News & Updates

In a recent article by Judge Kevin Burke, a member of the IAALS Board of Advisors, and Babak Armajani, they discuss several key areas in which courts are failing to meet the needs of the public, and a few states that are taking steps in the right direction. In states where careful consideration of problems and measurement of remedies is taking place, positive and dramatic changes can begin to take hold in the culture and operations of our courts.

The Hon. Jack Zouhary, federal district court judge and member of the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice, recently penned an article for the Federal Lawyer about his case management process and the prioritization of time and resources throughout the life of a case. In broad strokes, he outlines ten of the most important considerations he makes to keep his courtroom efficient.

In February, the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity presented IAALS board member Walter Sutton with the 2013 Spirit of Excellence Award, which celebrates the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession. IAALS would like to thank Sutton for his continued service on our Board of Advisors and congratulate him on the receipt of this great honor.

Malia Reddick, Director of the Quality Judges Initiative at IAALS, was recently interviewed about the Minnesota Bar's judicial selection policy, which may or may not be retained this summer. Reddick says that Minnesota’s system is good, and could be even better by strengthening it against against the intrusion of politics, special interests, and money. A system that emphasizes a judge’s qualifications, rather than how much money a judge can raise to get elected or their personal positions on hot-button issues, creates a more stable, open, and impartial judiciary.

Last week, Karen J. Mathis was presented with the Community Service Award by the University of Denver. After a distinguished professional career, which included serving as president of the ABA, Executive Director of the Central European and Eurasion Legal Initiative Institute in Prague, and President and CEO of Big Brother Big Sisters of America, Karen returned to her college alma mater last year, to serve as IAALS' Associate Executive Director.

Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson of the Texas Supreme Court issued his State of the Judiciary message on March 6. In his remarks, Chief Justice Jefferson, who is also member of the Quality Judges Initiative O’Connor Advisory Committee, called for greater access to justice for litigants and families across the socioeconomic spectrum and more efficient courts that can process cases in a reasonable amount of time.

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Advisory Committee member Paul Lippe recently spoke to the "Deans Workshop for ABA Approved Schools," and, while that meeting was off the record, he proposes new ideas and frameworks for changing the current law school model in a post at The New Normal.

In its Winter 2013 edition, The Arkansas Lawyer makes the case for a more efficient option for trial by jury in civil cases, and does so by introducing and reprinting an excerpt from A Return to Trials: Implementing Effective Short, Summary, and Expedited Civil Action Programs. The article highlights the diminishing civil jury trial and its impacts on Arkansas and the rest of country, and calls for action to protect this fundamental right.

Over the last two months, the IAALS board of advisers has welcomed several distinguished members to the fold, all of whom are committed to the missions of our Initiatives and the continuous improvement of the civil justice system. We are pleased to add Kenneth R. Thompson II to their ranks.

The University of Denver has announced the award recipients for its Annual Founders Day Gala, and we are proud to announce that IAALS Associate Executive Director Karen J. Mathis is among them. Karen, a 1972 graduate of the University, will be honored with the Community Service Award, which she will accept at the Gala on March 7.

The Denver Post reports that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hear Raymond Moore's nomination today for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The slow pace of the judicial nomination and confirmation process, normally bogged down by partisanship, may have relented for Moore, who will be considered in the first group of confirmation hearings.

On January 17, The University of Arkansas at Little Rock announced that Michael Hunter Schwartz had been appointed the new dean of the William H. Bowen School of Law. Schwartz is an Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers fellow, who has demonstrated a commitment to integrating practice-based learning and professionalism into the classroom. We thank Schwartz for his commitment to improving legal education and congratulate him on his much deserved appointment.

Ben Madison, an Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Fellow, recently discussed teaching materials and help available for those who want to try Carnegie methods in a post on the Best Practices for Legal Education blog. He noted that “plenty know about Carnegie’s recommendations, but too few know of the steps taken, since the report, to implement it.”

This month, IAALS launched the first edition of IAALS Report, our new monthly newsletter. It’s a great way to keep up with news and progress in all four of our initiatives: Quality Judges, Rule One, Honoring Families, and Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers. We believe IAALS Report will be a convenient way to keep you even more informed about issues affecting the civil justice system as we move into 2013.

Rebecca Love Kourlis, Executive Director of IAALS, will speak about the organization’s work to improve the use of financial experts in litigation on December 5. She will discuss how civil pretrial processes involving financial experts might be streamlined to increase the experts’ effectiveness and reduce client costs, which is the focus of a recently published report, Another Voice: Financial Experts on Reducing Client Costs in Litigation.

The Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Initiative at IAALS is pleased to announce the addition of a new, innovative course to its growing list of course portfolios. International Business Negotiations is taught by Jay Gary Finkelstein and Daniel D. Bradlow at the American University Washington College of Law. The course is a semester-long simulated negotiation of an international business transaction offered to upper level JD and LL.M. students.

According to the Des Moines Register, experts predict that more than $400,000 will be spent in Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins’ retention election. With so much money injected into what is intended to be an apolitical process, backers of the courts worry that the judicial system will become tied to popular political opinion and that courts and judges may therefore be afraid to decide certain issues for fear of an electoral backlash driven by special interests.

Based on Colorado’s Know Your Judge PSA, the North Carolina Bar Association has released a its own PSA that urges voters to take the initiative to become informed about their judicial candidates before they vote and not to skip the judicial portion of the ballot.

IAALS was very sad to learn that U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz passed away on Sunday, September 30, after battling Lou Gehrig's disease for over a year. Judge Kravitz leaves a legacy of commitment to the civil justice system and service to the court and public.

Dan Ritchie, IAALS board member and founder and former University of Denver chancellor, is often credited with bringing DU to the national stage of academia. And, as noted by the Denver Post, he can be credited further as laying the foundation for the university to host the first 2012 presidential debate.