Annual Meeting

Employers need policies in place to address domestic violence and stalking, says ABA House

The ABA House of Delegates has adopted the Model Workplace Policy on Employer Responses to Domestic Violence, Dating Violence and Stalking in Resolution 112A. The policy encourages all employers to enact formal policies on workplace responses to the problems of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, and stalking violence. Those…

Aug 12, 2014 6:07 PM CDT

Our goals and motto call on us to fight implicit bias, says ABA President-elect Brown

Next year, Paulette Brown will become the first woman of color to be president of the ABA. In her speech to the ABA House of Delegates Tuesday morning as the ABA’s new president-elect, Brown urged adherence to the ABA’s four goals and its motto. Brown, a partner at Edwards Wildman…

Aug 12, 2014 5:28 PM CDT

ABA House urges all organizations to develop cybersecurity programs

The ABA House of Delegates has adopted a policy encouraging private and public sector organizations to develop, implement and maintain an appropriate cybersecurity program. Such programs would need to comply with applicable ethical and legal obligations. They would also need to be tailored to the nature and scope of the…

Aug 12, 2014 4:15 PM CDT

Start programs for newly admitted lawyers to help meet needs of underserved, ABA House urges

The Legal Access Job Corps Task Force addressed the signature effort of James Silkenat, now the ABA’s immediate-past president, to find ways to turn two problems into a solution: Match the unemployed or underemployed new lawyers with those who cannot otherwise obtain legal services. The ABA House of Delegates on…

Aug 12, 2014 4:03 PM CDT

Successors of executed prisoners should be allowed to litigate innocence claims, says ABA House

The ABA House of Delegates has approved a resolution urging federal, state and territorial jurisdictions where capital punishment is permitted to adopt a statute or rule which would permit an executed individual’s successors to litigate a claim of actual innocence. Where no successors exist, a legal entity would also be…

Aug 12, 2014 3:48 PM CDT

Law school accreditation standards breeze through House of Delegates with minimal fuss

A six-year odyssey by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to revise the standards and procedural rules it uses in the accreditation process for U.S. law schools finally reached a happy ending Monday in the association’s House of Delegates. Well, almost. The House concurred in…

Aug 12, 2014 1:03 AM CDT

Let more in-house counsel do pro bono service, ABA House resolution says

Appellate courts in each jurisdiction should adopt a rule permitting in-house counsel to provide pro bono services in the jurisdiction in which they work, a new ABA policy urges. The ABA House of Delegates on Monday adopted Resolution 104B (PDF), calling on appellate courts to adopt a rule permitting and…

Aug 11, 2014 10:55 PM CDT

Don’t delay civil trials for fiscal reasons, ABA House declares

The ABA took a stand opposing the suspension or delay of the fundamental right to a civil jury trial in the face of difficult fiscal circumstances. The ABA House of Delegates on Monday adopted a one-sentence measure, Resolution 105A (PDF), opposing such courses of action. Tight budgets have led courts…

Aug 11, 2014 10:32 PM CDT

Preserve election process in emergencies, ensure voting rights of disabled, ABA House measures say

The ABA House of Delegates has adopted a policy urging states, localities and territories to develop written contingency plans to preserve the election process in the event of an emergency. Resolution 113A (PDF) says such plans should include at a minimum: alternative locations and times for conducting elections; backup and…

Aug 11, 2014 10:06 PM CDT

Take up today’s challenges as we have in the past, new ABA President William Hubbard urges

William C. Hubbard accepted the gavel as the new president of the ABA, and quickly set about exhorting the House of Delegates and all lawyers to follow the courage of those who pushed for the rule of law with Magna Carta in 1215, of those who crafted our Constitution in…

Aug 11, 2014 9:48 PM CDT

Magna Carta should inspire lawyers to rise above partisanship, solve problems, chief justice says

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking to the ABA House of Delegates, delivered some choice humor, an informative lecture on the history of Magna Carta and a call for lawyers to advance the historic document’s ideal for the rule of law and particularly for independent courts. Roberts’ address…

Aug 11, 2014 5:48 PM CDT

Outgoing ABA president touts job corps and efforts to address immigration, gun violence

In his end-of-term speech to the House of Delegates Monday morning, the ABA’s outgoing president James Silkenat detailed a long list of efforts by the association in the past year. These included his signature effort to fill unmet legal needs with work by new, underemployed lawyers; efforts to address the…

Aug 11, 2014 5:14 PM CDT

Task force on legal-ed financing mulls causes of rising tuition at its first-ever public hearing

At its first public hearing, the ABA’s new Task Force on the Financing of Legal Education spent much of its time trying to determine exactly what is leading to increases in law school tuition and debilitating debt loads being carried by so many law students. The task force, chaired by…

Aug 11, 2014 12:25 AM CDT

Legal hurdles for same-sex couples persist despite SCOTUS marriage decisions, say panelists

In 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in U.S. v. Windsor and cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California with their decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, a door seemed to open for same-sex couples. And in the past year, courts…

Aug 10, 2014 10:36 PM CDT

More work needed to protect equal rights, say Margaret Brent Award honorees

Despite progress on many fronts for women in the legal profession, the still-steep path to equality was a recurring theme at the annual Margaret Brent Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon at the ABA Annual Meeting. At the 24th annual presentations Sunday in Boston’s Hynes Convention Center, evidence of gains being…

Aug 10, 2014 9:29 PM CDT