The American Bar Association’s (ABA) pro bono project enjoyed the most volunteer participation ever in 2021, with more than 140 attorneys handling at least 50 legal inquiries last year.

The online program, ABA Free Legal Answers, includes participation from more than 10,000 U.S. lawyers in 45 states, according to information from the trade group. The web-based ask-and-answer service is aimed at helping income-eligible residents get legal assistance from volunteer attorneys.

“For those who cannot afford an attorney and have nowhere else to turn, ABA Free Legal Answers serves as a critical resource,” said ABA President Reginald Turner in a statement. “We are proud of the more than 10,000 volunteer lawyers nationwide who are helping to meet these important legal needs, and particularly pleased about the efforts of our FLA Pro Bono Leaders. We urge other attorneys to step up and assist as well.”

Recently, the ABA recognized the most prolific volunteer attorneys with the publication of its 2021 Pro Bono Leaders list. Texas led the pack with 14 individuals, organizations, schools or law firms answering more than 50 inquiries. Illinois, though, was a close second with 13 such entities qualifying for recognition.

“ABA Free Legal Answers offers a flexible online platform, even in pandemic conditions, to do this important pro bono work from our offices, homes, makeshift workstations at the courthouse and on our own time,” said attorney Brandon A. Robinson. “Participating on the platform with hundreds of North Carolinians has been one of my daily joys during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

From Twitter

Ukraine Advice Project UK @ukraine_advice Mar 11

"IMPORTANT UPDATE Since the project began on Monday 28 February, the response from the profession has been humbling, and somewhat overwhelming. The project has registered over 430 volunteer lawyers to date and given pro bono advice on almost 700 requests."

According to the ABA, the program has helped answer close to 200,000 inquiries and has doubled in volume over the last two years.

Earlier this year, The Association of Pro Bono Counsel put out a report detailing the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the pro bono service industry, and highlighted some of the ways to retain best practices moving forward. The report “Positive Change: How the Pandemic Changed Pro Bono and What We Should Keep,” includes analysis from the legal services community, non-profit legal advocates and experts in the field, according to the Counsel. “We hope it will spark thoughtful discussion about how we pro bono volunteers, legal services organizations, bar associations and the courts can continue to expand access to justice for all members of our communities,” reads information from the group.

According to the report, the Counsel recommends legal service providers offer things like virtual clinics, online platforms, in-person meetings when technological resources are unavailable, technological resources for volunteers and e-filing, among other things.

“This final report documents changes to the delivery of pro bono legal services during the pandemic, with the focus primarily on how the adjustments to intake, representation and advocacy impacted clients,” notes the report. “Our hope is that documenting and sharing these experiences and practices will inspire those responsible for delivering pro bono legal services… and those responsible for the systems with which pro bono client communities interact … to consider keeping the changes that benefited client communities, and to continue to develop accessible, client-centered systems that deliver just outcomes.”

Document automation means creating automated templates, using software, for legal documents (such as contracts).

Once the templates are created, users of the software usually answer questionnaires. Once it has this information, the software can instantly generate the contract, and you’re done.

The purpose is to automate the repetitive process of building a document from scratch each time you need a new contract.

In practice, many contracts are extremely similar, with just a few variations. So, for example, once you create an NDA template, the next time you need an NDA, you can generate the template much more quickly using the questionnaire.

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As a lawyer, you might not think of your work as “creative.”

True, on your off time, you might pursue creative endeavors such as writing, cooking, painting, or practicing a musical instrument. But the practice of law requires a rigorously analytic mindset that relies on precise, predictable processes and precedents.

From a professional standpoint, you probably relegate “creativity” to realms like advertising and product design.

But take a closer look at what you do, and you’ll see that you’re often called upon to come up with solutions that aren’t necessarily found in case law and legal textbooks.

During a difficult negotiation you’re handling for a business client, say, or in researching a legal problem that seems to have no obvious precedents, you may have suddenly come upon the solution while reading a book on a different topic, or while mulling over the matter during a long walk.

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There’s no question about it, content marketing is today’s marketing. It’s what everyone in the marketing world is talking about and has been talking about for the last couple of years.

And with good reason: within one broad banner, content marketing encompasses almost every aspect of marketing, client engagement and brand promotion.

It makes sense, then, that content marketing has been touted as the “must have” strategy for businesses, and many have jumped on board the content marketing train.

