Last week, during a town hall at Binghamton University, President Obama jumped into the legal education fray when he suggested that law schools could increase the value of a law degree without sacrificing its quality by moving from a three-year program to a two-year program. The two-year/three-year debate has been alive and well in legal education reform circles for some time, but the President’s comments catapulted the conversation into the national spotlight. What do you think?

Last week, Governor Brownback nominated his chief counsel, Caleb Stegall, to a newly created seat on Kansas' court of appeals, reigniting a war of words between his supporters and detractors. Now, in response to the charge that Brownback pushed for a change in the selection process in order to appoint Stegall to the bench, a member of the judicial nominating commission is speaking out.

Effective July 1, 2013, two current IAALS managers stepped up to lead their respective divisions. Corina Gerety has assumed the role of Director of Research and Brittany Kauffman is now Director of the Rule One Initiative. The IAALS Research Department supports all substantive initiative areas as needed, providing a broad range of research assistance. The Rule One Initiative serves to advance empirically informed models for court processes and procedures that provide greater accessibility, efficiency, and accountability in the civil justice system.

A recent piece in the Chicago Sun-Times sheds light on the process for selecting judges in Cook County, Illinois. Earlier this month, the Cook County Democratic Party's Judicial Selection Committee met to "slate" candidates, a process through which candidates meet with the committee to discuss their qualifications in hopes of getting the party's endorsement. Some participants in the slating process assert that most of the party's picks are pre-determined based on political connections instead of qualifications.

At the direction of the Montana Legislature, the Montana Law and Justice Interim Committee met last month with the objective of finding ways to improve the Montana family court and domestic relations proceedings. To facilitate their analysis, the committee plans to examine three issues in particular: the current cost and efficiency of the Montana family court system, family law models successfully used in other states, and measures needed to improve the administration of justice and the non-adversarial resolution of family court matters in Montana.

For the second time in his tenure—and the second time in state history—New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declined to renominate a sitting supreme court justice. Christie offered two rationales for the decision to pass over Justice Helen Hoens in favor of superior court judge Faustino Fernandez-Vina: his interest in sparing Justice Hoens the senate's likely "political vengeance" in the confirmation process and the need for more diversity on the high court.

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.”