Over at the Talent Code, Daniel Coyle talks about a trauma surgeon who described the best training session he ever witnessed: an unexpected, staged accident, complete with chaos, fake blood, and hidden victims. In law school there might not be much use for fake blood, but there are educators asking students to role play.

The San Diego Superior Court has implemented a new pilot program that allows couples to complete a simple divorce in just one day. The program has only a few requirements and is designed to foster collaboration between the parties so that the process can move swiftly toward less-adversarial resolution.

In a classic example of "two heads are better than one," a group of stakeholders and legislators has come together to accomplish a substantial compromise on parental responsibility legislation and the family court process in Minnesota. The group took what were two sets of polarized opinions and came to a compromise that encompasses changes to parenting time, custody issues, and other family court processes in the state.

As we strive to improve the American legal system, we do so in collaboration with some of the best minds in the country. It is through the expertise and guidance of these partners that we are able to forge innovative and practical solutions to the problems in our system. In short, our advisors make our work possible. As we begin 2014, we say farewell and a profound 'thank you' to two board members, and welcome two more who have taken up the mantle.

Chief Judge Johnathan Lippman of the New York Court of Appeals has announced a new program designed to allow third-year law students to sit for the bar exam in February, so long as they devote their final semester to pro bono work. Ideally, the program will give indigent clients more access to legal representation, while also helping students gain the practical legal experience needed upon graduation from law school.

The National Jurist has named its top 60 law schools that offer practical training, including a number of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Consortium schools. The rankings were determined by the number of clinic positions per enrollment, the number of field placements or externships per enrollment, the number of simulation courses per enrollment, and additional information about practical training offerings.

Texas' Republican primary elections on March 4 have brought together an unusual combination of candidates and campaign contributors, at least with respect to the state's highest court. The incumbent Republican justices have received support from a typical source—advocates of tort reform and limitations on civil lawsuits—but their Republican challengers are benefiting from donations by trial attorneys and left-of-center groups, who historically have backed Democratic candidates.

In a recent article, Law Week Colorado covered IAALS' newest publication, Working Smarter, Not Harder: How Excellent Judges Manage Cases. The article features interviews with IAALS Executive Director and former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis and 4th Judicial District Judge David Prince, one of the judges who was featured in Working Smarter.

In a recent post on the long-awaited results from pilot project experimentation around the country, we shared evaluations from the New Hampshire and Boston Litigation Session pilot projects. Initial data is now available from Utah as well, where significant rule changes were implemented in 2011, including comprehensive initial disclosures, a requirement that discovery be proportional, and tiered discovery based on amount in controversy.

Recently, Natalie Knowlton and I provided an update to the Colorado legal community on the Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families at the University of Denver—a model with national implications. The Resource Center was developed by the Honoring Families Initiative as an out-of-court alternative for families. I encourage readers to become familiar with our program and the impact we have had to-date.

Professor Roberto Corrada of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law gives students a comprehensive understanding of administrative law through a unique, simulated experience inspired by the novel Jurassic Park. The course, Administrative Law: Dinosaur Park Simulation, is taught using the paradigm of “what if this actually happened.”

This year, with the economy coming back from the "great recession," the divorce rate has spiked from its 40-year low in 2009. Now that the economy is more stable, and people are feeling financially secure, those who were postponing divorce are starting to seriously consider it again.