Committee advances bill to streamline community governance attorney program for land grants, acequias and colonias

The House Judiciary Committee advanced a substitute to House Bill 24 to streamline and expand the Community Governance Attorney program, a tuition‑waiver model that places third‑year law students in paid public‑service legal roles serving Spanish land grants, acequias and colonias.

Representative Garcia introduced the substitute and said the changes respond to “growing pains” since the program was enacted in 2020. Adrian Oglesby, who serves as the University of New Mexico School of Law’s designee on the commission and as commission chair, told lawmakers the substitute moves advertising, student selection and contract administration from the Higher Education Department and a five‑member commission to the UNM School of Law.

Oglesby said those changes reflect administrative capacity: the law school “works with the students. We know the students. We can recruit and inform them about the program,” and the university can administer contracts with legal service providers more efficiently than a small appointed commission. The substitute would also expand the types of eligible legal service providers to include state agencies (for example, the Department of Justice’s Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Division), and allow counties and municipalities that serve colonias to participate.

Oglesby told the committee the bill would also relax a 2019 salary‑floor limit ($50,000) that is now below market; the substitute instead lets participating legal service providers offer their standard starting salary while the commission serves as a gatekeeper. The sponsor and witnesses said the program currently has a modest state general fund appropriation (about $96,000) that supports one student; they said roughly $112,000 would be needed in the near term to sustain the current student and inflationary costs, and the program is authorized for up to two students at a time.

Supporters included the New Mexico Land Grant Council, the New Mexico ASEA Association, the Department of Justice Treaty Division and legal‑aid partners. DOJ’s Treaty Division attorney Megan Veach told the committee HB 24 “increases the opportunities new attorneys have to give back to their communities and begin a career in public service without the substantial burden of student loan debt.”

Committee members asked implementation questions about the selection process, contracting and travel support for students; Oglesby said the law school covers student travel while students are in the third‑year clinical program and that legal service providers would cover travel after graduation. Committee members also discussed program capacity and funding; sponsors committed to pursue expanded appropriations in the interim.

The committee voted to advance the Judiciary committee substitute for HB 24.