Speaking to attendees at the Legislative and Governmental Advocacy Update session, ABA President-Elect Stephen Zack outlined a number of issues on which the ABA Governmental Affairs Office has been active. Specifically, Zack mentioned funding for the Legal Services Corporation, the Red Flags Rule and judicial compensation. Without the ABA, there would be no LSC, he noted.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson has been named recipient of the American Bar Association Justice Center’s 2010 John Marshall Award in recognition of her exemplary lifelong commitment and dedication to the improvement of the administration of justice.

“Being out is one of the biggest political statements one can make,” according to Brent E. Adams, acting secretary of financial and professional regulation for the State of Illinois. “Being out has a snowball affect,” he added, “a positive one.”

In the more than 60 years since World War II, there have been several genocides around the globe. The pledge of “never again,” so far, has come up short. Experts recently gathered to discuss an emerging declaration called the “Responsibility to Protect “ doctrine – endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2005 and by the U.N. Security Council in 2006 – and to advocate for its implementation.

It seems everyone has an idea about how to make education better. The federal government thought it nailed the formula when No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2002. We can all agree that no child should be left behind. But, as a panel of education experts determined at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, after seven years, we’re still leaving some kids behind.

The proverbial camel’s nose is under the tent, or perhaps we should say, the Blackberry is in the courtroom and the tweets are finding their way out. As the iceberg of communications change pokes its head out of the waters, judges, lawyers and journalists alike are wondering what’s beneath the surface and how old and new media will co-exist in coverage of courtroom proceedings.

When a panel of experts knowledgeable in the various forms of online communication discussed social media at the 2009 ABA Annual Meeting, they made two main points: the first, that individuals need to manage their online reputations; the second was online is forever.

CHICAGO, Aug. 5, 2009 — John R. Tarpley of Nashville, Tenn. has been appointed chair of the American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section. Tarpley will serve a one-year term as chair that will begin at the close of the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago on Aug. 4.

Speculation of Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist’s retirement due to declining health in 2005 turned the nation’s attention to the controversial issue of lifetime appointments for federal judges. “Judging Aging,” an Annual Meeting program hosted by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, offered varying perspectives on mandatory retirement.

For the legal profession to reflect the diversity of society, 1,500 African-American and 7,500 Hispanic-American children need to enter the legal preparatory pipeline each year until 2028. What’s so special about the year 2028? That’s when affirmative action will no longer be needed.

The pay gap between women and minority equity partners and their male counterparts can be up to $140,000 annually, said panelists during “The Credit Crisis – How Compensation Practices Adversely Affect the Advancement of Women and Minorities in the Law and How We Must Change Them.”

This might be the law you want – then again, it might not. It was no Jedi mind trick. When a powerhouse ABA Annual Meeting panel came together to examine the pros and cons of a federal shield law for journalists, they determined that qualified privilege is the best outcome, but how to get there could be complicated.