Despite the upheaval and uncertainty the pandemic has created for legal education, law school admissions officers are confident the first-year class entering in the fall of 2020 will be the same size, if not bigger, than the class that started in the fall of 2019.
After the COVID-19 outbreak upended the spring semester and forced everyone to shift to online learning, Indiana’s law schools are preparing to welcome students and faculty back into their buildings for a fall semester that will be unlike any other.
A second round of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law students have been dispatched across the state this summer to assist rural county judges through a judicial clerkship program, despite setbacks caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The nearly 500 applicants who have registered to take the Indiana Bar Exam in July will need to have external webcams, quiet rooms and be prepared to write extensively for the test that will be given remotely for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The July bar exam is one example of the Supreme Court’s nimbleness as it moves in a new direction to help recent law school graduates and new lawyers overcome the stress and hardship created by the pandemic. Within the span of roughly two months, the justices moved the May admission ceremony online so those who passed the February bar could begin their legal careers as soon as possible and established the graduate legal intern program to give 2020 graduates the option of getting a limited license.
New lawyers preparing to launch their fledgling legal careers in 2020 look similar to the generations that came before them, but some things set millennial lawyers apart. Their ever-evolving professional aspirations and career trajectories appear less traditional than the routes taken by their predecessors in decades past.
Examining a witness online made Sarah Kelly a little disconcerted. The Indiana University Maurer School of Law student was part of the patent trial class that spends an entire semester preparing a patent case then culminates in a mock trial. Typically the pseudo litigation takes place in a courtroom before a jury and real judge, but this year the COVID-19 emergency pushed the courtroom battle online.
The spring semester is coming to a close in Bloomington, but in ways none of us expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, when classes resumed remotely March 30, our students, faculty and staff more than rose to the occasion and pulled together, and the transition has been smoother than expected.
Five Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty members were honored with annual teaching awards, the law school announced last week.
For students at law schools across the country, the global pandemic forced a breakneck shift from in-person classes and on-campus activities to distance learning as colleges and universities closed buildings and dorms to slow the spread of coronavirus.
As leaders across the country continue to call for social distancing and implement restrictions on large gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19, some citizens have balked at the idea of interrupting their normal religious activities. But as long as restrictions on churches are non-discriminatory, experts say the restrictions are likely constitutional.
On Halloween 2019, a constitutional argument against the process for challenging patents not only convinced a federal appellate court but also inspired the judges to offer their own fix to the statute.
The coronavirus emergency is forcing many changes to legal education in Indiana. Law schools and the judiciary are changing procedures, canceling events and finding alternatives as the prohibitions on large gatherings appear likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Starting a new chapter, the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, a faith-based legal services provider, is welcoming a new leader as it looks to enhance its programs and launch new initiatives to help low-income households in Indiana.
As potential law students are wondering whether they will be able to take the LSAT as scheduled this spring, those preparing to graduate law school are likely to be graded in their final term on a pass/fail basis.
Cases handled by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office continue to be rescheduled or continued as the Indianapolis courts adjust operations in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best law schools in the country brought disappointing results for Indiana as all three law schools still being ranked fell in their positions.
The Indiana legal community is taking precautions and ramping up efforts to stay healthy as the coronavirus spreads. Meanwhile, Faegre Drinker announced Wednesday that it had reopened most of its offices Wednesday, including its Indianapolis location. The firm had closed all 22 of its global offices Tuesday after a person who attend a firm event in Washington, D.C., tested positive for COVID-19.
William Adams, a 1978 graduate of Indiana University Maurer School of Law, has been selected as managing director of Accreditation and Legal Education at the American Bar Association, the group whose duties include training law school site evaluation teams, collecting law school data and providing guidance on compliance.
The national and international conversations about the impacts of climate change have focused largely on initiatives designed to curb greenhouse gas and other potentially harmful emissions. But there’s also an increasingly popular business aspect to the conversation.