THE UNI VERSI TY OF GEORGIA SCHOOL OF L AW PRESE N T S:
The Eleventh Annual
WORKING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST CONFERENCE 2.20.201 6
Schedule 9:00 - 9:20 Breakfast & Registration 9:20 – 9:30 Opening Remarks Dean Peter “Bo” Rutledge 9:30 - 10:40 Panel 1 Probate and Family Law Issues Arising from Obergefell v. Hodges 10:50 - 12:00 Panel 2 Representation in Proceedings for Misdemeanor Offenses 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch 1:00 - 2:10 Panel 3 Freedom University and Access to Higher Education for Undocumented Immigrants 2:20 - 3:30 Keynote Speaker: Steve Gottlieb Executive Director, Atlanta Legal Aid Society
About the Working in the Public Interest Conference Entirely student organized, WIPI brings students and faculty together with public interest practitioners in order to discuss practical approaches to lawyering that promote social justice and human rights for all. The Conference seeks to highlight dynamic, creative ways to combat social injustice through the vehicle of the law. WIPI is committed to institutionalizing a public interest law conference in the Southeast. The social history, political climate, and economic conditions of the Southeast are unique, and we hope that by providing a forum to address persistent s ocial injustices we may get one step closer to resolving some of the major public interest law issues in the Southeast.
PANEL DESCRIPTIONS Panel 1 PROBATE ISSUES ARISING FROM OBERGEFELL V. HODGES Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell, numerous questions about probate and administration of other proceedings have been raised. This panel will address the varying ways the Obergefell decision affects the administration of probate, estate planning, and adoption proceedings. This panel seeks to inform conference participants of the effects the Obergefell decision will have on other areas of law, and help practitioners identify tangible skills they can use in addressing these questions.
Moderator: Professor Sonja West Associate Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law Panelists: The Honorable Susan Tate Athens-Clarke County Probate Court Judge Susan Tate is a native of Monroe, Georgia, in Walton County. Upon earning B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Georgia in Athens, Judge Tate began her legal career as a staff attorney for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the Southeast Region. Promoted to deputy regional counsel in 1980, she managed an office of attorneys under the direction of the Regional Counsel, providing legal support for 150 DOE personnel. Two young children and a desire to try something new prompted a family move back to Athens in 1982, and opening a law practice that spanned 14 years. Typical of many solo practitioners, Ms. Tate worked primarily in the areas of family law, business law, criminal law, personal injury, guardianship, mental health, and probate. Elected Probate Judge of Athens-
Clarke County in 1996, Judge Tate took office in January of 1997. Long active in various community organizations, she now limits her board membership to two organizations especially meaningful to her, the Clute Barrow Nelson Life Foundation and Citizen Advocacy of Athens-Clarke County. In her judicial capacity, Judge Tate is a Past President of the Council of Probate Court Judges and serves on the Council's Legislative, Internal Affairs, and Executive Committees, the Pro Se Litigation Committee of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and the State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project's Access to Justice Committee as well as its Flexible Income Trust Committee. She is a member of the Western Circuit Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, the National Association of Women Judges, and the National College of Probate Judges.
