Law Students

Students create HIV/AIDS brochures for return visit  

January Alumni e-Newsletter - Mississippi Center for Justice

Students from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law traveled to Jackson this month for the 3rd Annual Health Law Week. Divided into two groups, students focused on legal needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the Delta and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The HIV/AIDS group was led by Maggie Davis, a 2L who participated last year’s Health Law Week.  “One thing that stood out last year was an intense need for materials that explained the rights that exist to protect people living with HIV/AIDS, and that’s why we decided to create educational brochures this year,” said Davis. Throughout the week, students met with AIDS services organizations and community leaders and created three brochures that focused on privacy and confidentiality, housing rights and employment rights. They also met with professionals who work in the HIV/AIDS community to solicit feedback on the brochures.

Lucy Mac Gabhann, a 3L who has volunteered with Mississippi Center for Justice on three previous occasions, led the group that researched how the Affordable Care Act will impact Mississippians. “We found that there are a lot of benefits that people in Mississippi will receive under the Affordable Care Act, and we wanted to put together some information specifically for them,” said Mac Gabhann. Students met with community leaders, clergy and healthcare providers to discuss the changes that have taken place and the timeline for changes will occur between now and 2014.  They also created a set of informative brochures focusing on children, people who are currently uninsured and people with preexisting conditions. 

The two sets of brochures will be printed and distributed throughout the state. “We are grateful to have these new tools and look forward to getting this information into the hands of Mississippians who need it,” said Linda Rigsby, health law director for the Center.

To view photos of the students’ trip and the tasty southern cuisine they enjoyed throughout the week, check out their blog here.

Law students advance fair housing  

January Alumni e-Newsletter - Mississippi Center for Justice 

During January, Mississippi Center for Justice hosted 19 students from UC Irvine Law and 9 students from Touro Law School in our Biloxi office. These students worked on a range of projects, including fair housing and Katrina housing. Emma Soichet and Christopher Dalbey, two 3L students at UC Irvine, both chose to put their efforts toward building more sustainable communities.  A primary focus of their work was fair housing, a cornerstone of the Center’s Sustainable Communities Initiative Planning Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Tasked with developing a long-range regional plan with social equity components, the Center decided this was the perfect project to give law students an opportunity to sharpen their research skills while collaborating with people from different legal backgrounds. The development plan, known as the Plan for Opportunity, provides county and local governments with recommendations for connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation and helping to build a clean energy economy.

Soichet, who has always been “committed to public interest work” was excited to begin the task at hand. “Our job was to research and develop a response from the Center’s to a proposed Fair Housing Act regulation by HUD, which protects renters and homeowners from discrimination broadly in the financing, developing, selling and renting of homes.” The students reviewed claims from previous cases and wrote summaries in an effort to highlight the discriminatory effects of a seemingly unbiased policy or practice.

The fair housing team consisted of six students and was led by Reilly Morse, policy director and co-director of the housing and community development campaign for the Center. The Sustainable Communities Initiative Planning Grant work performed by Morse and Center staff encompasses various intersecting socio-economic issues. Soichet was thrilled that our staff took time after normal work hours to further explain these issues as they relate to fair housing advocacy and litigation. Participating in these discussions further contributed to her understanding of the project. “The staff was very willing to engage with students about big picture issues and take the time to put their work into context. One highlight was his presentation about national and local income disparity. It was powerful to hear him explain that for Mississippi’s coastal communities.”

Dalbey was similarly pleased with how Center staff engaged students during their short time with us; and because of this was given exposure to civil rights components key to creating a sustainable community. “The fair housing project itself was amazing. It had national and local implications involving partner organizations outside of Mississippi.” One such partner includes a civil rights attorney based in Washington D.C. Dalbey was able to sit in on a conference call between this civil rights leader and Center staff. “The attorney in Washington was a 37-year veteran of civil rights legal work and hearing him strategize with our team was inspiring. Law students rarely participate in this type of high-level conversation.”  

