"The fact that I went to Goodwin Procter doesn't mean I'm not passionate about doing this type of work"

..but it's a pretty good hint. From Law.com:

Are Public Interest Lawyers Getting Crowded Out by Deferred Associates? - One recent law grad looking for public interest work notes, 'We don't come with a $70,000-plus salary with benefits intact. Psychologically, it's hard to deal with that reality.'

Sending incoming associates into temporary public-interest jobs - with a healthy stipend to cover their costs of living - is intended to be a fiscally smart and compassionate way for law firms to handle an overabundance of young attorneys...

But some recent law school graduates who have spent years preparing for public-interest careers worry that law firms are hurting their job prospects by flooding the already competitive public-interest job market...

ID: fight the DP, kayak, hike, and ski

PD veterans and capital punishment combatants! Looking to keep fighting the good fight, but in a more outdoorsy setting? The Idaho State Appellate Public Defender is hiring:

The successful applicant will be representing indigent defendants in state capital post-conviction and appellate proceedings. This position will have a supervisory responsibility over a staff attorney, mitigation specialist and investigator...

Deadline is August 31.

(Also needed: someone to fix their website. Where is the pride of the old Capital Litigation page from the Rolf Kehne era? Or the over-the-top swagger of the old staff roster? At least the current SAPD offering is not quite this minimal. Links via the Wayback Machine.)

Be all that you can be

From the Foreign Policy Association job board:

Defense Advisor - Afghanistan

NCSC International, the International Programs Division of the National Center for State Courts, is seeking a Defense Advisor for an existing justice sector reform activity in Afghanistan...

Qualification:... At least three years experience as a criminal defense attorney, with management or organizational experience in public defender's office preferred... Interested applicants should send their resume/CV and expressions of interest via email to afghanistanjobs"at"ncsc.dni.us no later than April 15th...

Bonus link goes to Where's Travis McGee?

KY: department of online advocacy

The Department of Public Advocacy, Kentucky's statewide public defender agency, is making imaginative use of the Web.

You can find DPA lawyers discussing their jobs on YouTube.

You can check out DPA podcasts.

You can even find DPA when you do a Facebook search for "Department of Public Advocacy." Pretty slick.

Aid China's public defenders

The International Senior Lawyers Project, together with International Bridges to Justice, non-governmental organizations that support criminal defender and legal aid efforts in Asia and elsewhere, are recruiting on-site volunteer attorneys for placement in China:

This assignment is ideal for a retired (or on sabbatical) public defender or criminal defense lawyer and would require a commitment of at least 3 months on-site in China, starting in either Spring or Summer 2008. The project involves mentoring Chinese lawyers; however, Chinese language skills are not needed.

If you are interested in this opportunity, or know of someone who just might be, please contact Andra Moss, Volunteer Coordinator, International Senior Lawyers Project, 31 W. 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 895-1038, or amoss "at" islp "d0t" org.

If I ever get to go to China, I'd like to visit a rural police station and bring back one of these signs:

“Confess - better treatment; Resist - harsher treatment”

Actually, I think they used to have these in police stations in rural Idaho, too.

NV: Elko p.d. redux

Elko County, Nevada, is looking for a deputy public defender.

If memory serves, seems that they were looking for one about this time last year.

Elko is lovely this time of year.

"So, could this be my way out?"

Well, what do you think, should former prosecutor Chuck try to become a public defender, or as he puts it:

should i join the dark side?

FL: talking for a living

Tristia has a new job that suits her:

Well, it finally happened. I finally got the job that everyone has said I'm suited for since I was an argumentative, self-righteous 6th grader. I've become a public defender...

Congratulations and welcome.

P.S.: Brother Feger (not Feige) got a p.d. job today, too.

IL: pink slip

From Second Guessing in the Second City:

Today is day 4 of being unemployed. Thanks to the Cook County Budget cuts, I am no longer a public defender...

NV: Elko seeks a p.d.

Elko County, Nevada has an opening for a deputy public defender:

Nevada bar license is preferred, but is NOT required, as long as the applicant is a licensed member of the bar, in good standing, from another state. Nevada Supreme Court Rule 49.9 allows for a Deputy Public Defender in a rural Nevada county to be waived in to practice for up to 2 years pending passage of the Nevada bar exam. The starting salary is $50,000 to $60,000 per year...

Doesn't suck. The Ruby Mountains are beautiful, particularly around Lamoille. I'm partial to Jarbidge and its surroundings. There's the famous cowboy poetry slam. And Basque food... mmm, Basque food. Plus, it's 2 hours or less to that true meeting point of Northeastern Nevadans, the Costco in Twin Falls, Idaho.

How not to interview prospective public defenders

Scoplaw (via The Imbroglio) had a needlessly awful interview with some awfully self-impressed public defenders, and in the process of blogging about it, gave me the most awful flashback.

