News & Updates

The December 2011 edition of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers newsletter is now available. Sign up for this and other IAALS newsletters here.

American Bar Association President Bill Robinson responds to recent scrutiny of the judiciary.

The inaugural 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…

The November 2011 edition of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers newsletter is now available. Sign up for this and other IAALS newsletters here.

Pundits are drawn to extremes. Perhaps that is simply the nature of things. But in the debate over the future of legal education, espousing extremes hinders the discussion. At one extreme are the loudest critics of the current state of legal education. At the other extreme are the defenders of the status quo. But at its core, this discussion draws a false dichotomy between theory and practice.

This opinion piece reviews the Citizens United v. FEC decision and predicts that it will have a detrimental effect on state judicial elections.

The October 2011 edition of Selection Snapshots is now available.

Senate Republicans filibustered for the second time an Obama judicial nominee. Only one Republican senator joined Senate Democrats in voting to end the confirmation debate, but they fell six votes short of the required sixty votes.

The American Bar Association's Legal Education Section has approved changes to what is required of law schools when reporting job placement information. The changes will "expand the level of detail of graduate employment data law schools must report…

The December 2011 edition of Selection Snapshots is now available.

The interest in reforming the graduate level education experience is not unique to law. The Economist reports that Harvard Business School is experimenting with a new curriculum, "FIELD" (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development), that embraces "learning by doing."

The commission on judicial conduct recommended that a New York City civil court judge be admonished for circulating misleading materials in her 2006 campaign. Admonishment is the least severe punishment for judicial misconduct.

Former chief justice Roy Moore, known to many as the “Ten Commandments judge,” announced plans to run for chief justice in 2012. Moore was removed from the court in 2003 for defying a federal judge’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

President Obama’s efforts to fill judicial vacancies have been complicated by the American Bar Association’s ratings of potential nominees. The ABA’s judicial vetting committee has rated 14 of 185 potential nominees as “not qualified,” and the administration has a policy of not nominating such candidates.

The commission on judicial qualifications admonished a judge for an “injudicious” flyer used in her 2010 campaign. According to the commission, the flyer “likely gave the impression…that the judge’s rulings could be influenced by campaign contributions.”

The governor appointed Beth Robinson to the supreme court. She is the first openly gay justice to serve on the court.

Following this decision, the judicial selection commission revised its rules to allow for public disclosure of nominees. The commission recently announced the names of six nominees sent to Chief Justice Recktenwald for appointment to a district court vacancy.

Be sure to look for Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers when the ABA Journal hits your mailbox this month. The article about our initiative notes the good timing of our launch (is there anyone committed to the legal profession who isn't interested in legal education right now?) and highlights Professor Roberto Corrada's labor relations class at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Paul Lippe, the CEO of Legal OnRamp, weighs in on the ongoing conversation about legal education reform: But I see the issue differently. It is not that law school is incomplete in training lawyers—which by any definition it must be—but that it lacks engagement.

The Third Branch, the blog of the United States Courts, discussed the background and objectives of the pilot project in the Southern District of New York.