News & Updates

A survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal for the Association of Corporate Counsel suggests that in-house legal departments are refusing to pay for new lawyers. More than 20% responded that they have refused to pay for work by first- or second…

​Another online platform to help couples streamline the divorce process has entered the market. It’s Over Easy was founded by Laura Wasser, a well-known divorce attorney who handles high-stakes celebrity divorces. “Couples today date online and bank online,” Wasser said. “They don’t mind putting in their assets and liabilities into a computer. They’re do-it-yourselfers. If they can buy an espresso maker online, they can get divorced online.”

The Wall Street Journal has published an article examining the push for alimony reform and why it is becoming a growing movement. The main contention is that current alimony laws have the potential to force couples to remain together financially and personally until death, even after divorce. The movement is driven by the opinion that alimony laws have become unfair and outdated in a time when many recipients are healthy, college-educated, and employed.

The November 2011 edition of Selection Snapshots is now available.

As part of our three-year project to support the modernization and transformation of civil litigation in our state courts, IAALS has helped facilitate a series of regional strategic planning summits to help states develop an action plan for reform or other activities in their respective jurisdictions.

In our recent publication in the Kansas Law Review, “The American Civil Justice System: From Recommendations to Reform in the 21st Century,” we explore the national momentum that has arisen around reducing the costs and delays associated with civil litigation. In this article we explore the history of recent efforts, and we note the important empirical research over the last five years that has laid the groundwork for understanding what is working, and what is not, in the civil justice system.

Amanda Gonzalez, Executive Director of Ms. JD, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the success of women in law school and the legal profession, has posted a review of Rebuilding Justice.

The IAALS Court Compass project is exploring streamlined and simplified solutions that help people through the divorce and separation process. After holding successful design sprints in Boston, Des Moines, and Raleigh, the Court Compass team is planning another design sprint in the Denver metro area.

In Minnesota, a broad-based group known as the Coalition for Impartial Justice, which includes more than 30 business, labor, religious, citizen, and legal groups, is working to implement the 2007 recommendations of the Quie Commission. The commission was unanimous in calling for the adoption of a "merit selection" process for judges and a performance evaluation program, with a majority of the commission favoring retention elections for subsequent terms.

Another take on what legal education reform is not (Dean Martin Katz recently posted on the topic here): The purpose of a skills class, a clinic, or a course that incorporates new teaching methods is not to teach when to reply to a motion, where the court house is, or how to fill out forms, it is to better teach doctrine and how to apply that doctrine to practical problems.

Done right, summary judgment expedites the just resolution of a case—that’s the whole reason we have Rule 56. Our challenge as judges and lawyers is to make dispositive motion practice advance that purpose. While lawyers have traditionally filed such motions if, when, and as often as they pleased, this is a recipe for excess or—worse—abuse. Dispositive motions work best when they are part of a plan for moving the case toward resolution.

We are pleased to announce the newest member of our Consortium of law schools committed to innovation: Touro Law Center. Among Touro’s latest projects is its ProBono Uncontested Divorce Project, a required part of the experiential curriculum for first year students that also helps students to satisfy New York’s new pro bono requirements. Touro Law Center will join the rest of the Consortium in Denver, October 3-5, 2013, for our 2nd Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference.

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.

The National Center for States Courts has released the first in a series of evaluations of civil justice reform demonstration pilot projects around the country. The pilot, in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, focused on implementing civil case management teams (CCMTs)—an innovative court staffing model that delegates case management responsibilities across a team of judges and staff.

According to a new analysis, justices on Wisconsin's high court tend to favor parties whose attorneys contributed to their election campaigns. With respect to campaign donations made prior to rulings, justices included in the study ruled in favor of donors 59 percent at the time. This does not establish that campaign support actually influenced decisions, but fair courts advocates worry that the public perceives this to be the case.

The editor of the National Jurist looks back at themes that emerged at the annual Association of American Law Schools meeting and observes: The level of experimentation and innovation is at its highest level since I began covering the market 20 years…

We at IAALS are among the many saddened by the untimely passing last week of Mark Cady, Iowa's Chief Justice. He had served as a judge for some 33 years, during which time he defended the importance of judicial independence and civic education as well as worked tirelessly to improve our nation's state family courts. 

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently published an article about proposed legislation to change the Pennsylvania judicial selection process. IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis was interviewed in the article about the proposed legislation and the benefits of merit selection. She noted that the Pennsylvania proposal contains the front-end nominating commission process endorsed by IAALS as the O'Connor Judicial Selection Plan.

Governor Gregoire encouraged trial court applicants and candidates for reelection to submit themselves to being rated by minority bar associations. In making judicial appointments, the governor consults minority bar ratings as well as traditional bar ratings.

On Thursday, March 12, the State Bar of California Trustees voted to postpone passing the motion to explore the development of a regulatory sandbox to May. In my eyes, every day, hour, or minute of delay leads to bad legal outcomes for Californians. Our legal system is in crisis. Now, as a community, we have to turn our kinetic access-to-justice energy into focused action.