Two members of IAALS’ O’Connor Advisory Committee are calling for an end to lifetime appointments on the U.S. Supreme Court. Their statement comes in the wake of calls for Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement, who some say should step down so that a younger justice can be appointed while President Biden is still in office.

Lawyer development is a single continuum that starts even before the first day of law school, and continues past the point when a lawyer has become an independent, confident, and proficient professional. Until we recognize this fact, we will continue to struggle to develop lawyers properly.

The goal of any licensure process should be to make sure the public is protected from incompetence without serving as an artificial barrier to people entering the legal profession. Indeed, this is precisely what the bar exam purports to do. But does the bar exam actually do those things?

In June 2021, the Colorado Supreme Court amended its Code of Judicial Conduct to expressly prohibit harassment, retaliation, and other inappropriate workplace behavior. The amendments are part of a more significant effort to restore public trust and confidence in the state’s judicial department after a series of misconduct allegations against judges and other judicial employees.

We’re researchers who study legal services regulation and access to the civil justice system. We’ve been thrilled to watch groundbreaking announcements from the West ignite a wide-ranging national debate about how best to regulate legal training, services, and businesses—and we’ve been paying special attention to the role people who are not lawyers are playing in the process of legal re-regulation.

At Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, we’ve been fortunate to have a front-row seat to the outcomes and transformation that IAALS has achieved through Foundations for Practice. We collaborated with IAALS to survey our partners on the characteristics that they viewed as most essential for new associates to be successful at WTO, and the outcomes for retention and diversity have been exciting and encouraging.

In June, the Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services submitted its final report to the Florida Supreme Court, recommending that Florida adopt a Law Practice Innovation Laboratory Program where recommendations, such as amended rules surrounding fee-splitting and law firm ownership as well as regulated nonlawyer providers of limited legal services, would be tested and evaluated.

In May, the Colorado Judicial Branch announced that a pilot program allowing documents in family court cases to be filed online will expand. Many courts in the last year have implemented or bolstered their e-filing systems in order to keep the legal system moving amidst courthouse closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Georgetown Civil Justice Data Commons recently made the case for “Why We Need Civil Justice Data,” laying out how those living in or near poverty also face a multitude of issues related to housing, finances, health, and overall well-being. Each of these areas can easily cross over into civil legal issues—and oftentimes, they do.

IAALS is pleased to announce that Amy Livingston has joined the organization as its new Director of Development. She brings over 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector as an executive leader, strategic thought partner, philanthropic advisor, consultant, and board chair/member.

In October 2020, IAALS published its groundbreaking report on the 12 building blocks of minimum competence to be a lawyer, our 5 insights for assessment, and our 10 recommendations for better legal licensing—with the goal of improving the bar exam and the overall licensing process. Here, we cover the fourth, fifth, and sixth building blocks of minimum competence.

As I’ve learned from many years practicing and advocating for innovative design changes in legal education, teaching online does not and should not involve doing what professors have always done—lecturing, leading discussions, and delivering exams—just through internet-enabled platforms. Instead, law professors should implement design principles to their courses for delivery in any modality: classroom, online, or blended.