If interested in applying for the Grant, go to: www.blspi.org/apply/ to learn more.  Please note: the deadline for applications is Sunday, April 15 at 10 p.m.  There is an overview of the program and criteria on our website.

—ALSO—

There are numerous positions available on the BLSPI Executive Board for the coming academic year that will be filled through appointment in the coming weeks.  If you are interested in being considered, please submit your Statement of Interest (2-3 paragraphs on why you would like to be considered) to cochairs@blspi.org by Sunday, April 15 at 10 p.m. We will then announce those appointments by Friday, April 20 at 5 p.m., allowing for transition meetings to take place with the outgoing officeholders before we all become too consumed with preparing for final exams.

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting today and especially to all the candidates in our elections.

Our race for Co-Chair was one of the closest elections we have had in years. After counting the tallies, and including a large number of absentee internet ballots, Jessica Rickards was elected Co-Chair for the 2012-13 Academic year. Congratulations to Jess! And, a sincere thank you to Gillian Kosinski for her continued, outstanding contributions to BLSPI and for all of her hard work over the last two years.

In our other races, we’re excited to announce that Erin Ogburn was elected as Secretary for next year and Natalie Serra was elected as Fellowship Chair.

As a recap, last night was our annual Alumni Dinner and Public Services Awards Ceremony. It was a wonderful event and a great night for BLSPI. Our keynote speaker was Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and the event was well attended by students, faculty, and alumni (many of whom have reached out to us about working with our Board of Directors). Congratulations go to Gillian for helping to plan this fantastic Dinner.

3L’s interested in our Bar Grant Program can go to www.blspi.org/apply to learn more about the program and begin the application process. The due date is Sunday April 15 at 10pm.

Also, we have one more BLSPI event this semester with our Mentorship Program. Here’s the details:

Event: Class/Clinic Event- Final BLSPI Mentorship Event of the Season

When: Tuesday, April 10, 6:00-7:30PM
Where: Student Lounge
Food: Of course, duh!

And, don’t forget to check out the BLS Dems event, later that evening, to be held at Last Exit. 

Here’s a note about an ADR Society Event:

Please join the ADR Society and the Mediation Clinic at Brooklyn Law School for a panel on April 11, 2012, from 7p.m.-8:30p.m. entitled “Environmental and Social Dispute Resolution in the International Development Context”. Speakers Scott Adams, Specialist Ombudsman, and Susana Rodriguez, Operations Analyst, are from the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO). The CAO is the independent recourse mechanism for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The CAO responds to complaints from project-affected communities with the goal of enhancing social and environmental outcomes on the ground.

This event will take place in the Student Lounge. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP by April 9 to Daniel.Rowoth@Brooklaw.edu.

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Co-Chairs this semester. Thank you to everyone for your incredibly hard work and dedication to the organization. It’s amazing to think about how much BLSPI has grown in such a short time and it is entirely due to the inspiring contributions of our general body. The sky is the limit for what this organization can achieve in the years ahead, and we are both incredibly fortunate to have had this opportunity to be a part of that.

Best Regards,
Mike & Matt

Last year, BLSPI sponsored its first-ever Bar Grant program, where 10 graduating students were awarded $1,000 grants to help pay for bar review courses.  It was an incredible success and well-received within the BLS community.

As such, BLSPI will again be sponsoring a Bar Grant program for students graduating this Spring or Fall.  We were also able to expand the number of grants awarded from 10 to 15.

If interested in applying for the Grant, go to: www.blspi.org/apply/ to learn more.  Please note: the deadline for applications is Sunday, April 15 at 10 p.m.  There is an overview of the program and criteria on our website.

Lastly, for transparency purposes, 3L members of the BLSPI E-Board have not been and will continue to remain uninvolved in this process.  Myself and the other 2L members of the voting E-Board will oversee the program.  Note: awardees are chosen by an independent Selection Committee made up of BLS professors and alumni, and applications are made anonymously.

