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:

Meet-ups for new bar admittees at a variety of hotspots around the country will kick-off the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Touch 10,000 outreach program. The meet-ups will take place June 17 in several U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Santa Monica, Calif., New York City, Philadelphia, Houston and Washington, D.C.

The confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court begins June 28. The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary makes a unique contribution to the vetting process by conducting an extensive, confidential peer review of the nominee’s professional competence, integrity and judicial temperament.

A report on child custody concerns involving military parents presented to the U.S. House and Senate Committees on the Armed Forces by the Department of Defense supports ABA policy on military child custody.

On the expected eve of the Senate passage of the financial regulatory bill, certain elements — including what a consumer protection agency would look like under the Senate bill— are becoming clearer. However, the Senate and House will still need to come to agreement on final language.

This spring lawyers from the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law gathered in Miami to discuss the latest legal issues in land use, zoning codes, bilingual education, property rights and other pressing issues of interest to municipal and state practitioners.

With identity theft victims numbering more than 10 million annually, the American Bar Association Business Law Section took an in-depth look at the crime from the perspective of prevention, victim’s assistance, company response and the Federal Trade Commission.

Community leaders, activists and local citizens will meet to discuss the rise in teen violence in Detroit and identify solutions during “Stop Teen Violence – Time to Deliver.” The town hall meeting will take place Monday, May 3, at YouthVille Detroit, 7375 Woodward Avenue. The day-long program, co-sponsored by Wayne County Juvenile Court and the American Bar Association Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

The Google Library Project — a partnership between Google and several libraries whose purpose it was to make into digital format millions of books, giving libraries that provided books full digital copies for their own collections, and posting online small portions, or snippets of those works — raised many questions relating to copyright infringement and fair use under copyright law. Indeed, authors of many of the books being reproduced brought a class action suit against Google.

Nearly 40 percent of the respondents to the 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report acknowledge that it is very important for them to get training on their firm’s technology. But who has the time? If ABA members have as little as 15 minutes to spare they can get caught up on tricks, tips, shortcuts and features of commonly used office and legal software on Training Tuesdays.

Martha Bergmark, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, is a recipient of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s 2010 John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award. The section also recognized the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and the Pittsburgh Pro Bono Partnership during a special luncheon at the section’s annual conference Friday in New York City.

With the enactment of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, those youth who face the difficulties of transitioning out of foster care when they reach age 18 may have a chance at a brighter future. On April 15 -16, more than 100 leaders and youth-at-risk experts met at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City to discuss how to effectively execute the law and ways to further assist these vulnerable youth.