News & Updates

In this Ignite talk from the 2015 ETL Conference, we talk about the new Problem Solving I course, which is a required course, taught during the 1L Fall Semester. This course introduces students to a standard problem-solving methodology that they can use in a variety of settings, including transactional, litigation, and governmental. This course also stresses the importance of fact gathering. Students participate in five simulations, including an interview each student conducts during the second week of law school.

Recently, IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis and I met with the other members and staff of the Conference of Chief Justices Civil Justice Improvements Committee for its fourth plenary meeting in Washington, D.C. The committee is evaluating civil justice improvement efforts around the country and developing guidelines and best practices for civil litigation, as well as caseflow management.

So often when parents begin the process of separation and divorce they feel vulnerable and uncertain about how to proceed. Their greatest fear is the potential of harm to their children. The Center for Out of Court Divorce – Denver (COCD or Center) offers parents a proven way forward that is designed to reduce conflict, save time and money, and support the long term well-being of the family.

On October 1, we came from Albany Law School to present on “How an Inclusive Strategic Planning Process Leads to Faculty Adoption of Institutional Student Learning Outcomes” at the 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference in Denver, Colorado. Albany Law’s process of developing learning outcomes began years ago with a conference hosted by Albany Law’s Center for Excellence in Law Teaching (CELT) on “Setting and Assessing Learning Objectives from Day One.” With the momentum and knowledge from the CELT conference and the development of the Albany Law Strategic Plan, which emphasized that “a competency-based curriculum ensures that students achieve the core knowledge and transferable skills necessary to succeed in a fast changing environment,”

As the legal world is focused on the newly implemented amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which went into effect December 1st, there is one group that is already thinking “what next?”—the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. At the…

At Denver Law, we are following the wisdom that counsels conducting assessment in small and discrete pieces. We will, each year, focus on parts of our JD program and assess learning in each using direct (student work product) and/or indirect (student self-reports) data. An example of the latter is our “Externship Program Professional Identity Formation Project.” At the start and upon completion of doing an Externship, Denver Law students rate themselves on ten items associated with professional identity and identity formation. From these responses, we compute a “Prof ID Formation Index” for each student, and we compare these measures before and after the Externship.

In the Jefferson County District Courthouse in Golden, Colorado, family law self-represented litigants in court on post-decree matters have a new resource available to them. The Turelli Foundation, formed by retired Judge Richard Turelli and retired…

Today, December 1, the long awaited amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure go into effect. The “package” of amendments include rule changes across a number of rules (specifically Rules 1, 4, 16, 26, 30, 31, 33, and 34) and focus on increasing cooperation, achieving proportionality in discovery, and encouraging early case management by judges.

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!

A wave of new amendments to the federal rules of civil procedure will take effect Tuesday, Dec. 1, sparking cultural and operational changes to the nation’s legal system. Approved last April by the U.S. Supreme Court, the amendments are intended to refocus the legal community on providing a just, speedy, and less expensive resolution in litigation for every case.

When spending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court election surged to more than $16.5 million this month, it set a new record in U.S. history. Although, while it was record-breaking, this election was no aberration. Its sky-high spending, ad war among special interests, and dominance by candidates who spent the most all fit into a pattern.

The Supreme Court of India recently struck down a new law that sought to increase the executive branch’s power over the selection of judges. The Court ruled the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act unconstitutional, commenting that “once the constitutional structure is shaken, democracy collapses.”

Honoring Families recently convened a diverse cross-section of the national family law bar, with the goal of identifying and discussing improvements to the system that would allow all practitioners to better serve clients and children. The Family Bar Summit: Shaping the System for the Families We Serve challenged participants to shed preconceived notions about the system and engage in forward-thinking discussion on various aspects of the family justice system.

Our collective view of litigation is a bit like the old New Yorker map, which shows New York City magnified, and then skips most of the rest of the country, landing on the west coast. Thomas Clarke, Vice President of Research & Technology for the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), recently made that comparison, and he is right.

November 2015 is the 75th anniversary of the Missouri Plan, an innovative approach to selecting state judges intended to preserve their impartiality while holding them publicly accountable for their performance on the bench. First adopted by Missouri voters in 1940, this process is now used to select at least some judges in two-thirds of the states.

The ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services has published an issue paper exploring the development of new categories of judicially-authorized-and-regulated legal services providers. The Commission is seeking comments on: Whether the concept…

Lawyers, judges, and litigants alike have all come to the conclusion that the system is too expensive, complex, and time-consuming. If we are serious about having civil justice that is indeed just, speedy, and cost-effective, we have to make changes. Big changes.

We are excited to open registration for IAALS’ Fourth Civil Justice Reform Summit, which will be held in Denver, February 25-26, 2016. The Summit will feature nationally renowned faculty discussing the challenges of implementing change and engaging in a dialogue with participants regarding the necessary next steps for creating the just, speedy, and inexpensive courts of tomorrow.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has announced the formation of a bipartisan screening committee to consider potential nominees for an upcoming vacancy on the state’s federal trial court. We at IAALS are pleased that, as Senator Bennet states in his…

In a recent amicus brief to the Alaska Supreme Court, the American Bar Association (ABA) argues that the Alaskan Constitution requires appointment of counsel to an indigent parent in a child custody case when a private lawyer represents the other party.