There will be a change at the top of one of the few organizations that can help address some of the problems facing lawyers today. The ABA Journal reports:

ABA Executive Director Henry F. White Jr. has resigned after three years at the helm of the world’s largest voluntary professional membership organization. ABA General Counsel R. Thomas Howell Jr. has been named interim executive director.

Let’s take a moment to remember precisely what the ABA does. From ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm’s official statement about the resignation:

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

There are a lot of lawyers that need some professional assistance just at the moment. Hopefully a fresh face will have new ideas about proactive steps the ABA can take on behalf of its membership.

ABA Executive Director Resigns [ABA Journal]

It wasn’t that long ago — just back in August 2008 — that the ABA changed its rules to allow the outsourcing of American legal work. In the midst of the recession, a lot of people are still trying to figure out if outsourcing will cause a more fundamental change to the nature of the Biglaw business model than anything we’ve seen during the credit crunch.

Now, the ABA is asking its lawyers to share their opinion on outsourcing. This week’s ABA Intellectual Property Law section e-letter contains a link to a very interesting survey. Here’s the description from the e-letter:

Outsourcing Task Force Seeks Survey Input From You

The American Bar Association’s Outsourcing Task Force is conducting a survey on outsourcing. The objective of the Task Force, at the Request of ABA President-Elect Steve Zack, is a Report with Recommendations to the House of Delegates on the subject at next year’s Annual Meeting.

An important means of collecting input from a broader cross section of the
ABA is an online survey which can be accessed at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229LAVJNGRM.

As input from the broadest possible range of American lawyers is critical, the Task Force would greatly appreciate if every member could take a moment to complete this survey.

Immediate Past Section Chair Gordon Arnold is a member of the Task Force and serves as its Liaison to the Section of Intellectual Property Law. He strongly encourages all to complete this survey.

IP lawyers, here is one chance to voice your opinion.

After the jump, some we post a couple of the questions the task force is asking.

The American Bar Association has a plan to help out unemployed lawyers with their student loans. Seriously. An actual plan. The National Law Journal reports:

The ABA wants the government to let unemployed graduates convert private loans into federal ones. The change could allow them to defer repaying those loans for as long as three years.

The plan is so simple and helpful that I’m almost positive Congress will find a way to horribly mess it up. The ABA wants to let people borrow money from the government to pay off their private loans. Then unemployed lawyers can put their new federal loans into deferment for up to three years if they need to.

The effort is in its early stages — executives of the largest provider of private law school loans, Access Group Inc., weren’t even aware of it, according to spokeswoman Linda Smith.

“This is really intended to give them some breathing room,” said ABA President Carolyn Lamm.

The plan was proposed by the ABA’s recently formed Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs, which is examining how lawyers can confront the recession.

Of course, nobody knows precisely how the plan is going to work.

As previously mentioned in these pages, your above-signed scribe has been named a Legal Rebel — one of “50 leading innovators” in the legal profession, as selected by the ABA Journal.

The profile, written by Rachel Zahorsky, appears here. For more background on the Legal Rebels project, see our prior post, or the Legal Rebels website.

Through the Legal Rebels team, we were given the opportunity to meet and interview a longtime idol of ours: Steven Brill, founder of the American Lawyer and Court TV (and a fellow Yale Law School graduate). Brill’s latest project is Journalism Online, which “is pioneering the effort to make the transition to a paid online model successful for publishers and easy for readers.”

You can check out the video of our interview with Steve Brill here, or read about it at the ABA Journal.

David Lat: Gossip at Law [Legal Rebels / ABA Journal]
David Lat Interviews Steve Brill [Legal Rebels / ABA Journal]
Ever the Tough Editor, Am Law Founder Hits Publication’s Websites [ABA Journal]

P.S. Elsewhere in shameless plugs: if you’re in D.C. and don’t have anything more exciting to do tonight, head over to Georgetown Law for a discussion of new media and the law. The panel will feature yours truly, Tony Mauro from the National Law Journal, and Matt Welch from Reason Magazine. Eileen O’Connor, former reporter and bureau chief at CNN, will moderate.

