Search

Alli Gerkman Former Senior Director We kicked off the 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference on October 1 with 16 (yes, sixteen!) Ignite-style presentations, given by ETL Fellows and faculty from across the ETL Consortium. We heard about …

Zachary Willis Director of Communications A wave of new amendments to the federal rules of civil procedure will take effect Tuesday, Dec. 1, sparking cultural and operational changes to the nation’s legal system. Approved last April by the U.S. Supreme …

Scott Greytak Policy Counsel and Research Analyst, Justice at Stake When spending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court election surged to more than $16.5 million this month, it set a new record in U.S. history.  Special interests opened their checkbooks to …

Hunter Metcalf IAALS Intern The Supreme Court of India recently struck down a new law that sought to increase the executive branch’s power over the selection of judges. The Court ruled the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act unconstitutional, …

Janice Davidson Former Senior Advisor, Honoring Families Initiative Natalie Anne Knowlton Advisor on Regulatory Innovation Honoring Families recently convened a diverse cross-section of the national family law bar, with the goal of identifying and …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS Our collective view of litigation is a bit like the old New Yorker map , which shows New York City magnified, and then skips most of the rest of the country, landing on the west coast. Thomas Clarke, …

Malia Reddick Former Manager, Quality Judges Initiative November 2015 is the 75th anniversary of the Missouri Plan, an innovative approach to selecting state judges intended to preserve their impartiality while holding them publicly accountable for their …

Natalie Anne Knowlton Advisor on Regulatory Innovation The ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services has published an issue paper exploring the development of new categories of judicially-authorized-and-regulated legal services providers. The …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS I am sitting at the kitchen table at the ranch house, watching the sun rise. The sun is lighting the hills, one by one. It occurs to me—sappy or idealistic as it may seem—that a new day is …

Brittany Kauffman CEO We are excited to open registration for IAALS’ Fourth Civil Justice Reform Summit , which will be held in Denver, February 25-26, 2016. The Summit will feature nationally renowned faculty discussing the challenges of implementing …

Malia Reddick Former Manager, Quality Judges Initiative Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has announced the formation of a bipartisan screening committee to consider potential nominees for an upcoming vacancy on the state’s federal trial court. We at IAALS …

Hunter Metcalf IAALS Intern In a recent amicus brief to the Alaska Supreme Court, the American Bar Association (ABA) argues that the Alaskan Constitution requires appointment of counsel to an indigent parent in a child custody case when a private lawyer …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS The New York Times is running a series of articles on consumer-business arbitration (read them here , here , and here ). The writers observe that arbitration takes away transparency, due process, the …

Alli Gerkman Former Senior Director We kicked off the 4th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference with a story about math—or, more specifically, with a story about how long it took one mathematician to solve one not-so-simple problem. It’s a great …

Malia Reddick Former Manager, Quality Judges Initiative In response to record-breaking judicial election spending, and an unprecedented series of scandals involving supreme court justices, reform-minded folks in Pennsylvania are making historic strides …

Hunter Metcalf IAALS Intern Multiple states have recently amended their divorce laws in order to expedite the process and facilitate better, more cooperative outcomes for couples parting ways. While none of the reforms contain drastic or sweeping change, …

Zachary Willis Director of Communications The number of people representing themselves in court is on the rise, especially in family court. Some people feel they can handle the legal process on their own, or don't trust a lawyer to make things better. And …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS For the last ten years, IAALS—the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System—has worked to rebuild the civil justice system. After much work, and through collaboration with some of …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS Judges are the linchpin of the court system—the piece that that holds the wheels on. When a judge is engaged, attentive, and dedicated to assuring that each litigant gets the best the system can …

Zachary Willis Director of Communications Nearly 110 years ago, Roscoe Pound proclaimed: “Dissatisfaction with the administration of justice is as old as the law itself.” In 2015, that sentiment endures and is echoed in the mounting call for real, …