On August 12, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the keynote address at the 2013 Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Atlanta, Georgia. Justice O'Connor expressed concern that processes for selecting judges are becoming increasingly politicized, and that civics education is essential in helping young people understand that judges are obligated to make decisions based on the law, even if those decisions are politically unpopular.

A recent article in the Washington Post suggests that our current concept of marriage needs to adapt to the high divorce rate in the United States. As a solution, the author borrows a concept from property law and suggests that couples enter into “wedleases”—agreements in which couples commit to one another for a set period of years. The article argues that “wedleases” provide a practical option for couples to part ways at the end of a bad relationship without going through a messy divorce process.

According to a new book entitled “What the Best Law Teachers Do,” ETL Fellow and Professor Roberto Corrada of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law (an ETL Consortium school) is among the ranks of the twenty-six best legal educators in the United States. Each chapter of the book focuses on a how these professors achieve significant, positive, and long-term effects on their students, such as: how they relate to students, their methods of preparation, their teaching techniques, their delivery of feedback, and personal qualities that enhance their teaching.

On August 15, 2013, the public comment period opened on the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This package of amendments represents the culmination of several years of work on the part of the Civil Rules Advisory Committee, with the end goal of streamlining the pre-trial process, and particularly discovery, so as to achieve a “just, speedy, and inexpensive” process. The public comment period will run through February 15, 2014.

The Seventh Circuit Electronic Discovery Pilot Program Committee, which for many years has been at the forefront of efforts to reduce the cost and burden of electronic discovery consistent with the goals of Rule 1, now provides another important resource for practitioners and judges everywhere. The Committee, which is currently engaged in Phase 3 of the Pilot Program, has developed a Model Discovery Plan and Case Management Order (CMO) relating to privileged documents.

Ann Roan, State Training Director for the Colorado Public Defender's Office, advocates for more practical skills education within law school classrooms in order to ease the transition into the high stakes environment of the courtroom. In her Voices from the Field interview, Roan suggests recalibrating the instructional emphasis between doctrine and practice in a way that allows students to actually apply what they learn. Underscoring the importance of balancing doctrinal and experiential learning, Roan believes “You have to know the rules of the game before you can excel in the skills of the game.”

This summer, the Brooklyn Family Court Child Support Study hopes to improve the quality of legal assistance to self-represented litigants in child custody proceedings. Observers will track whether magistrates explain to self-represented litigants the reason for the hearings, explain the courtroom proceedings, and/or exhibit irritation with the litigants. Then, the observers will follow up with the litigants in a brief interview to discern whether the litigants found the proceeding to be fair and whether they understood what took place in the courtroom.

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its Working Paper late last week. If you have been following the discussions, you’ve heard about the current landscape of legal education and you may not find many surprises in this precursor to the final report. But here’s what is surprising: everyone seems to agree that the Task Force is on the right track. The Working Paper describes initiatives that can facilitate change, and cites our Consortium of law schools as a promising example. And our 2nd Annual Conference focuses on three key highlights from the Working Paper.

Early tomorrow morning, I’m heading to San Francisco through Sunday for the ABA’s Annual Meeting. You may see me at meetings for the Law School Division, the Young Lawyers Division, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, and the Task Force on the Future of Legal Education. If you’ll be in San Francisco and you’re interested in linking up to hear more about Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers or just to talk about legal education, please drop me a line: agerkman@du.edu

Adequate training is vital in preparing judicial officers for the challenges of being on the bench. While this is true regardless of docket type, judicial education/training is especially important for domestic relations matters. The Honoring Families Initiative is undertaking research on how domestic relations training for judicial officers is provided in states across the country, and we would love to hear from you.

IAALS is pleased to announce that it is welcoming a new Director of Communications and Marketing and a new Director of its national legal education initiative. Alli Gerkman took the helm as the first full-time director of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers in May. She joined IAALS in 2011 and has served as its Director of Communications since August 2012. Taking her place as Director of Communications and Marketing on July 29 is Robert Thompson, who comes to IAALS after many years of nonprofit service.

The North Carolina legislature sent to Governor McCrory for approval a bill that would revamp the state's elections, including eliminating public financing for appellate judicial elections. Created in 2002 by the Judicial Campaign Reform Act, the so-called "Voter-Owned Elections" program allowed candidates with qualifying contributions to receive a public grant to finance their campaigns and eliminated the need to seek campaign support from attorneys and others who may later appear before them in court.