FIU PSN Celebrating Pro Bono Week

In honor of Pro Bono Week, the FIU chapter will be having a lunch seminar with local attorneys who have made significant contributions in the public service field. The event is planned for October 29. Anyone who is in the area is welcome to attend, it will be in the large courtoom at the FIU law school from 12-2, food and refreshments will be served.

We would also like to congratulate and recognize one of our members, Jarred Reiling as being selected as the FIU Spring 2010 Florida Supreme Court Intern.

FIU will be having a Family Law Day on November 7. PSN will have a booth set up. More information will be available in the upcoming weeks, and if anyone in the area is interested in coming out and having some fun, check out http://fiufpsn.blogspot.com for more information closer to the date.

FSU Kicking the Year Off Right!

For the third year in a row, this week we will be partnering with a former FSU College of Law Alum to help support his non profit organization Help Sierra Leone. Mo Haidara is a practicing attorney in Jacksonville, Florida, and in his spare time he actively fundraises and collects clothing and other items for the people of Sierra Leone. He was born in Sierra Leone, but moved to the states in 1993. After doing an externship with the Special Court of Sierra Leone, Mo made it his mission to help the people of his country who are still living in extreme poverty. This is the third year the law school will be putting on this fundraiser for Help Sierra Leone, which consists of a lunch event featuring Mo describing his last trip to Sierra Leone and what he was able to do there with the funds he raised, and a follow up social that night. We ask students to give the equivalent of a cover to go towards the organization. Last year we were successful in raising a large amount of money. We hope to surpass that amount this year by aggressively publicizing the lunch event and social!

We are also in the midst of a clothing drive for the local homeless shelter, offering students discounts on FSU law school tshirts with a donation.

A few weeks ago, our dean gathered a few students to meet with Judge William VanNortwick, and Shiela Meehan and Adrienne Davis of Florida Legal Services, Inc. to discuss pro bono in Florida. I guess not very many lawyers participate, and the Florida Bar is brainstorming how to change this pattern. They have developed the structure for a program which will encourage more participation in pro bono among the legal community. The project is called the One campaign. The idea is to push lawyers to take ONE case per year. By making it manageable, the idea is that lawyers will enjoy the experience, and be more likely to continue dedicating some of their time to pro bono. The three pro bono advocates I named above, are particularly interested in partnering with law school organizations to mold the law school community into pro bono advocates from an earlier age. Judge VanNortwick has an idea to pair law students as mentors with kids in the community, I believe as sort of a supplement to Guardian Ad Litem. I hope I have gotten these facts right, it has been a few weeks! But I actually immediately thought of FPSN as a perfect liason for the Florida Bar to use to promote this type of project among all the law schools, since one of the goals of FPSN is to be a network. I mentioned the organization in the meeting, and all three seemed very interested. I don’t know really where to go from here, but just thought I would give you a heads up about a potential project if FPSN was interest in participating!

Check out this article about the One Campaign: http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNNews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/2dae1eed640a6ae98525763800605a41!OpenDocument

Possible Federal Program to Provide Loan Relief for Public Service Lawyers

Read the article

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/student_loan_relief_on_the_way_for_law_grads

Law school awards!!!

2009 Law School Awards

Nominations are now being accepted for the Outstanding Law School Faculty or Staff Award and the Exemplary Public Service Award for a Student or Group.
Equal Justice Works annually honors the outstanding public interest contributions of a law school faculty or staff member dedicated to public interest law and the exemplary public service work of a law student and a law student group or project.
Nominations may be self-appointed or coming from any person or group that knows the nominee well. This includes but is not limited to: deans; law school career services and public interest counselors; advisers, faculty, clinical professors, students, student groups and extern/intern supervisors.
The 2009 awards will be presented at the Equal Justice Works Luncheon in Washington, D.C. on October 24, 2009 and at the Equal Justice Works Awards Dinner on October 29, 2009.
Completed nominations should be emailed to awards@equaljusticeworks.org and are due no later than July 2, 2009 at 5 p.m. EDT. Nomination information and instructions are available online at www.equaljusticeworks.org.

Celebrate Pro-Bono

http://www.probono.net/celebrateprobono/

The ABA is encouraging the legal profession to Celebrate Pro-Bono Work during October 25-31st.  Make sure your school gets involved and register your event.

