Governor Perdue appointed eighteen members—both lawyers and non-lawyers—to the judicial nominating commission she created by executive order in April 2011. The commission will screen and recommend candidates for interim vacancies on the state’s appellate courts and major trial court.
The state bar association released attorney evaluations for trial judges up for reelection in 2012. It marks the first time since 1980 that judges statewide have been evaluated. The bar, which undertook the project to provide voters with more information about judicial candidates, plans to conduct a companion evaluation of judicial challengers.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal released its annual report on attorney ratings of supreme court justices and trial judges in Clark County. Reelection support for individual supreme court justices ranged from 56% to 83%.
In upholding the state’s ban on direct corporate contributions to political candidates and parties, the supreme court noted that judicial elections are particularly vulnerable to anonymous spending by large corporations.
In 2011, fourteen bills were introduced in seven states to remove judges from office. All but two of the impeachment efforts were motivated by disagreement with judicial decisions.
Only one Democrat is vying for a seat on the state’s appellate courts in 2012. The state’s Democratic Party chairman attributed this to the high cost and contentiousness of judicial elections in Alabama. Three Republican incumbents on the supreme court will be reelected without opposition.
Supreme court justice Joan Orie Melvin was named as a target of a grand jury investigation into potential improper use of judicial and legislative staff for her election campaigns.
In discussing his plan to challenge a supreme court-ordered formula for state education funding, Governor Christie pledged to nominate two new supreme court justices this spring who would not “grossly” overstep their powers. The court ruled in May 2011 that Christie’s cuts to education funding were unconstitutional.
In its celebration of 2011 "Lawyers of the Year," LawWeek Colorado named Denver District Court Judge Ann Frick and Sherman & Howard lawyer Skip Netzorg for their roles in creating the rules for the Civil Access Pilot Project.
This week, Bob Dorigo Jones, a senior fellow of Center for America, called Rebuilding Justice a "must-read" and discussed it in his "Let's Be Fair" weekly radio program.
2011 was a banner year. Working with partners and stakeholders around the country last year, we made significant advances on several key projects. We launched a new initiative, Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, in a year when law schools are under more…
At the 2012 AALS Annual Meeting, former New York Law School Dean Richard Matasar urged a group of legal educators to prepare to change: "We know there are storm clouds on the horizon," Matasar said, as he ruminated about the poor job prospects facing…
I predict that legal education in general and law schools in particular will continue to be under the microscope in 2012. Some of the criticism is appropriate, and Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers is one of the efforts designed to address that legitimate criticism. Some of it, however, is both projection and scapegoating.
The Association of American Law Schools is meeting in Washington, DC, this week for its annual meeting, which is themed "Academic Freedom and Academic Duty." This Inside HigherEd article previews the conference, which three members of the Educating…
American Bar Association (ABA) President William Robinson recently spoke with Thomson Reuters to respond to growing criticism of the ABA's role "in fostering high expectations about legal jobs."
Scott Fruehwald at Legal Skills Prof Blog recently reviewed Contracts: A Context and Practice Casebook, authored by Michael Hunter Schwartz and Denise Riebe.
On January 1, 2012, Colorado launched its “Civil Access Pilot Project Applicable to Business Actions in District Court.” Five Denver metro-area courts will use new rules of civil procedure in certain types of cases for a period of two years, in an effort to better serve the needs of litigants. The rules are intended to address the problems of pretrial cost and delay in an even-handed way.
The article (subscription required) reviews the Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases and commends the work of the Federal Circuit Advisory Council's E-Discovery Committee and Judge Randall Rader, who unveiled the order at the Eastern District…
