Annual Meeting

‘Micro-Inequities’ Have Big Workplace Impact

Eric Tate says everyone has experienced “micro-inequities” in the workplace, and he is no exception. Tate, a partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, recalls an incident that occurred when he was the only African-American associate at the law firm’s Palo Alto, Calif., office. A secretary mistook him for…

Aug 7, 2008 11:03 PM CDT

Nurses in Red Heels Make Rounds at ABA Expo

Round the corner at the ABA Expo, and two young women dressed in skintight nurses’ uniforms, doctors’ coats and red high-heeled shoes are there to tell curious lawyers about WhoCanISue.com. Representatives of the new website, set to launch in September, are among more than 100 exhibitors at the ABA Annual…

Aug 7, 2008 8:52 PM CDT

Music Is Here To Stay, But Change Is Needed, Insiders Say

In what may be an ABA Annual Meeting first, presenters at the Section of Science & Technology Law’s session on the future of music and technology digitally recorded, remixed, replayed and then uploaded their version of the Rolling Stones’ “Last Time” before a rapt audience of music aficionados, recording industry…

Aug 7, 2008 8:26 PM CDT

Live From New York, It’s the ABA

With more than 1,500 programs ranging from the fallout of the economy on the legal profession to what the presidential candidates should be saying about judicial selection, the American Bar Association is expected to attract some 10,000 lawyers, legal professionals and family members to its 131st annual meeting this week…

Aug 6, 2008 4:40 PM CDT

Threats to Judicial Independence a Top Priority for Incoming ABA Prez

Incoming ABA President H. Thomas Wells Jr. says he got the message in talks with other bar leaders over the past year or so. There is widespread concern, he says, about “potential threats to judicial independence, and to fair and impartial courts” at the state level. Wells and other bar…

Aug 4, 2008 8:13 PM CDT

Pillsbury Axed Mandatory Retirement After ABA Debate

In August when the ABA House of Delegates debated and then took a stand against mandatory retirement at law firms, it had a big effect on the lives of senior lawyers at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Deborah Johnson, the firm’s chief human resources officer, says in an article for Law.com…

Oct 24, 2007 12:38 PM CDT

ABA Speaks Out on Status of U.S. Attorneys

The ABA remained largely silent as Congress and the Bush administration wrangled during the past several months over whether the firings of nine U.S. attorneys were politically motivated or simply internal personnel decisions by the Department of Justice. But today, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates weighed in on the…

Aug 14, 2007 8:30 PM CDT

ABA Critical of US Atty Firings

Updated: A watered-down resolution on the controversial firing of nine U.S. Attorneys by the Justice Department has passed the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates, which wound up its final day of business today in San Francisco. Plus, Alabama lawyer Tommy Wells was picked to head the ABA in 2008. On…

Aug 14, 2007 5:21 PM CDT

ABA Urges Congress to Override Exec Order

The ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates adopted a policy urging Congress to pass legislation that would in effect reverse the interrogation policy for the CIA that is set forth in an executive order issued by President Bush on July 20. The ABA policy also says Congress should affirm that interrogations…

Aug 14, 2007 3:13 AM CDT

ABA: End Forced Retirement

The ABA House of Delegates decided Monday that the time has come for law firms to put mandatory age-based retirement policies out to pasture. In addition to recommending that law firms end those policies, the House of Delegates urged that law firms evaluate their older partners on the basis of…

Aug 14, 2007 2:10 AM CDT

Neukom Takes Office as ABA President

As William Neukom takes office today as the ABA’s new president, one of his main goals is promoting the rule of law in the U.S. and abroad. The gavel was officially passed from outgoing President Karen Mathis to President-Elect Neukom at about 4:40 p.m. today at the ABA Annual Meeting…

Aug 13, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

Experts Warn: Subprime ‘Train Wreck’ Coming

Lots of folks are complaining these days about the evils of subprime loans and their connection to the record wave of mortgage foreclosures sweeping the nation. Now, with humongous jumps in interest rates looming in the fall and winter for many borrowers who took out of the risky loans, federal…

Aug 13, 2007 12:33 AM CDT

Panelists Ask: Who Owns Your Genes?

Michael Crichton, who fills a rather unique niche in turning science into literary fiction, says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office goofed in dealing with one of the most fundamental aspects of life. It let our individual genes be patented by drug companies and other enterprises. And that is thanks…

Aug 13, 2007 12:12 AM CDT

Still Counting Firsts at the ‘Maggies’

More than 1,300 people showed up for the 17th annual Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon honoring women whose legal careers have been pathbreaking and more. It was a full house Sunday in a huge conference room at the Moscone Center at the ABA Annual Meeting in San…

Aug 12, 2007 10:13 PM CDT

Who Will Police Nanotech, Keep Us Safe?

Besides understanding that nanotechnology makes small stuff usable and usable stuff small, we need also recognize that what we know about it can fit on the head of a pin, and that the future is now. That was the backdrop for a panel discussion begun Sunday morning at the ABA…

Aug 12, 2007 6:36 PM CDT