Boies and Olson reveal the backstory of the case against California’s Proposition 8 (podcast)

Aug 28, 2014 5:55 PM CDT

What is the top tip you’d share with new lawyers in their first year of practice?

This week, we’d like to ask you: What is the top tip you’d share with new lawyers in their first year of practice? From this week until 12 a.m. CT on Sept. 9, 2014, you can actually enter your best piece of advice into a contest sponsored by the ABA…

Aug 27, 2014 6:00 PM CDT

Cartoon: Does this guy look guilty or what?

Looking at this month’s legal-themed cartoon is making us feel a little guilty. Tell us what you think is happening for a chance to be crowned champion of our September Cartoon Caption Contest and have your work appear below the cartoon in an upcoming issue of the ABA Journal. Submit…

Aug 26, 2014 2:15 PM CDT

Meet the 2014 Legal Rebels

The ABA Journal is pleased to present Legal Rebels 2014, with nine new innovators named in this year’s project. Read short profiles of each Legal Rebel in the September issue of the magazine. And throughout September, look for full profiles at LegalRebels.com. You’ll meet: • A young iconoclast whose stated…

Aug 25, 2014 8:10 PM CDT

‘Hackcess to Justice’ winners look to increase the reach of their apps

Award winners from the recent Hackcess to Justice legal hackathon are working hard to fulfill the main goal of the event: Improving access for all Americans to effective legal assistance. In the two weeks since the inaugural hackathon—in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting—took place at Suffolk University Law School…

Aug 25, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Supreme Court justices regularly seek to change the errors of their ways

Late in the recently completed Supreme Court term, Justice Antonin Scalia dissented in a little-noticed case about a federal bank fraud law. In Loughrin v. United States, the court held that the government did not have to prove that a defendant intended to defraud a financial institution to violate the…

Aug 22, 2014 9:21 PM CDT

Which students should go to law school? And which should not?

This week, George Mason University law professor Michael Krauss laid out plainly which students he thinks belong in law school—and which do not. Students interested in “pursuing justice,” in helping those who can’t afford legal help, and “in soberly attempting to understand and solve the incredibly difficult, and incredibly interesting,…

Aug 20, 2014 5:35 PM CDT

How to avoid mucking up the most crucial part of discourse

Each year, the Federal Judicial Center—the splendidly organized education and research agency of the federal courts—holds a series of courses for newly seated federal judges. It’s informally called “Baby Judges’ School.” This year there were some 80 attendees, and I was asked to give a two-hour presentation on writing better…

Aug 15, 2014 8:38 PM CDT

Pitch us your idea for a legal TV show

This week, the first 10-second teaser trailer was released for the much-anticipated comedy-drama Better Call Saul, a spinoff of the hit drama Breaking Bad. The TV show stars Bob Odenkirk as “criminal lawyer” Saul Goodman, and is set six years before the events of Breaking Bad. Two other legal shows…

Aug 13, 2014 8:00 PM CDT

Cartoon Poll: Which caption fits this canine cartoon best?

ABA Journal staffers snubbed the dog-eat-dog puns, even though clever “pro bone-o” and “illegal collar” captions made us snicker. But after reviewing more than 150 submissions, these were the three stand-out favorites. Now it’s your turn to tell us which one should run with the cartoon in an upcoming issue…

Aug 13, 2014 7:55 PM CDT

Winning apps in ‘Hackcess to Justice’ help write wills, navigate disasters and calculate jail time

A disaster-relief mobile app that provides individuals with legal information, resources, and forms for assistance. An interactive tool that calculates whether a user is eligible for indigent legal services, as well as how much prison time criminal defendants face. A game that determines whether a user is in need of…

Aug 9, 2014 2:16 AM CDT

‘Said no lawyer ever’: What is something you will never hear a lawyer utter?

We recently stumbled on the video meme “Said No Teacher Ever,” in which teachers make statements that they’d really never make. (Here’s a playlist of some examples.) Among the statements they claim no teacher would ever say: “No Child Left Behind? Best. Program. Ever.” “Don’t you love standardized testing?” “Yes,…

Aug 6, 2014 5:30 PM CDT

‘Hackcess to Justice’ teams will devise new tech to improve access to justice

As the ABA Annual Meeting gets underway in Boston, teams of law students, lawyers, and computer programmers will be gathering at nearby Suffolk University Law School to help solve a problem that continues to vex many in the legal community: While advances in technology have helped increase the availability of…

Aug 5, 2014 8:00 PM CDT

How do we fix the school-to-prison pipeline? (podcast with transcript)

Podcast Transcript Stephanie Francis Ward: Zero-tolerance discipline policies were once all the rage in schools. But research showed that in practice, many children—especially children of color—were being suspended and expelled for extremely minor infractions. Now that zero-tolerance is falling out of favor, what does this mean for schools and the…

Aug 4, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

12 movies with pivotal lessons featuring lawyers

Movies transport us. They take us to different times and places, bringing laughter in one moment and tears in the next. But no matter how outlandish the plot, at their core movies examine the human condition. We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves, even if the characters are ostensibly aliens…

Aug 1, 2014 8:44 PM CDT