The Indiana Supreme Court hosted the Fall 2020 Bar Admission Ceremony by videoconference Monday in keeping with safeguards of hosting once events online amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the speakers encouraged new Indiana lawyers to look to the example of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrived at the University of Notre Dame in September 2016, she was greeted by a large crowd of admirers. But Nell Jessup Newton, then dean of the Notre Dame Law School, remembered the judicial icon making her feel like the pair were longtime friends.
The silence was deafening. Little to no calls were coming in to the Middle Way House’s domestic violence help and crisis line in the months after Indiana’s stay at home orders, leaving Debra Morrow in a panic. “It got deathly quiet, and to us, that was horrifying. We were worried about those who couldn’t reach out.”
At 10 a.m. Monday, Leanna Weissmann transitioned from practitioner to judge. “What a star,” Chief Justice Loretta Rush said of Weissmann when her appointment was announced. “I will miss you standing before me arguing cases. … I always knew it would be a whale of an argument.”
Michael Tolbert’s turn to lead the Indiana State Bar Association could not have come at a more challenging time. Having led multiple local bar groups, the Gary native takes the helm at the ISBA during a time of pandemic and persistent racial inequities that at times have put the law and lawyers on the defensive. Tolbert, though, is relentlessly optimistic.
Bre Robinson’s final year of law school has been different in every way possible. Just a few weeks into a pandemic-stricken semester, the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Student Bar Association president said classmates are sparse. Robinson isn’t alone in that sentiment. As students nationwide make their way into a new school year, social distancing guidelines and uncertainty are following them.
A recent survey of nearly 1,100 young lawyers found that many new attorneys are making major financial, personal and career sacrifices as a result of their student loans. That includes decisions ranging from marriage and children to making big purchases or taking vacations. The survey hits home for many young Indiana lawyers.
Although there are more than 1.3 million attorneys in the United States, “legal deserts” can be found across vast expanses of the country and all over Indiana, according to a recent report from the American Bar Association.
Hendricks County families who live with the odor from a nearby 8,000-hog farm for years have lost their nuisance, negligence and trespass claims against the concentrated animal feeding operation. After unsuccessfully seeking relief from the Indiana Court of Appeals and a divided Indiana Supreme Court, they are now turning to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the shooting of a district judge’s son and husband at her home in New Jersey, Hoosier federal jurists say they live daily with the reality of threats to their safety. The judicial Conference has adopted a series of recommendations aimed at safeguarding the federal bench.
As Indiana prepares to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, women are still going to the polls, often in higher numbers than men, and still have diverse political views. In addition, they are galvanized to vote by issues that range from the environment to immigration, health care and pay equity. Yet in 100 years of voting, how much impact have Hoosier women had?
This back-to-school season is like no other. What was expected in March to be a temporary closure due to COVID-19 has spilled into August, leaving teachers, administrators, students and parents at a loss for what to expect.
Attorney Ashley Eve was one of more than a dozen death penalty protesters who claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when Indiana State Police set up roadblocks that kept capital punishment protestors almost 2 miles away from the federal prison in Terre Haute while three executions took place there last month. Eve was motivated to a career in law by her opposition to the death penalty.
Just as celebrations were starting over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Title VII protections cover transgender workers, another opinion from the nine justices shielded religious organizations from lawsuits by expanding the ministerial exception legal doctrine and injected more energy into potential religious liberty challenges to anti-discrimination laws.
A grand jury indicted two Indianapolis police officers on battery and other charges after an investigation into allegations that they used excessive force while arresting demonstrators at a May protest over the death of George Floyd, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears announced Wednesday.
Indiana attorney Jim Dimos, who left private practice to help lead the American Bar Association after leading both his local and state bars, is being remembered as someone who was “quietly effective” and a friend to the legal profession. He died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 59.
“I knew that I was the first trial and that if I screwed up, nobody else would get to go, so I wanted these people to be comfortable,” Lake Superior Judge Bruce Parent said. Parent and others shared their perspectives on the first Indiana jury trial permitted after court proceedings were suspended due to the pandemic.
It is easy to understand why Meg Christensen’s favorite word these days is “nimble.” The 38-year-old attorney became the managing partner of Dentons Bingham Greenebaum’s Indianapolis office during unprecedented challenges and about six months after the merger with global giant Dentons launched a new law firm business model.
Covered from head to toe in protective fabric and netting, three northern Indiana judges set out in the summer evening toward a buzzing stack of boxes settled against a tree line. The faded brown and green frames are home to thousands upon thousands of honeybees, going about their merry way gathering and storing food.
A well-written opinion or brief can change the course of legal thought, but while other parts of the practice of law have been upended by technology, the physical act of writing remains pretty much a job done by humans. However, new artificial intelligence software appears poised to rewrite the definition of writing.