To further illustrate the impact fair housing work can have on communities, staff members organized a tour of a Biloxi district for students. The tour was the first time Soichet was able to see the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. “Apart from a few trips to New Orleans, I had not seen firsthand the wreckage Katrina had caused—or, perhaps more accurately—the loss that coastal communities have struggled with six years after she hit. We saw the Mississippi Cottages and other fair housing issues we wrote about as a group.”

As the founding staff member of the Center’s Katrina recovery office in 2005, John Jopling is well versed in the complexities of fair housing rights. Jopling presented a slideshow to students detailing the destruction of coastal communities by Hurricane Katrina. Dalbey found this to be one of the more “impactful” moments of the trip. “John explained that the neighborhoods on the ocean-side of the railroad tracks were prioritized for aid money because they sustained water and wind damage while those inland of the tracks suffered primarily wind damage. The ocean-side neighborhoods that received aid were predominantly white while the inland neighborhoods were predominantly African-American. The slideshow was a strong reminder of how much work remains and that we must be vigilant in our efforts to fight discrimination.”

Law student works to save school

July Alumni e-Newsletter - Mississippi Center for Justice

Carly Edelstein, a rising 2L from the University of California Irvine School of Law, is spending her summer in the Mississippi Center for Justice’s Coast office. With a background in public policy and education, and her sights set on a future in public interest law, Edelstein is here to enhance her legal skills and learn how she can take our community lawyering approach back to Los Angeles, CA.

Last January, Edelstein made her first trip to Mississippi with a group of UC Irvine law students and worked with the Center on a campaign to reopen Nichols Elementary, a school located in a predominately African-American community that was closed in an attempt to cut costs, despite being the highest performing school in the district.

Nichols has a rich history.  It was founded in the 1800’s and was built and supported by the community. A new school was built in 2004 as part of a settlement in a desegregation case and then received a multi-million dollar restoration following Hurricane Katrina.

Although most of the students come from low-income families, Nichols was the only public school in Biloxi to receive a “Star Rating” last year.  Nichols also received the state’s top teacher award for 2010, the Biloxi school district’s top parent award, and it was one of only four schools in the state to receive a National Blue Ribbon Award from the Department of Education for high performance in both math and reading.

Late last year the Kellogg Foundation offered $1.5 million to fund Nichols for three years, but the school board declined the grant.

In response, the community is mobilizing to reverse the school board’s decision.  Residents of East Biloxi reached out the Center shortly after the announcement of the closing, and we have been working with them since.

“It was such a great experience, and I knew I wanted to come back,” said Edelstein, who returned this summer to continue working on the Nichols campaign.

Edelstein has built a rapport with several community leaders and confers with them on a regular basis.  Her goal is to outline a legal strategy that will fortify the community’s grassroots efforts.

“Allowing the community to dictate what is happening with a case is incredibly important because if we get a settlement that they don’t like it’s useless to them,” said Edelstein.

In addition to gaining hands-on experience in community lawyering, Edelstein has had an opportunity to utilize what she learned during her first year of law school.  “It’s amazing,” she said. “I’m doing contract work and civil procedure, and I’m putting together some arguments for the case.”

Edelstein is currently working with UC Irvine’s Public Interest Law Fund to plan a community lawyering training for her classmates this fall.  “It is an important skill that public interest lawyers really need to have when they graduate, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned here.”

Hofstra students investigate zoning, assist oil claimants

July Alumni e-Newsletter - Mississippi Center for Justice

Students from Hofstra Law School spent a week at our Coast Office in May investigating zoning practices in Bay St. Louis and helping Mississippians impacted by the BP oil disaster navigate the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) claims process.

Three students delved into Bay St. Louis’ zoning patterns to determine if race is playing a role in the denial of a commercial zoning status for Ward 3, the city’s only majority minority community.  The approval of this status would allow for the creation of a walkable business district within the ward and access to millions of dollars in economic development grants.

