News & Updates

Supporters of Amendment 3, which would alter the composition of the appellate judicial commission and require the commission to identify 4 (rather then 3) nominees for each vacancy, announced that they will not campaign for the amendment’s passage.

The Journal of Experiential Learning at Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (an ETL Consortium school) is looking for papers for the Fall/Winter 2016 volume. The topic is “Loosening the Walls of the Legal Academy: The Bench and the Bar as Legal Educators.”

What began two years ago, with a group's successful ousting of three Iowa Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, has escalated into a movement to rid state courts of justices who have made undesirable rulings. Instead of pushing to remove justices for misconduct or incompetence, groups are doing so because of disagreements over particular decisions.

The American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services recently released a report that identifies problems with the delivery of legal services along with suggested remedies. According to the report, despite persistent efforts to…

Divorce and resolution of child custody issues take a toll. They take a toll on families, they take a toll on the courts and they take a toll on a variety of other impacted communities, and it's not clear that the current system is working. Which is why we’re formally launching our Honoring Families Initiative. Aligned with the greater mission of IAALS, Honoring Families is dedicated to advancing empirically informed models to ensure greater accessibility, efficiency, and fairness in divorce and child custody matters.

One year ago today, the long awaited amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. The “package” of amendments included changes across a number of rules and focused on increasing cooperation, achieving proportionality in discovery, and encouraging early case management by judges. A new Rule 37(e) was added addressing sanctions for the failure to preserve electronically stored information.

This week, the Arizona Supreme Court will consider a proposal, backed by all three Arizona law schools, to let third year law students take the February bar exam prior to graduation. This proposal was created directly in response to the current legal market and the increasing cost of legal education. The Arizona schools believe this allowance would not only lessen law school debt, but would also help move students into the legal market sooner.

In the final days of North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue's term, she will be filling the supreme court vacancy created by the unanticipated retirement of Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson. Given the short time frame in which the appointment must be made, the governor has decided to forego use of the judicial nominating commission and make a direct appointment. As a necessary step, she entered Executive Order 137, “temporarily modifying” the selection process for all vacancies that may arise before she leaves office. We understand the time constraints but lament her decision.

"Delegates approved a series of resolutions pertaining to the financing and curriculum of legal education, although the ABA's legislative body lacks the power to compel law schools to make changes or control over how student loans are administered."…

Recently a federal judge in Connecticut laid the "smackdown" on World Wide Wrestling, Inc., (WWE) by denying its motion for summary judgment against two former WWE wrestlers. The wrestlers, Even Singleton and Vito LoGrasso, filed suit against WWE in…

The New York Times has reported that the divorce rate in Spain is 17 percent lower than it was in 2006, when changes to the law simplified divorce proceedings. The Spanish Judicial Council attributes this decrease in divorce to Spain's protracted economic crisis.

This article recognizes that there is no shortage of debate about the best way to seat judges. Some states, like Tennessee, are considering moving from a judicial appointment system to an election system, while others, like Pennsylvania, are attempting to move their system in the other direction.

The legal profession is amid one of its most tumultuous periods ever. The way law firms conduct business is changing. Technology is upending many long held established practices. New entrants are entering the market and changing the way legal services are provided. And while there may be pros and cons to these changes, they are largely occurring because they produce better results for the ultimate end users of the legal system—clients.

In a recent article, the New York Times discusses parenting partnerships, also known as co-parenting, in which two people maintain no romantic relationship but have and share responsibility for a child. In the article, proponents suggest parenting partnerships as an alternative to the traditional family framework by allowing single people to share the financial and emotional stresses of raising children. The complex legal issues involved in such an arrangement were considered as well.

When we discuss legal education reform, some of the more jaded members of our community often ask, “Why is this time any different?” They rattle off a list of dust-covered reports about proposed reforms for legal education, often dating back several decades, and wonder how we can be optimistic about the prospects for meaningful reform now. The answer is that we are in the midst of a perfect storm; one in which several powerful forces are driving law schools toward reform.

From her 5’3” frame, Sheila Hollis has cast a long shadow in the law, as a trailblazer, innovator, and international leader. She is Colorado grown and educated, and now has deep roots in our nation’s capital, where she brokers with the best of them. I had an initial “taste” of that at our very first dinner together in Washington, D.C., at a restaurant that she frequents often, where she knows the menu, the wine list, the staff, and many of the patrons. I felt like I was getting a peek at the in-crowd.

Last week, Karen J. Mathis was presented with the Community Service Award by the University of Denver. After a distinguished professional career, which included serving as president of the ABA, Executive Director of the Central European and Eurasion Legal Initiative Institute in Prague, and President and CEO of Big Brother Big Sisters of America, Karen returned to her college alma mater last year, to serve as IAALS' Associate Executive Director.

Texas Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson was recently interviewed by The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. Chief Justice Jefferson is a member of the Advisory Committee for our O'Connor Judicial Selection Project.

The Advisory Committee of the Honoring Families Initiative here at IAALS met last month. The Committee, chaired by Bill Howe, a domestic relations practitioner from Oregon, is a group of multi-disciplinary, extremely experienced and skilled people—who care a great deal about families in the courts. They have been with IAALS since the onset of the HFI work, and they continue to be our secret weapon.

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education is meeting today in Indianapolis at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law. The meeting is available via live webcast here. Today the group will hear three presentations: the Current Legal Education Challenge; Licensing, Finance, and Admissions; and Delivery, Innovation, and Barriers.