News & Updates

The commission on judicial conduct recommended that a New York City civil court judge be admonished for circulating misleading materials in her 2006 campaign. Admonishment is the least severe punishment for judicial misconduct.

Today, IAALS announces the release of a new resource, Listen > Learn > Lead: A Guide to Improving Court Services through User-Centered Design, on how best to solicit feedback from self-represented litigants and other court stakeholders. The tools provided in this guide come from the knowledge IAALS gained through the Court Compass Project design sprint workshops.

According to a poll funded by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, 74 percent of Oklahoma voters favor choosing appellate judges in contested elections over a merit selection and retention process, and 69 percent support amending the constitution to make this change. Seventy-six percent of respondents want term limits for appellate judges.

The state bar association released attorney evaluations for trial judges up for reelection in 2012. It marks the first time since 1980 that judges statewide have been evaluated. The bar, which undertook the project to provide voters with more information about judicial candidates, plans to conduct a companion evaluation of judicial challengers.

It is no secret that divorce poses significant problems for those who go through the legal process. The adversarial nature of the legal process can put people at odds with one another and the courts are not well-positioned to provide emotional and future-planning support. IAALS has released a new report detailing the evaluation of our out-of-court model aimed at addressing these challenges for families with children.

IAALS is honored to be featured front and center in the Fall 2013 edition of The Bulletin, a publication of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The article chronicles the six year journey of collaboration, cooperation, and determination undertaken by IAALS and the ACTL to reform our country's ailing civil justice system. The national response to our organizations' joint efforts proves that meaningful change is not only possible, but within reach.

In a follow-up to the annual AALS meeting, LawWeek Colorado interviewed Rebecca Love Kourlis about the team Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers sent to the conference and its takeaways.

Last month, the University of Pennsylvania Law School announced the launch of their Future of the Profession Initiative. The initiative aims to “Teach, Lead, and Transform” by looking at ways law schools can “adopt a holistic vision” for the formation of lawyers, both during law school and on through their careers. 

At our 2nd Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference, we honored Bill Henderson with our Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Award. Afterward, he delivered a keynote address (video here) focused on the significance of the role played by legal educators and the change that is coming. Talking about his own experience with a professor as a later-in-life college senior, he said that educators have the power to "flip the switch."

In its recent litigation issue, LawWeek Colorado followed up with Gordon “Skip” Netzorg and Rebecca Love Kourlis on the first few weeks of Colorado's new Civil Access Pilot Project. At the request of the Colorado Supreme Court, IAALS is studying the effects of the pilot project.

In today’s increasingly busy and connected world, electronic notifications play a significant role in keeping us up to date. One would expect that due to the serious nature of court proceedings that the courts would be up-to-date with messaging or other communication capabilities, but unfortunately that is not the case. However, many courts are beginning to change that reality.

This spring, IAALS will hold its annual Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner, which recognizes individuals who exemplify the spirit of innovation and leadership that we champion across all of our work. We are thrilled to be honoring two longtime supporters of IAALS: Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael L. Bender (Ret.) and University of Denver Chancellor Robert D. Coombe.

Some Canadian law schools are looking at ways to offer more experiential education: Regardless of the type of experiential learning, whether it’s participating in one of the law school’s clinics or one of its various intensive programs, [Osgoode dean…

Last year, IAALS surveyed members of the American Board of Trial Advocates about their trust and confidence in the legal system and factors that influence their perspectives. A substantial majority of respondents reported high levels of confidence in both the state and federal court systems, but others gave us reasons for their declining confidence.

For the second year in a row, the U.S. News and World Report's 2015 law school rankings have taken advantage of the rich employment data now made public by the American Bar Association. But as the Economist noted last week, the rankings have not yet made use of an interesting piece of data the ABA has published: whether student jobs reported by schools were funded by law schools.

IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis was interviewed recently on Divorce Source Radio, a resource for individuals and families going through divorce. According to Kourlis, the challenge for IAALS and others is to explore how we can “create a system that would nurture people through it to the extent possible . . . while still achieving the separation of legal rights and responsibilities that are associated with divorce.”

In anticipation of confirmation hearings for Governor Christie’s two supreme court appointees, public employees unions expressed concern to the senate about the governor’s partisan approach to judicial appointments. They allege that the governor selected a Republican “posing as an independent” in order to observe the tradition of party balance on the supreme court.

September 17 marks Constitution Day, commemorating the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Today, IAALS looks back on a series of perspectives we published in 2016—authored by leaders across our government, judiciary, and legal profession—which are grounded in a belief that an independent judiciary is crucial to both the rule of law and the functioning of our democratic republic.

As the burgeoning campaign in opposition to the retention of the three Tennessee justices continues, those justices are responding with their own campaign. They recently gave an interview to a local news outlet in which they discussed the threat that the retention challenge poses to judicial independence. The Tennessee and Nashville bar associations have both entered the fray as well.

The supreme court adopted new rules that bar individual judges from taking budget requests and suggestions for revisions to the law directly to legislators without first getting appropriate approval. These rules are in response to judges’ role in lobbying lawmakers for a $50 million courthouse that has been labeled “Taj Majal.”