Earlier: Maverick Law: The ABA Journal’s ‘Legal Rebels’
Mr. Lat Goes to Washington

The ABA Journal is kicking off a series on legal rebels. It’s not an oxymoronic phrase; there are innovators and mavericks all throughout our risk averse profession. Here’s what the publication is looking for:

Over the next three months, the Journal will profile 50 of the profession’s leading innovators on www.LegalRebels.com, with at least three profiles added every week. Each profile will include multimedia features like video interviews, audio podcasts, photo slideshows and live chats.

[T]he recession is totally changing the practice of law, and the Legal Rebels project is documenting the individual lawyers who are leading the changes.

But you don’t have to be featured by the ABA Journal to be a legal rebel. Check out the rebel manifesto, after the jump.

Last month, Ross Mitchell made headlines when he became the first online law school graduate to be admitted to the Massachusetts bar.

Mitchell, 57, is a computer systems and management consultant. We’re not sure exactly what that is, but it requires him to travel frequently between California and his home in Massachusetts. He decided he wanted to get a law degree to enhance what he could offer to his clients. The online-only Concord Law School which is owned by Kaplan (which is owned in turn by the Washington Post) offered a flexible educational option. He got his law degree from Concord University in 2004.

He passed the bar in California - it’s the one bar exam that Concord grads can take directly out of the program - in 2004. Other states allow Concord grads who have passed the California bar to sit for their bar exams, but Massachusetts is not one of them. The Mass. Board of Bar Examiners requires that bar takers have a degree from an accredited law school.

Mitchell sued the Mass. Board of Bar Examiners, challenging the constitutionality of that rule. He didn’t succeed in getting the state to change the rule, but he did get a waiver so that he could take the bar. He still hopes the Board of Bar Examiners will change its rules.

Or maybe they won’t have to. As we have mentioned before, the American Bar Association is in the midst of reviewing law school accreditation. Not only are they putting a focus on measuring student outcomes, they’re reviewing Standard 306, which governs “distance education” a.k.a. online programs. From the ABA website:

Currently, there are not any law schools approved by the ABA that provide a J.D. degree completely via correspondence study.

The ABA Standards Review Committee plans to issue a new review of Standard 306 in Fall 2010. If there’s to be a focus on “student outcomes,” the Committee might want to take this year’s ACS moot court competition under consideration. Apparently, Concord law students gave Stanford law students a run for their money.

More on Concord v. Stanford, Ross Mitchell, and the merits of an online law degree, after the jump.

Hallelujah! Bring me the finest bagels and muffins from throughout the land! According to the ABA Journal, the ABA is going to take a serious look at the accreditation and review standards for law schools:

For months, the ABA’s law school accrediting body has quietly been working on a comprehensive review of its often controversial standards governing legal education….

The most significant change in the Standards for Approval of Law Schools is likely to be a move away from evaluating law schools on the basis of criteria that measure “input”—such things as faculty size, budget and physical plant. Instead, the Legal Education Section would evaluate law schools more heavily on the basis of “outcome” measures.

Outcomes? As in whether students actually learn anything from law school? Or whether they are able to get a job after law school?

The essential difference is that outcome measures would focus on what students actually take away from their educational experience at a particular law school rather than what the school teaches, and how, explained E. Christopher Johnson Jr. Johnson was one of three members of the Accreditation Standards Review Committee of the ABA’s Legal Education Section, who gave a status report on the committee’s work at a program held in Chicago on Friday during the 35th ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility….

“It is a sea change to tell law schools you should focus more on outcomes as measures,” said committee member Steven C. Bahls, the president of Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. He chairs the outcome assessment subcommittee.

Oh my God. Something good. Something good could be happening!

