Public Interest Lawyers Research Articles

Public Interest Lawyers and Resistance Movements

A major strand of social justice activism, both within and outside the United States, finds purpose in opposition to the economic, political, and social conditions of globalization and neoliberalism. In the course of these campaigns, sometimes targeting the state and at other times powerful private entities, these numerous, loosely-linked movements of resistance both confront and creatively make use of legal structures, including courts, elected officials, and regulatory agencies. The adversarial campaign for immigrant workers in New York against a corporate chain of high-end restaurants that is the subject of this article began in August 2003 and lasted eighteen months. It included a range of legal and extralegal pressure tactics initiated by both sides, including direct action protests, attempts to influence customers, elected officials, and funders, lawsuits in state and federal court, and charges before the National Labor Relations Board. It ended with the negotiation of a comprehensive settlement agreement between the worker-members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), a worker center based in Manhattan, and the corporation. This article will focus on the role of the lawyers and law students in the campaign and notes significant discontinuities from past public interest practice, including revised thinking on the accountability of lawyers to clients and the use of rights and rights-talk in adversarial campaigns. Additionally, this article focuses on the role of lawyers in relation to social movements, as intermediaries with the state and agents of cross-racial and globalized resistance movements.

The Transformation of Chinese Law: Mark II

This paper first briefly examines the context in which the CPC Decisions of 2013 (on Comprehensively Deepening Reforms) and 2014 (on Comprehensively Moving Forward Ruling the Country according to Law) were launched. It then assesses the principles underlying the two Decisions. It is argued that although the Decisions are short of inspiration and expectations for political and constitutional reforms, these Decisions effectively re-launched legal reforms in China, and that measures contained therein are significant for improving the actual operation of the law and the legal system in China. It is however also argued that the strong emphasis on Party leadership, strict requirements on ideological control, tight control over political ideology, over the press and social media, religious groups and minority activists, political dissidents, public interest lawyers etc., and the irrational rejection of such notions as constitutionalism, checks and balances, and judicial independence will seriously set back China’s efforts towards a genuine rule of law.

Making the Best of a Bad Beginning: Young New York Lawyers Confronting the Great Recession

In this article, we utilize both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine the impact of the 2007-2009 recession on lawyers that were admitted to the New York State bar in 2008. This research examines the experiences of lawyers from a wide range of practice settings: large law firms; midsize firms; in-house corporate counsel; federal, state and local government and public interest organizations. This variation allowed us to capture differences in experiences. We found that overwhelmingly, the recession created financial and career insecurity for most lawyers in all of the practice settings, albeit in different ways. Particularly, while some large law firm lawyers experienced layoffs and deferrals, government lawyers experienced budget cuts that impacted their practice, and some public interest lawyers could not launch their careers altogether. In addition, the new lawyers in this study challenged the belief that a law degree is flexible and broadly applicable beyond conventional law settings. Further, in addition to feelings of job and income insecurity, lawyers who were admitted to the New York State bar during the financial crisis reported experiencing variable health consequences, including concerns about weight gain, depression and alcohol dependence. In addition, young lawyers working in law firms reported that their health was poorer than lawyers working in other settings, while young lawyers who indicated that they had chosen alternative professional career paths reported comparatively better health.

Abstract C07: A patient-centered approach to a cancer care delivery innovation for low-income patients: Medical-legal partnership with patient navigation