After reviewing the city council’s records, interviewing various zoning experts and studying the local, state and federal laws regarding zoning, the students determined that legal action based on discrimination would be a difficult case to prove.  Instead, they encouraged community leaders in Ward 3 to take a grassroots approach focused on policy reform and ask residents to speak out about the importance of economic development in their community and how it can benefit the city as a whole.

“This experience meant a lot to me because we were helping an entire community,” said Raymond Klein, a 3L at Hofstra.

Students working on the oil track began the week learning about the GCCF and actions we have taken to assist people whose lives have been devastated.  

Immediately following the disaster that began April 20, 2010, the Center organized a regional network of legal services organizations and advocated for changes in the claims protocol to ensure that people who were harmed would receive fair and equitable treatment in the claims process.     

Late last year, the GCCF’s administrator Ken Feinberg contracted with the Center for $1.9 million to create a legal aid and pro bono delivery system for low-income claimants in the five-state Gulf Region. The program, which was launched in January, has already received nearly 3,000 inquiries.

To maximize our efforts, we are utilizing our law student volunteers and teaching them how to assess eligibility, gather necessary documentation and file claims.  

Hofstra students followed-up with clients who needed to provide further proof of damages in order to receive compensation.

“It’s easier for people to document what they have lost than to provide records of their past earnings,” said Jessica Smith, a rising 3L at Hofstra.  “For claimants who don’t have a legal background, I think it would be difficult to grasp all that is required of them. I’m glad we were able to help.”

Law students use summer to hone legal skills

July Alumni e-Newsletter - Mississippi Center for Justice

Carrying on the work of previous interns at the Mississippi Center for Justice, summer law school interns in Jackson are gaining experience in several major campaign areas, including affordable housing and predatory lending.  They are also using the lessons we learned during Hurricane Katrina to assist tornado and flood survivors on their path to disaster recovery.

Affordable Housing

In 2009, the Center filed suit on behalf of nearly 250 tenants of South Delta Regional Housing Authority whose rents were more than doubled without notice.  Despite the staggering rent increase, SDRHA failed to provide even basic maintenance to the properties, many of which have been neglected for years.

In May, the Center reached a settlement agreement with SDRHA, and students traveled to Indianola and Cleveland to speak with tenants about the upcoming changes. While the terms of the agreement are confidential, we believe this agreement will provide more affordable, better maintained properties for our clients.

“The residents were overwhelmingly grateful for the work Beth Orlansky and the Center have done for them and were relieved to finally see a conclusion,” said Alex Bondurant, a rising 2L at the University of Mississippi School of Law.  “It feels awesome to be a part of it.”

Predatory Lending

As the Center moves forward in the battle to eradicate predatory lending in Mississippi, students are helping organize a grassroots campaign to educate communities across the state on the dangers of payday loans.

Current state law allows payday lenders to charge over 500% interest on a loan and require that it be repaid within two weeks, which forces many people to take out additional loans to pay off the initial one.  While this debt trap is lucrative for payday lenders, it is stripping families of their wealth and inhibiting community development.

“I knew that payday lending was a problem in Mississippi, but I didn’t realize the extent of the damage they are doing,” said Kimberly McCray, a rising 2L at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

McCray helped to organize a community forum on June 28 in Utica, MS, a small town that is about to lose its only bank.  

Residents of Utica and the neighboring city of Edwards will soon have to travel at least 20 minutes to reach the nearest bank.

“Losing their only bank makes them a prime target for predatory lenders, so we wanted to educate the community about these dangers and encourage them to adopt a moratorium that will prevent payday lenders from opening new stores in the area,” said McCray.

Representatives from Congressman Bennie Thompson’s office, Hope Community Credit Union and BankPlus joined our panel of speakers and over 75 residents of Utica and Edwards attended the forum.