According to Hubspot, content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing but costs 62% less. Furthermore, companies that publish at least 16 blog posts per month average 3.5 times more traffic than those that post four or fewer.

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General Electric's general counsel's 2012 compensation package afforded him almost $11 million in cash, making him the highest paid general counsel on Corporate Counsel magazine's latest list of the nation's 100 highest paid GCs. So reports Law.com.

At $1,853,671, the average take-home pay enjoyed by the lawyers on the list this year is the highest it has ever been.

Read the full article from Law.com here.

After entering a guilty plea, John Farahi, founder of Newpoint Financial Services Inc., was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on March 20, according to a National Law Journal story. The Beverly Hills businessman admitted his role in a $20 million Ponzi scheme and the plea could have ramifications for former Nixon Peabody securities partner David Tamman, who was found guilty for his role in the scheme.

Tamman’s lawyer, though, insists the two instances are different and “suspect the judge will listen to what we have to say and make a decision accordingly."

Read the full article from the National Law Journal here.

A Los Angeles nutrition company is locked in a legal battle with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has accused the company of perpetuating a pyramid scheme. Herbalife officials said the company will up their legal defense costs from $25 million to $40 million in the wake of Ackman’s accusations, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Ackman, who reportedly bet $1 billion the company is a sham, has said most of the company’s sales people lose money and expects the company’s shares to fall to zero.

Read the full article from the Los Angeles Times here.

Food and Drug Administration logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When attorney F. Lee Bailey was indicted for mail fraud in 1973, he quoted a popular aphorism referencing the difference between how England and the U.S. treat their criminal defense lawyers.  “In England they are apt to be knighted; in the United States they are apt to be indicted.”  There is quite a bit of truth in the saying and the dangers inherent in practicing law in the U.S. are not only faced by defense lawyers.  Sensing an opportunity, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently set its sights on corporate in-house counsel.

In November, 2010, Lauren Stevens, a former vice president and general counsel for pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, was indicted on federal charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation.  Stevens was accused of making false and misleading statements in a series of letters to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on behalf of her employer.  Despite it having been obvious from the beginning that Stevens was only relaying information furnished by her client and had no intent or motive to mislead federal investigators, she was enthusiastically pursued by the DOJ.  “Where facts and law allow, the Justice Department will pursue individuals responsible for illegal conduct just as vigorously as we pursue corporations,” Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division, said in a statement.  It should be noted that despite the DOJ’s stated commitment to pursue corporations, GlaxoSmithKline’s name was noticeably absent from the Stevens indictment.  West continued, “Criminal charges are appropriate when false statements such as those alleged here are made to the FDA.”

Read the full article here...

The practical applications of advanced artificial intelligences (AI) are virtually endless, and educators, scholars, lawmakers and even theists are facing an expansive list of questions and concerns around the ethics and legalities of its wide scale implementation.

In recent weeks, there have been a number of high-profile examples of how OpenAI’s nascent chatbot, the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer known as ChatGPT, may push the boundaries of nearly every established element of the legal space. In addition to taking and passing a law exam, the technology’s applications span everything from e-discovery to trial law and more and are being thoroughly examined by public and private pundits from every corner of the legal industry. In Massachusetts, state Sen. Barry Finegold cleverly introduced legislation to govern the impressive technology drafted by the tech itself.

From Twitter

Barry Finegold @Barry_Finegold· Jan 26

"Thanks for the assist, @OpenAI! For the full text of my legislation (An Act drafted with the help of ChatGPT to regulate generative artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT), please visit: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/SD1827…. #mapoli #ChatGPT 1/7 https://twitter.com/i/status/1618742425232740352"

As is often the case, legislative frameworks are forced to adapt to rapidly changing technologies. Now, it seems this process may need to be accelerated as AI is already aggressively being integrated into the status quo. Another example of this is the recent announcement from Ironclad, a digital contracting platform, that it will be using OpenAI technology to complement its existing services.

“There has been a ‘race for novelty’ in our industry, but Ironclad has always prioritized investing in technology that drives impact and real business results for our customers. After testing GPT3 within Ironclad for several months, it’s clear that this is much more than novelty; it’s a groundbreaking innovation,” according to the platform. “In that spirit, we have been working with OpenAI to put the power of GPT3 to work across our product.”

According to the announcement, that product, which will be called “AI Assist,” is in beta testing. “… AI Assist lets users instantly generate redlines to an entire document. Those redlines–made using generative AI–appear as tracked changes, which allow human users to quickly scan and accept, or reject, those redlines in just a single click,” according to the product description.