Abstract Background: Disparities in cancer outcomes for low-income, racial/ethnic minority patients are worsening, partly due to delays in care delivery. Patient-centered innovations in care delivery that address these barriers are necessary to improve care for vulnerable populations. Methods: We used a community-engaged approach to implement a randomized controlled trial for at-risk cancer patients with delays in care. We conducted focus groups with the target population and created a Patient Advisory Group and Community Advisory Board to ensure stakeholder input. With these advisory groups and a Scientific Advisory Board, we designed an intervention that represented a collaboration between patient navigation and a public interest lawyer from Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston (MLP). Each intervention patient is discussed with MLP lawyers to identify a level of legal need, and to support role-appropriate advocacy by the patient navigator. Control subjects receive the standard of care navigation services provided to patients at the institution. Eligible subjects include patients at an urban academic safety net hospital diagnosed with breast or lung cancer within 30 days and who speak English, Spanish or Haitian-Creole. Results: To date, we have enrolled 115 breast cancer patients (79% non-White, 72% public insurance) of the target enrollment of 374 patients. Research assistants survey patients at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months to capture patient-centered outcomes, including: a) a 15-item survey capturing socio-legal barriers under the five I-HELP categories (Income, Housing, Employment, Legal Status and Personal Stability), b) the Cancer Needs Distress Inventory (CaNDI), c) Distress Thermometer, d) the Communication and Attitudinal Self-Efficacy survey (CASE) and e) the Patient Satisfaction with Interpersonal Relations with Navigator (PSN-1). Clinical outcomes including time to first treatment and receipt of quality treatment are extracted from medical records at 6 and 12 months. Conclusions: We demonstrate how a diverse group of stakeholders engage in patient-centered cancer care delivery research. Our study will investigate whether legally-enhanced patient navigation improves delivery of cancer care as measured by patient-centered and clinical outcomes. ClincialTrials.gov identifier: NCT02232074. Citation Format: Naomi Y. Ko, Sharon Bak, Ann Han, Kerrie Nelson, Christine Gunn, Emily Bergling, Maria Castano, Vanesa Noel, Kate Festa, Na Wang, Wanda Turner, Samantha Morton, JoHanna Flacks, Tracy A. Battaglia. A patient-centered approach to a cancer care delivery innovation for low-income patients: Medical-legal partnership with patient navigation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr C07.

Exploring the controversy in child abuse pediatrics and false accusations of abuse.

There is a controversy in child abuse pediatrics between an established corps of child abuse pediatricians aligned with hospital colleagues and law enforcement, and a multi-specialty challenger group of doctors and other medical professionals working with public interest lawyers. The latter group questions the scientific validity of the core beliefs of child abuse pediatricians and believes that there are a substantial number of false accusations of abuse occurring. An unproven primary hypothesis, crafted around 1975 by a small group of pediatricians with an interest in child abuse, lies at the foundation of child abuse pediatrics. With no scientific study, it was hypothesized that subdural hemorrhage (SDH) and retinal hemorrhage (RH) were diagnostic of shaking abuse. That hypothesis became the so-called "shaken baby syndrome." Through the period 1975-1985, in a coordinated manner, these child abuse specialists coalesced under the American Academy of Pediatrics and began working with district attorneys and social workers, informing them of the ways in which their hypothesis could be applied to prosecutions of child abuse and life-altering social service interventions. In a legal context, using then-prevailing evidentiary rules which treated scientific expert testimony as valid if it was "generally accepted" in the field, they represented falsely that there was general acceptance of their hypothesis and therefore it was valid science. As the ability to convict based on this unproven prime hypothesis (SDH and RH equals abuse) increased, some defense attorneys were professionally compelled by their own doubts to reach out to experts from other fields with experience with SDH and RH, trauma, and biomechanics, for second opinions. Medical and legal challenges to the established thinking soon emerged, based on both old and new evidenced-based literature. As the intensity of the controversy increased, the probability of false accusation became more apparent and the need to address the issue more pressing. Since false accusations of child abuse are themselves abusive, efforts to eliminate such false accusations must continue.

Situating Social Problems in the Context of Law: Fostering Public Interest Lawyers in Hong Kong

<p>Hong Kong is often perceived as a global financial centre; an international, cosmopolitan city. Though Hong Kong has prospered economically, a myriad of social problems persist which undermine equity and social justice in society and many interest groups lack political and legal representation. Consequentially, the development of public interest law provides a pedagogical opportunity to cultivate individuals with the capacity to critically engage with and respond to social problems in society. While clinical legal education programmes provide one avenue of fostering public interest lawyers, socio-legal courses also provide a valuable means of developing socially responsible lawyers. First examining the context of Hong Kong law, this article considers the development of public interest law in Hong Kong and the role of socio-legal courses in fostering the development of public interest lawyers. Specifically, the article examines The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law’s flagship course, ‘The Individual, the Community and the Law’ to explore how socio-legal courses can foster socially responsible lawyers. </p>

