News & Updates

As thousands prepare to sit for the bar exam, IAALS is spearheading an empirical effort to define the minimum competence they need to practice law and to ensure the fairness, efficacy, and validity of the bar exam itself.

IAALS is thrilled by the news that Judge Russell Carparelli of the Colorado Court of Appeals will take the helm at the American Judicature Society (AJS) as of January 1, 2014. IAALS has partnered with AJS on a handful of projects and we look forward to strengthening our collaborative relationship under his leadership. And Judge Carparelli is also a friend of IAALS in both the professional and personal sense, engaged actively in our Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers and Quality Judges Initiatives.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for judicial nominees to get an up-or-down vote after 90 days, regardless of whether they could overcome a filibuster.

Eldercaring Coordination is an innovative dispute resolution process for high-conflict cases, providing an alternative to the traditional adversarial court process. By directly focusing on elders and their legally authorized decisionmakers, Eldercaring Coordination helps families work together to regain harmony and make decisions for the elder that all family members can agree on. 

In August 2014, all of Tennessee's appellate judges will appear on the ballot, and voters will decide whether they should be retained in office. By that time, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission will have provided information to the public about these judges' performance on the bench. Last month, the commission announced that it may take the unprecedented step of recommending against the retention of three intermediate appellate court judges.

This article provides an overview of the Seventh Circuit Electronic Discovery Pilot Program, which IAALS tracks as part of its Rule One Initiative, and discusses the program's potential to have an impact beyond the Seventh Circuit.

We join countless others in wishing retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor all the best today on her 90th birthday. Her life's journey has been remarkable, from her historic appointment to the Supreme Court to her inspiring civics and judicial selection achievements. IAALS and the public have benefited greatly from her efforts.

In a recent article, Law Week Colorado covered IAALS' newest publication, Working Smarter, Not Harder: How Excellent Judges Manage Cases. The article features interviews with IAALS Executive Director and former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis and 4th Judicial District Judge David Prince, one of the judges who was featured in Working Smarter.

A recent survey shows that the state’s courts have become more diverse over the last five years, with women comprising one third of the bench and racial minorities making small gains as well. On the supreme court, white males are in the minority, with women in four of the seven seats and four justices of Asian descent.

IAALS has released a new report that reveals valuable insights into how the public views court systems and processes, judges and the judiciary, and information about the legal system. The report is the culmination of IAALS' two-year project on public trust and confidence in the courts. 

Law Week Colorado recently published an article covering IAALS’ preliminary report on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP). On April 7, IAALS published its first findings on the project from collected docket and survey data. The Law Week article features interviews with IAALS Executive Director and former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis and IAALS Director of Research Corina Gerety.

Scott Fruehwald revisits the "Langdellian Bargain" and how five Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers consortium schools are pushing the limits of that model. Some of the innovative programs he identifies are the Leadership, Ethics and Democracy (LEAD) Initiative at UM Carey School of Law and a Southwestern Law School program.

Many states, including California, are exploring regulatory reform as a means through which to drive innovation in the legal services sector and increase access to justice. The public is rarely involved in these discussions, however, and the critical consumer perspective is missing.

David Thomson, an Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Fellow, has written two hybrid law school textbooks, which include both print and online components. In two recent blog posts, Professor Thomson wrote about his motivations for writing the textbooks and the results he has had using them in his classrooms.

Professor Amy Landers discusses the upside of interactive casebooks. Now available as part of some paper-format textbooks, students can link to the subject matter of the cases, including clips of songs, images, and even play the video games that spawned lawsuits.

The closing of courthouses in response to the pandemic complicated both the traditional collection and interpretation of judicial performance evaluation data. However, state courts’ adoption of new technologies over the past year has created fresh opportunities to improve JPE data collection, analysis, and dissemination going forward.

Chad G. Asarch recently wrote an article discussing the Real Estate Transactions course he teaches, which emphasizes practical legal skills in a non-clinical, traditional classroom setting. In contemplating the structure of the course, Asarch analyzed the actual work practicing lawyers undertake in representing a client in a real estate transaction, and class assignments were designed to make students perform these tasks.

By a unanimous vote, the judicial nominating commission selected Justice Brent Dickson to serve as chief justice of the supreme court. Dickson had the support of his fellow justices and Governor Daniel.

Two members of IAALS’ O’Connor Advisory Committee are calling for an end to lifetime appointments on the U.S. Supreme Court. Their statement comes in the wake of calls for Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement, who some say should step down so that a younger justice can be appointed while President Biden is still in office.

This Thursday and Friday, November 6-7, 2014, the Law School Survey of Student Engagement's (LSSSE) “Data and Assessment in Legal Education: The Necessities, The Possibilities” symposium will be held at Saint Louis University School of Law. Alli Gerkman, Director of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, will be presenting on a panel about “Using Data to Demonstrate and Improve the Value of Legal Education.”