Stand Your Ground laws, Terri Schiavo case anniversary highlight ABA GPSolo Joint Spring Meeting
Legal professionals will gather to discuss a wide range of subjects at the American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division's Joint Spring Meeting May 11-14 at the Key West Marriott Beachside Hotel in Key West, Fla.
A highlight of the three-day conference will be the presentation of Lifetime Achievement and Small Firm Trainer awards to veteran lawyers Jeffrey Allen, Donald D. Slesnick II and Gary P. Bauer during the Solo & Small Firm Awards luncheon on Friday, May 13 at the hotel.
Program highlights include:
- "Stand Your Ground Now" This panel will discuss the challenges faced by lawyers when Stand Your Ground laws are invoked, as well as the influence of public discourse on age, class, gender, race, the police, school shootings and vigilante justice on interpretations of those laws. In addition, the speakers will address important lessons lawyers in America can learn today. Since the discussion promises to be passionate, the panelists will be allowed three to four minutes each for uninterrupted closing remarks.
- "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act" Debt collection violations, which have been around for decades, are often ignored or misunderstood by consumer attorneys. This area will be explained until everybody says, "okay, now I get it."
- "Terri Schiavo Ten Years Later and Other End of Life Issues" Terri Schiavo slipped into a persistent vegetative state following a cardiac arrest and was placed on a feeding tube, which was removed five years after the initial order to have the tube removed. The litigation was endless, and included federal intervention by Congress. The discussion by a member of the trial team representing Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, will include highlights and reflections on the case, the impact of the aging population on elder law practices and exploitation of the super-aged.
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ABA legal education section releases employment data for law class of 2015
Employment data for the graduating law class of 2015 as reported by American Bar Association-approved law schools to the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is now publicly available.
The aggregate national data on law graduate employment outcomes for the class of 2015 and individual schools' post-graduate employment figures can be found online. An online table also provides select national side-by-side comparisons between the classes of 2015 and 2014.
The 205 ABA-approved law schools in the aggregate data reported that roughly 10 months after graduation, 28,029 graduates of the class of 2015, or 70 percent, were employed in long-term, full-time positions where bar passage is required or a J.D. is preferred. The class of 2015 had 39,984 graduates, down 14 percent from 2013's largest-ever class of 46,776 graduates.
The ABA's accrediting body, under Standard 509 of the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, requires schools to report to the ABA and publicly disclose varied information, including employment outcomes. Employment and other statistics are posted to the Section of Legal Education statistics website.
Published: Thu, May 05, 2016