The White House also weighed in on the subject with its recent release of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force report.

The report represents the federal government’s efforts to create a roadmap for how to address the many pressing issues related to artificial intelligence and develop a way to ensure adequate access to the necessary resources needed by those working on its research and development. “AI advances hold tremendous promise for tackling our hardest problems and achieving our greatest aspirations,” said Arati Prabhakar, the policy director for the Office of Science and Technology. “We will only realize this potential when many more kinds of researchers have access to the powerful capabilities that underpin AI advances.”

According to the White House, the NAIRR Task Force was established in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020 and is co-chaired by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation. It features representation from private entities, academia and the public sector. “OSTP’s work on AI, including the development of an updated National AI R&D Strategic Plan and the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, is intended to maximize its benefits, while ensuring that AI-driven systems do not harm Americans’ rights or freedoms,” said Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Alexander Macgillivray.

Read the AI Bill of Rights here. 

The American Bar Association has begun the piecemeal release of its ABA TechReport 2021, which takes a comprehensive look into how lawyers use technology in their everyday practices.

The first segment of the report was released on Wednesday, Nov. 10. In total, the publication will provide observation, analysis and predictions on a number of topics from leaders in the legal tech space, according to the trade association.

The report will be separated into eight different segments with the first portion of the report focusing on cloud computing. One area of particular note is with respect to data protection while engaging with the cloud.

“The 2021 Survey highlights a major concern that, while lawyers talk the talk about security concerns in cloud computing, to a shocking degree they do not walk the walk,” reads the report. “The poor results in the cybersecurity category should be a major concern for the legal profession. If you take only one thing from this TechReport to add to your 2021 technology agenda, it should be to up your game on cloud security, for your sake and, even more so, for the sake of your clients.” 

From Twitter

Digital Legal Lab @SectorplanDLS Nov 6

"There’s still time to submit your abstract for Digital Legal Talks 2021! We welcome published & unpublished work on law & digital technologies from interdisciplinary perspectives. More info & get involved here https://sectorplandls.nl/wordpress/digital-legal-talks-2021/"

Among some of the other topics covered in the report, which was compiled by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, include the impact of COVID-19, budget allocations and employee wellness.

For example, according to information in the survey, 26% of respondents reported a decrease in access to print materials as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decrease was most obvious in firms of 100 or more, as 44% of attorneys in those firms reported a decline in access to print materials. Only 4% of those asked reported an increase in access to print materials, notes the tech resource center.

Further, the report also indicates law firms have increased their attentiveness to technology, and as such are budgeting for it at a higher clip than ever. The report points out 65% of firms are now setting aside funding for technology, while that number was only 62% in 2020, 60% the year before and even lower in 2018. As has been the case traditionally, larger firms tend to be more inclined to budget for technological changes than smaller ones.

According to analysis from technology consulting and research firm Gartner, in-house legal departments have been hesitant to shift toward new technological paradigms like automation, but COVID-19 might have accelerated the need to adopt such changes.

“The new pressures brought about by the coronavirus pandemic certainly have acted as a catalyst for this shift,” said Zack Hutto, a director at Gartner. “Legal and compliance teams have rarely been frontrunners to modernize, digitalize and automate. The pandemic has flattened staffing budgets and increased legal workloads; technology is the most obvious solution for many legal departments.”

From Twitter

MarkUpgrade @markupgrade
"With the pandemic legal companies are seeking more innovation to enhance efficiency and decrease costs, hence turning to technology. Check out the #naming choices of the top players in the #legaltech sector
https://t.co/Xg4fEzAPWL?amp=1"

According to information from the ABA, the remaining segments of the report will be posted on Wednesdays through Dec. 29. The other topics are as follows:

• “Websites & Marketing”
• “Practice Management”
• “Budgeting & Planning”
• “Technology Training”
• “Solo & Small Firm”
• “Cybersecurity”
• “Life & Practice”

There’s no better time than now to sit down and plan for success. Law firms like yours need actionable steps and clear attainable business goals to achieve success and facilitate the growth of your business. 

Download FindLaw’s 2022 Law Firm Business planner today, in digital format.