Options For Packaging Epidemiology To Guide Policy And Ethical Analysis

Public health officials and economists in Finance Ministries tend to use a utilitarian lens in judging proposed public health programs to mitigate the health effects of extreme heat or extreme cold. They use cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis to guide the adoption or rejection of proposed policies. What is needed for such analysis is the added absolute probability or number of deaths or disease when comparing the status quo to the situation after the recommended preventive policies are instituted. The epidemiologist's usual metrics of relative risk or population attributable risk percent are not useable as such and must be converted to added absolute risk to be useful. It is also a challenge to quantify and describe any uncertainty in these risks related to unmeasured confounders, study design, or use of ecologic measures. The cost-benefit ratios and absolute risks may also differ by choice of a mitigation versus adaptation policy. The general public, the media and public interest lawyers look at the same problem through a duty/rights ethics lens. Like Moses, they advocate honoring one's mother and father even when it is not cost-effective to do so! For them it is important to know the added probability of death, stratified by categories of persons who warrant societies' special concern, including impoverished people who have been otherwise neglected, mistreated ethnic groups, and veterans who have served their country. Epidemiologists tend to provide their results without such stratification, thereby depriving duty ethics stakeholders the ammunition that they would need to defend their perspective in the political arena where such decisions are hammered out. Young epidemiologists should be trained to present their conclusions in ways that empower the stakeholders with these two ethical world views to participate in an informed manner in the political process.

Legal Reform in the Xi Jinping Era

In the fall of 2014, Chinese Communist Party authorities made legal reform the focus of their annual plenum for the first time. The Fourth Plenum Decision confirmed a shift away from some of the policies of the late Hu Jintao era, but liberal reforms still remain off the table. The top-down vision of legal reform developing under Xi Jinping's administration may have more in common with current trends in the party disciplinary apparatus or historical ones in the imperial Chinese censorate than it does with Western rule-of-law norms.This essay attempts to do three things: (1) analyze how and why China's legal reforms have shifted over the past two decades, (2) outline the direction of reform under Xi, and (3) sketch out the institutional considerations that are likely to steer state efforts in the legal field over the coming years.The Turn Against LawIn the first decade of the 21st century, Chinese Communist Party authorities turned against many of the legal reform efforts that they themselves had launched in the 1980s and 1990s. Starting around 2005, a new official line began to gradually penetrate China's judicial and legal organs. Broadly speaking, this position included the following:* A shift away from late 20th-century efforts to promote judicial professionalism, coupled with a revival of 1950s Maoist-era ideals of judicial populism* A revived focus on mediation, rather than court trials, as a preferred mechanism for resolving conflicts among citizens as well as between citizens and the state* A new state narrative depicting the law as cold and unresponsive to citizen needs* A stress on the courts as an undifferentiated cog within the state organs for stability maintenance (weiwen)* A steady reduction in tolerance for the activities of public interest (weiquan) lawyers* A new political campaign reiterating party supremacy over the constitution, law, and courts* The charging of local officials with the priority task of containing citizen disputes, conflicts, and petitions at all costsCentral authorities employed multiple tools to implement these shifts. Some were highly public-for example, the 2008 appointment of a veteran security apparatchik as the new head of the Supreme People's Court, the 2009 police raid on the Open Constitution Initiative, and the subsequent repression of public interest lawyers such as Xu Zhiyong and Teng Biao. Other tools were less visible. New propaganda campaigns within the courts presented changed depictions of model judges to emulate: tireless court officials perhaps lacking in book learning but at ease among the masses, recognizant of parties' emotions, and able to resolve disputes (often without resort to legal norms) before they blossomed into conflict. Personnel evaluation systems for judges and other officials were tweaked to emphasize mediation rather than adjudication.In part, this shift was a politicized counter-reaction to the results of earlier reforms. Late 20th-century Chinese authorities had emphasized the role of law, litigation, and court mechanisms for resolving civil and administrative disputes. By the early 21st century, these practices had given rise to a range of actors within both state and society pushing for deeper institutional change. The early 2000s had seen activists such as Xu and Teng fuse court challenges with savvy use of the media to put heavy pressure on both central and local authorities. Within the bureaucracy itself, new voices were beginning to suggest that the law and constitution should be assigned a greater role in governing official actions. The new official line that descended on the legal system in the first decade of the 21st century sought to defang some of these pressures.Central authorities were also motivated by deep concerns over social unrest. They saw legal reforms channeling disputes into an institutionally weak judiciary lacking the capacity to enforce its own verdicts. …

