News & Updates

We’re researchers who study legal services regulation and access to the civil justice system. We’ve been thrilled to watch groundbreaking announcements from the West ignite a wide-ranging national debate about how best to regulate legal training, services, and businesses—and we’ve been paying special attention to the role people who are not lawyers are playing in the process of legal re-regulation.

A family court in New York City recently allowed a father to serve his ex-wife with notice of a child support action via Facebook. The father first attempted to find and contact the mother through all of the traditional means, to no avail. The magistrate allowed the nontraditional service and noted that it was most likely the first of its kind in the country—when both parties are in the United States.

Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers' newest partner, Georgetown University Law Center has historic strength in linking the practical with the theoretical thereby producing lawyers with a broad range of skills in addition to substantive expertise. Georgetown…

In 2021, Minnesota implemented a legal paraprofessional program to provide increased access to justice for a broader range of low- and modest-income individuals. So far, there are multiple signs that these paraprofessionals bring positive change to the profession.

The proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their potential impact continue to be on the forefront of discussions around the country. During a recent webinar, the Civil Rules Advisory Committee Chairman, Judge David Campbell, discussed the history of the amendments and the unprecedented number of public comments received during the rulemaking process. The discussion of the proposed amendments continued at Legal Tech New York, where a panel of judges spoke on their impact.

The American Bar Association (ABA) weighed in on the federal judicial nominations that are languishing in the U.S. Senate. On June 20, ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III sent a letter on behalf of the ABA to Senate Majority and Minority Leaders expressing concern over judicial vacancies and urging the Senate to vote on those pending appellate court nominees who have strong bipartisan support. 

The ninth State of State Courts survey of one thousand registered voters gauged levels of public trust and confidence in our judiciary and broader institutions, with results revealing a decline across the board.

Our 24 Principles lay the foundation for achieving fundamental improvement of our system to help ensure that no one is shut out due to a lengthy and expensive process.

Daniel Girard, founder and managing partner of a San Francisco- and New York-based litigation firm and a member of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Advisory Committee, recently sat down with ETL to discuss his insights into legal education and what he sees as a the most promising new teaching strategies being implemented by law schools and the qualities that new attorneys need to succeed in the practice of law.

Each state with an allied legal professional program has its own unique qualifications to become licensed, but one thing all programs share is that the requirements are robust. Data shows ALPs competently handle legal tasks and prioritize consumer protection, ultimately increasing access to justice.

Washington's inaugural class of limited license legal technicians (LLLTs) have taken their initial test to become the first of their kind. Seven of the nine who took the state's LLLT exam passed and now face the next steps toward becoming licensed…

Our two-day E-Discovery Summit, which was held June 22-23, 2012, was highlighted this week in a LawWeek Colorado article, along with the release of Navigating the Hazards of E-Discovery: A Manual for Judges in State Courts Across the Nation…

The community-based justice worker model is rapidly expanding within the civil justice ecosystem, showcasing diverse forms and significant impact. Here, we explore its evolution, approaches, and nationwide influence on improving access to justice.

How do you talk to children about divorce? And, do we realize just how far the effects of divorce can reach? In a recent article for Psychology Today, Splitopia author Wendy Paris discusses these questions and takes a hard look at the realities of…

Twenty-three past presidents of the Florida Bar signed a resolution denouncing the effort by Restore Justice 2012 to oust three supreme court justices standing for retention in November. The bar also released a poll of attorneys showing strong support for retaining the justices, whose average approval rating was 90 percent, and the 15 court of appeals judges on the ballot.

Following Utah's example, several other states and Canadian provinces are exploring regulatory sandboxes to address the access to justice crisis and create innovative services for people's unmet legal needs.

At Seattle University School of Law, our goal is to have a comprehensive, integrated skills curriculum. We feel good about our curriculum’s comprehensiveness; we have focused in recent years on integration. Our legal writing and clinical faculty in particular have collaborated extensively over the last several years, including holding a yearly joint retreat. We also collaborate on the Real Clients in the First Year Project, where our first-year legal writing students work on a slice of a pending clinical case or on a live issue from a legal nonprofit. 

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked a Montana state law barring political party endorsements of judicial candidates.

As IAALS celebrates its tenth year, the Denver Business Journal sat down with Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis to recap her motivation for leaving the Colorado Supreme Court and founding IAALS, and the impacts made over the last decade.

Supporters of Amendment 3, which would alter the composition of the appellate judicial commission and require the commission to identify 4 (rather then 3) nominees for each vacancy, announced that they will not campaign for the amendment’s passage.