In a new escalation of an ongoing controversy about whether a non-ABA-accredited law school should merge with the University of Massachusetts, a state lawmaker is calling for an investigation of potential antitrust issues. Three competitors of Southern New England School of Law may be misusing public funds to lobby against its potential marriage with UMass, says Rep. John Quinn in a letter to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, reports South Coast Today (reg. req.). As he points out in the letter, Suffolk University Law School, for instance, gets $1.5 million in state aid.

This is the unlikely home of where the University of Massachusetts hopes to open the state’s first public law school: a one-building campus, tucked behind a commercial building on a strip of Faunce Corner Road with real estate and medical offices, factory outlets and the Bristol County jail. The Southern New England School of Law, a 29-year-old law school with 235 students, is easy to miss. Its building is hardly visible from the road, and it looks more like an office building than an academic one. … Indeed, SNESL has never been as well known as it is today, thanks to the proposal to turn the school into UMass law. It will become part of UMass if approved by the state Board of Higher Education on Tuesday. … Students are proud to be part of UMass and excited that the school will spend millions on achieving American Bar Association accreditation, Ward said.

The American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Intellectual Property Law will be holding the 25th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference on April 7-10, 2010 in Arlington, VA. … On the second day of the conference, the luncheon speaker will be David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, who will share his perspective on USPTO challenges and strategies for the future.  In addition, an evening reception will be held at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The Editor interviews Frances Gauthier , Diversity Chair of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Spain and Latin America Practice Group and Carolina Cabrera , Co-Chair of the Firm’s Spain and Latin America Practice Group. …I am a first generation American. My parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1962. I am a member of the firm’s Business Practice Group where I focus on representing business entities in a broad range of corporate and commercial matters including corporate governance, alternative entity law, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructurings. I chair Stradley Ronon’s Diversity Group, as well as the ABA Section of Business Law’s Diversity Committee. I am also a founding board member and the vice president of the Delaware Hispanic Bar Association.

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .’ In many ways, this iconic opening line from A Tale of Two Cities describes the current state of diversity in the legal profession. It was the best of times . . . . More than 100 years after separate was declared equal ( Plessy v. Fergusson) , America elected an African American lawyer as president. Less than 70 years after American citizens of Asian descent were considered a threat to the national security ( Korematsu v. United States) , the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security is an Asian American man. And less than 140 years after the first woman was admitted to a state bar, a woman of color was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. … And while the population of ethnic minorities increases, minorities are still dramatically underrepresented in the legal profession. ( See Elizabeth Chambliss, American Bar Association, Miles to Go 2000: Progress of Minorities in the Legal Profession (2000).)

This spring, the American Bar Association and WEST will present a three-day Techshow from Thursday to Saturday, March 25 through 27, at the Chicago Hilton, 720 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Conference attendees will learn how to use technology to do more with less. On Thursday, the day will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m. The highlight of the day will be an examination of how to reduce paper in the law office in order to save both time and expense. The keynote speaker on Thursday will be Ari Kaplan, principal, Ari Kaplan Advisors, who will discuss the convergence of technology and marketing matters, and how legal professionals can use these powerful new tools to gain an advantage in the marketplace.

The American Medical Association, American Dental Association and American Veterinary Medical Association have jointly written to Federal Trade Commission members asking that health professionals be excluded from the Red Flags rule. The rule requires many businesses, including health care organizations, to take specific steps to minimize identity theft. These steps include identifying suspicious activity involving Social Security numbers, credit reports and other identifying information. This would involve new policies and procedures, and likely implementation of new data security and regulatory compliance software products. … ‘We are writing to you and to each member of the Federal Trade Commission in our capacities as President or Chief Executive Officer of the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, the American Osteopathic Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Association. Together, our four organizations represent hundreds of thousands of licensed health care professionals (LHCPs) who would be subject to the Commission’s Red Flags Rule (the Rule), 16 C.F.R., sec. 681, if the Rule is extended to LHCPs who accept payment after their services have been rendered. We are writing to request that the Commission make clear that, in light of the decision in American Bar Association v. FTC (D.D.C. No. 09-1636 (RBW)) (the ABA litigation), the Rule will not be applied to such professionals.’

Gary Marchant, Executive Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s Center for Law, Science & Innovation and Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics, will address a meeting of the American Bar Association, Jan. 28-30 in Colorado. Marchant will participate in a plenary session, “Role of Human Genome and Genetic Testing in Toxic and Mass Torts Litigation,” at the ABA Section of Litigation’s Environmental, Mass Torts and Products Liability Litigation Committee’s Joint CLE Seminar.

The city sued an Oakland company Thursday in Superior Court, alleging the firm ripped off immigrant families by fraudulently representing itself as a service to help people seeking legal residency in the United States. Oakland-based American Legal Services cost families “many thousands of dollars” and, in some cases, “prejudiced their clients’ opportunities for immigration status,” the city said. … Attorneys say the popularity of such consultants in Spanish-speaking communities sometimes stems from confusion about the job title known as ‘notario publico,’ which in some Latin American countries signifies a person who can help with travel or immigration documents. ‘They can, in some Latin American countries, properly give immigration advice,’ said Karen Grisez, who chairs the immigration commission at the American Bar Association.

Critics say it cannot be done. A lackluster law school plagued by dismal bar exam passing rates will not be able to attract students good enough to help it gain national accreditation. Add to that a commitment to educate the underprivileged, often students with less than stellar academic records, and it becomes mission impossible. But as the University of Massachusetts contemplates undertaking this very challenge, a public law school in Washington, D.C., provides the state with a blueprint for how a school in dire straits can, with years of careful attention, vastly improve its quality while maintaining its focus on the underserved. … Massachusetts officials hope the UMass story unfolds like UDC’s. The American Bar Association granted the UDC law school full accreditation in 2005, a full decade after the once-private law school merged with the public university system.

Iowa’s highest court is seeking public input on a revised proposal of the code of ethics for Iowa judges and magistrates. Individuals and organizations have until March 19 to comment on the Iowa Supreme Court’s Jan. 19 proposal to revise the Iowa Code of Judicial Conduct. This proposal is substantially similar to the American Bar Association’s 2007 Model Code of Judicial Conduct. However, the Iowa proposal includes some modifications tailored for certain requirements specific to Iowa judges such as merit selection and retention, election procedures and Iowa’s gift and election laws, said Court Communications Officer Steve Davis.

Earlier this month, Mark Greenbaum penned a blistering op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, blasting the American Bar Association for not exercising greater regulatory control over law schools. Obviously, I’ve been publicly begging the ABA to do something about the proliferation of new law schools and new law students, hoping against hope that lawyers would be afforded the same kind of professional protection that doctors enjoy. … Here’s the opening to [ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm’s] full-throated defense of the ABA: To the Editor: You published a recent opinion piece by Mark Greenbaum. His analysis is premised on incorrect facts from which he draws flawed conclusions. … Lamm further explained to ATL that the ABA is looking into whether or not it needs to do more to keep law schools honest about the employment prospects of their graduates.