The Public Interest Class Action

Public interest lawyers often bring large-scale cases against government defendants for injunctive relief as class actions. Until recently, their class certification motions routinely succeeded, enabling plaintiffs to obtain sweeping remedies that have required fundamental reforms to government policies and practices. In recent years, however, the law regulating the public interest class action has changed dramatically, with recurring doctrinal problems splitting the federal courts. Should a nascent trend against class certification continue, class action doctrine will soon present a formidable obstacle – possibly a barrier – to the successful prosecution of a sort of litigation that has produced innumerable changes to prisons, foster care systems, and other government agencies and services over the last fifty years. Any path out of the present confusion must address a basic but neglected question. Why do large-scale public interest cases so regularly proceed as class actions? The answer involves an under-appreciated interaction between the law of class actions and other doctrines devised to limit standing and the scope of remedies. Class action procedure enables public interest plaintiffs to vindicate policies in the substantive law consistent with broad, systemic remedies without asking courts to usurp power from other branches or adjudicate ineptly Without class certification, these policies would lie dormant, as the other doctrines would unnecessarily derail litigation. This “counterweight” function can generate responses to the doctrinal problems that courts have struggled to answer in this new era for the public interest class action. If class action procedure evolves in a manner consistent with its function, large-scale public interest litigation will remain a viable means for the achievement of structural reform.

Political Interference in Clinical Programs: Lessons From The U.S. Experience

<p>This article reviews the history of political interference in clinical programs in the United States, considers the attacks on clinical programs in the context of attacks on other lawyers representing the poor or other marginalized clients, and draws lessons from the experience in the United States that may be helpful to clinical programs in other countries. With the spread of clinical teaching throughout the world, it is likely that law faculty teaching clinical courses in other countries may encounter the types of political interference with client and case selection experienced by their colleagues in the United States. </p><p>Part I of this article examines the access to justice mission of clinical legal education in the United States and briefly traces the history and types of political interference in law school clinical programs. It also discusses the ethical obligations of lawyers to represent unpopular or controversial clients or causes, and considers how the attacks on clinical programs interfere with a lawyer’s ethical obligation to act independently of third-party interests. </p><p>Part II examines the relationship between access to justice and the attacks on the major sources of public interest lawyers in the United States. Part II contends that access to the courts is a cornerstone principle for the rule of law, and access to the courts depends on having the assistance of a lawyer. Part II draws a connection between the political interference in clinical programs and other attacks on public interest lawyers.</p><p>Part III analyzes the legacy of political interference on clinical programs. It discusses the effects of both the highly publicized attacks on clinical programs and the more frequent questions concerning clinical programs’ choices of clients and cases. It argues that the breadth of political interference in clinical programs in the United States indicates that any clinical program may be targeted even if the clinical faculty believe that they are taking non-controversial cases. Part III also questions whether political interference in clinical programs will be as great an issue in those countries that make legal assistance in civil cases more available to persons who are unable to afford to hire a lawyer than does the Unites States.</p><p>The article concludes that law school clinical programs can model the highest ideals of the legal profession by evaluating potential cases on the legal merits and pedagogical value and not with a concern for whether or not the case or client may be controversial. </p>

