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Week of November 12, 2007

In-House Clinic Applications

Applications for the Spring 2008 In-House Clinic are now available in the Law Offices, Suite 600, or outside of the Cafeteria on the 3rd floor. Applications are due into room 600 on Thursday, November 15 at 5:00. The clinic is open to students who have completed at least one full year of law school. Please contact Tracy Kish if you have any questions.

Spanish Translator

There is an opening for a current Chicago-Kent student who is eligible for work study. The Advice Desk at the Daley Center is now hiring a student through a work study program to work as a Spanish translator for clients who come into the Advice Desk. The candidate will have an opportunity to provide translation and administrative support to make the Desk more readily available to clients who speak only Spanish and need pro bono legal assistance.

The Advice Desk provides interviewing, counseling, and limited representation to indigent defendants who seek assistance at the Circuit Court of Cook County. Approximately sixty percent of the cases involve eviction defense and forty percent involve tort, contract, personal injury and collection matters. This position pays $10 an hour. You must be eligible for work study and your eligibility will be verified upon receipt of your application.

Please submit a letter of interest to Tracy Kish (tkish@kentlaw.edu) in the Law Offices.

 

Public Interest Position - Paid Opportunity

There is an opening for current Chicago-Kent students who are eligible for work study. The Advice Desk at the Daley Center is now hiring students through a work study program to work in a paralegal/administrative position. The candidates will have an opportunity to work in a fast-paced, public interest environment while helping to provide administrative and paralegal help to make the Desk more efficient and therefore allow more clients to receive pro bono legal assistance. Some of the duties might include: greeting and identifying eligible clients, filling out or updating forms, database entry and maintenance, assisting elderly and disabled clients in retrieving their court files or finding a courtroom, etc.

The hours for the position are as follows: Monday afternoons and/or Wednesday afternoons and/or all day Fridays.

The Advice Desk provides interviewing, counseling, and limited representation to indigent defendants who seek assistance at the Circuit Court of Cook County. Approximately sixty percent of the cases involve eviction defense and forty percent involve tort, contract, personal injury and collection matters.

This position pays $10 an hour. You must be eligible for work study and your eligibility will be verified upon receipt of your application. Please submit a letter of interest to Prof. Pam Kentra (pkentra@kentlaw.edu) in the Law Offices.

 

LEGAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Do you want to develop your legal skills, get practical legal experience, see what it is like to work in a corporation, firm or government agency and -- at the same time -- make yourself more marketable to prospective employers? If so, then consider doing a for-credit externship and signing up for Chicago-Kent’s Legal Externship Program (LEP).

LEP is 4 credit hours, non-graded, and open predominantly to students in their last three semesters of law school.

Externs interested in civil law may select to work in such diverse legal areas as immigration, tax, commodities, securities, health care, medical malpractice, or general corporate law. Externs in criminal law may choose to work with the State’s Attorneys Office, Public Defender's Office, or the U.S. Attorney's Office. Some externships offer the opportunity to obtain a 711 license and appear in court.

The information about Spring 2008 Legal Externships and an accompanying application form are available in the Law Offices reception area (Room 600), in the Career Services Office, and in front of the Spakateria.

Please e-mail Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) to set up an appointment for more information about externships.

Spring 2008 Semester: Worker’s Compensation Litigation Unit, Civil Division, Cook County State’s Attorneys Office

Exciting opportunity with the Worker’s Compensation Litigation Unit of the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office, Civil Division. The extern will assist in those matters and cases leading to and currently in litigation. Students who are eligible for a 711 license will also have the opportunity for in-court experience.

If you are interested, please contact:

Mr. Curtis A. James
Assistant State’s Attorney
312/603-5691

 
Spring 2008 Semester: Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM)

CLAIM is a nonprofit agency that represents and advises incarcerated or formerly incarcerated mothers at hearings on child custody, guardianship, and mother-child visitation. With the consent of the mothers, the agency also represents guardians of children in the Probate Division. The attorneys at CLAIM meet with incarcerated women at Cook County Department of Corrections and, after a thorough intake interview with each client, decide whether to represent the client, negotiate or draft legal documents for the client, or simply provide legal advice.

