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The Legal Intelligencer

The Public Interest Calendar of Events

By | January 03, 2017
On Jan. 13, the 36th annual Sparer Symposium is set to be held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The Sparer Symposium commemorates the life and work of the late Edward V. Sparer, professor of law and social policy, and brings together legal academics and practitioners, delving deeply into important issues of our time. The title of this year's symposium is "A Country Divided: The 2016 Presidential Election and the Future of American Democracy." Panels will focus on voting rights, criminal justice reform, national security and campaign finance. Beth Donovan, senior Washington editor for NPR News, will deliver the keynote address. For additional information and to RSVP, visit goo.gl/eUk1iY.
4 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

The Limits of Non-Explicit Legal LGBT Rights

For LGBT Pennsylvanians, 2016 brought progress in access to health care and in insurance coverage, in employment, and in education. Laws that expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity ­remain elusive. But protections do exist. A growing body of court decisions recognize that discrimination based on sexual ­orientation or gender identity run afoul of existing laws barring sex discrimination. At the regulatory level, the current federal agencies have followed and even strengthened those courts' decisions. But the future of this trend is difficult to predict. The new presidential administration will bring new direction to the federal agencies that issued many of the regulations that LGBT people have begun to rely on to address discrimination they face in schools, when seeking health care, and in their ability to obtain insurance coverage for transition-related care. Forecasting is beyond the scope of this article, but those changes, as well as ­pending lawsuits challenging guidance issued by the Department of Education and the ­nondiscrimination regulations issued by Health and Human Services—and, of course, the threatened repeal of the Affordable Care Act—bring added uncertainty. In the end, however, the continued viability of these recent gains will rest with the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
13 minute read

National Law Journal

Sotomayor's Pro Bono Call, Posner's Digs and Banter on the Bench: Supreme Court 2016

Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February was one of the biggest stories this year about the U.S. Supreme Court. Sonia Sotomayor urged mandatory pro bono for all lawyers. Richard Posner railed on "stupid" decisions by Chief Justice Roberts. And the court's microphones picked up banter on the bench. Here's a look at some of our most-read stories about the high court.
16 minute read

The American Lawyer

For Stay-at-Home Lawyers Keen on Pro Bono, a New Kirkland Counsel Has You Covered

Kirkland & Ellis has hired an antitrust clearance expert by bringing on of counsel Donna Peel. The firm's new recruit spent the past six years as executive director of the Chicago-based Pro Bono Network.
9 minute read

Daily Report Online

Holistic Civil Legal Services Are Bettering Clients' Lives

By looking beyond the single legal crisis of the moment and searching for its underlying causes, multidisciplinary teams of lawyers and community agencies can help clients in poverty and at risk of future victimization.
9 minute read

Litigation Daily

This Public Defender Spent a Decade in Prison. Now She's Been Pardoned With Help from Quinn Emanuel

Serena Nunn went from federal prison inmate to the University of Michigan Law School to Georgia public defender. The final chapter in her extraordinary journey: a pardon from President Obama--with help from Quinn Emanuel partner Sam Sheldon.
19 minute read

Texas Lawyer

South Texas College of Law Houston Student, Former Undocumented Immigrant Receives 'Law Student Pro Bono Award'

Maria Ivañez recently received the Law Student Pro Bono Award and a $2,000 stipend from the Texas Access to Justice Commission for her dedication and commitment to pro bono services for low-income and underserved people.
7 minute read

National Law Journal

ABA Accuses Government of Reneging on Law School Loan Forgiveness

A new suit claims the Department of Education is pulling the rug out from under public interest lawyers who were told they qualified for federal loan forgiveness.
13 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

Can Courts Consider the Interests of Animals?

Probably the biggest hurdle to ­bringing lawsuits to protect animals is the fact that animals are considered property under the law. The ramifications of that legal status cannot be overstated. It means, among other things, that the law does not recognize their suffering as a compensable harm in a tort case, that they cannot enforce the protections afforded them by statutes such as the Endangered Species Act or the Animal Welfare Act and that, as far as the law is concerned, their value is limited to their replacement cost. For decades, animal lawyers and ethicists have tried to chip away at this property status as a means of attaining some kind of rights for animals. Most recently, Steven Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project have received a fair amount of press attention for their battle in the courts of New York to establish rights for captive chimpanzees. The chimps, as named petitioners, are using the common law of habeus corpus to challenge the ­legality of their detention just as other "unjustly ­incarcerated beings" have done throughout history. While years of research have gone into arriving at such creative legal theories and determining the best forum to raise those kinds of novel arguments, having a court grant the habeas corpus petition of a captive chimpanzee is still asking for quite a large leap.
12 minute read

New York Law Journal

Value of 'Limited-Scope' Representation to Civil Litigants Formally Noted by NY Courts

State court administrators have formally endorsed "discrete-task" representation of clients in New York in appropriate cases, saying it can help more low- and moderate-income civil litigants find counsel to handle only certain parts of a case.
9 minute read

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