We hope many of the 3Ls consider applying.

All the best.
Matt

———————————–
Matthew L. Allee
BLSPI Co-Chair 2012-13

Our Monday kickoff event was a panel discussion titled “Census, Race and Redistricting,” co-sponsored by APALSA and BLSA and moderated by Professor Joel Gora.  Dr. Alan Gartner, former executive director of the New York City Districting Commission, began the discussion by providing a framework for thinking about redistricting, saying that “districting is about geography and demography – how you place people geographically as a community of interest.”  He further suggested that redistricting, because of its political impact, ought to be approached as a mechanism to provide fair and equal access for all.  Dale Ho, assistant counsel for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, discussed his organizations work to ensure accurate representation, mainly through enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.  Mr. Ho described how much work is done through Sections 2 and 5 of the Act, where Section 2 prohibits plans to dilute minority votes from the viewpoint of “how good could things be,” while Section 5 affects specific areas of the country with histories of racial segregation to ensure that no future plans have a retrogressive effect, in order to “make no things worse.”  Finally, Alex Camarda, director of public policy and advocacy for Citizens Union, discussed his organization’s efforts to make the New York redistricting process less political through an independent commission.  Citizens Union supported the constitutional amendment released by the New York legislature on March 11, which will create an independent commission while discouraging gerrymandering.

BLSPI Co-Chair Michael Berman opened the second Race and the Law event on Tuesday, titled “Minority Candidate Ballot Access,” by describing the relationship between the wave of anti-immigration bills legislatures are passing to take rights away, and the parallels between those efforts and voter suppression laws that are making it more and more difficult for minorities to vote.  The first panelist, Steve Carbo of Demos, described the upward spike in voter suppression efforts since 2010 when around 700 Tea Party backed candidates were elected to state offices across the country.  These laws, he explained, “are an attack on Democracy, people of color, women, and progressives at a level we have not seen in one hundred years.”  Diana Sen, Senior Counsel at LatinoJustice, focused in on the story of Alejandrina Cabrera of San Luis, Arizona.  Ms. Sen pointed out that to be president, one needs to be 35 and a natural born citizen.  But what happened to Alejandrina was that an arcane law was dusted off, her political opponents brought her to court, and a linguistics expert didn’t just make a judgment about her level of proficiency, but, apparently, the court allowed him to make the determination whether that proficiency was enough to be a city councilor.  ”Does it matter that you have a city with a different demographic?” she asked the participants. “Is this the modern day literacy test, for candidates?”

On Wednesday, Race and the Law screened Street Fight, the Academy Award-nominated documentary about the 2002 Newark, New Jersey mayoral race between incumbent Sharpe James and newcomer Corey Booker.  Participants observed many of the voter suppression techniques discussed in the Tuesday panel, and how in campaign between two black Democratic candidates, race, and what it means to be black, became a central issue of the campaign.

For Thursday’s event, a voter protection workshop co-sponsored by the BLS Democrats, Costa Constantinides, a member of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council provided a training on what lawyers and law students can do to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote on election day has that opportunity.  Poll worker volunteers do a lot, he told the audience.   “Even in New York, there people whose strategy includes voter suppression.”  They’ll hand out flyers telling people that the other party votes on Wednesday.  Poll workers make sure the ballot machines start at zero, that no electioneering goes on in the polling place, that affidavit ballots are available – and provided – if a voter shows up to vote but isn’t in the book.  He added, “you are there to make sure everyone gets a chance to cast a vote on a ballot or an affidavit ballot.  Let the lawyers sort the rest out later.”

