ABA Journal

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Trump doesn't have official-act immunity in Capitol-riot suits if actions stemmed from candidacy, DC Circuit says

Former President Donald Trump does not have official-act immunity, at least at this stage of the litigation, in lawsuits blaming him for the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.



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ABA Legal Ed council rejects Golden Gate University's plan to end its JD program

After years of struggling to meet the ABA’s accreditation standards and financial woes, Golden Gate University School of Law announced it will discontinue its juris doctorate program when this academic year ends. However, the ABA Legal Ed council rejected the plan because it “did not include sufficient detail relating to the operation of a teach-out.”



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Inside the claims against DoNotPay's Joshua Browder and the 'World's First Robot Lawyer'



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This lawyer has built a criminal defense practice for clients with mental disabilities, autism and dementia



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Does artificial intelligence discriminate in child neglect case assessments?

When Andrew and Lauren Hackney followed their doctor’s advice in caring for their baby, the Pennsylvania parents never dreamed it would lead to losing custody of their 7-month-old daughter—or that their heartbreak would be at the center of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.



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Legal sports betting creates more work for lawyers and invites scrutiny of gambling industry

Now that sports gambling has been brought into the light, perhaps the biggest change for the legal world is to identify and eliminate the kind of chicanery that might have no remedy on the illegal market.



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You're Not Alone: No matter how dire the situation might seem, help is available



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Making It Back: Bruce Simpson tried to take his own life, then he started healing

I have practiced law in Kentucky for 40 years, and I write this today to warn you about reaching the point of no return should you ever determine, as I did in January 2023, that death is a better option than life. Here is why I am sharing this: People are more vulnerable to being mentally shattered, given certain life crises, than they sometimes can appreciate. I do not want anyone I can influence—lawyer or not—to descend into an unstoppable spiral to the point of no return.



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2023 'Profile of the Legal Profession' report spotlights the scarcity of legal aid lawyers

The ABA released its annual Profile of the Legal Profession report Thursday, and it offers a sobering look at the dearth of civil legal aid lawyers in the U.S.



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ABA withdraws 2 online statements on Israel-Hamas war

Two statements on the Israel-Hamas war by ABA President Mary Smith have been withdrawn and are no longer available on the association’s website.



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Minority law school applicants lean on personal statements post-Harvard decision



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Supreme Court considers whether police officer's job transfer was sex discrimination under Civil Rights Act

The justices agreed to decide whether Title VII prohibits discrimination in transfer decisions “absent a separate court determination that the transfer decision caused a significant disadvantage.”



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Helping others is at the center of Holly Dolejsi's practice

Holly Dolejsi has made pro bono—and, in particular, helping transgender and nonbinary individuals change their names—a central part of her practice.



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How Fisher Phillips helped test and then implement Casetext's CoCounsel into its practice

In 1950, Isaac Asimov’s book I, Robot provoked readers with speculative tales from the future—including how humans might put thinking machines to work. And now that artificial intelligence has gone from fantasy to fact, law firms are discovering how they can benefit.



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DePaul University College of Law dean will lead ABA legal education starting next summer

The DePaul University College of Law’s dean will become the managing director for accreditation and legal education at the ABA, replacing Bill Adams, effective June 1.



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Judicial task force will take deep look at legal ed, bar admissions

A new group comprised of nine state supreme court chief justices and three state court administrators will make recommendations to state supreme courts regarding legal education, the bar admissions process and the declining numbers of attorneys dedicated to public-interest law.



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Campus politics playing bigger role in prelaw students' law school considerations, survey says

As conflicts related to the Hamas-Israeli war flare up on law school campuses, more than half of prelaw students—58%—want to attend a law school where their politics will align with those of others on campus, according to a survey by Kaplan conducted just before the war started and released Tuesday.



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Justice Thomas has 'serious doubts' about binding nature of mass-tort bellwether trials

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday expressed his “serious doubts” about using bellwether trials in multidistrict litigation to prevent defendants from relitigating issues decided in lawsuits by different plaintiffs.



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Avoid family fights during the holidays with this attorney's advice

Mike Mandell, a lawyer with 7.5 million TikTok followers, often doles out law-related advice. But in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, he offered some tongue-in-cheek tips for winning any Turkey Day argument.



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Citing allegations of 'unimaginable suffering' by child sex-abuse survivors, judge allows class action against Pornhub

Updated: A federal judge in California has certified a class action lawsuit alleging that online pornography companies were willfully blind to child sexual-abuse material that appeared on their websites.



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Legal Ed council votes to send academic freedom proposal to ABA House of Delegates

Also at the Friday meeting in Dallas, the council voted to move a proposal regarding online library standards to the House, and it approved for public notice and comment proposed revisions to loosen accreditation standards for new online-only law schools.



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Indiana Supreme Court releases proposal allowing grads of nonaccredited law schools to take the bar

The Indiana Supreme Court is now seeking comment on a proposed amendment allowing graduates of non-American Bar Association-accredited law schools to sit for the Indiana bar exam.



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Lawyer reprimanded for feeding deposition answers to vulnerable client who had to be hospitalized afterward

A Massachusetts lawyer who said he whispered deposition answers to a client out of concern for her well-being has received a public reprimand.



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When it comes to deregulation of the legal industry, divisions run deep

The debate on the deregulation of the legal industry is as highly charged as ever. And while many agree there’s a problem, reaching a consensus on the best way forward has proved elusive.



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