News & Updates

We kicked off the 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference on October 1 with 16 (yes, sixteen!) Ignite-style presentations, given by ETL Fellows and faculty from across the ETL Consortium. We heard about strategic planning, hybrid programs, new curricula, leadership and skills development, and—importantly—lots of collaboration!

The founders of Justice Not Politics, a 501(c)(4) organization formed to defend three justices against retention challenges in 2010, have established a 527 organization called Justice Not Politics Action to support Justice David Wiggins’ retention.

IAALS' new report on regulating AI in the delivery of consumer-facing legal services outlines a clear and actionable framework for how the legal profession can respond to the rise of artificial intelligence tools already being used by the public to navigate legal issues.

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Consortium member Touro Law Center has released the second issue of its Journal of Experiential Learning. The issue focuses on incubator and residency programs and their impact on legal education and law students…

The Iowa Supreme Court finds itself battling to maintain a fair and independent judiciary as a group of Iowans, now backed by the state's Republican party, intensify their campaign for the removal of Justice David Wiggins. In an attempt to keep campaign politics out of Iowa's judicial merit selection system, Justice Wiggins, like his previously ousted colleagues, has refused to launch a retention campaign to fight his removal.

Changes to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are on the horizon. Scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016, the amendments “will affect the maximum permitted length of briefs, the time available for responding to briefs and motions that…

There is speculation that the GOP will return the state to partisan judicial elections if Republicans win control of the legislative and executive branches in November. The legislature made appellate court elections nonpartisan in 2004, but all eight appellate court candidates have clear partisan affiliations.

Procedural fairness continues to be an area of great importance in the landscape of efforts to improve civil justice. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently produced four informative training videos that explore how procedural-fairness principles can be applied in difficult situations often encountered in the courtroom and the clerk’s office.

Addressing efforts to oust Justice David Wiggins from his seat on Iowa's high court because of an unpopular decision, the O’Connor Advisory Committee Chair, Justice Ruth V. McGregor, has written an op-ed about how special interest groups are "asking Iowa’s voters to disregard the fundamental principles of a state justice system that has served Iowa well."

Arizona has long been a leader in civil justice reform, and last week Arizona led the way again with a set of recommendations from its Committee on Civil Justice Reform. The Committee was established by the Arizona Supreme Court in December 2015 to “develop recommendations, including rule amendments or pilot projects, to reduce the cost and time required to resolve civil cases in Arizona’s superior courts.”

Judicial performance evaluation results published by the new Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC) were not seen by many Utah citizens, the JPEC reports. For the first time, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office did not send the voter information pamphlet to all registered voters.

Last year, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts dedicated his 2015 year-end report on the State of the Judiciary to extolling the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He noted the amendments serve as an important stride forward…

Denver Law alumni James “Jim” Mulligan (JD ’74) and Joan Burleson (JD ’85) made a $2.25 million endowment to the University of Denver Sturm College of Law's Mulligan Burleson Chair in Modern Learning, which will ensure experimental learning is integrated throughout the school's curriculum. This gift is augmented by IAALS's Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers advisory committee member, Doug Scrivner (JD ’77) and his wife, Mary.

IAALS board member Karen J. Mathis was among five women to receive the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. The Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, established in 1991, honors outstanding women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence in their area of specialty and have actively paved the way to success for others. 

In an article published earlier this month, Law Week Colorado covered the new roadmap for civil justice reform developed by IAALS and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). The two organizations announced their "Roadmap for Implementation" in May, on the heels of the Conference of Chief Justice (CCJ)'s recommendations for increasing efficiency and effectiveness. IAALS will work with five jurisdictions to implement and test the roadmap, and IAALS and NCSC will provide guidance and support along the way, as they have throughout the CCJ Civil Justice Improvements project process.

Today, numerous pilot projects are in various stages of consideration and implementation around the country, with proportionality in discovery a key theme among projects. In his recent article “Proportionality: The key to reducing corporation e-discovery costs,” Philip Favro recognizes this common theme and notes that “several circuit and district courts have recently championed proportionality as a benchmark for decreasing e-discovery costs.”

Jordan Furlong, who writes often on the future of the legal profession, has turned his pen on law schools. In the article, he laments the current state of legal education, but cites a number of initiatives undertaken by legal educators to address this, including Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers.

A recent study conducted for Voices for Civil Justice, with support from the Public Welfare Foundation, found that voters strongly favor reform of the civil justice system. Overwhelming majorities of voters believe it is important to “ensure that everyone has access to the civil justice system” and “strongly support a wide range of services to enhance access.” Moreover, voters support increasing state funding to build a more accessible civil justice system. The survey highlights that equal justice under the law in our society is fundamental, with voters considering it a right, not a privilege.

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.

As Gavel Grab reports, the United States Senate is not only at odds over the federal judicial nominees--it's also at odds over whether the delay in appointments is unreasonable.