News & Updates

Judge and IAALS board member Kevin Burke ruffled some feathers with the Newt Gingrich campaign after questioning his recent attacks on the judiciary. Here, he responds to Gingrich's point-by-point rebuttal.

Last year, IAALS and the National Center for State Courts released a new Roadmap for Implementation to guide state courts implementing civil justice reform efforts. IAALS and NCSC will ultimately work with one state from each region of the United States as it follows the Roadmap through implementation of civil justice reform. Idaho and Maine were previously announced as Roadmap states and we are excited to add Texas and Missouri to this list. I was fortunate to visit both states last month to support their reform efforts.

IAALS has played an important role in empowering jurisdictions to experiment with pilot projects and rules changes. Today, we are making information about these programs more accessible to all by launching Action on the Ground, an interactive map that gives users rich information about programs around the country—at a glance.

This week, Rebecca Love Kourlis contributed a guest post to the National Law School's Forum on Legal Education: But, of course, systemic change doesn’t happen overnight. Progress will be incremental. The people who can make it happen are the deans and law professors who are committed to the best possible education for tomorrow’s lawyers.

Since 2015, the amicable app has been helping couples in the United Kingdom facilitate their divorces. “At amicable, we believe that once a couple has made the difficult decision to separate, whatever the reasons, the emphasis should be on separating in the least painful way possible and, if children are involved, putting them first," said app co-founder Kate Daly.

Governor Tom Corbett nominated superior court judge Correale F. Stevens to fill the supreme court vacancy created by former justice Joan Orie Melvin's resignation following her criminal conviction. At the same time, a sitting supreme court justice is now the subject of an FBI investigation. The investigation is focusing on whether Justice Seamus McCaffery and his wife, who serves as his chief aide, violated the state Ethics Act when she received fees for referring clients to personal-injury law firms.

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.

More and more law schools and legal educators are embracing the fact that legal theory and skill aren’t enough to satisfy today’s legal employers. In response to this new reality, R. Lisle Baker, Professor of Law at Suffolk University in Boston, has created a course on Positive Psychology for law students.

Adequate training is vital in preparing judicial officers for the challenges of being on the bench. While this is true regardless of docket type, judicial education/training is especially important for domestic relations matters. The Honoring Families Initiative is undertaking research on how domestic relations training for judicial officers is provided in states across the country, and we would love to hear from you.

Randall Shepard, currently the longest-serving state chief justice, announced his intention to retire as of March 2012. The judicial nominating commission will screen applicants to fill the supreme court vacancy and send three names to Governor Daniels. The commission will also select the next chief justice.

We have been very fortunate to have Mark Nadeau on our Board of Advisors. Mark’s depth of thought, intellect, and candor—and his deep generosity—have been valuable assets at IAALS, and we count him among our blessings.

Indiana's superior courts are created by statute, and as such, the method of selecting judges is determined by statute as well and varies from county to county. In two counties, superior court judges are chosen through a commission-based appointment process, while in all other counties these judges are chosen in partisan or nonpartisan elections. Both of these selection processes are currently the subject of controversy.

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…

Innovations in the delivery of legal services can also be laboratories for testing innovations in legal education. Many innovations in education spring from the IAALS out-of-court divorce model and had an effect on the law students who participated in the on-campus center that provided the services.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill calling for a move to merit selection for judges of Pennsylvania's appellate courts. The proposed constitutional amendment would replace partisan elections with a commission-based gubernatorial appointment and senate confirmation process. And, the time may be right for selection reform in the state, according to a recent survey.

According to campaign finance records, two trial court judges made $100 contributions to an anti-abortion PAC after hearing cases involving abortion-related issues. The two judges serve in Sedgwick County, where judges are chosen in partisan elections, and are up for reelection this fall.

This spring, IAALS and the Sturm College of Law will host a three-part speaker series, bringing together perspectives from the legal profession, academia, and state supreme courts. How people access legal services not only profoundly affects justice, but also has important implications for those who study, teach, or practice law. Join us in this stimulating series of talks about changes that can help us move towards the goal of justice for all.

In his Voices from the Field interview, Bill Walters, Partner at Heizer Paul and former president of the Colorado Bar Association, suggests that law schools need to expose students to the various career options they have following law school, which extend far beyond the traditional big firm practice of law.

The senate rejected a proposal supported by Governor Brownback that would have eliminated the judicial nominating commission's role in screening applicants for the state's court of appeals and given the senate a role in confirming appointments to this court.

The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules met virtually on April 1 and covered a number of different updates and discussion topics, including proposed amendments to Rule 30(b)(6). And, instead of the usual legislative update, Judge Bates provided an update on recent pandemic-related events related to the Committee.