Established in 2011 with seven staff, California-based employment law firm LightGabler has always been a very “tech-forward” firm — in fact, it has operated entirely paperless since its first day in operation. Today, it has 17 attorneys and a total team of 26 providing day-to-day employment advice and complex litigation counsel (in both federal and state courts) to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. Since the firm’s inception it has been using ProLaw®, the comprehensive business management solution from Thomson Reuters, hosting it in the cloud.

LightGabler’s founders were already familiar with ProLaw, having used it successfully at the large firm where they previously worked. Running on relatively lean staff numbers, it was important to implement one solution that LightGabler could use for all of its practice management and matter management needs, including billing, timekeeping, accounting, reporting, contacts management, conflicts checks, and document control.

"I wanted a practice management program that can do it all, and I think ProLaw is the leader in that regard"

Jody Toerner, Executive Director

“ProLaw is an all-inclusive option and that’s key for us,” says LightGabler’s Executive Director Jody Toerner, who is responsible for all of the firm’s IT and accounting as well as its general operations. “Whereas some firms are running several different programs at once for different things, we have everything in one place, making it easy to use and saving us time. We don’t need anything else.”

For example, LightGabler uses ProLaw to create a database of contacts that can be seamlessly linked into client matters. It uses it as a virtual filing cabinet for client documents and emails — which is fully searchable — and as a repository for master documents. All pre-bills are edited and invoices tracked through ProLaw. Timekeeping reports can be run, detailing billable time and expenses. Accounting reports are converted into PDF format for review or into Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets for data manipulation. The firm even cuts all of its checks through ProLaw.

The importance of interconnectivity

Toerner appreciates this wide scope of features and functionality, but just as importantly, she likes how interconnected the different parts of the system are and how they work together as a whole.

“ProLaw has a ton of bells and whistles, and even as an extensive ProLaw user myself, there’s still more to learn,” says Toerner. “That said, it’s so easy and efficient to maneuver around. One of the best things is the ability to “hot-key” directly into specific areas, without having to continually open new windows. So, if I’m in a matter and I want to know what a client owes us, I can just hit the ledger button and see the information instantly. Or a user can hit the timekeeping button and enter billable time from wherever they are in the system or in email. That’s genius.”

The integration between ProLaw and Microsoft Outlook® is one Toerner says is particularly valuable. She explains that attorneys like the ability to save emails into ProLaw, creating real-time visibility on matter status within the system, all the while enabling emails to stay “live” in Outlook so that those conversations with clients and contacts remain open.

With so much functionality available, it’s useful to be able to customize what options are available to users in ProLaw. For instance, LightGabler finds it helpful to minimize the list of fields that attorneys can choose from when managing their matters, so they are only viewing the ones they may need. The firm also implements customized settings around who can access its accounting data for security reasons. Toerner makes the point that it is possible to experiment with customization without fear of inadvertently causing problems that could impair the smooth running of the system.

"Being able to access such a comprehensive system from anywhere, on any device, is a huge benefit."

Jody Toerner

Talking in the cloud

Interconnectivity and integration also matter greatly when it comes to operating ProLaw in the cloud. Streamlined, remote accessibility allows attorneys to view documents and work on matters in ProLaw from anywhere, at any time, from any device. This “talking in the cloud,” as Toerner calls it, had always mattered to LightGabler, but it took on new meaning when the coronavirus pandemic hit, forcing firms to shift to remote working. Having ProLaw in the cloud meant that LightGabler was well positioned when this happened: its attorneys were already working this way; now paralegals and support staff also started to access ProLaw remotely.

“We’ve been very busy since the start of COVID-19, but we’ve had no downtime at all in terms of our ability to provide services to clients, because we had ProLaw set up in the cloud,” says Toerner. “I know that some other firms that hadn’t taken the leap into the cloud have really struggled.”

When the firm moved its cloud hosting provision to LevelCloud, with whom ProLaw has partnered since 2019, Toerner describes this as a game-changing moment. Its seamless integration with ProLaw was the main motivation for LightGabler to move from its previous cloud-hosting provider to LevelCloud. “I was thrilled when ProLaw opened the gates to LevelCloud to enable their servers to work together. We switched to LevelCloud and haven’t looked back,” she says.

Another reason for LightGabler’s choice of LevelCloud was that it wanted a private cloud-hosting solution, rather than being on a shared server with other firms. Toerner feels totally secure with having all of the firm’s files in the cloud. She notes that other firms are likely to have to follow suit sooner or later, given that “this is the way the world is moving.”

