Author: Eliza

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First, Yale University’s top-ranked law school declared it would end cooperation with the US News & World Report rankings. Within hours, Harvard University’s law school, ranked fourth, followed suit. Then, what began as a high-profile protest against the rankings became a mass revolt that now encompasses four University of California law schools, four from the Ivy League and several other big names in legal education.

On Friday, the University of Washington law school, ranked 49th, and the University of Pennsylvania’s, ranked sixth, became the latest to join the rebellion.

The US News method for ranking law schools “is unnecessarily secretive and contrary to an important part of our mission,” the Carey Law School at U-Penn. said in a statement, citing increased investment in need-based financial aid and efforts to promote careers in public-interest law.

Other law schools have echoed those points, claiming that the ranking

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apps-ga1d3c25ac_1920Rebranding your law firm? You’re probably wondering if it’s better to use the term “attorney” or “lawyer” for search engine optimization. Often interchanged, Google may prefer one over the other. It’s important to distinguish which term is best for your law firm and your practice and use the term that will drive the most traffic to your website. Continue reading to learn which terms rank higher in SEO for law firms.

Why is SEO so Important?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is at the core of online marketing. This method helps websites rank higher in Google and other search engines. Most potential clients search for law firms online. Many will not look past the first page of search results.

An effective marketing strategy involves using keywords that prospective new clients will use when they search, so they will find your firm on that first page of results when looking for a

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ARGUMENT ANALYSIS


By Ronald Mann

on Dec 1, 2022
at 8:30 pm

Wednesday’s argument in Wilkins v. United States was a quiet one, with several of the justices saying so little that it is difficult to discern what they are thinking. Those who spoke extensively, however, seem ready to reject the government’s argument that the statute of limitations at issue here is a strict jurisdictional rule, as opposed to a “mere” claims-processing rule, which could be waived in an appropriate case.

The dispute involves the Forest Service’s decision to permit general public use of a road near the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. Larry Wilkins and his neighbor Gene Stanton (who live near the road) filed suit under the federal Quiet Title Act, arguing that general public use exceeds the terms of the easement that authorizes the road. Wilkins and the government fought in the lower courts over whether the

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News

‘Renegade for Justice’ by Stephen Saltonstall

'Renegade for Justice' by Stephen Saltonstall

Stephen Lee Saltonstall has authored Renegade for Justice, Defending the Defenseless in an Outlaw Worlda memoir detailing Saltonstall’s career as a public interest lawyer.

From the book’s description:

“This is a book of courtroom war stories, drawn from my forty years of experience as an obscure lawyer for the underdog and the downtrodden.” So beginsRenegade for Justice, a memoir of a public interest lawyer driven by the cause of justice. While the stories Stephen Saltonstall tells are entertaining, they are also instructive, providing, as he says, “an insider look at the American justice system, which is rigged against the poor and people of color and tolerates police perjury.”

Renegade for Justicebegins by telling the story of how and why a privileged kid from Cambridge, Massachusetts, broke from family tradition and devoted his professional life to defending the defenseless in

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The Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS) of AALL needs your leadership and vision! 

The Nominations Committee hereby welcomes submissions for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Secretary/Treasurer of the SIS for 2023. 

FCIL-SIS Annual Nominations For: 2020 Deadline: December 16, 2022
  • The position of Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect requires a three-year commitment, as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Chair, and Immediate Past Chair, and will be expected to attend the AALL annual meeting the first two years.  
  • The position of Secretary/Treasurer requires a two-year commitment, and the holder of this office is expected to attend the AALL Annual Meeting both years. More information is available in the FCIL-SIS Bylaws.

Please consider nominating yourself or one of our outstanding colleagues for these important positions. (If nominating someone other than yourself, please communicate first with that person to ensure their interest in serving.)

Nominations will be accepted through December 16th, 2022. Results will be announced in the Spring newsletter.

Please submit your nominations and any questions to:

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Taylor Young


November 25, 2022
ABA TECHSURVEY, Feature

The 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report: Technology Basic & Security is now available for purchase!

The ABA Legal Technology Survey Report is the most comprehensive study available of lawyers’ actual technology use, spanning a vast range of topics from security and basic office software to technology budgets, marketing tools, and much more. The survey has been published annually for more than 20 years.

The 2022 edition features five volumes, each with detailed charts, tables, and trends: 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report: Combined Volumes I-V

Vol. II: Technology Basics & Security

  • Technology Budget & Goals
  • Technology Training & Support
  • Technology Policies
  • Security Tools
  • Security Breaches
  • Viruses/Spyware/Malware
  • Backup





Check Also



Cybersecurity

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An estimated 6 million American adults carried a loaded handgun with them daily in 2019, double the number who said they carried a gun every day in 2015, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The new estimates highlight a decades-long shift in American gun ownership, with increasing percentages of gun owners saying they own firearms for self-defense, not hunting or recreation, and choosing to carry a gun with them when they go out in public, said ​Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, and the study’s lead author.

A landmark supreme court case this summer overturned a New York law that placed strict limits on public gun-carrying, ruling, for the first time, that Americans had a constitutional right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.

While recent surveys show that nearly a third of American adults say

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Josef, an Australia-based, no-code software platform that enables legal professionals to automate common tasks, today said it has raised AU$5.2 million, or approximately $3.5 million in U.S. dollars, which it says it will use to further bolster its presence among enterprise customers. 

The company previously raised $2.5 million in 2021 and a seed round of $1 million in 2019.

“We’ll be using the new funds to further expand our U.S. presence and to reach more in-house legal teams, cementing our role as the infrastructure layer on which the future of automated legal service delivery is being built,” CEO Tom Dreyfus told me in an email.

This latest funding round was led by OIF Ventures, with participation from Carthona Capital, Flying Fox Ventures, Jelix Ventures and Saniel Ventures.

Josef was founded in Australia in 2017 by two lawyers, CEO Dreyfus and COO Sam Flynn, and engineer Kirill Kliavin,

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Every year, state courts process millions of low-dollar but highly consequential cases that shape the lives of Americans. Debt collection, eviction, foreclosure, and child support actions have long dominated civil court dockets and case volume is on the rise. Debt collection claims have more than doubled over the past twenty years as unsecured consumer credit became more widely available. What’s troubling is that these claims are frequently uncontested, resulting in a high rate of default judgments, seizures of property, wage garnishments, and other modes of enforcement.

The American Law Institute (ALI) recently launched an ambitious project to find a cure for this crippling crisis and they seem to have the perfect “doctor” (the JD/Ph.D. kind) for the job: Stanford Law School Professor David Freeman Engstrom whose impressive CV overflows with all the right credentials and an undeniable devotion to equal access to justice. These are his goals:

The project will

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yale dbU.S. News & World Report began ranking law schools in 1990. Every year since — a period of more than three decades — Yale Law School secured the No. 1 spot on the U.S. News list.

Yale’s reign at the top of the U.S. News rankings may be over, however. On November 16, Yale Law School announced that it would henceforth opt out of U.S. News & World Report’s list of top law schools.

Other highly ranked law schools quickly jumped on the bandwagon. As I write this, nine of the T-14 law schools (the most highly ranked schools on the U.S. News list) have pledged to stop submitting the internal data the publication needs to compile its list.

There are a lot of good reasons to detest the U.S. News law school rankings. Even so, it’s not exactly clear what gave rise to the big pullout now, after

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