And to cap off the week’s events, NLG and BLSPI hosted Luke Schram, a CUNY School of Law 2L and Paula Segal, a CUNY graduate and founding member of the NLG-NYC Street Law Team on Friday afternoon.  Luke and Paula took a “meta” approach to the training, providing essentially two trainings, the street law training itself, and the explanation about how and why to take the approach they’ve taken.  Participants engaged in social barometers, lining themselves up to express agreement and disagreement with statements like “I feel safe in my neighborhood” and “Being a police officer” is a good job.  The training addressed three scenarios: conversation, detention and arrest.  For each, participants role played, then debriefed, discussing what they’d done right and what could be improved.  ”Speak up when you tell an officer that you don’t consent to a search, because that way if there are people around you’ll have witnesses, it won’t just be you’re word against the cops,” Paula explained.  ”Telling people to say ‘I do not consent to this search’ can be hard,” Luke added, “because they still get searched, and it’s hard for someone who isn’t in law school, who hasn’t taken Crim Pro understand why you should say that when it doesn’t stop the search.”

BLSPI would like to thank all those who came out to our week’s events, as well as our co-sponsors: APALSA, BLS Democrats, BLS Film Society, BLSA, LALSA, NLG, and the Public Service Office.  We would also like to thank BarBri for supporting this year’s conference.  And a special thanks to BLSPI’s Community Development Co-Chairs, Rachel Seelig and Erin Ogburn, and the organizing committee they led that enabled this entertaining and enlightening program of events.

BROOKLYN, NY – On Thursday, March 1, Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (“BLSPI”) held its twenty-second annual Auction fundraiser. The event was a resounding success and served as both a testament to all of the hard work that went into planning the evening and a statement of how highly the Brooklyn Law School community regards BLSPI’s public interest mission. BLSPI is particularly pleased to announce that this year’s Auction set records for gross proceeds collected, net funds raised, and attendance at the event.

The Auction was once again held in the beautiful Forchelli Center of Feil Hall – Brooklyn Law School’s landmark student residence building – and was attended by an enormous crowd of over 450 students, faculty, alumni, and community members.

This massive undertaking required planning and preparations that spanned over a nine month period. That job was headed up by the capable team of Anna Park, ’13, and Jessica Rickards, ’13, who served as BLSPI’s Auction Committee Co-Chairs. They were joined by Sarah Briglia, ’14, and Nate Hennagin, ’14, the Auction Committee’s First-Year Delegates, and an incredible group of over 70 law students who, despite their busy schedules, found time to assist in making this event a reality.

“We could not be more proud of our Auction Co-Chairs and the Committee of dedicated students they put together,” said Michael Berman, ’12, Co-Chair of BLSPI, also noting, “they broke every meaningful record we’ve ever kept for this event.” Matthew Allee, ’13, also a BLSPI Co-Chair, added, “the success of this year’s Auction will ensure our organization’s stability for years to come. BLSPI has seen a growth in initiatives in the recent past and this Auction has given us the resources to continue that trend into the future. We would like to thank everyone who attended, volunteered, donated items, and placed the bids that made the 2012 BLSPI Auction such an incredible success.”

An exact tally of the fundraising haul is still being compiled at this time and will take a few weeks to finalize. However, BLSPI can say with confidence that between corporate sponsorships, individual donations, receipts from the door, and winning bids, the Auction brought in well over $60,000 this year. After accounting for expenses and fees associated with the event, this will provide between $50,000 and $55,000 in funding for BLSPI’s numerous programs and initiatives.

One of the highlights from the night was the bidding for a lunch with the Dean of Brooklyn Law School, Michael Gerber, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. After a spirited round of escalating bids, the lunch sold for an unprecedented $3000 to a student, Joel Alan Gaffney, ’12, bidding on behalf of Ronald J. Friedman, ’96, of Silverman Acampora, LLP, and Gary F. Herbst of LaMonica Herbst & Maniscalo, LLP. Two other top auction lots included the ever-popular dinner with Brooklyn Law School alumni Gerald Lefcourt, Geraldo Rivera, and Gerald Shargel, and a pair of tickets to a star-studded fundraising gala for The Trevor Project.

