During a speech before the ABA National Summit on Indigent Defense, Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. Department of Justice will work to improve legal representation for individuals deemed too poor to hire an attorney to represent them in criminal cases. [Similar coverage in the Examiner.]

The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law asked a federal judge to reconsider his denial of the school’s request for an injunction against the ABA for denying it provisional accreditation. The ABA responded with separate motions to dismiss and to stay the litigation pending a decision by its accreditation appeals panel. [Similar coverage appears on WDEF-TV (Chattanooga, Tenn.)]

In discussing the state court funding crisis at the ABA Midyear Meeting, Ted Olson and David Boies emphasize that a resulting clogged court system can waste attorneys’ time and cost them and their clients money.

ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III continues to focus on the growing funding crisis in our courts. The ABA has sent hundreds of kits to state and local bars across the country, which provide guidance on ways to lobby for better court funding.

To deal with overwhelming student-loan debt, some law school graduates are filing for bankruptcy. However, many of them are learning that federal law prohibits discharge of student loan debt, except in cases of “extreme hardship.” The ABA is changing rules to require more transparency in job-placement data from law schools, helping students to make more informed educational investment decisions.

Through a resolution passed at the ABA Midyear Meeting, the ABA has joined advocates for students with disabilities in urging the Law School Admission Council to improve the way it handles requests for accommodations from disabled test-takers.

Following months of discussion, a committee reviewing the American Bar Association’s law school accreditation standards has agreed to changes in the way law schools report graduate employment and salaries.

Vision 2020, an equality initiative of Drexel University, announced the naming of former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala to its advisory board, which also includes ABA President-Elect Laurel Bellows and former ABA President Karen Mathis.

A month after an ABA team called for a halt in Kentucky executions because of a high error rate and other issues, state lawmakers are considering forming a task force to study the state’s death penalty system and halting executions while the ABA panel does its work. [Similar items in WXIX-Fox in Cincinnati and Kentucky.com.]

As the Irish government implements judicial pay cuts and other revenue-saving measures, the publication notes that the ABA and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe sent a letter to the head of the International Monetary Fund that expresses concern about the independence of the legal profession.

At the AALS conference last week, admissions officers spoke of their balancing act: recruiting students without promising more than law school can provide. At some schools, senior administrators discourage admissions officers from releasing more than required by the ABA.

At its annual meeting, the Association of American Law Schools approved four schools for membership, and ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III spoke on attacks to legal education.