The Tax War on Poverty

In recent years, the war on poverty has moved in large part into the tax code. Scholarship has started to note that the tax laws, which once exacerbated the problem of poverty, have become increasingly powerful tools that the federal government uses to fight against it. Yet questions remain about how this new tax war on poverty works, how it is different from the decades of non-tax anti-poverty policy and how it could improve. To answer these questions, this Article looks comprehensively at the provisions that make up the new tax war on poverty. First, this Article examines each major piece of the tax war on poverty. The Article looks at its mechanics of each, its political history and its effectiveness at addressing poverty. Second, this Article analyzes the tax war on poverty as a whole, identifying commonalities across its different provisions and highlighting its distinctive features. Third, this Article proposes ways that the tax war on poverty could be more effective. In particular, this Article examines how tax lawmakers and tax lawyers could approach this task. In so doing, this Article conceptualizes tax law as the new poverty law and proposes a growing role for public-interest tax lawyers.

How to Build a Public Interest Lawyer (And Help All Law Students Along the Way)

As law schools across the country debate the ways to change (or not to change) their curricula to ensure that students are more prepared for practice and are getting the most out of their legal education, there is an opportunity to make some changes that will provide students with an education where both social justice and lawyering skills play a larger role and are more valued. If we act on this opportunity, we will help to build lawyers that are more intellectually and practically well rounded, more dedicated to public service, and more prepared to make the world a more just place.

Bangladesh: A Labor Paradox

Bangladesh: A Labor Paradox

Privitization and Public Interest Lawyering: The Radiating Effect of the Israeli Supreme Court Decisions to Annul Prison Privatization

In this article we argue that privatization of core government authorities create structural changes. Litigation against Privatization processes of core government authorities must address these institutional-structural changes in executive authority, and not rely on potential violations to individual rights. In light of the Israeli Supreme Court decision to annul a law privatizing prisons, we show how litigation against privatization of core state authorities is changing the role of public interest lawyers engaged in civil rights work in Israel.

Public Interest Lawyers (“PIL”)

Public Interest Lawyers (“PIL”)

Cause Lawyers and Other Signs of Progress: Three Thai Narratives

The rising number cause lawyers in Thailand might be considered a promising sign of more liberal and accountable government. Cause lawyers are advocates for the politically weak or socially marginal, and their increasing visibility in developing societies is said to be evidence of globalization of the rule of law as it is understood in Western societies. But before drawing this conclusion, cause lawyers must be understood in context. Legal evolution is path-dependent, shaped by political institutions, culture, and history; in turn the role of cause lawyers is shaped by the events, institutions, and intergenerational networks which give their causes meaning and create opportunities for relevant action. This study compares the careers, causes, and opportunities for advocacy of three Thai cause lawyers. While there is evidence of a multi-generational growth in a self-sustaining form of public interest or cause lawyering, the careers and strategies of the three lawyers vary widely by institutional context, impact of globalization, and the politics of the cause, not only reinforcing the understanding that legal development is path dependent but also that it is likely to be highly uneven as new ideas about law compete with other forms of authority and power in both old and new institutions as a society develops.

Packaging Yourself for Public Interest Employment: Career Planning Guidance for Aspiring Public Interest Lawyers

This is an updated version of a career counseling piece for law students who are interested in pursuing work in the public interest field. It covers topics such as course selection, clinics and internships, and overall career development. First published in 1985, versions of this article have been adapted for use by NALP, National Association for Public Interest Law (now Equal Justice Works), and various law schools including Georgetown, NYU, Suffolk, and Tulane.

Practical Training in Law in the Netherlands: Big Law Model or Clinical Model, and the Call of Public Interest Law

This article identifies two models now at work in the Netherlands, models that present potentially competing visions of practical training for law graduates seeking entry into the legal profession. The first is the Law Firm School, a new innovation in 2009, designed and funded by 14 major Amsterdam law firms, firms that make up part of what is often called Big Law. The Law Firm School model is embedded within the traditional apprenticeship training for all lawyers, but is available only to associates of the participating firms. The second model is clinical legal education, which ideally is offered as part of the course of study within the curriculum of formal legal education. The article presents four separate examples of clinical legal education now in operation in the Netherlands. These two models are examined within the broader context of public interest lawyering, a style of law practice common to the United States and almost non-existent in the domestic legal culture of the Netherlands outside of a broad program of legal aid. The further development of clinical legal education responds more fully, it is argued, to the call of public interest practice: the need for training of new lawyers for a legal profession that focuses on the values of justice, fairness and morality in everyday law practice.

