News & Updates

The Young Lawyer Editorial Board of The American Lawyer recently called out a growing disconnect between the skills and training law students are receiving and the tasks new lawyers are asked to complete in practice. For example, new lawyers today are often asked to manage both teams and deadline schedules, and also to take the lead on important documents and matters early in their careers. However, today’s typical law school curriculum does not always cover all these important areas.

As a former Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and a current member of the IAALS Board of Advisors, I commend Governor Maggie Hassan for her wisdom in establishing the Judicial Selection Commission to advise her in filling vacancies on our state’s courts. Such a commission ensures that political considerations take a back seat to qualifications, experience, and judicial potential in selecting judges.

The judicial nominating commission held public interviews of the eighteen applicants for a court of appeals vacancy.

In the most recent issue of the Bar Examiner, Alli Gerkman and I discuss the perceived skills gap that affects employment for newly graduated law students, an issue that has even greater implications for the profession as a whole when new lawyers enter the workforce unprepared or underprepared.

In 2012, the divorce rate in China exceeded the marriage rate. According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, 2.87 million people applied for divorce in 2012, a seven percent increase from the year prior. Thirteen million couples married in China in 2012, representing an increase of 1.6 percent from 2011.

The November 2011 edition of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers newsletter is now available. Sign up for this and other IAALS newsletters here.

For the fifth year in a row, the National Center for State Courts has conducted a comprehensive public opinion survey to gauge the level of public trust and confidence in the state courts. The State of the State Courts survey provides an important window into public views of our court system, including comparisons across past surveys and insights into key issues for the future of our state courts including self-representation and online dispute resolution.

A recent piece in the Chicago Sun-Times sheds light on the process for selecting judges in Cook County, Illinois. Earlier this month, the Cook County Democratic Party's Judicial Selection Committee met to "slate" candidates, a process through which candidates meet with the committee to discuss their qualifications in hopes of getting the party's endorsement. Some participants in the slating process assert that most of the party's picks are pre-determined based on political connections instead of qualifications.

Under a new code of judicial conduct that goes into effect in January, the political activities of judicial candidates are strictly curtailed. The new rules were issued at the same time that a judge is awaiting trial on bribery charges.

IAALS’ Court Compass project has received an honorable mention as part of the World Justice Project’s World Justice Challenge 2019. Thirty projects have been selected as finalists to be showcased at the World Justice Forum on April 29 – May 2, and IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis and Senior Director Brittany Kauffman will be in attendance and speaking on panels.

Recent efforts to alter the process for selecting Kansas' appellate judges have been covered frequently of late. Supporters of increased funding for public schools are concerned about the impact this effort may have on a school finance case that is currently before the supreme court. Specifically, they worry that Governor Brownback and conservative legislators may be pushing selection changes to "put the court on notice."

Dissatisfaction with the redistricting maps drawn by a panel of appellate judges has led to renewed calls by some legislators for changes in how appellate judges are selected. Proposals include adding more citizen members to the judicial nominating commission, which is said to be dominated by trial attorneys, and prohibiting judges from serving on the commission.

October 20–26 is the National Celebration of Pro Bono, and over a dozen districts across Colorado are offering a legal resource day or pro bono services sometime during the week. Additionally, probono.net offers a comprehensive list of events and services being offered nationally.

Since launch, nearly 60,000 calculations have been made using the calculator, which gives prospective law students the most transparent and complete law school employment rate information available. We were also featured prominently on the home page of the ABA's website, and we made several improvements to the tool to make it even easier to use. Here are a few.

Beth Tomerlin took Professor David Thomson's Discovery Practicum while still a student at University of Denver Sturm College of Law. In an article for the Denver Bar Association Docket, she discusses the class and how it prepared her for practice.

The National Self-Represented Litigants Project has released its 2018/2019 report on the demographics of SRLs in Canada, including their income, education level, party status, and experience with legal services. While some of the results may come as no surprise, others are more eyebrow-raising.

 

A Tennessee trial court judge has ruled that the composition of the state's judicial performance evaluation commission violates the state constitution. Despite invalidating the commission's composition, the judge did not enjoin its operation, and, three days after the ruling, the commission released its final evaluations and recommendations for the appellate judges standing for retention later this year.

A new site devoted to procedural fairness in the courts was recently launched by Judge Kevin Burke, District Judge in the Hennepin County (Minn.) District Court; Judge Steve Leben, Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals; the National Center for State Courts (with researcher David Rottman as its lead blogging participant); and Professor Tom Tyler, of Yale Law School.

This year, the ABA marks Law Day 2020 with the theme of “Your Voice, Your Vote, Our Democracy,” a celebration of the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We look to the women's suffrage movement for inspiration and to remind us that creating impact and change takes time.

The Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association dedicated its Winter 2014 publication to the Judiciary. As part of the WTLA’s review of the bench, IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis wrote an article about one way that Wyoming can enhance its selection and retention process, by conducting judicial performance evaluations.