News & Updates

IAALS is happy to welcome Colorado Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janice B. Davidson (Ret.) as she takes on her role as Senior Advisor at IAALS. Chief Judge Davidson will be involved with all of IAALS’ initiatives to some extent, but will focus her time primarily on the Quality Judges Initiative, beginning in January 2014.

In August 2014, all of Tennessee's appellate judges will appear on the ballot, and voters will decide whether they should be retained in office. By that time, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission will have provided information to the public about these judges' performance on the bench. Last month, the commission announced that it may take the unprecedented step of recommending against the retention of three intermediate appellate court judges.

A recent survey asked respondents for their opinions on both court and non-court proceedings for divorcing couples. Overall, only 51 percent of those surveyed indicated they would consider non-court alternatives and only one-fourth believed that non-court proceedings protect parties’ rights. These findings suggest a lack of understanding about out-of-court solutions for families that are often less stressful and less expensive than lengthy in-court proceedings.

We are excited to announce that two new law schools have joined the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Consortium: Loyola University Chicago and Georgia State University. Members of the Consortium demonstrate significant institutional commitment to reforming legal education through innovation, which can include Carnegie-inspired teaching methods, student-centered instruction, and tackling the core competencies that new attorneys need to practice.

Jurors have a unique perspective on our legal system. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with someone who served on a jury this fall in California Superior Court. He had some suggestions as to how things could have been handled differently. We at IAALS hope judges and attorneys are listening. These techniques are already in use in many courtrooms across the country—but not all.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently published an article about proposed legislation to change the Pennsylvania judicial selection process. IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis was interviewed in the article about the proposed legislation and the benefits of merit selection. She noted that the Pennsylvania proposal contains the front-end nominating commission process endorsed by IAALS as the O'Connor Judicial Selection Plan.

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.

The U.S. Senate voted 52 to 48 to change its rules regarding use of the filibuster to block votes on nominees to the lower federal courts and executive branch positions. The immediate impact of this development will be to allow votes on three nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit whose appointments Republicans have blocked. Writing for CNN.com, IAALS Board of Advisors member Russell Wheeler suggested that the three will be confirmed "but at a cost."

In October, we had a room full of people abuzz with talk about the present state of legal education and its future. These were educators and practitioners who are already working together to change legal education to meet the needs of the profession. So it's not a surprise that when we asked some of them three questions about legal education we got some very interesting answers. What are your answers? Tell us in the comments.

In a recent opinion dissenting from the denial of certiorari in an Alabama death penalty case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the pressures of partisan judicial elections influence judges' decisions in cases involving hot-button issues like capital punishment. Social scientists have examined the question before, and have come to similar conclusions.

At our 2nd Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference, we honored Bill Henderson with our Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Award. Afterward, he delivered a keynote address (video here) focused on the significance of the role played by legal educators and the change that is coming. Talking about his own experience with a professor as a later-in-life college senior, he said that educators have the power to "flip the switch."

O'Connor Advisory Committee member and former Texas chief justice Wallace Jefferson recently appeared on MSNBC's Craig Melvin show. That segment of the program focused on the findings of the latest New Politics of Judicial Elections report. In his remarks, Jefferson acknowledged the value of judicial accountability but suggested that voters do not have enough information about judges and judicial candidates to cast votes based on merit.

This year, we tried something new at the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference. During the reception, we opened the floor to four short presentations by participants who wanted to share an idea with our audience of legal educators, practitioners, and judges. It was, by all counts, a resounding success and we plan to expand it next year. They were a conference highlight and certainly worth six minutes.

Professor John Lande of the University of Missouri School of Law gives students a realistic and comprehensive perspective on legal negotiation through a semester-long simulated experience in his Negotiation course. Lande describes his course as unique and particularly relevant to the legal profession because he uses multi-layered six-step negotiation hypotheticals to walk students through the entire negotiation process.

Last week, Bill Sullivan, lead author of Educating Lawyers and the founding director of Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers, did an interview with Insight Labs on the future of law, discussing legal education (and reform history), the Carnegie Report, experiential education, teaching judgment, the role of the profession, and the importance of law in society. It's worth reading in full, but here's a glimpse.

Since launch, nearly 60,000 calculations have been made using the calculator, which gives prospective law students the most transparent and complete law school employment rate information available. We were also featured prominently on the home page of the ABA's website, and we made several improvements to the tool to make it even easier to use. Here are a few.

In 2012, IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis was named an Honorary Diplomate of ABOTA—the American Board of Trial Advocates. She received the award last month in Austin, Texas, when she presented at the ABOTA National Jury Summit 2013. Since 1958, ABOTA has acknowledged only 26 individuals as Honorary Diplomates for their tireless work in furtherance of the American Justice System and the civil jury system.

Harvard Law School's “Case Studies Blog” recently featured the University of Denver Sturm College of Law's Lawyering Process Program as one that helps students begin to develop their identities as lawyers in the first year of law school. Lawyering Process retains all of the traditional research and writing instruction, while also integrating problem solving, practical simulations, self-reflection, and feedback from professors, peers, and practitioners.

IAALS is extremely grateful for the unwavering generosity of the Gates Frontiers Fund. Entirely supported by gifts and grants, IAALS values support at every level. They have been with us from the beginning—investing in our practical, comprehensive, non-partisan process and partnering with us at every step. While their financial support is significant, their belief in us is truly priceless. Thank you to all of our donors.

Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers announces a newly expanded and integrated collection of online legal education resources. These innovative teaching tools give law schools and professors the means to reevaluate classes and curriculum from the ground up, and are designed to help law schools ensure that their students are prepared for the demands of an evolving profession.