Students Aim for BigLaw Change
By G.M. Filisko, ABA Journal – Dec

Last April, two Stanford Law School students sent a letter to 100 of the country’s largest law firms urging better working conditions for associates. …The letter was written by Andrew Canter [Equal Justice Works Fellow, Class of 2008] and Craig Segall on behalf of a group they founded called Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession. It urged firms to move toward transactional billing, to reduce billable-hour requirements and to implement balanced hours policies. … Using data that firms pro­vided to the National Asso­ciation for Law Placement regarding diversity, work-life pro­­­grams and billable-hour requirements, Canter’s group has created a new system of rankings that may help students better evaluate which firms walk the walk on these emerging issues.

Mississippians Divided on How to Spend Katrina Aid
By Jeff Brady, NPR All Things Considered – Dec 31

There's a debate in Mississippi over how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money granted after Hurricane Katrina. Advocates for low-income people claim Mississippi is not providing enough of the funds to its poorest residents. They point to one example in which the state wants to divert money from homeowner aid to an economic development project. Equal Justice Works Fellow Reilly Morse comments.

The New Federal Student Loan Repayment and Forgiveness Law: Leading Law Professors Consider How It Will Affect Law Graduates and Law Schools
U.S. Newswire – Dec 28

A panel of legal and education experts will demonstrate how the new Federal Student Loan Repayment and Forgiveness Law will affect law graduates and law schools. This program will occur during the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting in New York, New York on Saturday, January 5, from 10:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. – a week-long conference drawing over 3,500 law faculty. … The panel features Philip G. Schrag, (Georgetown); Dorothy Andrea Brown, (Washington and Lee); and Heather Jarvis, (Equal Justice Works).

Feds Add 400 Beds to LA Immigrant Detention Center
Associated Press – Dec 28

Federal officials have signed a deal to add 400 beds to a Lancaster detention center for immigrants, making it the largest facility of its kind in California, authorities said Thursday. The Mira Loma Detention Center will now be able to hold 1,400 people. ….Civil rights groups note that despite the extra beds the Mira Loma facility still will not handle detainees with violent crime convictions or those with serious health problems such as AIDS. "Even though it will be the biggest detention facility in the state, it does not replace San Pedro in terms of housing a broad range of detainees, including those with HIV or other chronic health issues," said Nora Preciado, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California [and 2005 Equal Justice Works Fellow].

Building a New Paradigm for the Women’s Movement
The Modern American (Washington College of Law) – Fall 2007

Interview with former Equal Justice Works Fellow Kiran Ahuja, now Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF).

Mississippi Rebuilds Bridge Damaged by Katrina
By David Schaper, NPR Morning Edition – Dec 18

Traffic is flowing again in Biloxi, Miss. Two lanes of the U.S. Highway 90 bridge over Biloxi Bay reopened last month, replacing a crucial artery destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The new bridge is helping boost an economic recovery along Biloxi's beachfront that is well ahead of other Gulf Coast communities. [Equal Justice Works Fellow Riley Morse comments.]

SAB's Pro Bono Chief Retires
By Meredith Hobbs, Daily Report (Atlanta) – Dec 17

One of the stalwarts of Atlanta's pro bono community, Charles T. “Charlie” Lester Jr., is retiring from Sutherland Asbill & Brennan at the end of the year. Lester, 65, became the firm's first firmwide pro bono partner about six years ago after unofficially leading the firm's pro bono efforts for years. Litigation partner Judith A. “Judy” O'Brien will take over as pro bono partner in January. … Several of the firm's pro bono projects have come from collaborations with its Equal Justice Works fellows, lawyers the firm has sponsored under the auspices of Equal Justice Works to work at legal nonprofits. One former fellow is working with GAIN. … The firm's relationship with former EJW fellow Skipper G. StipeMaas, now at Georgia Legal Services, led it to represent a group of mobile home residents, People of Hope Inc., who are organizing the state's first resident-controlled mobile home park. … Rebeca E. Salmon, another Sutherland EJW fellow, is now on staff at Catholic Charities Immigration Services, which works in conjunction with GAIN to help unaccompanied children from other countries gain homes here. Sutherland is also working with Haley A. Schwartz, an EJW fellow sponsored by Ford & Harrison who started a project at Atlanta Legal Aid two years ago to assist indigent women with breast cancer in applying for government benefits.

Demandan a Inmigración por demoras
By Eduardo Stanley, El Sol/Tulare Advance-Register (Calif.) – Dec 14

Aunque muchos completan todos sus trámites y pagan los elevados costos de los mismos, no pueden jurar como ciudadanos debido a demoras excesivas por parte de la agencia encargada de verificar los antecedents de los interesados. Se trata del Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI, por sus siglas en ingles). Estas demoras violan los términos establecidos en la ley a fin de agilizar el papeleo y garantizar la seguridad del país. Esto es lo que se expresa en la demanda presentada por la Unión Americana de Libertades Civiles, el Centro Nacional Legal de Inmigración, el Centro Legal Asiáticoamericano y el bufete jurídico Munger, Tolles & Olson contra el gobierno. … "Hay 300.000 personas que llevan esperando más de seis meses, algunas ya pasaron los cuatro años de espera", dice a El Sol la abogada {former Equal Justice Works Lawyer] Nora Preciado, de la Unión Americana de Libertades Civiles (ACLU), con sede en Los Angeles, durante una entrevista telefónica. "De acuerdo a la ley y reglamentos afines, el límite de espera es de seis meses, pero no se está cumpliendo".

Trailer Testing to Begin Next Week: But Families Don't Have New Options
By Joshua Norman, Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS) – Dec 14

Even after FEMA begins testing formaldehyde levels in its occupied trailers and mobile homes a week from today, families living in them largely will be left with the same choices they have now. And some local advocates say FEMA might be doing the testing not out of concern but because of numerous lawsuits. …Thursday's turnaround left people such as [Equal Justice Works Fellow and] the Center for Justice's director, Reilly Morse, skeptical. "It's a response to two things," Morse said by phone Thursday. "One is, we had an extensive set of congressional hearings earlier this year. The second is a set of lawsuits that were filed.”

Swept Aside: Residents Being Evicted From Blighted Complexes in Metairie Say the Parish's Crackdown Is Turning Them Out on the Street
By Richard Rainey, Times-Picayune (New Orleans) – Dec 4

Katrina took much from the two sisters. Eight days after the storm, a brother died of cirrhosis. A few weeks later, bone cancer took their father. They now fear what the eviction will do to their mother. … "It's just sad that these landlords don't take care of their property, and it's the tenants that suffer," said [Equal Justice Works Lawyer] Sara McMorris Marcello, a New Orleans Legal Assistance Corp. advocate who took up the case of the Samuels family.