Old Wine In New Bottles: Public Interest Lawyering In The Era Of Privatization

The movement towards privatization has created a sea change in the practice of public interest law. This change has given rise to legitimate concerns regarding transparency and participation in the changed regulatory environment Focus has moved from advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged client groups to a greater variety and broader array of practice models. Old Wine in New Bottles examines this issue through the lens of a public interest law firm in Wisconsin, using its experience in welfare reform, telecommunications, and health care. An analysis of this experience reveal that transparency and participation can be maintained in a privatized environment by adapting lawyering strategies to the altered context.

New Animal

New Animal Douglas Watson (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution One day in Holland a new animal was invented. It was a miniature racehorse with a jet-black coat and, supposedly, a docile nature—the perfect horse for children to ride. Watching it gambol about the laboratory for the first time, Van Roost, the junior of the two scientists who had produced the creature, felt his face relax into a grin. The horse was his first breakthrough as a professional scientist. Soon the Dutch premier was on the phone, offering congratulations, and in bed that night Van Roost’s girlfriend, a public-interest lawyer from Luxembourg, acted five or ten percent fonder of Van Roost than she ever had before. Van Roost hoped that she might now leave her other boyfriend and devote herself exclusively to him. It was a good time to be alive, Van Roost thought. Which, if true, did not apply for long to the miniature horse’s very first rider, a seven-year-old named Greta who, when the horse threw her, sailed twisting through the air and landed in the worst way and broke her neck. [End Page 51] All of Holland went into an uproar. Protesters encircled the laboratory and demanded that the horse be euthanized. This demand was soon met—by a sobbing Van Roost—but the horse’s demise sparked the ire of a different brand of protester. By day three of the turmoil, the premier had tightened child-safety regulations, the Dutch legislature had proclaimed that humans ought not to play god with animals, and the European Parliament had reprimanded Holland, saying its legislature lacked the authority to weigh in on so lofty a matter. Then came the girl’s memorial service, attended by neither Van Roost nor the senior scientist. Both men ought to have been there—public-opinion polls were clear on that point—but the opinion of the police had been that their safety could not be guaranteed. Van Roost stayed at home the day of the service with the blinds drawn and a recording of tropical surf playing on an endless loop. Just when it seemed as though the furor over the girl’s death would never die down, it did. A few days after the memorial service, some new scandal, something to do with finance or a crashed plane, diverted the public, leaving Van Roost to confront, for starters, the unprecedented difficulty he was having making love to his girlfriend. They tried all kinds of positions, some from Luxembourg, some from Holland, some from other EU countries. Nothing worked, not even the position his girlfriend called the raptor. Finally one day she told him that she had decided to devote herself completely to her other boyfriend. “What about me?” Van Roost said, and then he thought how pretty she was when she smiled sadly and apologetically and a little bit impatiently. The next day, an EU regulatory commission scolded Van Roost and the senior scientist for their “negligence if not outright recklessness” and suspended for one year their scientific licenses. Muttering that the girl’s death hadn’t been their fault, the senior scientist packed his bags and emigrated to America to work for a pharmaceutical company. But it was our fault, Van Roost said to himself. The bureaucrats indicated that he could spend his year away from science either doing community service or studying philosophy at the university in the town where he lived. Van Roost, who didn’t know any better, chose the latter course. The first philosopher he was asked to read was a Scot named David Hume. Hume was, or had been, at pains to prove that it couldn’t be proved that the sun, on any given day, was a whit more likely to rise than not to rise. What nonsense! Van Roost thought as he slammed the book closed. Many nights, instead of doing the required reading, Van Roost would open a bottle of red wine and sit in his kitchen rereading the newspaper stories he’d clipped about the girl who’d died. Greta. Though just seven, she had already begun a serious study of the flute...