More details after the jump.

We’ve reported on two suicides that have happened in the legal community after attorneys have lost their jobs. The National Law Journal reports on another apparent suicide that occurred in December at King & Spalding.

Is the recession economy pushing lawyers over the edge, or is it the just the general stress of the profession?

It is difficult to gauge whether these three recent deaths indicate a rise in attorney suicides; recent statistics are hard to come by. And it has been more than 20 years since the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety released a study that ranked lawyers fifth among workers in the frequency with which they commit suicide. Psychologists and attorneys, however, say factors in the profession that may contribute to suicide have likely grown worse, not better. Lawyers, they say, may be primed for depression because of their heavy workload and legal training that accentuates the negative.

“We really, as lawyers, are dunked into a bath of stress,” said Dan Lukasik, a trial lawyer whose Web site Lawyers with Depression has seen a 50 percent jump in hits in the past six months. “You’re sitting there stewing in your own stress chemicals and that goes on for years.”

After the jump, the ABA offers some resources for those who are confronting depression.

* Michael Jackson “beat it” without paying his legal bill. [The Daily Breeze]

* Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain testified for 2.5 hours yesterday in New York in Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, but wouldn’t say which employees got some of the $3.6 billion bonus pie before the merger with B of A. How are we supposed to know which men to date when we get laid off? Kidding….[Bloomberg]

* More than 100 clients of a man who pretended to be an immigration lawyer got free advice from Lawyers at the New York City Bar Association. [The New York Times]

* SCOTUS had a big day yesterday, ruling on a Utah union case and a case involvingIndian reservations, and hearing arguments on environmental cleanups. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the first to ask questions. [ABA Journal]

* In Houston, a Republican on the congressional judiciary has called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, aka the groper we’ve been writing about, who is still hoping to get retirement funds from the state. [The Houston Chronicle]

* Show me the money. Lawyers, bankers, and accountants stand to make $1.2 billion in fees from GM’s bankruptcy. [Bloomberg.com]

Just a quick reminder about an interesting event, previously mentioned in these pages, which is taking place in a few hours. The ABA Journal, which just profiled U.S. News “rankings czar” Bob Morse, is hosting a live chat with him this afternoon. From Edward Adams of the ABA Journal:

Morse will be taking questions from the public on ABAJournal.com on Friday, April 11, from 3 to 4 p.m. ET. We hope you and your readers will participate.

More from the Journal:

Robert Morse, the man who created the law school rankings for U.S. News, offers an olive branch to law school deans who have long complained about the effect of the rankings on legal education. “Deans are welcome to call me or come by my office in Washington,” Morse says. “I want to work with them to improve the rankings.”

Some deans and former deans think they should engage the magazine, rather than just complain about it. “I think rankings need to be changed, and the only way that will happen is if law school deans sit down with Bob Morse for honest discussion,” says Nancy Rapoport, who resigned as dean of the University of Houston Law Center after her school dropped almost 20 points in the rankings. “I would attend a meeting like that without hesitation.”

So unhappy law school deans, here’s your chance. You can already submit “questions” — defined in academia as rambling screeds, concluded with “and what do you think of all this?” — by clicking here. Or just visit the ABA Journal’s home page at 3 PM Eastern time.

Additional links about the U.S. News rankings not mentioned in our earlier coverage, after the jump.

One of our favorite law students in America, Adam Key, is in the news once again. As you may recall, Key is a 2L at Regent Law School, the private, Christian law school in Virginia, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.

Key is currently at war with the Regent administration over free speech issues. The university suspended him. In November 2007, he filed a lawsuit in federal court against the university, claiming violation of his free speech rights.

Now Key has filed a complaint with the American Bar Association, seeking to revoke Regent Law’s accreditation by the ABA. For coverage, check out the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Lawyer.

We recently corresponded with Adam Key over instant messenger about the ABA complaint he just filed (among other topics). If you might be interested, you can read excerpts from our IM conversation below the fold.

