ABA

Blawg Review #314: LawLawpalooza 2011

We at ABAJournal.com are honored to be asked to host Blawg Review—“a blog carnival for everyone interested in law”— in conjunction with the 2011 ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto. We are not actually blawgging from Canada—as usual, we are in Chicago taking the el train into the office over the…

Aug 8, 2011 7:00 PM CDT

ABA Votes to Expand Voting Body to Include US Territories

The ABA gave each of the U.S. Pacific Territories its own seat in the House of Delegates today during the annual meeting in Toronto. Under the proposal, Constitutional Amendment 11-2 (PDF), Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands (actually a commonwealth), who shared a joint seat, now will each have its…

Aug 8, 2011 4:58 PM CDT

President Zack Lauds ABA for Willingness to ‘Get in the Way’ on Issues

Outgoing ABA President Stephen N. Zack updated members on the status of his presidency’s key initiatives in his farewell address today to the policy-making House of Delegates at the Annual Meeting in Toronto. Each of the entities discussed by Zack, which include the Task Force on the Preservation of the…

Aug 8, 2011 4:27 PM CDT

ABA Calls for Expansion of NICS Database & Right for Would-Be Gun Owners to Challenge Listings

In the first vote of the day, the ABA House of Delegates approved a resolution urging the expansion of the National Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS) to “ensure its completeness and accuracy through all appropriate measures, so that all persons properly categorized as prohibited from firearm ownership under U.S.…

Aug 8, 2011 3:46 PM CDT

ABA House Tackles Packed Agenda; Addresses Practice-Ready Legal Training and Civics

The ABA House of Delegates convened in Toronto this morning to kick off a two-day policy-making session at its 2011 Annual Meeting. The session opened with the singing of national anthems of the United States and Canada by a quartet of lawyers in both countries who perform in musical groups.…

Aug 8, 2011 2:00 PM CDT

Charleston and Drexel Celebrate News of Full ABA Accreditation

Charleston School of Law and Drexel University’s Earle Mack School of Law are celebrating the news that they have earned full accreditation from the American Bar Association. “In 2003, we began with a dream to create a second law school in South Carolina, a student-centered law school focused on service…

Aug 8, 2011 12:16 PM CDT

Updated: Follow Our Coverage of the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto

ABA Journal reporters are in Toronto keeping up with news from the ABA’s Annual meeting there. Don’t miss these posts, with more coming until the meeting wraps up on Tuesday: Ethics 20/20 Commission: Doing Nothing About Lawyer Rankings Is the Best Course O’Connor: Lawyers & Judges Need to Wake Up…

Aug 8, 2011 12:26 AM CDT

Ethics 20/20 Commission: Doing Nothing About Lawyer Rankings Is the Best Course

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 has decided that the best policy for the association to take towards companies that rank law firms and lawyers is to pretty much just leave them alone. That conclusion is set forth in a report that the commission has submitted to the ABA’s policy-making…

Aug 7, 2011 10:47 PM CDT

O’Connor: Lawyers & Judges Need to Wake Up to Judicial Funding Threat, Prep for Political Battle

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor expressed concern Sunday that not even lawyers and members of the judiciary fully recognize the threat to state courts posed by funding cutbacks being imposed by state legislatures. “No one, not even lawyers and judges, understands what a financial bind the courts…

Aug 7, 2011 9:58 PM CDT

Celebrated Women Lawyers Warn Next Generation Not to Rest on Laurels

First female associate. The only woman in her class. First woman in her department. Those were some of the titles held by the women lawyers honored Sunday at the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto, an award named after the first…

Aug 7, 2011 9:28 PM CDT

New York Lawyer James Silkenat Is in Line to Become ABA President in 2013

This morning’s meeting of the ABA Nominating Committee turned into a two-man show now that the current races for the association’s two highest posts have become uncontested. That means the way is clear for James R. Silkenat, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester in New York City to be formally…

Aug 7, 2011 7:50 PM CDT

AIDS Awareness Promoted at ABA Meetings with Free Condoms and HIV Tests

Free condoms were a big hit at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto. The ABA AIDS Coordinating Committee offered the condoms along with information about HIV and AIDS in an effort to improve awareness for the cause of prevention. Lawyers on their way to meeting registration “ravaged” the information table…

Aug 7, 2011 7:17 PM CDT

The ABA and Canadian Bar Put Their Special Relationship into Writing

The U.S. and Canada share perhaps the longest unguarded border of any two countries in the world, running from the Atlantic Ocean across the North American continent. There is an arch spanning one of the many border crossings in sight of the Pacific Ocean south of Vancouver. A message is…

Aug 7, 2011 2:08 AM CDT

ABA President Calls for Return to Civility; Breyer Notes Justices Don’t Raise Voices in Chambers

ABA President Stephen N. Zack today called on lawyers to take the lead in returning civility to a public arena that has come to be dominated by anger and insult. “Civility used to be inherent in public discourse,” Zack said in an address this evening to the Opening Assembly of…

Aug 7, 2011 1:48 AM CDT

Panelists: Judges Should Watch Whom They ‘Friend’ on Social Media and What Friends Post About Them

“When in Rome.” That was the motto extolled Saturday at the ABA Annual Meeting Toronto by a group of jurists who endorsed the use of social media in—and out—of the courtroom. However, adherence to the code of judicial conduct should always govern the courts’ presence on social networks such as…

Aug 6, 2011 11:04 PM CDT