When nonprofit law firm Open Legal Services ceased operating last year, the news sent a shudder through the nonprofit legal world and raised questions about whether the nonprofit model could work for other firms.
“The coronavirus is exposing the dangers of being a gig worker—you have no benefits, no health care, and no one to one to speak for you,” says lawyer Michael P. Maslanka, a labor and employment law expert in Texas. “I think this crisis is so severe that it will change the mindsets of the people, and when the mindsets of the people change, laws change.”
Just weeks ago, the idea might have seemed inconceivable. Now, as remote meetings using videoconferencing tools such as Zoom become a regular fixture in courts, some are concerned that virtual trials would deprive defendants of the constitutional right to confront witnesses, an impartial jury, due process of law and effective counsel.
Students may not feel safe attending courses because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s also true for professors, say law school deans, many of whom want in-person classes this fall but are making various plans they hope meet ABA accreditation standards.
If the novel coronavirus pandemic leads to online remotely proctored bar exams, controlled test-taking environments, one of the most equalizing factors, will be eliminated. Such scenarios raise questions about whether exam results would be fair or valid.
With Tiger King, Netflix promises “murder, mayhem and madness,” and the seven-part series delivers. “Video games, the news and Hollywood have inured the public to the idea of violence while camouflaging the grisly consequences,” writes the ABA Journal’s Liane Jackson.
Many lawyers across the country are now using online video meetings to help senior clients arrange their affairs. This has become increasingly vital as the CDC warns that individuals who are age 65 or older and have underlying medical conditions are at higher risk for developing more severe cases of COVID-19.
As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly spread across the country, the ABA pivoted its second annual survey of civic literacy to gauge Americans’ support for online voting, as well as their thoughts on how the government should respond to a national emergency.
PACER seems like a simple enough concept: It provides digital access to U.S. appellate, district and bankruptcy records and documents. But the people the ABA Journal spoke with describe PACER as less of a service to citizens and more of a labyrinth that’s not only difficult to navigate but also costly and tedious to even enter.
Clinical law students across the country say their work helping clients remotely is now much different and more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it comes closer to real-life lawyering than ever before, according to some law professors who direct the clinics.
