Florida has a commission-based judicial appointment process wherein the governor appoints all members of the nominating commissions, with some of the governor's appointees come from candidate lists submitted by the Florida Bar. According to a new report, Governor Rick Scott often rejects the bar lists and requests additional names, unlike his predecessors Charlie Crist and Jeb Bush, who always accepted the bar's recommendations. And, the pace of these rejections is expected to rise.

Professor Anthony C. Infanti, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, uses a problem-based teaching method to expose students to the complex concept of international tax law. Through this course, Professor Infanti exposes students to what practicing international tax law is really like. The full course portfolio is now available online, including teaching objectives and outcomes, application tools, videos, course materials, and student work.

According to a new analysis, justices on Wisconsin's high court tend to favor parties whose attorneys contributed to their election campaigns. With respect to campaign donations made prior to rulings, justices included in the study ruled in favor of donors 59 percent at the time. This does not establish that campaign support actually influenced decisions, but fair courts advocates worry that the public perceives this to be the case.

Many jurisdictions around the country have implemented alternative processes that are designed to provide litigants with speedy and less expensive access to civil trials. These programs generally involve a simplified pretrial process and a shortened trial on an expedited basis. This new resource offers a summary chart of the various programs nationwide and specific details for each.

Earlier this year, a local news channel praised the University of Miami's Health and Elder Law Medical Legal Partnership in a piece entitled "Joining Forces.” The clinic, run in part by JoNel Newman of the University of Miami School of Law (an ETL Consortium school), takes an innovative approach to treating the legal and medical issues patients face when seeking care by assigning both a medical student and law student to each case.

One of my primary responsibilities as Counsel to the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court is to start and maintain dialogue among Colorado's law schools, bench, and bar in an effort to find and promote commonality among their efforts to improve our state's legal profession. Naturally, then, I was interested in attending the 2013 Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers conference, which sought to connect the legal academy and members of the legal profession.

Over the summer, the Tennessee legislature declined to renew the state's judicial nominating commission, which was used to recommend well-qualified candidates for appellate judgeships to the governor. Instead, lawmakers chose to let Tennesseans weigh in on the issue in 2014. The judicial selection process appeared to be in limbo in the interim, but Republican Governor Bill Haslam has acted to fill the gap, creating a screening panel by executive order.

Much of the work on core competencies for entry-level lawyers has focused on large firms, often because it has been harder to collect this information from small firms. This is a challenge because small and medium firms continue to be major destinations for law school graduates. Today, in an open letter to law schools, longtime solo, Carolyn Elefant, demanded that law schools teach students to be employable by solos and small firms.

IAALS is honored to be featured front and center in the Fall 2013 edition of The Bulletin, a publication of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The article chronicles the six year journey of collaboration, cooperation, and determination undertaken by IAALS and the ACTL to reform our country's ailing civil justice system. The national response to our organizations' joint efforts proves that meaningful change is not only possible, but within reach.

As Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts celebrates its 25th year, supporters of moving from partisan elections to commission-based appointment of the state's appellate judges are optimistic that the time is finally right. That optimism stems largely from two recent scandals that have plagued the state supreme court. The reform legislation also enjoys support on both sides of the aisle.

Judge Kevin Burke, Minnesota District Court Judge and member of the IAALS Board of Advisors, has written about the ideas and lessons of Roscoe Pound, former Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916-1936, and what the legal community today can learn from his legacy. For example, Pound discussed a major misperception on the part of the public—the idea that the administration of justice comes easy to those in charge.

Over the past few years, IAALS has been tracking the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project, along with numerous other rules projects across the country. These efforts are aimed at providing greater access to civil justice and at better achieving the goals of a just, speedy, and inexpensive civil justice system. This new publication explores various factors for the successful creation and implementation of new rules and processes, laying the groundwork for future developments.