Disaster Recovery

Summer interns are also engaging in disaster recovery efforts.  They have contacted emergency management personnel in 29 counties declared major disaster areas from the recent storms and tornadoes and 14 counties that were declared disaster areas due to the flooding of the Mississippi River.

“We’re trying to find out what kinds of meetings are being held and let people know how to contact the Center if they have a legal issue,” said McCray.

So far, over 4,250 home inspections have confirmed damage due to the disaster and 6,926 applicants have registered with FEMA for some form of disaster related assistance.

Students form chapter of Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project

Friday, July 1, 2011
Univerisity of Southern California Gould School of Law
by Darren Schenck

Eight years after U.S. tanks first rolled into Baghdad, and at a time when most Americans consider the war in Iraq over, scores of thousands of Iraqis whose lives were upended by violence still live in fear of political persecution, financial destitution, rape and torture. Most of these individuals have fled to Syria and Jordan, where they occupy a legal limbo in which they have no rights and few prospects for safe passage to a new life.

Fortunately, these refugees today have more cause for hope, thanks to the efforts of Ali Al-Sarraf ’13, Jared Irmas ’13 and other USC Law students who have established a new chapter of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). Founded in 2008 by a group of Yale law students, including national director, Becca Heller, IRAP seeks to provide legal representation to Iraqi refugees seeking resettlement. This year, it will have student chapters at 12 law schools.
Ali Al-Sarraf '13 and Jared Irmas '13

Al-Sarraf decided to form a chapter, administered as a student organization, because he felt an obligation to address the urgent needs of people displaced by a war they didn’t ask for.

“In the bulk of cases we’re taking on, the refugees are living in dire circumstances – especially right now with all that’s going on in Syria, where most of our clients are,” he says.

Al-Sarraf’s commitment to the project runs blood-deep. His family hails from Iraq, and his father is an attorney working in Baghdad running the International Institute for the Rule of Law (IIRL). Al-Sarraf has traveled to the city’s Green Zone to witness his father’s work with IIRL.

“I also spent a semester in Jordan, where I made friends with Iraqi refugees,” he says. “These are people who couldn’t stay in Iraq, because it wasn’t safe for them, but they also have no legal standing in Jordan, Syria and the other countries they have fled to.”

Al-Sarraf, who also serves as vice president of strategy for the law school’s Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF), had no trouble recruiting students to IRAP.

Jared Irmas ’13, the group’s vice president of development, as well as PILF’s pro bono co-chair, was one of the first students to sign up. The organization’s commitment to helping Iraqis displaced by war resonated with him.

“I was interested in being part of this because I had always been interested in Iraq,” Irmas says. “I was in high school when the war began, and I remember it was the first event that really made me socially conscious.”

Al-Sarraf says he and his family were similarly moved to action by the war.

“In the lead-up to the Iraq war, we weren’t for it, but my dad had the perspective that, since it happened, we need to be productive and make sure we’re helping there,” he says.
Prof. Hannah Garry

Established on campus in February, USC Law’s IRAP chapter already has 40 student volunteers.

“I’m shocked how strong we’ve started off this summer,” Irmas says. “We had an initial list of about 30 students who wanted to take a case this summer.”

Law students have started their first cases, most of them displaced families, including one Shia, one Sunni, and one Chaldean Christian. All have faced persecution of one form or another.

The head of the Sunni family, for example, had joined his university’s chapter of the Baath party as a requirement for eventually becoming a judge; other clients assisted U.S. soldiers as interpreters. Still others have medical emergencies that go without treatment.

Assisting refugees requires two levels of commitment: the first is from the students, who interview clients, gather information and help clients negotiate reams of paperwork. The second level of commitment comes from professional attorneys who work pro bono on the cases students bring to them. The goal is to submit applications to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State in the hopes of obtaining refugee status in the US, or acquiring a special immigrant visa, designed to be a fast-track route for refugees that worked with the US in Iraq.

