For the first time ever, an American Bar Association commission will formally honor lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes.

When First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled a report that offers suggestions for removing employment barriers for military spouses, she commended the American Bar Association’s efforts in the area.

A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, if enacted, could be the “death knell” for federal court consent decrees to which state or local governments are parties, according to the American Bar Association, which is recommending its defeat.

A panel of women corporate lawyers told a standing-room-only audience of women lawyers at the ABA Midyear Meeting program, “Visible Invisibility,” to be visible, bold and present, in order to excel in positions of leadership.

“We all accept the premise that one branch can’t kill the other off,” said Covington & Burling LLP partner Thomas Barnett—but politicians, judges and lawyers at the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System hearing cautioned that cuts to state court budgets are all but lethal.

“There is no target in the U.S. that cannot be successfully attacked today,” said Stewart Baker, talking about cyber security. Baker is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson and served as a panelist at a program on the issue at the American Bar Association’s Midyear Meeting in New Orleans.

When the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives started in 1967, its leaders could only locate 25 Native American attorneys in the country. “That was out of 560 tribes,” says Heidi Nesbitt, PLSI director and the American Indian Law Center’s assistant director.

ESI stands for “electronically stored information,” but, in effect, the “E” also means “evidence,” noted Illinois lawyer discipline counsel Wendy Muchman at an ABA Midyear Meeting session Feb. 3 on e-discovery, public records and metadata sponsored by the ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division.

In a time when demand for legal aid has never been higher and funding for legal aid providers is being slashed across the country, national and local experts who have devoted their careers to law and policy for the public good shared their perspectives about careers in public interest law Feb. 3 at the ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans.

In a time when states are desperately looking for ways to save money, programs for pretrial release and diversion are not just conserving funds but also ensuring fairness and enhancing public safety, according to a panel at the American Bar Association Midyear Meeting in New Orleans.

American Bar Association President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, in a letter sent Tuesday to Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)—chair and ranking minority of the Judiciary Committee —emphasized the association’s support of the Violence Against Women Act.

Recent government success in merger cases brings many lessons to firms and general counsel alike, namely that those successes have emboldened the Department of Justice. Trends in merger enforcement were the topic of a recent ABA CLE, “United States v. AT&T: Tips for Antitrust Lawyers and Litigators.” In the AT&T case, AT&T sought to acquire T-Mobile, with the parties citing efficiencies in pursuing the merger.