News & Updates

Both gubernatorial candidates oppose Amendment 3, a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow governors to appoint a majority of the members of the appellate judicial commission and give governors four nominees, rather than three, to choose from in appointing appellate judges.

Last summer, the Washington State Bar Association held its first round of exams in a new Limited License Legal Technician program (LLLT) aimed at bridging the access to justice gap by allowing non-lawyers to provide legal advice and assistance in limited areas, like domestic relations/family law. Now, a recent article provides an update how the LLLT program is progressing in the state.

In 2004, challenger Will T. Scott defeated incumbent justice Janet Stumbo. In 2012, Stumbo is challenging Justice Scott to regain the seat. The judicial campaign conduct committee has labeled ads by both candidates misleading, with at least one ad appearing to be designed to appeal to racial prejudice.

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers honored Martin “Marty” J. Katz, former Dean of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law with the 2016 Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL) Award. Katz served as Dean of Sturm College of Law from 2009 to 2016 and led its development and implementation of a major strategic plan, which included significant initiatives in experiential learning. He is a founding board member of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, a national consortium of law schools that are leading efforts to improve legal education. In addition, Katz serves as a member of IAALS’ Board of Advisors.

A Metropolitan Corporate Counsel article this week asks "Are Courts Beginning to Take Proportionality Seriously in E-Discovery?" As this article points out, “the tide may be changing” with a "variety of recent developments [that] demonstrate that courts are relying on the principle of proportionality with increasing frequency and vigor when assessing the scope and limits of e-discovery."

Based on its decade of work in the field of judicial performance evaluation (JPE), IAALS was invited to contribute a chapter on this topic to the recently published 8th edition of the American Bar Association’s The Improvement of the Administration of Justice.

iCivics, an organization founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and dedicated to increasing civic knowledge and participation, has created the jury service game, We the Jury. In this game, students play the role of jury members who must deliberate to reach a fair and impartial verdict.

IAALS co-founder and board member John Moye has been honored as one of Colorado’s 10 “Lawyers of the Decade,” a special award from Law Week Colorado, one of the state’s leading legal publications.

In a recent commentary in The Federal Lawyer, Judge Jack Zouhary analogized being a judge working to implement the new Federal Civil Rules to being a baseball team manager. He wrote that “[t]he team manager tries to make the right in-game decisions, but also to have a winning season.” He then defines a winning season for a judge as shepherding cases to a successful conclusion, “whether that conclusion be a trial, a decision on a dispositive motion, or a settlement.” Few judges or attorneys have embraced the call for reform with such passion, intelligence, creativity, and integrity as Judge Zouhary.

An informal Senate agreement on the rules of filibusters has the potential to accelerate confirmations of federal district court judges. The agreement reduces the amount of time required to overcome a filibuster and force a vote.

Law schools saw a decrease in applications this year and some believe prospective students are becoming more skeptical about the value of a law degree. Click here to read the article.

Bill has been involved with IAALS since 2012, when we launched the Honoring Families Initiative Advisory Committee on which he serves. We have worked together on our original vision-paper, on the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce, the Family Bar Summit, The Modern Family Court Judge, and now our online dispute resolution project called Court Compass. At every turn, every phone call, every email, Bill has been a generous, responsive, and wise partner.

On Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon directed that local rule amendments that had previously been proposed and submitted for public comment take effect March 1, 2013. The amendments include adoption of two pilot projects that are being implemented around the country to focus and streamline discovery. The District of Oregon’s adoption of both projects reflects its commitment to finding solutions to unnecessary cost and delay in the litigation process.

Intervention in judicial campaigns by special interest groups was an issue in a debate between two superior court candidates. One candidate was prepared to renounce all such activity by third-party groups, while the other candidate preferred to make that decision if questionable activity took place. (The superior court is one of the state’s two intermediate appellate courts.)

On the very day when the Colorado Supreme Court Justices convened for an annual holiday luncheon, which includes all former Justices, a new Justice was added to the Court. Former Chief Justices Bender and Mullarkey, former Justices Kirschbaum, Dubofsky, Hobbs, Martinez, Eid, and yours truly; and sitting Chief Justice Rice and Justices Hood, Boatright, Coats, Marquez, and Gabriel all met to share some holiday cheer and some Court administrative updates. The tradition has been ongoing since before I joined the Court—and it is a wonderful one. We all get a chance to catch up, and to feel part of an institution that is profound and meaningful.

In an article in the March edition of The Colorado Lawyer titled "'No Written Discovery Motions' Technique Reduces Delays, Costs, and Judges’ Workloads," Colorado attorney Richard P. Holme touts the “no written discovery motions” technique, whereby the court addresses all discovery disputes with an in-person or telephonic discovery hearing instead of a written motion, at least at the outset. This technique presents a number of advantages for the judge and the parties.

Two law professors suggest that preparing students for their first couple years fo practice is hardly enough--law schools must strive to prepare students for "for a lifetime of successful, ethical, and personally rewarding practice."

Greg and I have known one another for over thirty years. He was a new associate at Gibson Dunn during a period in my career when I was working with Gibson Dunn, primarily on water and oil and gas matters. Back then, Greg was green, and I was just a little less so. But, we overlapped for only a short time. I next encountered Greg primarily through his mother, who lived at the time in our neighborhood and rode her bike everywhere. We would see one another at the grocery store or on the street, and she would tell me about Greg’s career and about her other children as well. The Kerwin family is an extraordinary family.

It has been an eventful week judicial selection-wise in the Kansas legislature. On Monday, the chairman of the senate judiciary committee announced the details of a compromise selection reform proposal for the state’s appellate judges, which the Kansas Bar Association's board of governors rejected on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, the house judiciary committee chair introduced three new proposals aimed at the appellate court.

Responding to questions from lawmakers regarding his record of judicial appointments, Governor Scott said that he will not appoint judges who think differently from him in order to achieve diversity. Of the thirty-six judicial appointments Scott has made, only two have been black.