Charlie Yovino Human Resources Professional, PricewaterhouseCoopers Charlie Yovino leads PricewaterhouseCooper's Atlanta Global HR Services (GHRS) practice and is a national resource for HR and benefit plan governance, risk management and compliance. He is a frequent speaker on employee benefits and has presented in July 2014 before The Governance Center at The Conference Board’s Global Benefits and Compensation Roundtable on “Global De-Risking of DB Plans,” authored “All together now: An effective approach to global HR and benefit plan governance,” HR Innovations (April 2015), “Improve and streamline global performance: The power of governance risk and compliance to corral chaos,” HR Innovations (Winter 2014), and presented at the 2010 Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America National Conference on "Risk Intelligent 401(k) Management." In 2009, he chaired a webinar for the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) on "New Compliance and Audit Requirements for Section 403(b) Plans," and in 2008 presented at the NCPERS Public Safety Employees Pension & Benefits Conference on "Pitfalls and Practicalities of Pension Plan Governance." Prior to joining PwC, Charlie was a tax/ERISA associate with a Washington, DC law firm, and served as a Senior Reviewer in
the Employee Plans Technical and Actuarial Division in the National Office of the IRS. Charlie received his B.A. (cum laude) in history (with honors) from Hofstra University, a J.D. from American University, and a Masters of Law in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
Denise VanLanduyt Founder, VanLanduyt Giles, LLC A graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law, Denise is a founding partner of VanLanduyt Giles located in downtown Decatur, Georgia. She has practiced family law for 15 years and is a frequent speaker on legal issues impacting all types of families and children. She is a trained mediator and arbitrator for family disputes. Active in the DeKalb Bar Association, Denise helped form and found the Family Law Section of the DeKalb Bar Association. She is a Past President of the DeKalb Bar Association and is actively involved with the Board for the DeKalb Volunteer Lawyers Foundation where she currently serves as President. Denise also serves on the Board of Directors for Stonewall Bar Association.
Panel 2 REPRESENTATION IN PROCEEDINGS FOR MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES Defendants to criminal proceedings are entitled to effective representation. However, as funding for public legal assistance agencies dwindles and the caseloads for these agencies expand, defendants facing misdemeanor charges have often been left with inadequate representation. This panel seeks to bring to light the problems that stem from a lack of adequate representation for misdemeanor offenses, and aims to offer guidance to practitioners and students on ways to remedy this problem.
Moderator: Professor Alexander Scherr Associate Professor & Director of Civil Clinics at the University of Georgia School of Law Panelists: David Singleton Executive Director, Ohio Justice and Policy Center and Assistant Professor of Law at Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University David A. Singleton is an attorney and Executive Director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC). The OJPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public interest law office based in Cincinnati whose purpose is to reform Ohio's justice system. Mr. Singleton received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991, and his A.B. in Economics and Public Policy Studies from Duke University in 1987. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Singleton received a Skadden Fellowship to work at the Legal Action Center for the Homeless in New York City, where he practiced for three years. He then worked as a public defender for seven years, first with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and then with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. After moving to Cincinnati in 2001, Mr. Singleton practiced at Thompson Hine before joining OJPC as its Executive Director in July 2002. He joined the faculty at Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law as a Visiting Professor during the 2007-2008 academic year. He teaches a seminar on Constitutional Issues in Criminal Justice and the Constitutional Law Clinical Externship.
Phyllis Mann Senior Program Associate, Sixth Amendment Center Phyllis Mann has over 20 years of experience in the field of criminal defense and its processes. Now as Senior Program Associate with the Sixth Amendment Center and previously as NDLI Director at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, over the past decade she has evaluated indigent defense systems in many states and counties as varied as Louisiana, Michigan, and Utah. Mann has also written extensively about the problems and solutions for public defense in America. Before retiring from her private practice in the state and federal courts of Louisiana, Mann was the
recipient of: the NLADA Arthur von Briesen Award for a private attorney making substantial volunteer contributions in support of indigent defense as a result of her work following Hurricane Katrina; and the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Justice Albert Tate Jr. Award for lifetime achievement in criminal defense. Mann secured the Louisiana Supreme Court decision in State v. Citizen, guaranteeing that prosecutions cannot go forward in capital cases that lack sufficient resources for an effective defense.
Gerry Weber Senior Staff Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights and Adjunct Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and Georgia State College of Law Gerry Weber currently serves as a Senior Staff Counsel at SCHR, and is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law and Georgia State College of Law in constitutional litigation and the First Amendment. He is half-time at the Southern Center, and also has a private constitutional law practice. Gerry previously served for seventeen years as Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, litigating significant issues of constitutional law. Gerry clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was named one of the "21 Young Lawyers Leading Us Into the 21st Century" by the American Bar Association and "Top 40 Achievers under 40" by Georgia Trend Magazine.