For a student organization to secure pro bono commitments from attorneys often overwhelmed with such requests was a daunting task, but results have already surpassed Al-Sarraf and Irmas’s expectations. They are partnering with eight attorneys on seven cases already. Furthermore, the attorneys are from two of L.A.’s most prestigious firms, O’Melveny & Myers and Gibson Dunn.

“These are top firms not only in L.A., but also the country, and to have them overseeing cases of this magnitude, and providing students with access to the process, is more powerful than anything else we can be doing in law school,” Irmas says.

IRAP also benefits from the support and counsel of USC Law’s own clinical faculty, particularly Prof. Niels Frenzen, director of the Immigration Law Clinic, and Prof. Hannah Garry, director of the International Human Rights Clinic.

“IRAP is an inspiring initiative by USC law students, many of them 1Ls,” Garry says. “It shows dedication and passion for working on behalf of those who have been persecuted and are victims of other serious human rights abuses.”

Garry, who is serving as one of IRAP’s faculty advisors, has previously advocated on behalf of refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Most recently, students in her clinic this past semester partnered with judges and legal staff in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, on cases involving prosecution of high level government officials and politicians for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They are also working on cases regarding mass atrocities committed in Cambodia.

“Both the International Human Rights Clinic and IRAP involve working on critical human rights issues in national and international legal systems,” Garry says. “My involvement with the latter is to give advice and guidance where needed on legal and practice matters, such as helping students think through the logistics of building working relationships with firms in town.”

In addition to doing work they find personally rewarding, students benefit professionally from their participation in IRAP and clinical programs, according to Garry.

“The work gives you hands-on experience interacting with real clients,” she says. “You engage in zealous advocacy, and you learn how to do in-depth legal research and writing in national and international law, which is helpful in any practice. Furthermore, you learn how to work transnationally with various legal systems, cultures and languages.”

For Al-Sarraf and Irmas, practicing law is the most effective and powerful way to help people in need. For six months before coming to law school, Irmas worked in the Mississippi Delta with the non-profit Mississippi Center for Justice, assisting low-income clients who effectively had been evicted from their public housing units to make way for new development. Previous to his volunteer efforts, Irmas, a former journalist, had worked for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as his speechwriter and communications aide.

“The months I spent in the Delta reinvigorated me,” Irmas says. “What I saw down there I had never seen before, and it lit a fire underneath me to help people directly and on the ground.”

Read the full article from USC Law here.

Students lend legal skills and elbow grease to community service projects

Charlotte School of Law

University of Texas School of Law Texas Lawyer

University of Texas School of Law Student Blog

The Maryland Law Katrina Project

BYU Law School

Legal Clinics
Law students provide counseling and conduct in-take at legal clinics organized by the Center. From conducting public outreach to preparing files for referral to attorneys, students provide a much-needed source of hands-on action to meet the needs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as well as in other regions of the state.

Surveys and Research
Students conduct surveys and research projects to help communities and neighborhoods better understand how to become advocates for their own fair housing needs. By educating and advising residents, students are empowering residents to become engaged in local land use issues, public housing improvements and economic justice campaigns.

Public Outreach
The barrier to action is often a lack of information. From foreclosure prevention to predatory lending and accessing healthcare benefits, education is often the key to community action. Law students are often the source for creating public education materials and disseminating information that empowers advocates and residents to access services and avoid scams.

Partnership with Law Schools
Through the years, the Mississippi Center for Justice embarked on unique partnerships with law schools to provide students for focused projects aimed at developing the students skills while providing critical capacity for the Center’s work.  If you are interested in a group project located in our Biloxi office, please contact Denise Antoine at dantoine@mscenterforjustice.org or via phone at (228) 435-7284. Groups interested in projects located in Jackson or Indianola should contact Frank Farmer at ffarmer@mscenterforjustice.org or via phone at (601) 352-2269. Individuals interested in internships or externships should contact Frank Farmer.