monday miscellanea
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Here are a few notable items for the self-help law community:
- We need many more mass-media articles like the one in the Sunday Boston Globe, on unbundling advances in New Hampshire and Vermont. See “New rules let N.H. lawyers handle part of a case,” Nov. 19, 2006. Such press coverage helps the public learn about the discrete-task lawyering option, and lets lawyers know that other lawyers are doing it and gaining more business.
- Thanks to Jen Burke at the weblog Transcending Gender for linking to our posting on Living-Together & Pre-Marital Agreements as part of Blawg Review #84. Her posting for BR #84 contains a lot of links to resources on transgender law, rights, legislation and policy (which greatly expand on our Nov. 7th post about gender and name changes), as well as a moving section on the Annual Day of Remembrance for those who have lost their lives due to gender-based hatred and violence, Nov. 20th.”
- Michael Jefferson, “a New Haven criminal defense lawyer, former radio talk show host and civil rights activist,” is the focus of the article “‘Whites must take lead against racism’,” in today’s New Haven Register(Nov. 20, 2006). As an example of institutional racism that he has experienced in courthouses, the article states: “Jefferson recalled sitting outside a judge’s chambers in federal court waiting for his case to be called, when a clerk walked up and said ‘you must be pro se,’ assuming he was representing himself. Again, not believing he could be an attorney.” This editor has also seen racism in courthouses (usually the result of the ignorance or prejudice of an individual, rather than the system) and concurs it must indeed be eliminated. However, I would like to believe that Mr. Jefferson was mistakenly considered to be there in a pro se capacity because he looked more prepared, engaged and focused on justice than many of his professional colleagues.
- Last week, at MyShingle, Carolyn Elefant discussed an article in the Harvard Law Bulletin for Fall 2006, called “The Coming Wave.” The article focused on the growing number of law students — and Baby Boomer alumni from the 1970s — who are turning to public interest/service jobs, and the programs at Harvard that are helping in that process. One such program, the focus of Carolyn’s piece, helps young lawyers and law students learn the nuts and bolts of starting a solo law practice (especially those aimed at underprivileged or vulnerable communities). Such programs and law practices can be an important part in the profession’s efforts to help assure justice for all. As the NLADA news letter recently pointed out, state Access to Justice commissions have much to gain from expanding on partnerships with law schools, and creating new ones.
- The Equal Justice Works and Newsweek.com E-GUIDE TO PUBLIC SERVICE AT AMERICA’S LAW SCHOOLS (see the EJW Press Release, Aug. 14, 2006) is an excellent source of free online resources for anyone (from judges, court administrators, and law firms to prospective law students) seeking a broad range of information about public interest programs and curricula at law schools. Naturally, shlep hopes that such programs increasingly help the growth of self-help law resources and the spread of unbundled lawyering services.
