News & Updates

Legal education has been undergoing a great metamorphosis to adapt to a changing legal market. In recent years, we have witnessed an increase of interest in experiential learning, with the ultimate goal of getting law students ready to enter the…

In this short presentation from October’s Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference, I talk about preliminary outcomes of Suffolk’s innovation curriculum. The innovation curriculum consists of courses in legal technology, practice management, and the delivery of legal services that form the basis of Suffolk’s concentration in legal technology and innovation and Accelerator to Practice Program. I

Throughout this month, we've been releasing the fantastic Ignite-style presentations given at our 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference by ETL Fellows and faculty from across the ETL Consortium. Faculty discussed an array of issues, from the innovations and outcomes of their school’s classes, programs, or curricula, to innovations within the realm of legal education more broadly.

For the last ten years, IAALS—the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System—has worked to rebuild the civil justice system. After much work, and through collaboration with some of the very best minds in the country, we are finally reaching a critical goalpost in that mission.

In a recent Bloomberg BNA article, law schools are encouraged to better prepare future lawyers for the growing electronic legal landscape. From solos to large firms, the increase of ediscovery as well as online legal services offerings has changed…

Technology has impacted the legal profession greatly, yet many attorneys are not keeping up—at least, according to some judges. In a recent survey, roughly 32 percent of judge respondents said that lawyers lack the knowledge necessary, on both the…

We previously shared Judge Paul W. Grimm’s standard Discovery Order, which we recommend to state and federal court judges alike as a model and inspiration to manage the pretrial discovery process. Judge Grimm has made some revisions to his Order, including expanding the definition of proportionality and making reference to the possible use of Technology Assisted Review as a means to keep costs down. Download his new Order here.

While advancements in technology have made marrying over the internet a reality, they have made the divorce process easier as well. Technology-assisted divorce breaks the divorce process down into easily managed and discrete steps, designed to avoid messy court battles. For example, the service Wevorce walks a family through all the steps, including the legal, financial, and emotional components of the divorce process.

Recently, Examiner.com reviewed a new mobile application called the Healthy Divorce App, designed to educate and advise users on how to get through the divorce process in an emotionally healthy way. The app was created with the intention of making professional mental health assistance more affordable and accessible to those unable or unwilling to see a professional in person.

The Civil Rules Advisory Committee has proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to address proportionality, preservation, and spoliation problems associated with today's swiftly evolving technology. Robert D. Owen outlines the events leading to the current amendments (including IAALS’ and the ACTL Task Force on Discovery’s 2009 Final Report), the extensive work of the Committee over the last several years, and the specific rule changes under consideration.

Yesterday, the National Law Journal featured a special report on law school innovators, including the Georgetown University Law Center; Luke Bierman, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Distinguished Professor of Practice of Law at Northeastern University School of Law; and Robert J. Rhee, a professor who co-authored “The Law School Firm."

Some schools, including American University Washington College of Law, are using technology—specifically, video conferencing technology—to facilitate simulated negotiations in experiential law classes.