“The entire BLS community turned out in force to ensure that the good work of BLSPI continues to empower and enrich students who are pursuing careers in public interest and public service law,” said Jessica Rickards, ’13, Auction Co-Chair. “We are honored by the support and thrilled that the Auction was able to raise so much money to fund BLSPI’s endeavors.”

Anna Park, ’13, also an Auction Co-Chair, added, “the auction would not have been successful without the help of our wonderfully dedicated Auction Committee. The best parts of the Auction reflected their many hours of hard work and tireless efforts towards making this event fantastic.” BLSPI would also like to acknowledge the Brooklyn Law School administration, whose considerable financial and logistical support makes all of BLSPI’s efforts possible, and BarBri, the BLSPI Auction’s primary sponsor, for helping to make the event a great success year after year.

And if you don’t follow College basketball don’t worry – each year the tournament is marked by all sorts of upsets and surprises, which means that anyone has a chance to come out on top and walk away with the prizes.  All of the proceeds are going to go back to the Police Athletic League.  Since 1914 PAL has been serving New York City’s youth with safe, structured programming designed to engage boys and girls in positive activities that improve their quality of life, present developmental opportunities, and offer the prospect of a brighter future.

The teams and match-ups will be announced this Sunday evening, 3/11 at 6:00 on CBS.  After they are announced, you can go to your bracket and fill in your picks anytime before the first game on Thursday at 12:00.  Feel free to go to the site before then to set up your account per the instructions below.  Also, you can send your donation to BLSPI anytime starting now.

Good luck!!!!!!!!

WHAT ARE THESE PRIZES?

Pieper Bar Review will provide gift certificates

1st Place – $250 plus a $50 gift card to from Apple
2nd Place – $200 plus a $35 gift card from Apple
3rd Place  - $150 plus a $25 gift card from Apple

BUT YOU MUST MAKE A DONATION TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR ANY OF THE PRIZES!!!!

WHAT IS THE DONATION?

Minimum $5 but feel free to donate more

HOW TO DONATE?

1.  Make your contributions online here: http://blspi.org.
2.  Look for the donate button on the right hand side of the screen.
3.  Enter the amount you wish to donate.
4.  Make sure you designate you donation to the March Madness Pool.
5.  Include your email address

HOW DO I PICK MY BRACKET(S)?

Step 1
. Go to to ESPN at http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/frontpage

Step 2
. If you are not already a member of ESPN, create a ESPN Sports username and password — follow the “register” links on the page. (Yes, it’s free.)

Step 3
. Sign in to the BLSPI bracket. The password is publicinterest.

Step 4
. Pick your bracket! Note: Brackets will be available beginning Sunday, March 11 (though you can register and log in before then).

VIEWING PARTY!!!

The first day of the tournament is Thursday, March 15.  BLSPI and Pieper will be holding a viewing party from 5pm to 10pm in the Student Lounge.  Drinks and Food will be provided so come and cheer on your teams!!!

We hope you’ll participate in this BLSPI and Pieper fundraiser!

Thanks,
Christopher Dey
BLSPI Secretary

Earlier this month, BLSPI sponsored its second blood drive of the academic year. Together with the help of many amazing volunteers, we were able to recruit 70 donors. From these 70 (not everyone who volunteers can donate) the blood bank was able to collect 50 whole blood units and 7 double red cell units which doubles to 14 pints (learn more about double red cell donation here) giving us a grand total of 64 pints collected. These 64 pints can now be used to save 64 lives – a great accomplishment in only an afternoon of volunteering.

Also, as part of our Charitable Bar Review for February, we were able to donate $120 to the New York Blood Center.

BLSPI would especially like to thank those who worked diligently to make this drive possible: Sarah Arena, Mary Bruch, Kristen Dufour, Erin Erturk, Emily Gordon, Gillian Kosinski, Kellie Mariteragi, Erin Ogburn, Nura Skaden, Mia Tomijima, and Andrea Viafara.

