Annual Meeting

Human trafficking must end, says Justice Kennedy at ABA’s Opening Assembly

It’s not easy to upstage a U.S. Supreme Court justice in an auditorium full of lawyers, but an assertive young woman with a compelling story to tell almost pulled it off Saturday evening at the Opening Assembly of the ABA’s 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy…

Aug 11, 2013 2:36 PM CDT

ABA to help clear military claims backlog in major pro bono initiative

A new initiative to provide pro bono legal assistance to military veterans was announced Saturday by the ABA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Legal Services Corp. The initiative, which will launch as a pilot program in Chicago and St. Petersburg, Fla., will recruit lawyers to help veterans prepare…

Aug 11, 2013 1:30 AM CDT

Legal ed task force urged to address faculty salaries, federal role and core competencies

The Task Force on the Future of Legal Education got an earful of reaction Saturday to the findings of the working paper (PDF) it issued earlier this month. Much of the response was favorable. But all eight of the people who spoke at the task force’s last scheduled public hearing…

Aug 11, 2013 1:11 AM CDT

Legal ethicists are playing catch-up to create social media guidelines for lawyers, judges

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn–there are now many social media platforms which lawyers are urged to use to build business and retain clients. But they also present many opportunities to run afoul of legal ethics rules. In recent years, the states have been putting out a steady stream of ethics…

Aug 10, 2013 9:42 PM CDT

Are those eggs really cruelty free? Food labeling scams open up opportunities for litigation

Concerned about whether you’re getting what you’re paying for with animal products advertised as natural and treated with “care”? You can change the world through your purchasing by demanding foods produced by humanely treated animals, says Carter Dillard, director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defense Fund in California. But to…

Aug 10, 2013 8:54 PM CDT

Ancient object at Asian Art Museum speaks to modern law

Surely it was just coincidence, but an exhibit that should be of particular interest to lawyers opened Friday at the Asian Art Museum near San Francisco’s City Hall. The ABA convened its 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Thursday. The exhibit centers on the Cyrus Cylinder, created from clay…

Aug 10, 2013 2:45 AM CDT

Dissident criminal defense lawyers in China face many dangers, says researcher

American lawyers often complain that they are held in low esteem by the general public. For a small cadre of Chinese lawyers, it would be a luxury to focus their worries on what people think of them. For these lawyers, who are politically motivated to practice criminal defense law, the risks…

Aug 10, 2013 2:42 AM CDT

Legal Ed council tackles faculty tenure and distance learning as part of accreditation review

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has tentatively approved three more chapters of proposed amendments to the law-school accreditation standards. The council, which met Friday during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, voted to post the proposed changes to chapters…

Aug 10, 2013 2:07 AM CDT

Is a paperless, people-less court in our near future?

A small conference room packed mostly with judges from around the country heard one word that defines the future for how they go about their work: mobility. “Mobility is the key word for information technology,” Glenn Grant, administrative director for the courts of New Jersey told the audience at the…

Aug 10, 2013 2:01 AM CDT

Intensity of feelings over Zimmerman acquittal on full display at stand-your-ground public hearing

Testimony at Friday’s hearing of the ABA National Task Force on Stand Your Ground Laws made it clear that there’s a new intensity in the wake of last month’s acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., who had been charged with murder after shooting Trayvon Martin,…

Aug 9, 2013 11:29 PM CDT

Day of the Woman celebrates gender equity victories, but ‘our work is not over’

You’ve come a long way, baby, but not far enough. That was the resounding message of the Day of the Woman on Friday at the ABA Annual Meeting. The day, which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Commission on Women in the Profession, marked the progress women lawyers have made…

Aug 9, 2013 10:39 PM CDT

Preventing gun violence: Which legal strategies are actually working?

Taking on the issue of gun violence in the United States, soon-to-be ABA President James Silkenat told a Friday-morning audience at the ABA Annual Meeting that “we need fewer graves where common ground on this issue should be.” Silkenat’s remarks opened the session titled “Lawyers, Guns & Money,” a catchy…

Aug 9, 2013 7:17 PM CDT

What did Shakespeare think about lawyers? Panel counts the ways

It was clear that this would not be a typical CLE program when Jeffrey Watkins leaped onto a chair and began quoting William Shakespeare like a pro. Actually, Watkins is a pro. He is artistic director of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, which in 2011 became the first American company to…

Aug 9, 2013 2:19 AM CDT

Are businesses and individuals giving up on the courts? Yes, and it’s ‘a disaster,’ judge says

As the funding crisis for justice services continues to grind on, state courts are facing the need—some might say they have the opportunity—to reassess their efforts to provide access to the widest possible range of individuals and businesses seeking to resolve legal disputes. The interplay between funding shortfalls and access…

Aug 8, 2013 10:15 PM CDT

Bert Early, former ABA executive director, dies at 91

Bert Hylton Early, who led the American Bar Association from 1964 to 1981, died Sunday at the age of 91. Early, a West Virginia native, was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, serving as a first lieutenant. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1949,…

Aug 8, 2013 7:30 PM CDT