2011 Grants – $272,000
RULE OF LAW PROJECT – $100,000
A project of the Virginia Bar Association
The VBA Rule of Law Project is an educational program developed for middle and high school civics students to teach the rule of law through an extensive web-based curriculum [www.ruleoflaw-vba.org] designed by educators and taught collaboratively by teachers and lawyers directly in the classroom.
Through this project, thousands of Virginia students and countless others will become better citizens by having gained a clear understanding that the rule of law in America is the source of their individual rights and the collective rights of all citizens. Hundreds of teachers will be enriched by being provided lesson plans, activities, resources and tools to become more effective educators. Volunteer lawyers and judges will gain a greater sense of pride in our profession by preserving, through education, the rule of law for generations to come.
2011 STATEWIDE LEGAL AID CONFERENCE – $20,000
A project of the Virginia Poverty Law Center
The Virginia Poverty Law Center [www.vplc.org] provides leadership, support, training, public education and advocacy to address the civil legal needs of Virginia’s low-income population. The goal of this conference is to provide training on poverty law issues to those who work with low and middle-income residents of Virginia. Because of ongoing changes in welfare law, health care, housing law, and consumer law, the conference seeks to clarify many of these complex issues by holding concurrent trainings over the course of a 3-day period. Training sessions are one hour and thirty minutes and are intended to educate or re-educate legal services staff and other non-profit attorneys who serve the poor. Over 300 registered for the 2010 conference.
PUBLIC SERVICE INTERNSHIPS – SUMMER OF 2012 – $40,000
Each of Virginia’s eight American Bar Association-accredited law schools will receive $5,000 to fund public service internships during the summer of 2012. Continuing a VLF tradition begun in 1989, the internships enable Virginia host employers to hire selected students who will have completed one or two years of law school by the summer of 2012. The students work under the supervision of an attorney; the work they complete varies widely and depends on the missions and caseloads of their respective organizations. Some students gain experience working on individual client matters and some work on project affecting many clients in the organization’s service area. These internships advance law-related education by sensitizing students to the importance of public interest and pro bono work.
The following Virginia law schools are involved:
- George Mason University School of Law
- Regent University School of Law
- University of Richmond School of Law
- Appalachian School of Law
- William and Mary School of Law
- Liberty University School of Law
- University of Virginia School of Law
- Washington & Lee University School of Law
CAPITAL DEFENSE WORKSHOP – $17,000
A project of the Virginia Bar Association
This is the 16th year of Virginia Law Foundation financial support to this one and one-half day training program for Virginia attorneys. Each year, up to 250 lawyers receive training in forensics and litigation to help them meet standards set by the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, in conjunction with the Virginia State Bar, for the defense of capital cases in Virginia.
Goals of this workshop are to (1) maintain/increase the current level of qualified lawyers certified to accept capital cases; (2) provide attendees additional insight regarding national developments in death penalty litigation; and (3) enhance participants overall level of skills and productivity as representatives of capital defendants.
LAW DAY 2011 PROGRAMMING – $50,000
A project of the Virginia Law Foundation
Focusing on the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Virginia Law Foundation will convene a blue ribbon panel of scholars and experts to talk about the events leading to secession, the War Between the States and its aftermath, in the context of the rule of law. The discussion will be videotaped for wide distribution and will be made available to bar groups for their use in Law Day activities, and to all Virginia law schools for use in improving legal education.
20th Anniversary Conclave on the Education of Lawyers in Virginia – $30,000
A project of the Virginia State Bar/Section on the Education of Lawyers in Virginia
The conclave, to be held in the spring of 2012, will provide a forum for stakeholders in legal education to review the current state of legal education generally; to discuss current trends and developments in Virginia, and nationally, since 1992 when the Virginia State Bar hosted the first conclave on legal education in the country; and to identify areas for improvement in the continuum of legal education in Virginia for the next twenty years.
The impact of the project will be statewide, as potential changes and improvements in legal education would involve all law schools in Virginia, the General Assembly of Virginia, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners and the Virginia State Bar, as the regulatory authorities for the legal profession in the Commonwealth; all lawyers and judges who are member of the bar in Virginia, as well as the providers of continuing legal education in the state. The recommendations may serve as a national model for similar developments across the country.
50th Anniversary Commemoration of the trial of Adolph Eichmann – $15,000
A project of the Virginia Holocaust Museum
In May 2011, the Virginia Holocaust Museum will host a special program on the occasion of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the trial of Adolph Eichmann. Guest speakers will be retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Bach (who served as deputy chief prosecutor of Eichmann), former Israel Police Chief Superintendent Michael Goldmann Gilead via pre-recorded interview (an Auschwitz survivor who was a key member of the “Bureau 06,”, the special Police unit established to gather evidence for the prosecution), and Yehuda Bacon (an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor who testified at the trial andwho is now a prominent artist).