If you have not participated in the blood drive before please considering participating next fall. NYC is continuously in need of blood and 15 minutes of your time can save someone’s life.

2012 BLSPI FELLOWS

• Sarah Arena
• Yekaterina Blinova
• Mary Bruch
• Erin Covert
• Christopher Dey
• Kenya Dillon
• David Goldberg
• Steven Hasty
• Adam Horowitz
• Jana Hymowitz
• Veronica Jackson
• Gillian Kozinski
• Beile Lindner
• Lisa Okamoto
• Jessica Peck
• Taier Perlman
• Nura Skaden
• Mia Tomijima
• Homer Turgeon
• Lee Wellington

Below are a few announcements for the upcoming week related to BLSPI initiatives:

Dearest BLS Community -

Starting TODAY (01/30) through Friday, February 10th, BLSPI and OUTLaws are co-sponsoring a winter clothing drive for the Hetrick-Martin Institute (http://www.hmi.org/).  HMI is an incredible organization that provides a host of services to LGBTQ youth.  One such program, their clothing pantry, provides free materials to youth who are homeless or in foster care.  We would love to have your support for this project!  Here is what we’re collecting:

*clean, slightly used clothing
*scarves, hats and gloves
*shoes (excellent condition only)
*business professional clothing - HMI places many youth in internships and jobs
Drop-off boxes are located in the student lounge, cafeteria entrance and Feil Hall.  If you have numerous bags and wish to arrange a pick-up of your items, kindly let me know and I’ll make arrangements.  You can also bring them to the next OUTLaws general body meeting on Thursday, February 2nd in Room 605.

Finally, if anybody is interested in assisting with bringing the items to HMI, I plan to do so on Friday afternoon (02/03 & 02/10).  Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Best,
Kathryn

The minutes from our meeting last week were sent to everyone on the listserv. It has a nice breakdown of everything we talked about. But, we want to highlight a few important points, just in case you missed them.

1. New Co-Chair: Matthew Allee
We had an election for a new Co-Chair today, and Matt Allee was the winner. Matt is a 2011 BLSPI Fellow and has previously served as BLSPI’s Secretary. He will be replacing our longtime dear friend and colleague, Meredith Symonds But don’t worry, Meredith will continue to have a big role in BLSPI for the rest of the year as an honorary Co-Chair Emeritus.

2. Board of Directors Update
We continue to make progress in setting up our new Board of Directors. Today, five dedicated BLSPI alums were officially nominated to a transitional Alumni Advisory Board, which will grow into a formal Board of Directors over the course of the next few months. You can check out our last listserv email to learn a little bit more about each of them.

3. Important Upcoming Meetings and Events

• The Community Development Committee will meet Tuesday, January 31 at 1pm in Room 600 to talk about our Annual Race and the Law Week, our March Madness Charity Pool, and our upcoming BLSPI Day of Service. Email community@blspi.org for more information.
• The Auction Committee will have a meeting on Thursday, January 26th at 1pm in Room 605 to discuss preparations for our most important event of the year! Email auction@blspi.org for more information or to get involved.
• We will be having a PILC Fair Prep event on January 31 at 5pm in the Student Lounge:Come join BLSPI Mentorship for a whirlwind pre-PILC Fair event! Learn about what to expect at the PILC fair in general, and hear from upperclass students what to expect from interviews at various organizations. There will be dinner!
• Unemployment Action Center Training – UAC will be holding a training on January 29 @ 11AM in Room 605. Email noor.alam@brooklaw.edu for more information.
• BLSPI & OUTLaws are sponsoring a Winter Clothing Drive to benefit the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI). Email kathryn.hensley@brooklaw.edu for more information.

4. Opportunities to Get Involved with BLSPI
We need a new Secretary and an Assistant Webmaster. If you’re interested or know someone else who may be, contact us at cochairs@blspi.org.

Thanks and we look forward to working with all of you as we put together another great semester of BLSPI programming.

Best,
Mike & Matt