Truancy cases processed in juvenile court increased nearly 70 percent between 1995 and 2004, and made up the largest proportion of the petitioned status offense caseloads—violations only for individuals who are juveniles, such as underage drinking—for all but American Indian and Alaska Native youth. Because the young people involved in these cases are not in school or at work, they are at significant risk of using or selling drugs, belonging to a gang, running away and committing a major theft or serious assault, among other problem behaviors.

What is the value to a young lawyer of a judicial clerkship post? More than 100 minority and women law students from around the country are learning first hand as they are brought together with judges and former law clerks during the Ninth Annual Judicial Clerkship Program Thursday through Saturday during the American Bar Association Midyear Meeting.

“Where will the bar be?” asked Damon Silvers. “When that part of our nation that brings out the punch bowl and is getting the party going again to bail out the rich and leave the poor to suffer, where will the bar stand on that?” he asked.

While the legal profession and law schools have done an excellent job in the last 30 years of improving opportunities for minorities, they still have a long way to go.

When we think about leadership in the United States, it’s not uncommon to assign the notion of “good” to leaders, as if goodness is an inherent part of leadership just like intelligence, competence, persistence or sociability.

Best practices when working with child victims of crime were examined by an expert panel during a Friday Midyear Meeting session sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section, “Practical Skills for Attorneys, Judges, Prosecutors, Child Victim Advocates and Defense Attorneys to Better Serve Children.”

Every nine-and-a-half minutes, someone in the United States is infected with HIV, according to a presentation called “HIV and the Rule of Law: A Legal Roadmap for a New Administration” given at the American Bar Association’s Midyear Meeting in Boston.

“Even if you’re not in the information business, you’re in the information business,” observed technology expert Steve Emmett during the Saturday Midyear Meeting program “Privacy in the Digital World of the Internet, E-Commerce, and Post-9/11 America.” Emmett and other panelists examined of the rise of technology and society’s increasing use of it.

In the Midyear Meeting program “Elevating Your Advocacy: Understanding the Differences Between Litigating Trial and Appellate Courts,” an expert panel of lawyers and judges provided an audience of young lawyers with sound advice on trial and appellate court litigation.

Eight members of the American Bar Association were admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces during a special swearing-in ceremony on Friday during the ABA Midyear Meeting in Boston.

Consideration of race and racism is moving beyond black versus white confrontations in the national discussion, and as it does, issues become exponentially more complicated. That was the clear message coming out of the ABA Midyear Meeting program “The Assumption of Justice: A Dialogue on Color, Ethnicity and the Courts.”

The criminal justice system is facing its biggest crisis ever–the rise of juvenile offenders. Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School, led a dynamic panel on this subject during the Friday ABA Midyear Meeting program, “The New Paradigm of Juvenile Justice,” exploring ways to address the problem.