As proof of the power of such a shift, Toerner points out that her firm comprises users aged between 25 and 81 — and that the eldest is one of the solution’s biggest proponents. “Younger staff are great at coming up with ideas and questions about what ProLaw can do, and our 81-year-old attorney raves about it,” says Toerner. She understands technology can sometimes be a source of frustration in law firms if it fails to help attorneys operate more efficiently and effectively, but Toerner has no such concerns here. Overall, users seem very satisfied with ProLaw being hosted in LevelCloud.

Cost-effective systems and support

Having ProLaw hosted in the cloud removes the need for costly in-house servers or IT support, saving the firm tens of thousands of dollars per year. “When you map out all the costs involved in having local servers and IT support — and in running a variety of programs for different needs, like timekeeping and contacts management — there are huge cost savings to be made from having one externally maintained, all-inclusive program and one vendor,” says Toerner. ProLaw does all the software updates and maintenance and Toerner has one direct contact at LevelCloud who liaises with ProLaw to troubleshoot any back-end issues that arise.

That takes a huge amount of pressure off Toerner personally in terms of ensuring the firm’s critical technologies are well supported. As well as saving on costs and complexity, using an external hosting provider means that, rather than just having one internal member of support staff available to help a large group of users, the firm can have several specialists advising individuals all at the same time.

Training is relatively straightforward and is conducted internally by Toerner herself, who estimates that most people become fully comfortable with using it within a month. “It’s easy to teach people how to use ProLaw, and once they get going, they’re fine,” she says. “Most people wouldn’t want to go back to a paper-based system, and I certainly wouldn’t. We want to move with the times, and ProLaw enables us to do that. I’d recommend it for sure.”

LightGabler’s future plans for using ProLaw even more extensively include increasing the amount of report customization it undertakes and using the document assembly tool, which is the only component of ProLaw that the firm does not currently deploy. “Being able to click on a couple of buttons in ProLaw to create a template letter, for example, that can just be filled in — that would be a major time saver for us,” says Toerner. “We do everything else in ProLaw, that’s all that’s left.” 

LightGabler

LightGabler advises businesses across California on employment issues, employment and business litigation (including complex class, collective, and representative actions), intellectual property, and unfair competition. Its offices are in Camarillo in Ventura County.

Business challenges

Operating a paperless office, LightGabler needed a holistic solution that could meet all of its practice management needs, but one that worked effectively and efficiently in the cloud, enabling anywhere, anytime accessibility.

Why ProLaw

ProLaw delivers a comprehensive array of features and functionality all in one place. Critically, everything works together smoothly, with users able to “hot-key” quickly to different areas of the system. Its seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook and LevelCloud was another major plus.

Benefits

• All-in-one solution with extensive features and functionality
• Fast, efficient maneuverability around the program
• Makes processes like timekeeping and billing easy
• Interconnects with Microsoft Outlook and cloud-based service providers
• Remote accessibility, with no need for internal servers or IT support

From Oath Keepers to a Hawaiian murder, here are some notable verdicts from January.

Most Political Verdict: Oath Keepers Underlings Guilty in Sedition Trial 

Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo, all members of the Oath Keepers militia who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other related charges in a Federal District Court in Washington, according to an article from The New York Times. The group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, was convicted in November on a like charge in a separate proceeding. Aanother sedition trial involving the Proud Boys is also being adjudicated at the same location.

Most Trafficked Verdict: Michigan Man Guilty in Cocaine Trafficking Scheme

Steven Wyman was found guilty for retrieving copious amounts of cocaine from a Lake City motorcycle club in a cross-state delivery scheme, according to an article from The Alpena News. Wyman was said to have brought 175 grams of the narcotic from the club to another individual on Christmas morning in 2021. Wyman will be sentenced as a repeat offender. 

Most Technological Verdict: Apple Victorious in Appeal of $308M PMC Patent Verdict

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., affirmed the decision to toss out the $308.5 million patent infringement verdict against Apple, according to an article from Reuters. The verdict upheld a federal judge’s ruling that Personalized Media Communications digital rights management patent was not valid due to misconduct with respect to its filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Neither party issued comments after the decision. 

