More than 300 presidents, presidents-elect and executive directors from bar associations across the country will gather for the 2010 Bar Leadership Institute March 11 – 12 in Chicago. Produced by the ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services and the Division for Bar Services, the 2010 BLI will bring together more than 40 speakers, including experienced bar presidents as well as association experts and professional staff.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 8, 2010 — The American Bar Association believes that Article III courts are the preferred forum for trying detainees accused of criminal responsibility for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. We acknowledge that the president, the attorney general and the Department of Justice have discretion to determine whether to prosecute these alleged terrorists in federal court or before a military commission. The administration’s decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged terrorists in federal court is a sound one that the ABA fully supports. Whichever forum is ultimately selected, however, must provide due process so that its verdict will be respected and accepted around the world.

Currently the Supreme Court is weighing the decision of where to draw the line between Americans’ right to free speech and a federal law that prohibits aid to terrorist groups. In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Humanitarian Law Project and other civil rights organizations that are challenging the antiterrorism act argue that it prohibits them from aiding the peaceful efforts of groups that the State Department has deemed to be terrorist organizations.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar. 5, 2010 — Individuals and organizations conducting a witch hunt in order to name names of Department of Justice lawyers who earlier represented Guantanamo detainees are showing a profound disregard for a fundamental tenet of our justice system and our Constitution: that anyone who faces loss of liberty has a right to legal counsel.

This past week at the American Bar Association Health Law Section 11th Annual Conference on Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law in Phoenix, top officials from the Obama administration gathered to discuss the latest developments in healthcare fraud and enforcement. With trillions of dollars a year being funneled to healthcare providers for goods and services, Justice Department officials detailed how the industry is ripe with instances of fraud.

We are disappointed that the Federal Trade Commission has decided to appeal its loss of the Red Flags litigation in the District Court. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals resoundingly upheld the American Bar Association’s lower-court victory in 2005 against the commission in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley lawsuit, and we are anticipating no less a victory in this case.

ABA Journal’s March 2010 issue cover story “The William Rehnquist You Didn’t Know” features excerpts from Herman Obermayer’s 2009 book, Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States. The ABA Journal’s short vignettes paint a picture of a very private man, as seen through the eyes of his dear and close friend. From Rehnquist’s obsession with punctuality, to his frugality, to his deep intellect and love of literature, movies, gossip and cigarettes, Obermayer shares with readers a side of the chief justice rarely seen or known outside his small circle.

The American Bar Association is addressing its value and relevance to each member and now is retooling its dues structure as a big step in rethinking how it serves the lawyers of America. The ABA House of Delegates today approved a new dues structure that will reduce costs by up to 50 percent for solo practitioners and by 25 percent for those who already receive a discount: government lawyers, lawyers employed by nonprofit legal services programs and judges.

The American Bar Association House of Delegates took action on a broad spectrum of issues affecting national and state-level policy during its 2010 Midyear Meeting, Feb. 8-9.

The fifth ABA HIV/AIDS Law and Practice Conference brought together healthcare providers, case workers and social service professionals and lawyers to discuss how HIV-related law and policy affects their work. The following are selected highlights from the two-day event, which took place in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the American Bar Association 2010 Midyear Meeting.

Discussion of diversity in the legal profession must grow more nuanced than it is now in order to support progress, according to “Diversity in the Legal Profession: The Next Steps,” a report formally issued during the American Bar Association 2010 Midyear Meeting in Orlando, Fla., by the ABA Presidential Initiative Commission on Diversity that was created by President Carolyn B. Lamm of Washington, D.C.

Ruling in the case of an infant who suffered severe permanent injuries due to medical malpractice during her birth, the Illinois Supreme Court said this morning that caps on non economic damages in medical malpractice cases violate the state’s constitution.