Panel 3 FREEDOM UNIVERSITY AND ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS Under Georgia law, undocumented immigrants are not permitted to attend the top five public universities in the state and have no access to federal financial aid programs. Freedom University seeks to remedy access to education problems that undocumented immigrants face by providing tuition-free education and college application and scholarship assistance. This panel will provide participants with useful information about the kinds of educational opportunities available, and
suggest what kinds of legal advice can be offered to undocumented immigrants who have access to education questions.
Moderator: Professor Jason Cade Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law Panelists: Eunice Cho Staff Attorney, Immigrant Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center Eunice Hyunhye Cho is a Staff Attorney with Southern Poverty Law Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she litigates cases and conducts advocacy on behalf of immigrant communities, particularly on issues related to detention, prisons, and enforcement abuse. Previously, Eunice worked as a Staff Attorney and Skadden Fellow for the National Employment Law Project's Immigrant Worker Justice Project, and served as a law clerk for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Eunice is a board member of Freedom University Georgia, ASISTA, and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. Prior to law school, Eunice was the Education Director at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, and with distinction from Stanford Law School, which she attended as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans.
Melissa Johnson Policy Analyst, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute Melissa Johnson is a Policy Analyst with Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. She is responsible for analyzing Georgia budget and policy decisions in the areas of economic security, human services and workforce supports. Melissa’s published research documents challenges to Georgians’ economic mobility including access to adult education and training, hunger, and lack of affordable childcare. In 2015, Melissa authored “Georgia’s Workforce Development, Economy Damaged by Barriers to Higher Education for Undocumented
Students.” This report details how certain postsecondary education policies in the state limit its competitiveness and tax revenue. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she also has an MBA. She also holds a Juris Doctor from Emory University.
Azadeh Shahshahani Legal & Advocacy Director, Project South Azadeh Shahshahani serves as Legal and Advocacy Director with Project South. Azadeh has worked for a number of years in North Carolina and Georgia to protect the human rights of immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities. She previously served as National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director with the ACLU of Georgia. Azadeh is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Through the NLG, Azadeh has participated in international delegations, including to post-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt, a delegation focused on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners, and election monitoring delegations to Venezuela and Honduras. She has also served as a member of the jury in people’s tribunals on Mexico and the Philippines. She is the author or editor of several human rights reports, including a 2012 report titled “Prisons of Profits: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia,” as well as law review articles and book chapters focused on racial profiling, immigrants’ rights, and surveillance of Muslim-Americans, including a law review article focused on the Board of Regents' ban which appeared in the Hastings Law & Poverty Law Journal. Azadeh received her JD from the University of Michigan Law School where she was Articles Editor for The Michigan Journal of International Law. She also has a Master’s in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Michigan. Azadeh is the recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association 2012 Advocacy Award and the University of Georgia Law School 2009 Equal Justice Foundation Public Interest Practitioner Award. She has been recognized as one of 100 Influential Georgia Muslims.
