News & Updates

Congratulations to the University of New Hampshire School of Law's Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program (DWS) on being selected as one of three recipients of this year's E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Awards from the ABA Standing Committee on…

States across the country are wrestling with the question of whether a mandatory retirement age should be imposed upon judges, and if so, what that age should be. A number of states are considering raising or eliminating their age limits, while in at least one state, lowering the maximum age has been proposed by legislators to try and keep the courts in line.

In response to the end-of-term decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court on marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), some presidential candidates are calling for changes to the life tenure that justices enjoy under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

The National Center for State Courts has released its final evaluation of Utah’s significant statewide changes to the rules governing disclosures and discovery, implemented in November 2011. The rule changes incorporate proportionality as a key principle governing the scope of discovery.

The new Idaho Rules of Family Law Procedure (IRFLP)will go into effect statewide today.  Several Judicial Districts have opted to implement the rules prior to this date. The new IRFLP are designed “to assist both lawyers and SRL’s by reorganizing all rules that apply in family law cases . . . in a complete and logical matter that is easier to use by all.”

Early results from Minnesota’s Expedited Litigation Track (ELT) pilot program suggest a reduction in the delays generally caused by either the discovery process or the filing of continuances. The ELT provides a more expedited process for select civil cases (such as personal injury and consumer credit) in two counties in Minnesota, with the goals of a corresponding reduction in the cost of litigation and increased access to the courts.

The Colorado Supreme Court has adopted amendments to the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, effective July 1 for cases filed on or after July 1. The amendments are substantial and incorporate the best of Colorado’s Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP), taking into account a final evaluation of that project and implementing the changes broadly for all civil cases across the state.

Nationwide, IAALS is succeeding in improving the American legal system with innovative approaches to daunting challenges. But, we don’t do it alone. We work each day in collaboration with the very best minds in the country to research issues, generate ideas, and implement solutions that will have the most impact for the most people.

In the last few weeks, legislators in two states have passed laws aimed at influencing upcoming supreme court decisions. In Kansas, trouble has brewed between the judiciary and the other two branches, stemming largely from state court decisions ordering the legislature to spend more on public education. Meanwhile, the Republican majority in the North Carolina legislature has instituted retention elections, in place of contested elections, for supreme court justices seeking additional terms.

In a recent paper, LexisNexis examined a study of legal employers’ perceptions of recent law school graduates. In a survey of 300 hiring partners and senior associates, 95% believed that law students lack key practical skills at the time of hiring…

This month, IAALS will convene a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys from Colorado and around the country to discuss the present and future impact of civil justice reform in the United States. We look to others for input on how best to implement the upcoming changes and what culture shifts are necessary to achieve the intended positive impact, and have held a number of convenings this spring to gather input.

With three of the seven seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court up for election in November, the stakes were high in the May 19 primaries. The twelve candidates raised more than $5 million and spent approximately half of that on TV ads. The ads tended to focus on the need to restore the high court’s integrity, in light of the fact that two of the vacancies were created by resignations in the face of scandal.

IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice’s joint report, Reforming Our Civil Justice System: A Report on Progress & Promise, continues to garner attention at a national level. In its Civil Justice Playbook feature this month, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel features the work of theRule One Initiative and the Task Force.

The 52nd Annual Conference of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) is taking place this week in New Orleans, and representatives from IAALS will be taking part in the discussions. The conference, Children in the Court System…

Congratulations to Professor JoNel Newman, University of Miami School of Law, on her selection for the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education’s M. Shanara Gilbert Award.

On February 25-26, 2016, IAALS will hold its Fourth Civil Justice Reform Summit: Creating the Just, Speedy, and Inexpensive Courts of Tomorrow. The Summit will provide an opportunity to discuss the challenges of implementing change and chart the next steps for creating the just, speedy, and inexpensive courts of tomorrow.

Three years ago, we launched Law Jobs: By the Numbers, an interactive online tool that gives prospective law students the most transparent and complete law school employment rate information available.

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…

The League of Women Voters of Colorado is recognizing IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis with its 2015 Leader of Democracy Award on June 17. I can't think of a more appropriate recipient of this award than Becky. The LWV is a national, nonpartisan political organization that has fought since 1920 to improve our systems of government—something that Becky has also been working toward her entire career.

A year ago, we launched Foundations for Practice and kicked off a study to achieve the project’s first objective: to identify the foundations entry-level lawyers need to practice law. In late 2014, we began distributing a survey to lawyers across the country to do just that.