Bar Associations

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

Breyer: Nat’l Legal Systems Are Finding Common Ground

Updated: The laws of the United States and other nations are increasingly becoming pieces of a larger fabric as they seek to address issues of common interest, said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer this afternoon in a speech at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. “Law…

Aug 12, 2007 3:20 AM CDT

Records Proposal Pulled After Protests

A controversial proposal to limit access to criminal records to make it easier for convicts to find jobs and housing is being withdrawn by the entities that intended to bring it before the ABA’s policymaking body next week. ABA’s Commission on Effective Judicial Sanctions and the Criminal Justice Section were…

Aug 11, 2007 10:57 PM CDT

Green Lawyers Can Rile SOX Enforcers

Five years ago last week, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act took effect, giving the government a whole new set of tools to fight corporate corruption. Its anti-fraud provisions immediately affected public companies with tougher auditing requirements for officers, directors and outside advisers, including accountants and lawyers. For the first time, prison became…

Aug 11, 2007 9:41 PM CDT

QB Vick Now ‘Poster Boy’ for Animal Rights

NFL football star Michael Vick gained high praise today from animal rights activists gathered at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco—though it was much like a linebacker ready to feast on a quarterback who is looking the other way. “Within seconds of Michael Vick’s indictment for dogfighting, the whole…

Aug 11, 2007 8:01 PM CDT

Legal Thriller Author Shares Success Tips

Success didn’t happen the first time James Grippando tried to sell his legal thriller. Or the second. Or the third time. But eventually, Grippando, a former trial lawyer, found an agent, then a publisher. Grippando shared the pain-to-gain experience during a program at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco,…

Aug 11, 2007 7:11 PM CDT

ABA Prez Calls for FISA Changes

ABA President Karen Mathis on Friday urged Congress to reconsider changes it made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. President George W. Bush signed a bill on Sunday that gives the National Security Agency broader authority under FISA to monitor phone calls, e-mails and other communications between people in the…

Aug 11, 2007 12:24 AM CDT

Anger, Frank Talk Help Promote Diversity

Working to diversify the legal profession–which lags significantly behind corporate counterparts–requires, as a first step, talking clearly about the issue. And sometimes anger helps. Or so Stanley Stallworth found about six years ago, as he was on the verge of making a diversity presentation to the executive committee of the…

Aug 10, 2007 10:01 PM CDT