“Walmart raises the bar for plaintiffs, but it is not the death knell for class action litigation,” Roberta Steele, a plaintiff’s attorney at the firm Goldstein, Demhak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian, in Oakland, Calif., said. “The plaintiff’s bar believes that appropriate class action cases can and will continue.”

Does the 14th Amendment provide that children born in this country automatically become citizens? And if it doesn’t, should we fix it? A debate on that topic today at the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting covered several centuries of legislation but started with just three words.

Larry Houchins, executive director of The Mississippi Bar, is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Bar Executives’ Bolton Award for Outstanding Bar Leadership. The Bolton Award is NABE’s highest accolade and recognizes the exceptional professionalism and achievement of a bar executive. It is named in honor of the late Fred Bolton, executive director and secretary of the Pennsylvania Bar Association from 1966 until 1977.

The ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services is honoring the Mecklenburg County (N.C.) Bar, Massachusetts Bar Association and New Jersey State Bar Foundation as recipients of the 2011 Partnership Awards during the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto Aug. 5. The awards will be presented at the joint luncheon of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, National Association of Bar Executives and National Conference of Bar Foundations.

WASHINGTON — Karen J. Mathis, a former Denver lawyer and president of the American Bar Association who is now president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, is one of five trailblazing women attorneys to be honored with the 2011 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. The award, given annually by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, is named for America’s first woman lawyer, who arrived in the colonies in 1638.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former American Bar Association President William H. Neukom have been named recipients of the ABA Justice Center’s 2011 John Marshall Award in recognition of their exemplary lifelong commitment to improving the administration of justice.

WASHINGTON – Paulette Brown, partner at the Madison, N.J., law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, is one of five trailblazing women attorneys to be honored with the 2011 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, given annually by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession.

WASHINGTON – Eleanor Dean (“Eldie”) Acheson, vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is one five remarkable women attorneys to be honored with the 2011 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, given annually by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.

WASHINGTON — Esther Tomljanovich, former Minnesota Supreme Court justice, is one of five trailblazing women attorneys to be honored with the 2011 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, given annually by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.

WASHINGTON – Col. Maritza Ryan is a lawyer, mother, professor, cancer survivor, military adviser, and the first woman and Hispanic academic department head at West Point.

Former Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters and U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Linn of the Federal Circuit have been selected to receive the 2011 Mark T. Banner Award, presented by the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto Aug. 6.

CHICAGO –Doctors can add some new tools to their practices: telemedicine – which allows doctors to diagnose patients and prescribe medication online, and social media, which allows them to connect with their patients in new ways. Though there are benefits to using social media and telemedicine to serve patients, physicians should know about the legal issues involved and exercise caution when using the new tools.