ABA Insider

February-March 2022 ABA Notices

For more official ABA notices, please visit ABAJournal.com in March. BOARD OF ELECTIONS RESULTS FOR THE 2022 STATE DELEGATE ELECTIONS In December, the Board of Elections certified the results of the 2022 state delegate elections. For a complete list of the state delegates elected for the 2022-2025 term, go to…

Feb 1, 2022 12:20 AM CST

David Yamada is fighting to end workplace bullying

“We’re taught to be really good at manipulating language as lawyers, and language is the stock-in-trade of bullying and abuse,” Prof. David Yamada says. “Most of the time, it’s not about physical aggression. It’s about commissions and omissions, I guess you could say, in terms of how people treat one another.”

Dec 1, 2021 12:40 AM CST

ABA President Reginald Turner wants his term to focus on the organization’s four goals

Learn all about the ABA’s president, Reginald Turner, including what first brought him into the profession; where he went on his first date with his wife; and the dessert that’s his daily treat.

Dec 1, 2021 12:30 AM CST

December 2021-January 2022 ABA Notices

For more official ABA notices, please visit ABAJournal.com in January. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS The constitution and bylaws of the American Bar Association may be amended only at the ABA Annual Meeting upon action of the House of Delegates. The next annual meeting of the House of Delegates…

Dec 1, 2021 12:15 AM CST

Judge Neil Axel uses DUI court experience to tackle traffic safety

Judge Neil Axel works with the ABA’s Judicial Outreach Liaison and Judicial Fellows Program. As one of its two judicial fellows, Axel helps educate judges nationwide on issues involving impaired driving offenses, including drug-impaired driving; evidence-based sentencing practices to reduce recidivism; and the impact of the legalization of marijuana on highway safety. He also works closely with the program’s nine regional JOLs and 22 state JOLs, all of whom provide training and support on impaired driving and other highway safety issues to courts in their areas.

Oct 1, 2021 1:30 AM CDT

ABA leaders urge members to help meet the nation’s legal needs

Considering everything that has happened in the past year, the legal profession is much more nimble than it gives itself credit for, Patricia Lee Refo told the House of Delegates at the ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting in August. “It’s a powerful reminder that when circumstances call on us to do…

Oct 1, 2021 1:20 AM CDT

Human rights abuses at boarding schools for Native American children must be examined, ABA House says

Resolution 801 urges organizations and governments to cooperate with the Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative and hand over school records to help uncover the truth of what happened at the boarding schools.

Oct 1, 2021 1:10 AM CDT

Student loans should be easier to discharge in bankruptcy, ABA argues

Student debt is a real and present crisis,” Christopher Jennison told the ABA House of Delegates in August at the ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting. Jennison, then a Maryland State Bar Association delegate and YLD assembly speaker, had risen to introduce Resolution 512. It urges Congress to amend the U.S. Bankruptcy…

Oct 1, 2021 1:00 AM CDT

Thurgood Marshall Award recipient Clarence B. Jones gets surprise tribute from Obama

Clarence B. Jones, a civil rights leader and member of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legal team, deserved the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s recognition as this year’s Thurgood Marshall Award recipient. But the section’s president thought being acknowledged by former President Barack Obama would be an even higher honor.

Oct 1, 2021 12:50 AM CDT

ABA House calls for end to private prison contracts

The ABA House came out strongly against private prisons at this year’s ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting, calling them a failed experiment and saying the industry has “perverse and immoral incentives” to keep people behind bars.

Oct 1, 2021 12:40 AM CDT

October-November 2021 ABA Notices

For more official ABA notices, please visit ABAJournal.com in November. 2022 STATE DELEGATE ELECTION Pursuant to Section 6.3(a) of the ABA’s constitution, 16 states will elect state delegates for three-year terms beginning at the adjournment of the 2022 annual meeting. The deadline for receipt of nomination petitions is Wednesday, Dec.…

Oct 1, 2021 12:35 AM CDT

ABA House votes to oppose laws that ban transgender student-athletes

Diana Katherine Flynn told the House of Delegates in August they could help transgender youth avoid significant harm if they opposed legislation prohibiting their participation in school sports. “We’re dealing with one of the most vulnerable groups in the country in trans youth,” said Flynn, who was a special advisor…

Oct 1, 2021 12:30 AM CDT

Meet a health justice advocate working to prevent evictions during COVID-19 pandemic

Since March 2020, Emily Benfer has focused on tracking eviction moratoria, researching the effects of COVID-19 evictions on racial health equity and advocating for interventions to help provide communities hardest hit by the pandemic with financial support and legal protections. “Racial, housing and health justice are inseparable,” Benfer says. “Justice in any of these areas requires justice in all of them.”

Aug 1, 2021 12:30 AM CDT

The ABA has advocated for people with HIV/AIDS for more than 30 years

While the American Bar Association has mobilized to help the public and profession during the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not the first time the association has addressed the challenge of a new and deadly virus. At the height of the United States’ AIDS epidemic, the ABA helped lead the charge to decrease discrimination against people who were infected with HIV.

Aug 1, 2021 12:20 AM CDT

August-September 2021 ABA Notices

2022 STATE DELEGATE ELECTION Pursuant to Section 6.3(a) of the ABA’s Constitution, 16 states will elect state delegates for three-year terms beginning at the adjournment of the 2022 annual meeting. The deadline for receipt of nomination petitions is Wednesday, Dec. 8. Go to ambar.org/2021-statedel to find the states conducting elections…

Aug 1, 2021 12:07 AM CDT