SALVADOR ALVARADO STUDENT, FREEDOM UNIVERSITY My name is Salvador and I was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador. At the age of seven my mother decided to bring my siblings and myself to the United States to escape the gang-infested community and an alcoholic father. Once I arrived to Georgia my mother immediately enrolled us in the public school system. This was the first time I attended a school setting. I graduated from Berkmar High School in May 2014. I was among the top 5% in the class while maintaining a full time job to help support my family. I was not able to continue my higher education in Georgia due to certain policies that limit undocumented students from attending public institutions of higher education. In mid-2015, I joined Freedom University, a modern day underground school for undocumented students. I am part of the student committee and one of the cross country coaches for Freedom University. I have recently been awarded the Golden Door Scholarship and hope to pursue higher education outside the state of Georgia. I wish to earn a bachelors in Latin American Studies and continue my education into law school and become an immigration attorney. My goal is to establish a low-cost immigration firm for individuals that need assistance with the process of becoming part of this great nation.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Steve Gottlieb Executive Director, Atlanta Legal Aid Society A native New Yorker, Steve Gottlieb found himself in Atlanta almost on a whim. A graduate of Hamilton College in upstate New York, he was a second year law student at the University of Pennsylvania when he happened upon a bulletin board notice. The notice advertised summer jobs with Atlanta Legal Aid. He applied, was accepted, journeyed south and “got hooked” on Atlanta and, more importantly, Atlanta Legal Aid. After graduating from Penn in 1969, he received a Reginald Heber Smith fellowship to work at Atlanta Legal Aid. In the next five years, he handled a wide range of cases, becoming expert in consumer protection issues, and managed three of Atlanta Legal Aid’s offices, including its main office. In 1974, he accepted an invitation to manage the Savannah office of the Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP), which offers legal services to low income people throughout the state with the exception of five metro Atlanta counties, which are served by Atlanta Legal Aid. He met the challenges in practicing poverty law (and supervising other lawyers) in traditional Savannah and the rural counties nearby. Two and a half years later, though, an invitation to return to Atlanta as Deputy Director of Atlanta Legal Aid proved too tempting to resist. After three and a half years as Deputy, he became Executive Director in July, 1980, the position he holds today. He is among the longest-serving Legal Aid Directors in the country, just as Atlanta Legal Aid—founded in 1924—is one of the oldest legal services providers. Steve has weathered the funding storms over the years and has overseen a diversification of revenue sources that has permitted Atlanta Legal Aid to continue full operations in good times and bad. In addition to its five core areas of practice— family law, housing, healthcare, consumer finance and government benefits—Steve has presided over the
development of nine of Atlanta Legal Aid’s ten special programs. He inherited the still-thriving Senior Citizens Law Project and encouraged the institution and growth of the LongTerm Care Ombudsman Program, the Disability Integration Project, the Home Defense Program, the AIDS/ALS & Cancer Initiative, the Hispanic Outreach Law Project, the Grandparent/Relative Caregiver Project, the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline, TeamChild Atlanta and the Health Law Partnership. That last program is a collaboration among Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia State’s College of Law and Atlanta Legal Aid. Steve believes in equal access to justice and the avenue that leads there: representation by prepared, dedicated, ethical counsel. Highly regarded for its professionalism in the legal community, Atlanta Legal Aid has enjoyed many successes, including the high profile Olmstead case, won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999. For his leadership, Steve has received numerous awards: the John Minor Wisdom Public Interest and Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association in 1994; the 1999 Elbert P. Tuttle Jurisprudence Award from the Anti-Defamation League; the Atlanta Bar Association’s Leadership Award in 2000; the EPIC Inspiration Award in 2007 from the Emory University School of Law; the State Bar of Georgia’s 2009 Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award; the Georgia Bar Foundation’s 2009 James M. Collier Award; the Ben F. Johnson, Jr., Public Service Award from Georgia State University College of Law in 2009; the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from M-I-E (Management Information Exchange) and the 2012 Turknett Leadership Character Award.
WIPI’S EXECUTIVE BOARD Shaniqua Singelton, Director Shaniqua is a third-year law student from Greenville, North Carolina. After interning at the Supreme Court of Georgia, Shaniqua developed an interest in public interest law and the need for effective representation for those who cannot afford legal services. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she spent her time volunteering at community food banks and working with local immigrant rights groups. After graduation, Shaniqua hopes to continue her work with under-served populations in the community.
Kate Howard, Deputy Director Kate is a second-year law student interested in indigent criminal defense. Kate spent last summer at the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans and is a participant in the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Capital Assistance Project. She will spend this coming summer working in the trial division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
Larkin Taylor-Parker, Logistics Director R. Larkin Taylor-Parker is this year's Logistics Director. She is a second-year law student with a strong interest in disability rights and 2016 Autistic Scholars Fellow. She is currently enrolled and working in UGA's medical-legal partnership clinic, serving as Social Media Coordinator of The Arc Georgia, and helping to revitalize Georgia's Disability Law and Policy Network. She plans to spend the summer interning at the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Grace Liu, Hospitality Director Grace is a first-year law student interested in employment law, immigration law, and international public interest law. Grace is involved with the Georgia Society for International and Comparative Law and the Labor and Employment Law Society at UGA.
