civil Rights Project Blog – May 15

Rio Grande Valley priests and civil rights attorneys say tens of thousands of residents will not show up for a mandatory hurricane evacuation if Border Patrol is involved in prescreening those getting on the buses. Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the South Texas Civil Rights Project, said it would be “unconscionable” for Border Patrol to deliberately separate families at a time of natural disaster. Like Seifert, Spencer-Scheurich predicted tens of thousands of Valley residents would refuse to go anywhere near a shelter manned by Border Patrol.

Careless detention: In custody, in pain
By Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post – May 12

It is clear that the obscure federal agency that oversees detainees' medical care, the Division of Immigration Health Services (DIHS), operates with a top priority of limiting care and saving money. Its medical mission is only to keep people healthy enough to be deported. Yong Sun Harvill, who has several life-threatening health issues, has been fighting the deportation with the help of Cheryl Little and Kelleen Corrigan [2006 Equal Justice Works Fellow], lawyers at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. This article is one of a four-part series on immigrant detainees.

Developers balking at fee increase; State senator touts solution
By Ian Shearn, The Star-Ledger (NJ) – May 11

The state Council of Affordable Housing announced new regulations, part of which dramatically increased commercial development fees to feed the state's affordable housing pool. Adam Gordon, an attorney for the Fair Share Housing Center [and 2006 Equal Justice Works Fellow], which sued COAH to make them adopt recent regulations, isn't quite sold. "Our take is you have to look at a comprehensive approach to reform," he said. "To look at this in isolation may be addressing the commercial developers' concerns, but not necessarily the concerns of affordable housing."

$600M port plan taken to task; Barbour's office defends it in hearing on the Hill
By Dave Montgomery, The Biloxi Sun Herald (MS) – May 9

Mississippi's plans to transfer $600 million from post-Katrina housing assistance to restore the Port of Gulfport came under scrutiny in a congressional hearing Thursday as three lawmakers said the diversion hurts efforts to provide desperately needed housing for the state's poor. A leading opponent of the port-diversion plan, Reilly Morse, a senior attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice [and Equal Justice Works Fellow], urged the subcommittee to order the next HUD secretary to re-examine Jackson's approval of diverted funds. "We respectfully believe Congress meant what it said - that low- and moderate-income families would be at the front, not at the back of the line for federal aid," Morse said.

Congress to hear from Miss. on hurricane housing funds
The Associated Press – May 6

Mississippi's decision to divert $600 million from a hurricane housing program to a port improvement project will be one of the key topics of a congressional hearing on the use of federal block grant funds. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., will chair Thursday's hearing in Washington before a House Financial Services subcommittee. Reilly Morse, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice [and Equal Justice Works Fellow] said he hopes Congress will require Mississippi to put the money back into housing or approve additional federal money for housing or the port. The Mississippi Center for Justice is one of several advocacy groups that requested the hearing.

LGBT farmworkers fight discrimination
By Patrick Range McDonald, The Advocate – May 6

Proyecto Poderoso (or “Powerful Project”), cosponsored by California Rural Legal Assistance and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is one of the first outreach programs of its kind in the United States. The project was conceived after attorneys for CRLA noticed an increasing number of cases involving sexual orientation discrimination and harassment, particularly involving Latino farmworkers. Although California is a good state generally for LGBT workers, says Shannon Minter, NCLR's legal director [and former Equal Justice Works Fellow], "the laws may as well not exist if gays and lesbians in rural areas don't have access to legal assistance…Legal services in rural areas is really the new frontier."

Of service: Homeless Persons Representation Project gets a hand
By Joe Surkiewicz, The Daily Record (MD) – May 5

The Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore received a one-time, $50,000 grant last summer that allowed HPRP to reposition itself to better meet client needs, which laid the groundwork for hiring its new executive director, Antonia Fasanelli, in December. Fasanelli, HPRP’s new director, came from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, where she started a project that preserves and expands low-income housing in the nation’s capital — a project that grew from a small Equal Justice Works fellowship to a program with two staff attorneys and a summer law clerk.