As holidays go, you likely won’t find the words “Law Day” pre-printed on any desk calendars, but for lawyers like Douglas K. Spaulding — who has represented three Guantanamo detainees petitioning for a writ of habeas corpus — the annual May 1 celebration is a reminder of the backbone of the legal profession: The United States Constitution.

An important exhibit on Jewish lawyers in Nazi Germany is open to the public until April 8 at the American Bar Association headquarters in downtown Chicago. Created by the German Federal Bar, “Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers in Germany Under the Third Reich” tells the story of how the Hitler regime banned Jewish lawyers from practicing law in 1938, and the damage the ban caused to the legal profession and to the generational practice of law by German-Jewish families.

David Kris, retiring Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice speaks to lawyers at a lunch hosted in his honor by

the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security. As head of the National Security Division, Kris was responsible for the authorization of electronic surveillance or physical searches through cases brought before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Today’s hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee addressed the December 2010 vote by the Federal Communications Commission to adopt net neutrality rules. At issue: Should broadband be regulated, and if so, how? That was also the topic of debate during an American Bar Association Section of Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law meeting held earlier this week.

Award-winning investigative reporter Dana Priest discussed the evolving relationship between the media and the national security world when she addressed the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security on March 3. The Washington Post journalist spoke about the implications of secrecy in the government, disclosures of classified information by the media and the WikiLeaks controversy.

A panel of true believers spoke to legal project management and how it can make the legal profession more efficient and more profitable, can lead to the adaptation of best practices and can lead to a more disciplined approach to doing business.

By her own admission, retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is not much of an Internet user. “I don’t even like to get e-mails,” she acknowledged during a keynote address at a digital media symposium in Phoenix on Feb. 18 that was co-sponsored by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements.

Roughly one-third of the workforce will experience bullying in the workplace, said panelists of “Rebel Without A Cause: Best Practices for Responding to Workplace Bullying,” a session during the fourth annual Section of Labor and Employment Law Conference in Chicago. In fact, about two million violent crimes occur at work each year, according to U.S. Dept. of Justice statistics.

As the Senate prepares to vote on whether Elena Kagan should fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, there remain a substantial number of other vacancies in the nation’s lower federal courts that urgently need filling. Currently, there are about 100 vacancies in the lower federal courts. The American Bar Association says the lack of judges is affecting the efficiency and fairness of the justice system.

In a survey released today by the American Bar Association, judges indicated that a lack of representation in civil matters is hurting those individuals’ cases, and is negatively impacting courtrooms. Approximately 1,000 state trial judges responded to the survey, which posed questions about their dockets, self-representation and the impact on the courts.

Michael Goodwin of St. Anthony, Minn., a lawyer with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, is the winner of the 2010 Bert W. Levit Essay Contest sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability. LPL provides information on legal malpractice claim statistics and information on insurance for lawyer

Whether guiding the audience through the legal maze of education statutes, or sharing real world experience with bilingual education program implementation, a panel of leading local and national experts at a recent ABA Section of State and Local Government Law conference offered varying perspectives on the practical implementation of bilingual education programs in their municipalities, as well as a basic legal background of this often controversial topic.