Amber Crawford, Panels Co-Director Amber N. Crawford is currently a second-year law student from the small town of Moreland, Georgia (just south of Newnan).
She hopes to return to the west Georgia area upon graduation to work in the public interest field to help serve her community. She is currently the President of the OWLS (Older Wiser Law Students) and a member of the Georgia Student Bar Association, Christian Legal Society, the Federalist Society, and the Business Law Society.
Taryn Arbeiter, Panels Co-Director Taryn Arbeiter is a first-year law student at University of Georgia School of Law. Originally from South Dakota, she received undergraduate degrees in political science and French from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Prior to entering law school, she ran an employment program for newly arrived refugees at Lutheran Services of Georgia, a refugee resettlement agency in Atlanta. Ms. Arbeiter will spend summer 2016 working as a Legal Intern at The Door, a youth development organization in New York City, which offers free civil immigration and legal services to undocumented young people ages 12 to 21.
Ryan Bell, Submissions Editor and CLE Co-Director Ryan Bell is a second year law student. Ryan spent the summer of 2015 on board Naval Submarine Base King's Bay as a summer intern in the Staff Judge Advocate's office. This school year Ryan has participated actively in the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Public Interest Practicum working with indigent parties in both a criminal and civil context. His interest and activity in the Public Interest Conference originated in his strong belief in equal access to justice, minority protection, and increasing awareness in the legal community to the social problems created by a lack of focus on such issues.
Kassidy Dean, Submissions Editor and CLE CoDirector Kassidy Dean is a second-year student from Dalton, Georgia. She graduated from the University of Georgia in Spring 2014 with degrees in International Affairs and Spanish. Her first year at Georgia Law, she volunteered for the Innocence Project, New Orleans through the Alternative Spring Break program. She went on to spend her 2015 Summer working for the Department of Justice, Atlanta Immigration Court. Currently, she is a 2015-2016 editorial board member for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. This semester she is in Washington, D.C. interning with the Department of
Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, District Court Section. She will be working with the New York non-profit, Her Justice, for Summer 2016. She plans to pursue a career working in immigration law.
Lesley O’Neill, Public Relations Co-Director Lesley O’Neill is a second-year law student who is interested in criminal law issues, especially those affecting lower-income communities. Last summer she interned with the Federal Defender program in Atlanta working in their habeas unit on capital cases in the appellate stage. Last semester she worked with the Georgia Capital Defenders here in Athens doing pre-trial work on capital cases. Before law school she volunteered with the Peace Corps in Malawi.
Hannah Allen, Public Relations Co-Director Hannah will be receiving her J.D. in May of 2016 and is from Brookhaven, Mississippi. Directly prior to law school, she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in Family Relations and minors in Spanish and Psychology. Since coming to law school, Hannah has pursued a commitment to public interest work, serving on the Public Interest Law Council executive board and the Equal Justice Foundation executive board. She has worked as a law clerk for the Forrest County Youth Court in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans. Last summer, she served as an intern for the Athens-Clarke County State Court. She is passionate about child advocacy, family law, and alternative dispute resolution.
Acknowledgements The WIPI Executive Board would like to thank the tireless efforts of everyone who devoted their time, resources, and experience to help make this conference happen. The list below seeks to thank a few of these people but in no way is an exhaustive list:
CLE Paper Authors and Editors Alex Speer Elliott Kim Taryn Arbeiter Ryan Bell Kassidy Dean
Special Thanks To: Dean Peter “Bo� Rutledge Alex Sklut Heidi Murphy Sandy Ledford Lona Panter Kathleen Day JoEllen Childers Cathy Dasher Ramsey Bridges Shannon Henson Rachel Evans Professor Alexander Scherr
Thank you for attending the 2016 WIPI Conference! We hope to see you next year.