(from left to right: the Arbiter of Succession, p.d. job applicant, self-impressed p.d.)

Update: Fantastica's p.d. job interview wasn't fun either.

Vox clamantis in deserto

A helpful reminder from LiveJournal - if you're a city slicker at heart, first you might want to check out that rural public defender office you've applied to in person:

I assumed that I could slide right into a rural legal job and switch from downtown cityboy to rural hiking, fishing, hunting guy. I can't. I like the city. I like having six million sushi restaurants to choose from...

Probably just as well that city dude self-selected himself out; there are enough motivated would-be p.d.'s who'll go where the opportunity is over where the sashimi is. I don't know about Clovis, NM, but in the "middle of nowhere" town where I used to recruit young p.d.'s, there is at least one sushi bar.

MO: state's chief p.d. Baghdad-bound

Director of Missouri's State Public Defender Agency is Headed to Iraq

J. Marty Robinson, the Director of Missouri’s State Public Defender System, is being deployed to Iraq. In addition to his duties as Missouri’s top Public Defender, Robinson is also a colonel in Missouri’s National Guard and serves as Missouri’s State Judge Advocate. Once deployed, Robinson will be attached to the 43rd Military Police Brigade in Baghdad as their Command Judge Advocate. The 43rd is responsible for theatre detention operations in Iraq. As the Command JAG, Robinson will be the senior advisor to the commander on legal issues concerning detainees...

Robinson’s departure comes at a difficult time for the agency he oversees. An independent study commissioned by the Missouri Bar concluded that Missouri’s public defender system is "on the verge of collapse" due to case overload and skyrocketing turnover rates in its attorney staff...

Cathy R. Kelly, the system’s Deputy Director for Training and Communications, will serve as Acting Director for the agency until Col. Robinson’s return...

MySpace, your space, all our space

I'm a little intrigued by MySpace, and the assumptions of people who post to it. I don't know if it's advertised as a place where only your friends can read your posts. The mood seems to be, see, this secret is just between us, no one else can read our thoughts.

Friendly reminder here: thanks to search engines such as Technorati and IceRocket, it just isn't so - we all can see your stuff.

Not long ago, a prosecutor showed me print-outs from the My Space blog of one of my clients. The many pictures of my client making gang signs and hanging with his co-defendants were just a little bit corrosive to our previous theory of the defense.

Then there's this job-seeker:

... i am quitting smoking the good herb...

...i really want this new job at the public defenders office, and the only way to ensure i pass the piss test is to just quit smoking...

...i am positive i will start smoking again as soon as i get this job...

No matter where you stand on legalizing marijuana use, that's the sort of integrity we want in our p.d. co-workers, don't you think? I managed to find this post, and I'm not even one of those public defender investigators.

Sorry, Pisces, that you'll have to take a month off from the gentle herb; I know you haven't gone more than a few days without cannabis in the past seven years. But hey, good luck hiding this from the people doing the hiring. Surely the p.d.s in Indianapolis, Indiana aren't as clever as you, and won't know how to use the Internets.

Update: A.L., take the advice from your friend's comment:

...if you REALLY want this job--it might be best to scrub this and other similar posts from your account immediately... new trend of some employers includes googling potential employees and looking for my space profiles etc...

New trend? I was doing it back when I was a hiring guy, and that was '98 to '04. It wasn't all bad news from Google about my applicants, of course, and some of it could intrigue me enough to tip the decision in a particular applicant's favor.

On the other hand, inadvertently disclosing seven years of chronic doobage might just tip the decision the opposite way, even for the coolest p.d. office.

Update: Keep scrubbing!

...the marion country public defender's office is hiring...
...does anyone know a good detox drink?

NV: public defender = lowest bidder?

The Nye County commissioners are looking for "competitive proposals." From the Pahrump Valley Times:

Lawyers compete for public defender deal

Pahrump attorney Carl Joerger made a pitch for the Nye County public defender contact currently held by attorney Jason Earnest...

Commissioners will have to advertise for qualified applicants quickly as Earnest's contract expires June 30. The current three-year contract for Earnest and three attorneys is $420,000 per year. Earnest is seeking to sign a three- to five-year public defender contract through June 30, 2009...

Earnest told commissioners... (h)is team includes Harry Kuehn... and Tom Gibson... Both Kuehn and Gibson are certified to handle capital murder cases, Earnest said, which could be handy as he expects more violent offenders with a growth in murders and methamphetamine use. Earnest said the caseload for the Pahrump Justice Court increased from 532 cases in all of 2003 to 810 cases in just the first four months of 2006...

Joerger submitted an offer for $240,000 for three attorneys.

Such a deal!

