This summer, the Brooklyn Family Court Child Support Study hopes to improve the quality of legal assistance to self-represented litigants in child custody proceedings. Observers will track whether magistrates explain to self-represented litigants the reason for the hearings, explain the courtroom proceedings, and/or exhibit irritation with the litigants. Then, the observers will follow up with the litigants in a brief interview to discern whether the litigants found the proceeding to be fair and whether they understood what took place in the courtroom.

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its Working Paper late last week. If you have been following the discussions, you’ve heard about the current landscape of legal education and you may not find many surprises in this precursor to the final report. But here’s what is surprising: everyone seems to agree that the Task Force is on the right track. The Working Paper describes initiatives that can facilitate change, and cites our Consortium of law schools as a promising example. And our 2nd Annual Conference focuses on three key highlights from the Working Paper.

Early tomorrow morning, I’m heading to San Francisco through Sunday for the ABA’s Annual Meeting. You may see me at meetings for the Law School Division, the Young Lawyers Division, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, and the Task Force on the Future of Legal Education. If you’ll be in San Francisco and you’re interested in linking up to hear more about Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers or just to talk about legal education, please drop me a line: agerkman@du.edu

Adequate training is vital in preparing judicial officers for the challenges of being on the bench. While this is true regardless of docket type, judicial education/training is especially important for domestic relations matters. The Honoring Families Initiative is undertaking research on how domestic relations training for judicial officers is provided in states across the country, and we would love to hear from you.

IAALS is pleased to announce that it is welcoming a new Director of Communications and Marketing and a new Director of its national legal education initiative. Alli Gerkman took the helm as the first full-time director of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers in May. She joined IAALS in 2011 and has served as its Director of Communications since August 2012. Taking her place as Director of Communications and Marketing on July 29 is Robert Thompson, who comes to IAALS after many years of nonprofit service.

The North Carolina legislature sent to Governor McCrory for approval a bill that would revamp the state's elections, including eliminating public financing for appellate judicial elections. Created in 2002 by the Judicial Campaign Reform Act, the so-called "Voter-Owned Elections" program allowed candidates with qualifying contributions to receive a public grant to finance their campaigns and eliminated the need to seek campaign support from attorneys and others who may later appear before them in court.

Recently, speculation has surfaced about whether judicial selection and tenure will be addressed at a special legislative session in Oklahoma, called by Governor Fallin. Although a Republican legislator wrote a letter warning judges around the state of rumors that there would be efforts to impose term limits and to eliminate the judicial nominating commission, a spokesman for the governor offered assurances that the only topic for the special session is lawsuit reform.

Richard Gabriel recently penned an article for CNN following the conclusion of the George Zimmerman trial, in which he referenced several reports that examine potential biases in the justice system. Among them was IAALS’ Leveling the Playing Field: Gender, Ethnicity, and Judicial Performance Evaluation, which explores whether there is evidence that implicit biases enter into evaluations of judges’ performances.

IAALS is pleased to welcome Barbara Blackwell as its Senior Development Director. In this role, Blackwell will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic fundraising plan for IAALS’ short and long-term sustainability. Blackwell joins IAALS after a 25-year career in fundraising for nonprofits and higher education institutions.

On September 17, 2013, IAALS and the Byron R. White Center are bringing United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (ret.) to Colorado to deliver the 3rd Annual John Paul Stevens Lecture. The Stevens Lecture brings a well-known jurist to the University of Colorado Law School each year. Registration for the lecture is now open, and can be accessed online.

Federal judges in the Southern District of New York are currently evaluating a pilot project, known as the SDNY Pilot § 1983 Plan, that defines how cases alleging false arrest, excessive force, or malicious prosecution are handled against the NYPD. While the project was instituted to address concerns regarding the increasing number of § 1983 cases being filed, and the increasing length of time to bring those cases to disposition, the Court’s request for feedback has resulted in a critical response by the plaintiffs’ bar.

In Minnesota, a broad-based group known as the Coalition for Impartial Justice, which includes more than 30 business, labor, religious, citizen, and legal groups, is working to implement the 2007 recommendations of the Quie Commission. The commission was unanimous in calling for the adoption of a "merit selection" process for judges and a performance evaluation program, with a majority of the commission favoring retention elections for subsequent terms.