P.S. With respect to the title of this post, our favorite Regent Law School student or graduate is Monica Goodling, of course. If you’re on Facebook, join her fan club.

ABA Asked to Examine Accreditation of Pat Robertson’s Law School [Texas Lawyer]
Spring man asks ABA to help him [Houston Chronicle]

Part of a blogger’s job description is to shamelessly rip off stuff from the mainstream media. So we’re going to follow in the footsteps of the ABA Journal and the WSJ Law Blog, and name ATL’s first annual Lawyer of the Year. (Of course, it’s not that original an idea to begin with, insofar as it’s inspired by Time magazine’s Person of the Year.)

The WSJ crew is still accepting nominations, so we don’t know the identity of their pick. But the ABA Journal’s honoree for 2007, Alberto Gonzales, has generated some controversy. The Journal’s editor and publisher, Edward A. Adams, explained the pick to the Washington Post: “It’s about who has had the most effect in the world of lawyers this year. We’re not saying Gonzales is good or bad. We’re just saying this is the leading newsmaker in our part of the world.”

Additional discussion, plus how to submit your nomination for ATL’s Lawyer of the Year, after the jump.

The ABA Journal has put together a well-intended list of 50 ways to market your [father’s] law practice. Here’s just a few to get a conversation started with the older partners in your firm:

1. Join your local chamber of commerce. It’s great for networking and community credibility.

5. Offer to write an article for your local paper on a topic such as why everyone should have a will or questions to ask a contractor. Make sure the byline includes the name of your firm and, if possible, your e-mail address.

7. Try to get a local reporter to use you as a legal expert. Send an e-mail offering commentary on a court case. Learn to translate legalese into English and reporters will love you.

18. Advertise in school and church newsletters and local marketer newspapers. This sort of advertising is usually cost-efficient and such publications are surprisingly well-read by their target audiences.

19. Post your business card on the bulletin board at your barbershop, beauty salon, grocery store, community center and house of worship.

22. Donate last year’s Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory or other slightly outdated law books to your local library with a bookplate bearing your name and firm name.

23. Donate magazines to your local jail, nursing home or school and hand over your business card when you drop them off.

32. Send out press releases. Small local newspapers are especially interested.

38. Write down a 30-second description of your practice and commit it to memory. This is called the elevator speech. Use it whenever someone asks, “What type of law do you practice?” Everyone in the firm should have a copy of the description.

And my favorite way to market a law practice:

50. Give vinyl or nylon briefcases to clients at their first visit. This will encourage clients to keep important papers for their case in one place and to bring everything to each office visit. Add a pen, key chain, pad of paper and some business cards to the case.

Read all fifty and let us know which ones you think are the most ridiculous. To be fair and balanced, do let us know if you find any of them worthwhile.

Oh, here’s a tip you won’t find anywhere in that list of 50 ways to market your practice: blog.

While you’re visiting the ABA Journal’s website, check out their Blawg Directory, which the authors of that list of fifty ways to market your practice failed to notice.

It’s not nearly as entertaining as the Promiscuous Firm music video from those Canadian law students. So don’t get your hopes TOO high.

But this video, in which a lawyer aspires to the legal-geek distinction of making the cover of the ABA Journal, has its moments. So we’ll pass along it to you, and you can check it out depending upon how bored you are today:

(The two moments that we chortled at were the least politically correct lines. We suspect that the ABA, one of the more PC organizations on the face of planet Earth, would be less amused.)

UPDATE: In our opinion, this video is far more entertaining — even though, as a videotaped deposition, it really shouldn’t be. We will refrain from further comment because we will only get ourselves in trouble.

Bob Noone & the Well Hung Jury Live at the Greenbrier Resort [The Billable Hour]
Cover of the ABA [YouTube]
What Is It With Texas Depositions? [Sui Generis]