ABA

DA says lawyers should push for change in stand-your-ground laws

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins thinks lawyers have a responsibility to work to revise certain laws related to gun violence. More often than not, Watkins said, it is minorities who “find themselves on the wrong end of a bullet” when shooters cite stand-your-ground laws to justify their actions. If…

Apr 1, 2013 6:29 AM CDT

Should hacked firms be cybercops?

Suppose a thief breaks into your house and steals your belongings. To cover his tracks, the thief secretly hides your stuff in a neighbor’s garage. What do you do next—go into the neighbor’s garage to retrieve your property, or call the police and hope they respond promptly? A much more…

Apr 1, 2013 6:19 AM CDT

Arab Spring brings no thaw for women’s rights

The overthrow of several regimes in the Middle East over the past two years hasn’t produced much progress toward achieving equality for women, according to former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. And if women and girls in the region do not gain basic rights, Hutchison told lawyers gathered for the…

Apr 1, 2013 6:10 AM CDT

ABA president-elect confirmed, woman of color next in line

As the ABA Nominating Committee confirmed its selection of a president-elect nominee, it also had its first meeting with the attorney who is seeking to be the first woman of color to lead the organization. William C. Hubbard, a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Columbia, S.C., is…

Apr 1, 2013 5:59 AM CDT

Gun violence issue surfaces at House of Delegates

Gun violence was not a prominent theme of the 2013 ABA Midyear Meeting, but the issue flared to the surface as the House of Delegates convened on the last day of the meeting. As delegates gathered, news was spreading about a shooting at a Wilmington, Del., courthouse that left three…

Apr 1, 2013 5:50 AM CDT

Task force collects ideas on legal education reform

Duke University law professor Paul Carrington recalls overseeing a study on legal education reform in 1970 funded by the Ford Foundation. The conclusion: The third year of legal education is a waste of time that raises the cost of legal services. Better to cut the third year, according to the…

Apr 1, 2013 5:39 AM CDT

ABA Announcements

NOTICE BY THE SECRETARY REGARDING ELECTION OF DELEGATES-AT-LARGE Pursuant to §6.5 of the ABA Constitution, six Delegates-at-Large to the House of Delegates will be elected at the 2013 Annual Meeting for three-year terms beginning with the adjournment of that meeting and ending with the adjournment of the 2016 Annual Meeting.…

Apr 1, 2013 5:29 AM CDT

Lawyers giving back

Know someone in the legal field who gets a charge out of helping others? Snap a photo at their next event and please submit them to Julie Brown c/o Lawyers Giving Back. We welcome your “action” photographs of lawyers—whether ABA members or not—giving back to their communities. Send jpeg files…

Apr 1, 2013 5:20 AM CDT

Barely half of all 2012 law grads have long-term, full-time legal jobs, data shows

Barely half of all 2012 law school graduates had full time, long-term legal jobs as of Feb. 15, according to employment outcome data released Friday by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Law schools reported that 56.2 percent of 2012 graduates were in jobs requiring…

Mar 29, 2013 4:50 PM CDT

ABA commission promotes access to civil justice with grants to five groups

Citing a goal of expanding access to civil justice, an ABA commission has announced grants to courts and legal groups in five states. The money would promote Access to Justice Commissions in states where they do not exist, according to a press release. Twenty-seven states and Washington, D.C., already have…

Mar 21, 2013 1:55 PM CDT

ABA legal ed section’s governing council advances so-called LSAT requirement

The governing council of the ABA’s law school accrediting arm has preliminarily approved two more chapters of a proposed overhaul of the accreditation standards. The council, which met Friday and Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., voted unanimously to post the proposed changes (PDF) for notice and comment. It also agreed to…

Mar 18, 2013 7:05 PM CDT

New ABA online toolkit helps law firms address gender-based pay inequities

As female attorneys in private practice continue to earn less than male counterparts, the American Bar Association has put together a program to help law firms address pay inequities. Available online, the ABA Toolkit for Gender Equity in Partner Compensation is also intended to help state and local bar associations…

Mar 18, 2013 5:21 PM CDT

About half of law schools post incomplete job and scholarship data, group says; Which did best?

About 46 percent of accredited law schools are failing to post charts about student scholarships and employment, or are reporting misleading and incomplete data, according to numbers released Wednesday by the group Law School Transparency. The number was even higher, the group says, before it notified law schools about problems…

Mar 6, 2013 6:30 PM CST

Sequestration puts litigants and court personnel ‘in physical jeopardy,’ ABA says in joint statement

The American Bar Association is joining with two other legal groups to warn that across-the-board budget cuts threaten access to justice and put litigants, court staffers and judges “in physical jeopardy.” ABA President Laurel Bellows signed the statement along with leaders of the American Association for Justice and DRI—The Voice…

Mar 4, 2013 6:38 PM CST

DOMA violates equal protection with ‘discriminatory burdens’ on same-sex spouses, says ABA brief

In an amicus brief (PDF) filed Friday, the American Bar Association asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the “unprecedented and discriminatory burdens” placed on legally married same-sex couples by Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. As an ABA press release sums up, the brief, which was…

Mar 4, 2013 3:43 PM CST