Convenings

At the 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference, we debuted survey results from our Foundations for Practice project, following a survey of attorneys nationwide to identify the foundations entry-level lawyers need for practice.

Lawyers providing personal legal services cover a wide spectrum and are all subject to changes beyond their control. The 20th century model of providing legal services is in question with lawyers facing both pressures and opportunities to change. This conference looked at that business model, looked at the potential for change, and set out a course to assure that legal services are vital moving

In June 2015, IAALS convened a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys from Colorado and around the country to discuss the present and future impact of civil justice reform in the United States.

IAALS convened a group of senior in-house counsel and corporate management from around the country to discuss the challenges surrounding discovery in litigation. The convening provided an opportunity to discuss the current challenges and ways in which the costs of discovery can be controlled for all involved in the civil justice system.

Traditional notions of assessment in legal education have limited our capacity to truly measure whether law students are receiving the education and training they need to enter the profession. This conference demonstrated how assessment can be used for teaching, for learning, and as support for law schools and educators when developing new or innovative models.

IAALS hosted a Forum for a small group of stakeholders from around the country for the purpose of gathering comments on the proposed federal rules amendments. Following the meeting, IAALS has compiled the comments and submitted them to the Civil Rules Advisory Committee for its consideration. The comments include the various divergent views from Forum attendees, as well as areas of consensus.

Our 2nd Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference took a closer look at these 3 questions: What core competencies do entry level lawyers need? What structural and curricular changes ensure law grads have the necessary core competencies? How can law school accreditation and bar admissions standards facilitate innovation in legal education?

IAALS and the National Judicial College co-hosted the 2nd Annual Educational Summit for State Court Judges: Unlocking E-Discovery. The Summit provided a forum exclusively tailored for state court judges to learn about all facets of the discovery of electronically stored information—from preservation to production to eventual use at trial.

IAALS, in collaboration with the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and the Aspen Institute Justice & Society Program, sponsored “An Uncommon Dialogue” about judicial selection.

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers hosted its first annual conference, The Development of Professional Identity in Legal Education: Rethinking Learning and Assessment, at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. This was a working conference of two-three person teams from the participating ETL consortium schools. It focused on developing expertise around the formation of professional identity in

IAALS hosted its Third Civil Justice Reform Summit in September 2012. With a wealth of data from state and federal jurisdictions that are experimenting with innovative case management strategies and new rules of civil procedure, this Summit focused on the landscape of innovation and how lawyers, judges, court personnel, and academics can further advance innovative solutions.

In June 2012, IAALS hosted a two-day Summit on e-discovery, including separate sessions for practitioners and state court judges. On Friday, June 22, DISH Network L.L.C. co-sponsored a “Best in Class” eDiscovery Summit for practitioners. On Saturday, June 23rd, IAALS presented a state court judges-only eDiscovery Boot Camp, co-sponsored by the Colorado State Court Administrator’s Office.

IAALS assembled a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives of the plaintiff and defense bars, citizens involved in judicial nominating and evaluating processes, representatives from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, members of the business community, and non-profit leaders, to identify the desired attributes of individual judges and court systems.

This national conference considered ways to improve existing processes for evaluating the performance of appellate judges and for informing voters about evaluation results. Chief Justice Mark Cady of the Iowa Supreme Court was the featured speaker.

IAALS hosted the 2009 Civil Rules Summit. Thirty-two renowned civil justice system experts including U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal gathered to discuss America's civil justice system problems, but with a greater emphasis on identifying solutions.

In August 2008, judges, JPE coordinators, and experts from nearly 20 states attended this forum, hosted by IAALS. This two-day conference featured two tracks of panel sessions, one focusing on building a JPE program from the ground up, and the other emphasizing advanced strategies for jurisdictions with existing JPE programs.

In Spring 2007, IAALS hosted an unprecedented gathering of state Supreme Court Justices, federal and state court judges and top legal reform experts from the U.S. and England. Civil justice system best practices in Oregon, Colorado, and Singapore were discussed and Lord Harry Woolf of Barnes—the architect of England’s legal system overhaul—made a presentation.