Most Split Verdict: Penn. Man Gets Split Verdict in Shooting Case, Faces New Arrest

Joel Kent, of Cumberland County, Penn., was acquitted of two felony charges, but convicted on a third related to a non-fatal shooting incident at this friend’s house, according to an article from PennLive. Kent did not show up to court to hear the verdict and his lawyer does not know where he is at present. As such, a new warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Most Expedited Verdict: Hawaiian Jury Makes Quick Turnaround in Rental Home Murder Trial

After just shy of four hours’ worth of deliberations, a jury found Stephen Brown guilty for kidnapping a mother and her 8-year-old daughter and for brutally murdering the former at a vacation rental in Hawaii, according to an article from the HawaiiNewsNow. Additionally, Brown’s then-girlfriend Hailey Dandurand is also facing charges with respect to the 2017 incident. Brown is facing “life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

The American Bar Association has audited its chief initiatives in a first-of-its-kind report recently released. The document, entitled the ABA Impact Report, sets to identify and describe the tangible ways the trade group has aided membership to leverage the “power of law” to enhance the legal profession’s quest for justice.

The ABA announcement identified its four primary goals, which are to serve its membership, improve the overall quality of the legal profession, enhance diversity and eliminate bias and “advance the rule of law.”

“But goals are meaningless without action, and action is empty without impact,” ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross said in a statement. “ … Our work protects civil rights and liberties, expands access to justice for underserved and disadvantaged communities, promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity in the legal field and justice system, advocates for human rights defenders, strengthens legal systems across the globe, and promotes the rule of law everywhere.”

Among the program topics covered in the comprehensive introspective are:

• The Criminal Justice Section and Center for Human Rights’ Atrocity Crimes Initiative
• The Center for Children and the Law’s Education Barriers Project
• The Afghanistan Response Project
• The Afghanistan Evacuee Assistance program
• The Death Penalty Representation Project
• The Defending Democracy Initiative
• The ABA Free Legal Answers project

It also covers the work of the Basic Custody and Advanced Custody Litigation Institutes, the efforts of the ABA Legal Education Police Practices Consortium and highlights the association’s advocacy efforts with respect to student debt relief, which has become a political battleground under President Joe Biden’s administration.

“The ABA’s advocacy for student debt relief resulted in the Department of Education announcing a temporary waiver of certain rules of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, making more people eligible for loan forgiveness and the White House extending a pause on student loan repayments,” according to the organization.

Executive efforts to provide largescale student loan debt relief are being held up in the courts, and applications for relief are no longer being accepted while the matter plays out, according to the government’s student aid website. The relief plan calls for as much as $20,000 in loan forgiveness. Additionally, student loan repayments are paused until the U.S. Department of Education is allowed to implement the plan, or until litigation is resolved. “Payments will restart 60 days later. If the debt relief program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, 2023–payments will resume 60 days after that,” according to the aid portal.

From Twitter

Susan. Davis @SusanDaviesazx

"The ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative, ROLI, promotes justice, economic opportunity and human dignity through the rule of law. Check out what ROLI is doing around the globe to work toward justice for all: https://t.co/O7z3b2mFMP"

According to the ABA, the report covers a wide range of activities, but falls short of documenting the entirety of the work of its more than 3,000 groups and committees. To

Read the full report here.

A cohort of close to 17,000 law school students contributed approximately 2.7 million hours of pro bono services last year, according to a recent report from the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).

The students measured in the AALS report hail from 80 law schools and participated in a broad spectrum of free legal services including clinics, public service projects and other efforts, notes the report.

“Law schools and their students play a vital role in strengthening access to justice and providing invaluable services for people and causes that otherwise would go without representation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, AALS president and dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “AALS is proud to highlight the efforts of the law school class of 2022 and the impact they have on local communities and across the globe."

According to the report, which was unveiled at the association’s annual meeting held earlier this month in San Diego, the students measured contributed an average of 160 hours each. Nonprofit coalition Independent Sector estimated the value of that time clocks in at $29.95 an hour, which means those students donated an eye-opening $80,928,000 in legal services value.

From Twitter

Bloomberg Law @BLaw ·Jan 10

"Bloomberg Law will recognize a selection of law firms, companies and non-profit organizations that are innovating in their successful approaches to pro bono legal service across the U.S. and beyond.https://news.bloomberglaw.com/securities-law/call-for-nominations-2023-bloomberg-law-pro-bono-innovators"

AALS noted that many schools indicated challenges keeping tabs of precisely how many hours the students worked, and it is likely the estimated figures fall shy of the actual size of the contributions. Further, contributions made by students in master’s degree programs like LL.M. were not tracked at all.

