The Obama administration has put on hold immigration cases involving married gay couples following the decision to drop its defense of the federal law banning same-sex marriage. The move means a foreign national married to a U.S. citizen of the same sex would not automatically be denied immigration benefits. One immigration lawyer said the decision could also give those facing deportation a reprieve. “They would not be deportable and they would be eligible for work authorization,” said Christopher Nugent, a longtime immigration attorney who also works on immigration matters with the American Bar Association.

FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch said Wednesday that he’s concerned that four major Web platforms — Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft — could skew the Internet advertising market to the detriment of competitors and potential upstarts. ‘We have to be careful about letting the current players manipulate the market in such a way that it does tip prematurely [in their favor] and that it hurts rivals,’ Rosch told Politico after his talk at an antitrust conference held by the American Bar Association. His remarks come the same day the FTC came down hard on Google, ordering the search giant to submit to periodic privacy checkups over the next 20 years. The full FTC still has to vote on the settlement. Rosch concurred with the settlement.

As the world becomes increasingly global, America’s law schools are offering more opportunities for students to learn about international law, as well as foreign legal systems, according to the March 29th article at usnews.com, ‘Law Schools Go Global.’ …In the usnews.com article, Hulett Askew, a consultant for the American Bar Association’s legal education and admissions section, was quoted as saying about foreign study programs: ‘The growth overall in the last 5 or 10 years has been steady—and even dramatic.’

Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act working? Are U.S. Patent and Trade Office and congressional initiatives on patent reform achieving intended results? How should cases be litigated before the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board? These questions and many others will be the focus of discussions at the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law Conference April 6-9 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va.

As the world moves increasingly toward globalization, America’s law schools are offering students more opportunities to immerse themselves in foreign legal systems and international law.…Hulett Askew, a consultant for the American Bar Association’s legal education and admissions section, says of foreign study programs, “The growth overall in the last 5 or 10 years has been steady—and even dramatic.” In 2009, at least 112 U.S. law schools collectively offered more than 255 such programs, according to the ABA. And though the down economy has slowed growth, about 8,000 U.S. law students still participated in a foreign program in 2009, Askew notes.

Lots of workers complain about their bosses. Tens of thousands of employees each year go so far as to take their concerns to the Department of Labor — more grievances than the agency can handle. Now, there’s backup help. The Labor Department has established a first-of-its-kind program with the American Bar Association. Workers whose complaints the department won’t take up are put in touch with private employment lawyers. The Bridge to Justice program focuses on potential violations of overtime, minimum-wage and family medical-leave laws. Catherine Ruckelshaus, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers, said it has long sought such a program, pointing to a ‘dearth of enforcement’ of basic wage and hour laws.

Inmigrantes, abogados y activistas denunciaron el viernes ante una comisión incontables abusos contra hispanos en Estados Unidos: desde los cacheos indiscriminados de policías en la calle hasta la dureza de las leyes deportación para inmigrantes legales, pasando por la necesidad de que haya más intérpretes de español en las cortes. Los representantes de varias organizaciones y los propios inmigrantes hablaron ante la Comisión del Colegio de Abogados de Estados Unidos para los Derechos Legales y Responsabilidades de los Hispanos.

Immigrants, lawyers and activists denounced countless abuses against Hispanics in the United States on Friday before a committee: from indiscriminate searches of police on the street, to the harshness of the deportation laws for legal immigrants, through the need for more Spanish interpreters in the courts. Representatives from various organizations and individual immigrants spoke to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities.

Una comisión del Colegio de Abogados en EE.UU escuchó hoy testimonios de latinos sobre diversos problemas que les afectan, como parte de una serie de audiencias que realiza para redactar un informe con sugerencias sobre acciones que se deben tomar y que debe estar listo el próximo agosto. Los miembros de la Comisión para los Derechos Legales y Responsabilidades de los Hispanos llevó a cabo hoy en Nueva York su tercera audiencia, luego de Chicago y San Francisco, en la que escuchó denuncias sobre el presunto abuso policiaco a latinos, violencia doméstica, necesidad de traductores de español en los tribunales y educación.

A committee of the American Bar Association today heard testimony on a variety of issues that affect Latinos as part of a series of hearings carried out to draft a report with suggestions for actions and which should be ready by next August. Members of the Commission for Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities held its third hearing today in New York, after hearings in Chicago and San Francisco that heard complaints of alleged police abuse of Latinos, cases of domestic violence, the need for Spanish translators in the courts and education.

In today’s print edition, I wrote an article about how bar association membership has dropped on a national, state and local level because there are fewer working lawyers to pay dues and fewer law firms willing to pay for their lawyers to obtain memberships… So I interviewed Patricia Refo, chairwoman of the ABA’s standing committee on membership, who said the association had implemented new, lower fee structures for judges, solo practitioners and public and public sector lawyers. She added that the ABA had seen an increase in those areas.

Just like the general population, more lawyers are using mobile devices than ever before and their use of smart phones and mobile devices is increasing every year. According to the American Bar Association’s 2010 Legal Technology Survey Report, released in July 2010, 76 percent of responding lawyers reported using smart phones, up from 64 percent in 2009.

Should disaster strike in New York, a new judicial rule allows out-of-state attorneys to offer pro bono services to disaster victims in New York. New York State Bar Association President Stephen P. Younger today commended the state Court of Appeals for adopting the so-called ‘Katrina Rule,’ named for the devastating hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. … The rule permits out-of-state lawyers to volunteer their legal services in New York when the Court has determined an emergency exists affecting the justice system. … In February 2007, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted a similar model rule after Hurricane Katrina. In June 2007, the House of Delegates of the State Bar Association approved a report by the Association’s Committee on Mass Disaster Response recommending that New York adopt a version of the ABA rule.