A panel of analysts and reporters who cover the U.S. Supreme Court met Tuesday to talk about the hottest issues the high court faced last year and to predict the cases it might hear next year. “Being a U.S. Supreme Court justice now days, because of rapidly evolving technology, must be one of the most difficult jobs in public service,” said panelist Neal Katyal, a professor at Georgetown University Law School.

The use of digital technology to convey information and process routine transactions is becoming more and more widespread. Two men have dedicated their lives to making sure the blind or visually impaired are not left behind. Together, Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, and Daniel Goldstein, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, have used the law to force changes in technology to accommodate those who are blind.

With much of the East Coast still shaking from Tuesday’s earthquake and the rest of the coast bracing itself for Hurricane Irene, we are constantly reminded that it’s always the right time to be prepared for a disaster. Here are legal tips so that families and businesses can prepare now to help cope after a disaster.

Keith Swisher, Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Assistant Professor at the Phoenix School of Law, is the 2011 recipient of the Rosner & Rosner Young Lawyers Professionalism Award. His contributions to the profession include teaching, scholarship, pro bono defense, speaker and panelist.

Alexandra Newman, a 2010 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and a staff law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, is the winner of the 2011 Bert W. Levit Essay Contest, sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability. Newman’s essay addressed the legal issue of whether an individual who has engaged in fraud has standing to sue a lawyer who was engaged in that fraud for fraud and legal malpractice.

Harvard Professor Laurence H. Tribe cautioned that he may “offend” during his testimony at the American Bar Association’s public hearing Thursday on court funding and access to justice at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. While no one seemed to find them offensive, his remarks may have raised a few eyebrows as he called the U.S. Supreme Court “blind” and the justice system “fundamentally broken”.

WASHINGTON – “Our immigration system is in crisis, overburdened and under-resourced,” said Karen Grisez, chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

The American Bar Association has launched a new website, ABA Home Front, dedicated to providing servicemembers and military families with resources for understanding legal issues and obtaining law-related assistance for the problems they face every day. This site features an Information Center, a Directory of Programs and a Military Pro Bono Center, all designed to deliver legal information and expert assistance to military families.

Roberta Liebenberg, chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, served as chair of the 2011 Women’s Power Summit on Law and Leadership sponsored by the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, Texas.

During “Intellectual Property as a Corporate Asset and Managing Outside Counsel,” a panel of in-house lawyers discussed their roles, and offered insight into the qualities they seek when hiring outside counsel. An in-house lawyer routinely interacts with a much wider spectrum of individuals on a professional level than outside counsel do, said two in-house counsel who have experience in both roles.

Elizabeth Miller, professor of law at Baylor University since 1991 and a nationally recognized authority on the law of limited liability companies (LLCs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs), has been named the 2011 recipient of the Jean Allard Glass Cutter Award from the American Bar Association Business Law Section.

The American Bar Association Center for Human Rights convened its first Human Rights Summit in April in Washington, D.C. Center Co-Chairs Michael S. Greco and Walter H. White Jr., led the discussion and listened to more than a dozen directors and chairs from human rights-related ABA entities and sections.