According to the organization, the survey has been conducted every year since 2016 with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19-related complications.

From Twitter

Kathryn Marshall @Lawsome

"Lawyer friends, make it a resolution this year to do as much pro bono work as you are able to manage. Even just a few hours a month. Access to justice can not only be for the wealthy. It starts with us."

Some notable projects supported by the students:

• University of Baltimore School of Law: Innocence Project Clinic
• University of California, Berkeley School of Law: Arts and Innovation Representation
• Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology: Environmental and Energy Law Clinic
• Columbia Law School: Science, Health, and Information Clinic
• Emory University School of Law: Barton Appeal for Youth Clinic
• Harvard Law School: Recording Artists Project
• University of Iowa College of Law: Estate Planning
• Loyola Law School, Los Angeles: Education Advocacy Clinic
• University of Miami School of Law: Startup Clinic
• University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law: Entrepreneurial Legal Services and Intellectual Property Clinic
• Notre Dame Law School: Religious Liberty Clinic
• University of Pittsburgh School of Law: Ukrainian Legal Assistance Project
• Seattle University School of Law: Housing Justice Clinic
• St. John’s University School of Law: Domestic Violence Litigation Clinic
• University of Virginia School of Law: Migrant Farmworker Project

Columbia Law School’s Science, Health, and Information Clinic, which was recognized in the report, works to provide legal services related to “more equitable access to scientific, technical, and medical knowledge,” according to the law school.

Additionally, Notre Dame Law School, also highlighted above, was recognized for its Religious Liberty Clinic. The clinic aims to enhance religious freedoms for individuals and support their ability “to exercise and express those beliefs and to live according to them,” according to a statement from the school.“These hands-on or experiential learning opportunities enable students to apply classroom teachings to legal problems under the guidance of lawyers and professors. Through these efforts, students received practical experience in law and communities received critical legal services.”

After facing some high-profile criticism for its annual ranking of the top law schools, U.S. News & World Report has decided to make wholesale changes to its ranking process, the publication announced recently.

In addition to its formal announcement, the publication sent separate messages to law school deans and prospective law students as well as shared the results of its “multi-week engagement” between data journalists working on the rankings and a cohort of law school deans.

“U.S. News & World Report and its journalists have an important job–to inform the public, to hold powerful institutions accountable and to foster a free and fair exchange of ideas. In the past few weeks, U.S. News has engaged more than 100 deans and representatives of law schools as part of our review of our Best Law Schools ranking. We listened to their recent feedback and are developing ways to be responsive, while maintaining our independence, mission, and purpose,” said Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer for U.S. News & World Report.

In November, Harvard Law School Dean John Manning wrote to students about the school’s decision to stop actively participating in the publication’s rankings. Manning cited a conflict between the study’s incentives and methodologies with the school’s own commitments and principles. Among some of the problematic areas Manning noted include perceived conflicts with principals associated with socio-economic diversity, fair financial aid considerations and the selection of public interest fellowships.

He said, done well such rankings could benefit families and students considering which schools will meet their needs. “However, rankings can also emphasize characteristics that potentially mislead those who rely on them and can create perverse incentives that influence schools’ decisions in ways that undercut student choice and harm the interests of potential students,” he wrote.

Duke Dean Kerry Abrams echoed some of those concerns. “ … we believe that the U.S. News law school rankings are having a detrimental effect on legal education,” Abrams said. “The rankings rely on flawed survey techniques and opaque and arbitrary formulas, lacking the transparency needed to help applicants make truly informed decisions.”

From Twitter 

Min Jin Lee @minjinlee11

"It took a boycott of selective law schools for U.S. News & World Report to change its ranking system. The most selective colleges and universities should boycott, too. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/us/after-boycott-from-law-schools-us-news-world-report-changes-ranking-system.html?smid=tw-share"

According to U.S. News, changes are generally made incrementally each ranking cycle, but the planned alterations going forward are far more substantive. Among some of the major changes in the rankings will include a reduced reliance on “peer assessment surveys” of lawyers, judges and academics and a greater reliance on “outcomes measures.”

“While we know it is challenging for diverse institutions to be ranked across a common data set, we all have the same goal–to provide the best information to prospective students so they can make one of the most important decisions of their careers. U.S. News is committed to this purpose,” added Eric Gertler, executive chairman and CEO in a statement.

The publication has been analyzing various education fields for more than three decades, according to the announcement.