Despite a landmark election, a Hoosier’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court and countless major developments in the Indiana legal community, this year belonged to the coronavirus, Indiana Lawyer’s top story of 2020.
Speaking with reporters via Zoom on Thursday, Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush acknowledged that despite efforts to keep courts operating remotely as much as possible, judges will face the difficult task in 2021 of working through COVID-created backlogs and getting their dockets back on schedule.
Indiana’s decision to adopt the Uniform Bar Exam came after a year of study, and the decision wasn’t unanimous. As Chief Justice Loretta Rush explained, “I really respect the dissenting opinion and in many ways a lot of us agree with what they are saying. But we really felt the time had come.”
For the last few years, students at the Notre Dame Law School have been working in conjunction with a Chicago organization designed to seek justice for wrongfully convicted individuals. Now, the law school has graduated to a new level of independence in its wrongful-conviction work, opening the Exoneration Justice Project this semester.
Indiana has decided to join the growing majority of states and adopt the Uniform Bar Exam in July 2021, according to an announcement Tuesday from the Indiana Supreme Court. Justices also announced Tuesday that the February 2021 Bar Exam will be given remotely.
A long-held dream, a handful of alumni and a student whose summer externship was scuttled all came together to create and launch the first intellectual property law clinic at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
The uncertainty of the times is heightening the worry and stress among law students and new lawyers, but career counselors say the people just entering the legal profession are doing more to confront the issues of the day. They are discussing ways to solve injustices and inequities, pursuing jobs in the public sector and carefully evaluating law firms to determine if they share the same values.
Citing the “continuing uncertainty and disruption of the COVID-19 emergency,” the Law School Admission Council has announced that all the remaining LSAT exams will be delivered remotely instead of in-person through April 2021.
Indiana University Maurer School of Law is part of a just-launched collaboration of law schools across the United States that are coming together to examine and address legal issues in policing and public safety.
When Indiana University decided to assemble a committee to reevaluate the naming of buildings and landmarks on the Bloomington campus after the school’s seventh president, David Starr Jordan, who afterward championed eugenics, the institution started by calling the law schools.
The IndyBar Pro Bono Awards honor IndyBar members who are practicing lawyers, retired lawyers, in-house and corporate counsel, and law students as well as local law firms who have made outstanding contributions toward delivering volunteer legal services to the poor and disadvantaged.
Indianapolis attorney Steve Tuchman and his husband, Reed Bobrick, have made a $4 million gift to Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law to support the creation of an endowed scholarship and an endowed professorship to further the institution’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made many visits to Indiana during her tenure on the Supreme Court. She had friendships with the law professors and deans at the law schools in the Hoosier State, and she influenced law students, lawyers and judges across the state. “Imagine a young law student faced with the challenge by a Supreme Court Justice,” recalled a former IU Maruer law student who is now a federal judge.
Like many things that scrambled to the virtual world as the coronavirus chased everyone inside their own homes, the online version of the LSAT is turning out to be a popular replacement to the traditional in-person law school entrance exam.
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.
The overall passage rate for the Indiana August 2020 bar exam reached 74%, about 10 percentage points higher than the overall pass rate for the previous four July bar exams. Likewise, 84% of those taking the test for the first time passed while 53% of the repeat takers were successful, the highest rate for repeaters since 54% passed the February 2015 bar.
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.
Indiana’s unprecedented bar exam that was reformatted and delayed until August 2020 because of the coronavirus has turned in a pass rate that tops the previous four years. Almost three-quarters of those who took the remote test passed, according to the list released Tuesday.
Indiana’s law schools have enrolled diverse and academically solid 1L classes for the fall 2020 semester, indicating the COVID-19 pandemic did not adversely impact the recruitment of students by the institutions.
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.