The financial services industry spends billions of dollars annually on legal assistance to supplement the work of in-house counsel. Firms that want to be invited back year after year would do well to heed the advice from a seasoned panel of in-house attorneys from the likes of Alliant Credit Union, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Mechanics Bank and PNC:

Using Spanish to read a Spanish-speaking crime suspect her rights can have unintended consequences. “You have the right to remain whitewashed” was one of the bad translations of the Miranda warning that led to the appeal of a conviction, shared forensic psychologist Dr. Eric Y. Drogin of Hingham, Mass., in “Miranda Warning and Waivers: The Impact of Age, Culture and Disability Status,” a program at the 2010 American Bar Association Meeting in San Francisco.

ABA President Stephen N. Zack will focus on civic education in America during his term as association president and is calling on lawyers across the country to get involved in a new effort to bring back civic education, not only to the nation’s classrooms, but also to America’s dining room tables.

Predictive genetic testing and gene patenting may sound like something from “A Brave New World,” but these seemingly science-fiction issues have become the basis for recent headlining litigation, Nanette R. Elster, director of the DePaul College of Law’s Health Law Institute, told audience members at an ABA Annual Meeting program in San Francisco.

Are we living in a post-racial society? Does color still matter? How does race affect the law? These questions and others were tackled by a panel of legal, legislative and public policy experts during the Friday ABA Annual Meeting program, “Debunking the Myth of a Post-Racial Society.”

Moses may have had his burning bush, but at least one judge has a buzzing bush, according to Jonathan Turley, who moderated a discussion of “Trying High-Profile Cases in a 24/7 ‘New Media’ World” during the American Bar Association’s 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Although they come from diverse backgrounds and pursued different career paths, five women lawyers honored at the 20th Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards luncheon have one thing in common: unselfish devotion to opening doors for other women in the legal profession.

Recent work by lawyers both in New York and California are leading to changes in those states’ ethics rules. Experts in the field talked about those changes during a Sunday Annual Meeting program.

Blogger Heather Armstrong knows first hand about the legal issues involving social media and the workplace. At a Friday program of the American Bar Association Annual Meeting, “Legal Issues From the Social Media Explosion: The Workplace,” Armstrong shared how posts criticizing her boss and co-workers on her blog, Dooce.com, got her fired.

Highlights from “A Conversation with Larry Tribe, Senior Counselor for Access to Justice, U.S. Department of Justice” at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Legal process outsourcing may be a flashpoint in the profession, but outsourcing legal processes is not a new concept, Michael Ford, executive vice president of UnitedLex Corp., told the American Bar Association Commission on Ethics 20/20 at a public hearing during the 2010 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Lawyers who represent lesbian, gay, transgender or bisexual clients need to be aware of the political and social climate surrounding dissolutions of those committed relationships. In “Emerging Legal & Social Issues in Same-Sex Dissolutions,” panelists provided helpful information for attorneys who represent LGBT clients, including considerations during mediation and collaborative lawyering.