News & Updates

According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN), more than $18 million was spent in two Michigan Supreme Court races in 2012. Of this, nearly $14 million was spent on candidate-focused issue advertising, but the sponsors of those ads were not required to disclose their spending or identify their donors. A bill that would codify the current non-disclosure rule has supporters and opponents who are urging the governor to take their side.

From February 6 to February 8, the Legal Ethics Forum held an online symposium about "the implications of economic pressures on the way we teach our students," which included posts from 22 contributors.

Administering justice in the time of COVID-19 has taken on a whole new direction in a rural municipal court in Laramie, Wyoming. After the governor declared a state of emergency, we developed a plan to temporarily delay any in-court personal appearances and began utilizing videoconferencing to facilitate necessary court functions.

Recently, Natalie Knowlton and I provided an update to the Colorado legal community on the Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families at the University of Denver—a model with national implications. The Resource Center was developed by the Honoring Families Initiative as an out-of-court alternative for families. I encourage readers to become familiar with our program and the impact we have had to-date.

A proposal to establish seven-year renewable terms for judges, who now enjoy life tenure to age 70, received majority support in the house of representatives but did not get the three-fifths vote required for a constitutional amendment.

Unauthorized practice of law rules grant lawyers a monopoly on providing legal advice and prevent “nonlawyers” from providing any meaningful legal assistance. This mindset codified in the UPL rules, along with our country’s staggering racial wealth gap, have a chilling effect on Black Americans' access to the legal system.

In 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania established an E-Discovery Special Masters Pilot Program with the goal of developing an approved list of special masters to assist with monitoring electronic discovery compliance, narrowing and facilitating resolution of e-discovery disputes, and providing reports and recommendations to the judge, as necessary. A recent article from Law Technology News highlights the successes of the program.

The state legislature approved a new judicial discipline system, calling for replacing the existing disciplinary body—the court on the judiciary—with an entity known as the board of judicial conduct. The ten judge members will be appointed by judicial organizations, rather than by the state bar and the supreme court, and the six non-judge members will be chosen by the governor and the speakers of the house and senate.

IAALS has launched a new award to recognize innovators who have made significant impacts early in their legal careers toward making the American legal system work better for everyone who needs it and everyone who is a part of it: the Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award.

Developed as part of the “Informed Voters – Fair Judges” project, a voter education effort led by the National Association of Women Judges, a short film featuring retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has received an Emmy Award in the Public Service Announcement category from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In their latest podcast, Law Schooled, a student forum blog on law school reform asks the following questions: Should law students have a say in legal education reform? Why should law students have a say in their education when elementary and high…

The future of our justice system will depend on a new model for leadership among the judiciary, including proactive engagement of the issues, multidisciplinary approach to solutions, innovative and creative thinking, data-informed policy making, and the courage and vision to get ahead of problems and explore new solutions—all directed towards being responsive as possible to the needs of the people.

In May, we launched Foundations for Practice, an ambitious project that will study the foundations entry-level lawyers need to launch successful careers, identify models of legal education to get us there, and develop hiring tools to help employers better match their needs with their hiring practices. This summer we also added a new member to the ETL team. Kevin Keyes is joining us as a Project Manager, working with us and our many partners on the first phase of the project.

The latest edition of Rule One Review is now available. Rule One Review is a quarterly newsletter that shares information about pilot projects and other civil rules projects being monitored by the Rule One Initiative. Sign up for Rule One Review and…

Our data from the US Justice Needs project draws from more than 10,000 surveyed individuals and illuminates the contours of the justice crisis in America—revealing that, while certain groups are disproportionately impacted by justice issues, no socio-demographic group is untouched.

IAALS provides an overview of the 2014 election outcomes that impacted state courts and judges, including a look at ballot measures, contestable elections, and retention elections.

Bill Henderson takes a look at a question that has been making the rounds: What is the answer to high student debt? After dispensing with a number of attempted answers to the question, he says: My own belief is that educational quality is the next…

A new project will help standardize a new tier of legal professionals nationally. Allied legal professionals—similar to nurse practitioners—hold a key to bringing more accessible and affordable legal help where it is needed most. IAALS seeks to facilitate the adoption of allied legal professional programs around the country and assist states in making informed decisions on how to structure these efforts.

A federal judge recently issued an order sharing her impatience with the ongoing discovery disputes of the parties. In addition to highlighting the cost and delay associated with such disputes, the court’s order also highlighted the possibilities for a different process to resolve such disputes. And, there is a clear movement across the country, at the state and federal level, toward these types of alternate processes for handling discovery motions.

Two of the three supreme court justices up for reelection face challengers in the Republican primary. One justice’s opponent is running to “expose the corrosive influence of big business on the court,” while the other justice’s opponents “want to restore integrity to the court.” The third justice up for reelection faces a Democratic challenger in the general election.