ABA Clerkships Announced!

ABA Division for Public Services: 2009-2010 Clerkship

 

The Division offers two Clerkship opportunities:

The first is a ten-week Spring/Summer Clerkship, open by competition, and offering law students entering their second or third year at an ABA-accredited law school the opportunity to design and complete a legal research and writing project in substantive areas of Division concern.  The second is a Fall/Winter Clerkship and typically involves conducting project research and writing; developing information for directories and other databases; coordinating survey development, distribution and results; or editing manuscripts for publication.

Fall/ Winter Deadline: Sept 1, 2009

Spring/Summer Deadline: Dec 1,2009

For More Info: http://www.abanet.org/publicserv/home.html

St. Thomas Student Giving Back and Hitting The Books

During the summer, St. Thomas student, Gigi  Wolf-Blanco, is giving back  and volunteering for 10-15 hours a week at the city of Miami attorneys office in an effort to expedite land use cases for citizens.  In addition to giving back to the community, she is also taking summer courses.

FIU’s Andrea Stone Working to Save The Everglades

Andrea Stone is interning with Friends of the Everglades in Miami. Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas as a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to preserve, protect and restore the Everglades through education, outreach and advocacy. Andrea is currently working on generating a master list of all litigation revolving around the Everglades and environmental issues in Florida and Federal law which would impact the Everglades. This list will be published in a newsletter later this summer.

Stetson’s Fun in the Sun Day a hit!

Stetson University College of Law’s Public Service Fellows and other Stetson Student Organizations joined forces with members of the community, including Sonja Hayes, Gallagher & Associates Law Firm, P.A., and the Gulfport Recreation Center on April 11 to host the biggest annual Fun in the Sun Day event to date. The event is the annual “Easter” celebration for the Gulfport community. With a projected attendance of 300 children and 500 people, over 600 gift baskets and prize bags were prepared, food was ordered, bunny and chicken costumes were rented, and many other events for the children were confirmed in preparation for the celebration.
 
On the day of the event, over 1,000 people could be found smiling as they either participated or watched their children participate in the egg hunt, which kicked off the day. Approximately 350-400 children ran through what seemed like an endless field to collect as many eggs as they could, while music, laughter, and excitement filled the air. Later, over 300 children received free gift baskets.
 
Activities included getting their photos taken with the bunny and chicken, jumping in the inflatables, listening to a story teller, getting a gift from the balloonist, eating cotton candy and popcorn, and playing in the police cars, ambulance, hum-vee, helicopter, dump truck, and many other vehicles. An additional 300 free gift bags were given to the children from the DJ for dancing and participating in his games. At the end of the day, the children truly were in awe of the numerous activities that lurked around the Gulfport Recreation Center.
 
By: Sheryl Clark and Nery Arroyo

Barry to Hold Annual Public Interest Law/BACE Panel

On Wednesday, April 1st and Thursday, April 2nd Barry is holding their annual Public Interest Law/BACE Fellowship Panels.  “BACE” is Barry’s Achievement in Civic Excellence Fellowship Program.  These a paid jobs provided by funding from a third party; here, from The Florida Bar Foundation.  The spirit of BACE is to promote public service legal work and to serve the disadvantaged through non-profit organizations and public agencies.  At this panel recent Fellows and attorneys who have made a career in public interested law will be discussing their experiences.
On March 5, 2009 Dean Diaz and the Office of Institutional Advancement announced the winners of the very first Alumni Ally Award and Student Ally Award, which were given at the 2009 Allies for Justice Gala.  These awards are companions to the Allies for Justice Award, which is given to a community member who has shown dedication to community service and social justice.  These new awards recognize those Barry students and former students who have demonstrated a similar commitment to helping those less fortunate. 
On Saturday, March 21, 2009, Barry University hosted their Annual Allies for Justice Gala.  This year’s Alumni Ally Award winner is Jerry Girley, a 2007 graduate of the law school who has dedicated his career to fighting for civil rights.  This year’s Student Ally Award winner is Ashley Spizzuco, a 2L who exhibits a passion for helping others through her tireless volunteer work as President of the Student Bar Association, the VITA program, and organizing other fundraisers on campus.  Ashley exemplifies the Barry mission not only through her efforts in the classroom, but also her efforts in the community.

submitted by Ashley Spizzuco