News & Updates

Recently, Brad Borden and I wrote a paper titled “The Law School Firm” (forthcoming South Carolina Law Review). The article idea is simple: Law schools should own and operate affiliated law firms where graduating students go to get trained in the practice of law for a fixed duration, similar to a judicial clerkship or analogously a residency for new doctors. The law firm would be run by senior attorneys who develop books of business, and it would be economically sustainable. Since the article’s public release, it has garnered significant attention.

​As noted by the Miami Herald, the average lifespan of an immigration case in the United States is about three years. Several factors have led to the nation-wide backlog, but many say the most prominent reason is the national shortage of federal immigration judges. According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the backlog of immigration cases nearly doubled between 2009 and 2015 due to the shortage of judges. The average caseload for each judge is approximately 2,000 cases and some immigration courts are so backed up that they’re already scheduling cases for the year 2020.

In E-Discovery: The Views from the Trenches, the National Law Journal surveyed litigators and vendors to get their perspectives on the top developments in e-discovery over the past year. A top response—predictive coding. But proportionality made a showing as well.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich promised to “restore the proper role of the judicial branch.” Among his proposals in this regard are ignoring federal court decisions with which he disagrees and subpoenaing federal judges to seek explanations for their decisions.

With nearly 30 percent of lawyers responding to our Foundations for Practice survey indicating that “life experience between college and law school” was “very helpful” (and another 49 percent saying it was “helpful”), why don’t lawyers discuss these experiences more on resumes or in interviews? The focus generally is to keep their background “strictly legal,” but the Foundations survey indicates that employers are looking for new hires that have grit, work ethic, and experience. And if you’re a young lawyer, likely the only place you can draw on past experience is non-legal jobs.

By now, the word is out that Judge Richard A. Posner is retiring from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. His retirement was unexpected, but his stated reasons for doing so shouldn’t be. In correspondence announcing his departure, Judge Posner sites apparent “difficulty” with his colleagues on the bench over the treatment of self-represented litigants as the motivation to leave the bench. A prompt response from Chief Judge Diane P. Wood, also on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, countered Judge Posner’s claim by stating, in part, “the judges and our staff attorneys take great care with pro se filings.” Judge Posner’s point, though, is more indicative of the entire justice system than a particular court and its staff attorneys.

Responding to a 6-3 supreme court decision that invalidated a legislative initiative requiring a two-thirds vote for tax increases, three Republican senators proposed a bill that would eliminate four justices from the nine-member court, citing the resulting salary savings.

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.