As we look toward the fall, IAALS is eagerly anticipating our annual Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner. This year, we'll honor Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas and attorney John Lund for championing regulatory reform efforts in Utah, and we'll also present Professor Anna Carpenter with the inaugural Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award for her work to innovate legal education, legal services, and civil justice research.
The Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner is an opportunity to celebrate our accomplishments, connect with our partners and friends, recommit ourselves to our mission, and honor our awardees. We hope you'll join us on October 14 for this special celebration.
David Yellen, CEO August 2021
The IAALS Effect on Hiring at Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell: At Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, we’ve been fortunate to have a front-row seat to the outcomes and transformation that IAALS has achieved through Foundations for Practice. We collaborated with IAALS to survey our partners on the characteristics that they viewed as most essential for new associates to be successful at WTO, and the outcomes for retention and diversity have been exciting and encouraging.
The Bar Exam Does More Harm than Good:The goal of any licensure process should be to make sure the public is protected from incompetence without serving as an artificial barrier to people entering the legal profession. Indeed, this is precisely what the bar exam purports to do. But does the bar exam actually do those things?
Process Matters in Legal Regulation Reform: We’re researchers who study legal services regulation and access to the civil justice system. We’ve been thrilled to watch groundbreaking announcements from the West ignite a wide-ranging national debate about how best to regulate legal training, services, and businesses—and we’ve been paying special attention to the role people who are not lawyers are playing in the process of legal re-regulation.
Colorado Amends Code of Judicial Conduct in Effort to Restore Public Trust: In June 2021, the Colorado Supreme Court amended its Code of Judicial Conduct to expressly prohibit harassment, retaliation, and other inappropriate workplace behavior. The amendments are part of a more significant effort to restore public trust and confidence in the state’s judicial department after a series of misconduct allegations against judges and other judicial employees.
Electronic Filing in Colorado Family Law Cases Expands Amid Growing Trend: In May, the Colorado Judicial Branch announced that a pilot program allowing documents in family court cases to be filed online will expand. Many courts in the last year have implemented or bolstered their e-filing systems in order to keep the legal system moving amidst courthouse closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Be sure to read all of the news from IAALS on our blog.
This month, IAALS is launching a virtual summit series, Paths to Justice. The series is comprised of multiple invite-only virtual convenings as well as a series of webinars focusing on the paths of the pandemic, the paths to access, and the paths to racial justice that our system must walk in our new normal. We hope to connect with other stakeholders tackling these issues, foster conversations among stakeholders and across systems, and move the conversation—and innovation—forward.
The past year has emphasized that our system falls short of the promise of equal justice, and there is much work to be done to realize justice for all. It is clear that now, more than ever, we need transformative change on a broad scale. We hope you’ll join us on the paths forward.
Zack DeMeola will speak at the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators’ Western Region Regulatory Reform Summit on September 2.
July 23: "Oregon takes a step forward in alternative licensure of attorneys" on Reuters
July 21: "Indiana still resistant to nonlawyer firm ownership" in the Indiana Lawyer
July 21: "Innovation Initiative’s Family Law Taskforce submits recommendations to Supreme Court" in the Indiana Lawyer July 5: "Oregon Supreme Court Set to Examine Alternative Pathways to Attorney Licensure" on the Faculty Lounge
July 1: "State supreme court asked to consider new licensure paths for lawyers" in the ABA Journal
July 2021: "Civil Justice in the Pandemic" in the Colorado Lawyer
