The Washington State Bar Association’s board of governors created a hostile work environment for staff by mishandling an employee’s sexual harassment allegations lodged against a board member, according to an outside investigator’s scathing report that recently became public.
About 21% of Americans now live in a state that allows medical aid in dying. Although these states allow medical aid in dying, the state laws have specific restrictions about when and how a patient can take the prescription. Advocates are pushing to ease criteria, so that more patients have access and more providers can offer support.
Nothing kills a buzz quite like a visit from the Grim Reaper. At least, that’s what Florida lawyer Daniel W. Uhlfelder is hoping. He recently began visiting public beaches dressed as the Grim Reaper to raise awareness about the threat of COVID-19 and to continue his advocacy for a statewide closure of all public beaches.
While quarantined with a bout of COVID-19 in her uptown New Orleans home, endangered species protection lawyer Carney Anne Nasser has had plenty to say about the controversy swirling around the Netflix docuseries Tiger King. Nasser talked recently with ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Matt Reynolds.
In 2016, for the first time, states removed or punished electors who declined to cast their ballots for their state’s popular-vote winners in the presidential election. The cases involving such “faithless electors” have worked their way up to the high court just as the nation prepares for another presidential election.
Those looking for some good news have come to the right place.
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.