Extern responsibilities include:

  • Meeting with clients at the Cook County Department of Corrections. Students licensed under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711 can meet with clients on their own after training by CLAIM staff attorneys. Students who are not licensed will accompany the staff attorney to the Cook County Corrections Center and do intake interviews.
  • Researching client concerns, giving legal advice to clients after consulting with supervising attorney, making referrals to appropriate social service agencies and, if the case does not fit CLAIM guidelines, making referrals to other legal aid providers.
  • Contacting foster care caseworkers or other parties to obtain information or to negotiate for the client.
  • Meeting with formerly incarcerated clients and assisting in legal services in Child Protection, Probate and Domestic Relations Divisions.

711 licensed students may also represent clients in Probate and Domestic Relations Divisions under the supervision of the staff attorney.

If interested in externing at CLAIM, please send your resume and cover letter to:

Ms. Zenaida Alonzo
Staff Attorney
CLAIM
Suite 1120
70 East Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60601-5959

In addition, to receive law school credit for Kent’s Summer Externship Program, please contact Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) to set up a meeting.

 
Spring 2008 Semester: Resurrection Health Care

Resurrection Health Care is seeking for-credit legal externs. Resurrection Health Care (RHC) is the parent corporation for a comprehensive health care system that provides services throughout the Chicagoland area through 8 hospitals, a long-term acute care hospital, 7 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, 4 retirement communities, and numerous community clinics and health care providers.

Externs can choose to work in either of these areas:

Office of Legal Affairs
Resurrection Health Care
7435 W. Talcott Avenue, #345
Chicago, IL 60631

Externs will work closely with the system General Counsel and other attorneys and will engage in a broad range of legal activities, including research and legal analysis, writing, preparation of legal documents and contract review.

Office of Claims and Insurance
Resurrection Health Care
Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital
1127 N. Oakley Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622

Externs will work closely with systems Claims and Insurance directors, communicate with outside counsel as needed, and will participate in case management, discovery, and various phases of pre-litigation work.

If you are interested, please submit your resume and a cover letter that specifies (a) the semester for which you are applying, (b) for which RHC department you are applying, and (c) which days of the week you would work at RHC, if known. Please send your materials to Julie Roknich, Assistant General Counsel, via email at julie.roknich@reshealthcare.org or to 7435 W. Talcott Ave., #345, Chicago, Il 60631.

 
Spring 2008 Semester: U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Division of Enforcement

The Chicago office of the Division of Enforcement is seeking externs who will receive law school credit.

The Division of Enforcement investigates and prosecutes alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Violations may involve commodity futures or option trading on domestic commodity exchanges, or the improper marketing of commodity investments. The Division may, at the direction of the Commission, file complaints before the agency’s administrative law judges or in the U.S. District Courts. Alleged criminal violations of the Commodity Exchange Act or violations of other Federal laws which involve commodity futures trading may be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. The Division also provides expert help and technical assistance with case development and trials to U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, other Federal and state regulators, and international authorities.

Primary duties include conducting legal research, writing memoranda, aiding in the preparation of court pleadings and papers in the U.S. District Courts across the nation as well as in an administrative forum; aiding attorneys and investigators who are preparing to take investigative testimony and depositions, working with exhibits, Freedom of Information Act responses; aiding with the discovery process and interacting with and/or interviewing customers or investors with complaints.

To apply, interested students should e-mail a cover letter, resume and writing sample by Friday, December 7, 2007 to:

Ms. Ava Gould
Trial Team Leader
Commodities Futures Trading Commission
525 W. Monroe Street, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60661
agould@cftc.gov

Please notify Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) if and when you are selected as an extern.

 
Summer 2008 Semester: Externships with U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois

If you are interested in exposure to and possible participation in federal trial and appellate practice while assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office in handling its multitude of important cases, please pick up an application in Room 612 from Carole Ross, administrative assistant to Professor Gross.

Completed applications must be received at the Office of the U.S. Attorney by Thursday, December 20, 2007. The reason for this accelerated date is because each accepted extern must go through a security clearance, which takes several weeks.

To receive law school credit for this externship, should you be selected by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, you must enroll in the law school’s Legal Externship Program. The law school’s externship applications for summer semester 2008 will be available in Room 600 Law Offices reception area and in the Career Services office in mid-March.

Professor Gross will be happy to answer any questions you may have about either the Legal Externship Program and/or the externship position with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

 

 

 

 

For a complete description of all clinical programs, please visit the Law Offices' Home Page at http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/clinic

 

 

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