Annual Meeting

Abolish private, for-profit probation that puts offenders deep in debt, ABA House urges

On Monday, the ABA’s House of Delegates easily passed and strongly condemned the use of for-profit, privatized probation companies funded by the offenders themselves. Sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division, Resolution 111B met with strong approval from the House, after a year in which these private probation systems have become…

Aug 8, 2016 8:20 PM CDT

Discrimination and harassment will be legal ethics violations under ABA model rule

The ABA’s Resolution 109 has attracted a lot of controversy outside the organization. The measure makes it a violation of professional responsibility to discriminate or harass in conduct related to the practice of law. It attracted coverage from the New York Times DealBook blog and condemnation from politically conservative attorneys,…

Aug 8, 2016 6:36 PM CDT

Create more opportunities for demographically diverse attorneys, House of Delegates urges

A resolution urging legal services providers—large law firms, in-house legal departments and others—to expand opportunities for attorneys of all backgrounds met with strong approval in the ABA’s House of Delegates Monday afternoon. On a day when several measures on diversity and inclusion in the legal profession met with support in…

Aug 8, 2016 5:25 PM CDT

Brown touts successes with pro bono and diversity initiatives in final remarks as ABA president

ABA President Paulette Brown offered her final remarks this morning to the ABA House of Delegates, capping off her historic year as the first female African-American president of the association—and perhaps the most-traveled. When accepting the gavel as president last year, Brown promised significant efforts for diversity and inclusion, hewing…

Aug 8, 2016 4:24 PM CDT

Lawyer referral services need confidentiality privileges, ABA House says

The ABA’s House of Delegates easily passed a resolution Monday calling for confidentiality in communications between lawyer referral services and their clients. Multiple local bar groups and sections joined the Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral and Information Service in support of Resolution 106, which calls for disclosures to lawyer referral…

Aug 8, 2016 4:01 PM CDT

ABA House calls for clearer election standards: ‘Let us not return to 2000’

In a contentious election year, the ABA’s House of Delegates recalled the surprising and tense election of 2000. “Let us not return to 2000, when we saw well-meaning judges … struggle with the process of determining voter intent because the state in that case had not enacted predetermined standards,” said…

Aug 8, 2016 2:50 PM CDT

5 Margaret Brent honorees helped level the playing field for women lawyers

One of a few themes that threaded through acceptance speeches by the five award recipients at the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award luncheon at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco concerned men, albeit small numbers of them, who worked to help women lawyers succeed. When—not so long…

Aug 7, 2016 7:50 PM CDT

Alexandra Darraby blends her love for art with her career in the law

Alexandra Darraby really wanted to get to the Rothko. So did I, but we each had our own reasons for making the pilgrimage to the gallery at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where one of the major works of American artist Mark Rothko was on display. For Darraby,…

Aug 7, 2016 7:20 PM CDT

Militarization of police has had a profound effect on American law enforcement

At the beginning of the ABA Annual Meeting event “Peace Officer: How Militarization of Law Enforcement Has Affected Peace Officers and the Communities They Serve,” San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi asked how many in the audience are afraid of police officers. “Not a lot,” he observed. “You may be…

Aug 7, 2016 5:00 PM CDT

Can the access-to-justice gap be closed? These recommendations might make it possible

As expected, the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services delivered plenty of recommendations for how the bar can close the access to justice gap in America, while steering clear of the most contentious issue: whether alternative business structures—most notably nonlawyer ownership of law firms—should be permissible. After two…

Aug 6, 2016 8:35 PM CDT

How should universities balance sexual assault victims’ rights with due process for the accused?

A survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics asked college students whether they had been sexually assaulted during the 2014-2015 academic year. The respondents reported 2,380 rapes to the survey, 770 of which took place on campus. But only 170 of them were reported to the schools. That’s a reporting…

Aug 6, 2016 7:10 PM CDT

Sherrilyn Ifill: Police shootings are creating crisis of confidence in the rule of law

The seemingly constant stream of new videos and other reports of African-Americans being shot by police under questionable circumstances is creating a crisis of confidence in the rule of law, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Sherrilyn Ifill told a luncheon gathering Saturday for the…

Aug 6, 2016 6:25 PM CDT

Chinese lawyer Wang Yu given ABA International Human Rights Award in absentia

ABA leaders and members of China’s community of dissidents-in-exile living in the United States packed a meeting room at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco on Saturday morning for the presentation of the ABA’s inaugural International Human Rights Award. But one key figure was conspicuously absent from the…

Aug 6, 2016 4:36 PM CDT

How should the United States balance border security and human rights?

Concerns about national security have driven much of our recent immigration policy—and many of the discussions taking place in the current U.S. presidential election. But how do policymakers balance those concerns with the rights of American citizens and the human rights of people seeking refuge from violence overseas? Two panels…

Aug 6, 2016 4:25 PM CDT

Key figures behind legal TV dramas say the lines are blurring between fact and fiction

Early on during a rambling dialogue about the impact that television and other forms of entertainment are having on public perceptions of justice in the United States, David E. Kelley downplayed his role as one of the leading purveyors of TV shows about the law. “I don’t delude myself that…

Aug 5, 2016 11:05 PM CDT