When asked about the importance of homeless courts, Jeff Yungman’s thoughts go to a sick man who was living in the woods and panhandling on the streets. He received several citations for blocking the sidewalk, which came with fines and fees he would never be able to pay. “Having people like him, we can see why the homeless court is needed and why he probably still would be in the woods if there hadn’t been some intervention for him,” Yungman says.
Most states planning remote bar exams because of the novel coronavirus pandemic have cut the dreaded multiple-choice multistate bar exam portion of the test. But that doesn’t mean that the test will be easier to pass, according to some academic support experts.
When the ABA in May released public notice that 10 law schools were out of compliance with a recently tightened up bar pass standard, there was some surprise as to which school didn’t make the list.
Dealing with a fractured marriage is never pleasant, but doing it in the middle of a pandemic is several levels more stressful—both for the spouses and for family law attorneys who’ve had to scramble to meet an unprecedented challenge.
Government officials’ actions limiting public gatherings to stem the spread of the deadly pandemic caused by the contagious COVID-19 has led to a spate of lawsuits filed by churches, religious liberty groups and others in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia—many over restrictions on religious liberty that began around Easter.
Deepfakes have seeped into our culture and politics. As the technology grows in complexity, making it more difficult to spot fakes, attorneys and judges will have to decide how to manage deepfake evidence and authenticate it.
Long before social distancing, Zoom touted its capabilities for lawyers. And the platform is booming, with a reported jump from 10 million daily users at the end of 2019 to 200 million in March. But lawyers must be extra careful when using Zoom or any other videoconferencing tool.
For lawyers and the legal system, the issues presented by the novel coronavirus have been as novel as the virus itself. The reverberations will be long-lasting—in some cases, forever so. The ABA Journal talked to eight leading lawyers in their fields, including Gloria Allred and Robert Shapiro, about impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their practice areas.
“I am able to use my skills to help with the board, to help with meal organization, and to help with providing supplemental staffing at a time when more than ever an EMT is needed,” says lawyer Christopher Jennison, an ABA member, employment and labor counsel with the Federal Aviation Administration, and assembly clerk of the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division.
