The American Bar Association has issued a formal opinion to guide lawyers in situations when they and their clients do not share a common language. This guidance also covers when the client has a physical condition, such as a hearing, speech or vision disability, that might impede communications. The guidance revolves around a lawyers duty…
American Bar Association publishes new data on minorities and bar pass rates
New data published by the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, has suggested that White test-takers were more likely to pass the bar exam in 2020 than test-takers of other races and ethnicities. Within the grouping of those who identified as White men and women, 88% passed the…
ABA President Patricia Lee Refo – “Lack of advancement is not a ‘woman’ problem, it’s a ‘profession’ problem”
In a new column for the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal, ABA President Patricia Lee Refo has called for a change in attitude towards the way in which gender is viewed in the profession. In the column, she describes how the lack of progression for women in the profession represents systemic issues in both the…
Top jurists call for regulatory change to increase access to justice
During the 9th June ABA discussion on regulatory change, Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer of the Arizona Supreme Court stated that despite decades of efforts to encourage practising lawyers to perform a minimum of 50 pro bono hours annually to increase access to justice, minimal results have been achieved. Timmer is part of…
California State Bar Board of Trustees approve updated law school accreditation rules
At its meeting on May 13, 2021, the California State Bar Board of Trustees adopted new accreditation rules for California accredited law schools. The new rules will come into effect on January 1st, 2022, with law schools required to demonstrate compliance by January 1, 2024, and are designed to incorporate best practices and provide a…
American Bar Association releases new report on the challenges faced by female lawyers
A newly released American Bar Association (ABA) report entitled, “In Their Own Words: Experienced Women Lawyers Explain Why They Are Leaving Their Law Firms and the Profession,” aims to shed light on factors that affect career decision making amongst experienced female lawyers. This includes information on why practitioners choose to remain in practice, move to…
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System releases guides to cut through bias in legal hiring and improve legal education outcomes
The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), has released two new guides designed to explain innovative ways for legal educators and legal employers to implement data-driven, outcomes-based standards underpinned by IAALS’ Foundations for Practice research. The guides are based on a survey of 24,000 lawyers and working sessions with 36 employers and 4…
American Bar Association data shows increase in bar passage scores during the pandemic
New bar score data from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, released on the 23rd of April 23, showed an increase in the scores compared to 2019 on both the ‘ultimate’ pass rate and for first-time takers, with the aggregate score of law graduates taking the exam for the first…
Event: Redesigning Legal: Leading from the Bench—Expanding Access through Regulatory Innovation
June; 9, 2021 Online The access to affordable legal services and access to justice crises are growing, yet there remains a sizeable gap between what real-world data tells us and the expectations of and understanding of those in the legal profession. Moreover, new approaches and new technology offer some solutions, but they are not widely…
Stress, drink, leave: An examination of gender-specific risk factors for mental health problems and attrition among licensed attorneys
Abstract Rates of mental illness and heavy alcohol use are exceedingly high in the legal profession, while attrition among women has also been a longstanding problem. Work overcommitment, work-family conflict, permissiveness toward alcohol in the workplace, and the likelihood of promotion are all implicated but have yet to be systematically investigated. Data were collected from…