Ware Institute summer internships offer legal service opportunities

From Susan Dicklitch, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College, Professor of Government, and Director of the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement at Franklin & Marshall College: 

On behalf of the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement, I'm pleased to announce that the Public Service Summer Internships (PSSI) applications are now available on our website. Every summer for the past sixteen years, Franklin & Marshall has awarded stipends to well qualified students (rising sophomores, juniors and seniors) to work in local public and/or community service organizations.

During this nine-week program (June 6 - August 3) students work full-time in paid internships throughout Lancaster City and County in such areas as human services, county government, law and justice, education, health care and economic development.

Participants are paid a $3,300 stipend. Housing is not provided. Four days a week are spent at the internship site. Each Wednesday, the PSSI members come together as a team to participate in weekly seminars, engage in group discussion and reflection, and perform community service.

You can find links to agencies we've previously worked with on the PSSI web page. Placements are selected based on a combination of community requests and student interest with a focus on key community partners. As of today, we've received intern requests from the following agencies:

• Church World Service: working with resettled refugees assisting with cultural orientation
• Domestic Violence Services - Legal Clinic: work to support representation of domestic violence victims in a civil setting
• Domestic Violence Services: assisting at the shelter and with the children's component
• Fulton Theatre: a variety of options
• Lancaster General Health - Community Wellness: promotion of public health initiatives and focusing on deliverables for a Community Transformation Grant.
• Milagro House: work with senior service coordinator on delivering services and executive director on marketing and outreach.
• Project Access Lancaster Co. (PALCO): evaluating program
• Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center: marketing and planning fundraising events

If you have any questions about specific agencies please make an appointment with Lisa Wolfe (lisa.wolfe@fandm.edu) to review the requests.

Follow the link below to the PSSI web page to find out more and for the link to the online application.

PSSI LINK to web page and application

You are also required to have a faculty or professional staff recommendation with your application. The link below should be given to the faculty or professional staff who will complete the online form on your behalf.

PSSI Faculty or Professional Staff Recommendation link

The deadline for submitting both the application AND the faculty recommendation is Friday, February 24 by midnight.

Immigration cases and the inadequacies of legal representation; F&M doing its part

A recent New York Times article highlights the glaring inadequacies that exist in the United States immigration system with respect to legal representation for immigrants facing deportation. It discusses the frustration that immigration judges, in particular, express due to what they describe as "inadequate" services provided by attorneys representing immigrant clients.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/nyregion/judges-give-low-marks-to-lawyers-in-immigration-cases.html?_r=1&ref=legalprofession

The article reads "immigrants received 'inadequate' legal assistance in 33 percent of the cases between mid-2010 and mid-2011 and 'grossly inadequate' assistance in 14 percent of the cases, the judges said. They gave private lawyers the lowest grades, while generally awarding higher marks to pro bono counsel and those from nonprofit organizations and law school clinics." The information cited comes from a report published in the Cardozo Law Review of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in Manhattan, the full text of which can be found here: http://www.cardozolawreview.com/content/denovo/NYIRS_Report.pdf

While this article emphasizes an important problem with the legal aspects of this nation's immigration system, it also makes note of the interesting fact that pro bono attorneys - mostly those from non-profit organizations and even law schools - do a much better job, according to both immigration judges and success rate statistics, than do lawyers hired by immigrants. One judge who participated in the study, "blames predatory lawyers who are not familiar with immigration law for much of the poor representation. The immigrants who hire them often do not speak English and are unfamiliar with the court system, making them particularly vulnerable. 'They are easy prey for ambulance-chasing-style lawyers who do not adhere to the highest standards of responsibility,' said the judge."

F&M students are doing their part to remedy the inadequacies of the American immigration system through a course called "Human Rights-Human Wrongs," co-taught by Dr. Susan Dicklitch, the director of F&M's Ware Institute for Civic Engagement, and an immigration attorney who works out of Baltimore for a non-profit immigrant assistance organization. This course was highlighted in a recent U.S. News and World Report article (which can be found here: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/04/18/10-college-classes-that-impact-the-outside-world?PageNr=1).

I was lucky enough to be able to participate in this course this past semester, and was one of several students who worked with attorneys to prepare cases on behalf of immigrants facing deportation. HR/HW is a one-of-a-kind undergraduate experience that is challenging, eye-opening, and rewarding. It also inspired me to begin a research project this semester on the topic of immigrant legal representation. Any F&M  student interested in pursuing a career related to any aspect of the legal system should consider it, as it also provides students with a very useful legal background and a plethora of legal research skills.

As the NYTimes article and the Yeshiva University report indicate, immigration courts are in desperate need of quality legal representation for indigent immigrant clients. What better way to contribute to the legal system as an undergraduate than to check out the unique opportunities to learn and to help offered at F&M?