Some background: Nye County's population has ranged from approximately 38,000 to 47,000 in the first years of this decade. The current private attorney contractor there has charged Nye County $420,000 per year for himself and three other attorneys. In that same period, I managed a public defender office as a department of county government in a county of 66,000 people. My budget averaged approximately $465,000 per year for me and five, later six, attorneys. Just saying.

FDEWI P.D. - RSVP

Central Washington's Sparky says that the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho office is hiring for a position in sunny Yakima.

(I can share this with you now, you see; the psychic scars from my tragicomic job interview with them are all faded!)

ID: M-C P.D., ASAP

An Idaho job announcement from the eastern edge of the Magic Valley and the northwestern edge of Zion:

The Mini-Cassia Public Defender Office announces a job opening for a Deputy Public Defender. This is a full time opening with county benefits. Work will include adult misdemeanors, child protection, mental commitments and other assigned matters. Contact the office at (208) 878-6801, or Job Service, for a complete job description. The annual salary range is from $32,000 to $36,000 and depends upon the experience of the applicant. Interested persons need to submit resumes and application forms. Forms are available from the Public Defender Office in Burley or the Cassia County Court House. The job becomes available 4/17/06 and applications will be taken until the position is filled. Applications can be mailed to PO Box 188, Burley, ID 83318 or delivered to the office at 111 West 15th Street, Burley.

Remember, you can practice under a limited license before you pass the Idaho bar.

WA: hiring hall

The Yakima County Office of Assigned Counsel is hiring one Senior Attorney and two Attorneys. Initial assignment and duties for two of the positions will be in the Superior Court working adult felony cases... Initial assignment and duties for one position will be in the Juvenile Court. The final filing date for this position is Friday, March 17, 2006. Apply to Yakima County Human Resources, 128 N. 2nd Street, Room B27, Courthouse, Yakima, WA 98901, (509) 574-2220. For more information, go to www.co.yakima.wa.us.

I lived in Yakima for three years and have a soft spot for the place still: orchards all around, four distinct seasons, and the best produce stands and Mexican food in the Northwest.

MT: re-apply and get in line

Team-building and morale building in Montana...

State eliminating top positions in public defender offices:

All of the chief public defenders and deputy chief public defenders in Montana's counties will lose their jobs July 1.

Montana Chief Public Defender Randi Hood eliminated the top two positions in all of the state's public defenders' offices as part of a new statewide public defense system.

"There is no place in this structure for what are known as chief public defenders and deputy chief public defenders," Hood wrote in a letter to Gallatin County's Chief Public Defender Mariah Eastman. "You, and anyone else so designated ... will not be coming into the new system on July 1," she wrote.

And then she sealed the letter with a big kiss.

Over in Great Falls, not waiting for obsolescence, the chief public defender dusted off his copy of "What Color is Your Parachute?" and made the leap to the state office early, leaving the county in a bit of a lurch.

Public defender resigns:

The resignation of the county's chief public defender stirred concern among Cascade County Commissioners Wednesday as Montana makes the transition to a new state-run public defender system.

(Curiously, my resignation as my county's chief public defender stirred nothing but a spontaneous dance of a merry jig.)

Chief Public Defender Eric Olson announced Tuesday that he is taking a job as the training coordinator with the state's new public-defender system. He begins March 1 in Missoula.

The state is scheduled to take control of the public's legal representation five months from now. In the meantime, county commissioners must hire an attorney to cover the chief defender's overwhelming caseload... "It's an unexpected issue before us," County Commissioner Joe Briggs said.

The 2005 Legislature voted to implement a statewide public defender system — headquartered in Butte and set to begin July 1... The state will be divided into 11 regions, with Cascade County falling into the 9th District. Randi Hood of Helena was named the state's Chief Public Defender in October 2005. A regional administrator will head each of the 11 regions districts.

In the meantime, commissioners agree they are stuck hiring a public defender, but can't guarantee that the person will still have a job five months down the road when the state takes over.

Attorney General Mike McGrath issued an opinion in December saying that the law does not require the new state public defender system to retain any of the current public defenders.

"We are concerned about our employees and how they are treated in the changeover," Commissioner Peggy Beltrone said.

Beltrone hopes the state will participate in the hiring process so that the new defender has a better chance of keeping their job under the state it takes over.

Otherwise, "Who will apply?" she asked.

Well, would you?

Arabic-speaking p. d. needed overseas

Management Sciences for Development, Inc. (MSD), a USAID implementing partner in rule of law, seeks an Arabic-speaking public defender for long-term assignment in Egypt to help develop and implement a Public Defense System. Candidate must have a law degree with a specialization in Criminal Justice. Experience in strategic and program planning and ability to lead effectively in team situations, particularly multicultural teams are required. Previous related experience in the Middle East preferred. Project start-up expected summer 2006. Interested candidates are encouraged to respond to rol@msdglobal.com.

I know just the man for the job.