The results of our Foundations for Practice study continue to reverberate throughout law schools and the legal profession, and the concepts of “The Whole Lawyer and the Character Quotient” are being covered in the press as well.

The Conference of Chief Justices has recognized the important needs of litigants in our state courts, and has answered the call to action to improve our civil justice system by adopting the Recommendations of its Civil Justice Improvements Committee earlier this month.

The Iowa Supreme Court Family Law Case Processing Reform Task Force recently submitted its final report to the Iowa Supreme Court, concluding a year-long study of the family law court system in Iowa. The Task Force report includes a comprehensive list of recommendations for the Iowa Supreme Court’s consideration, including develop a statewide mediation program for family law cases and identifying barriers to using and encouraging the use of unbundled legal services.

"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, 'it is the quality which guarantees all others.'" —Winston Churchill. I agree with Churchill—who knew a thing or two about courage—that it is the quality that permits us to exercise whatever other virtues we possess. This is true for everyone, but especially for judges. No one can be a great judge, or even a good one, without the courage to do what what the law demands, even in the face of tremendous pressure to do otherwise.

After the release of the first two reports from our Foundations for Practice project, Law Week Colorado published an article highlighting the groundbreaking findings, which “have the power to radically shift the discussion about what law schools teach and how employers hire."

As the number of self-represented litigants (or pro se litigants) continue to rise, the legal profession continues to explore alternative means of providing services beyond the traditional lawyer-client relationship. Because many litigants choose to forgo representation due to the cost of hiring an attorney, unbundled legal services are gaining more traction as a way to reduce costs while still providing valuable counsel for clients.

At IAALS’ Fourth Civil Justice Reform Summit, we brought together stakeholders to brainstorm a vision for the courts of tomorrow and steps to get there. Today we release the report from that summit, Creating the Just, Speedy, and Inexpensive Courts of Tomorrow: Ideas for Impact from IAALS’ Fourth Civil Justice Reform Summit.

Figuring out how to educate law students to meet the needs of modern law practice is vitally important given shrinking job markets and changing demands on lawyers. IAALS has accepted that challenge with its Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers initiative, which focuses on preparing new lawyers for successful participation in the legal profession. Law schools have traditionally focused on applicants’ LSAT scores and grade point averages to determine admissions to law schools. This produces a student body designed to perform well on standardized tests and in college-type settings.

Procedural fairness continues to be an area of great importance in the landscape of efforts to improve civil justice. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently produced four informative training videos that explore how procedural-fairness principles can be applied in difficult situations often encountered in the courtroom and the clerk’s office.

Over the last three years, I have had the privilege of chairing the Conference of Chief Justices’ Civil Justice Improvements Committee, whose recommendations were adopted last week by the Conference of Chief Justices and released today. The goal of this effort was to provide specific recommendations for how Chief Justices and Court Administrators in states across the country can address cost and delay in their state civil justice systems.

A just-released report recommending concrete improvements in the American civil justice system has been endorsed by the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), the country’s association of top state judicial leaders. The report—released last week at CCJ’s annual conference in Jackson, Wyoming—calls on state judicial leaders to implement 13 recommendations.

“It is no secret that high-conflict litigation, particularly over a protracted period of time, only serves to increase hostility between a couple,” said Josepha Madigan, a member of the Irish Parliament who is advocating for a decrease in the time it takes to get divorced in the country. Current law requires married couples in Ireland to separate for four years before applying for divorce; the change would cut that time in half and allow for application after only two years.