ABA Day 2023 is back in person this week in the nation’s capital. TBA President Tasha Blakney, President-elect Jim Barry, YLD President Brittany Faith, ABA Resource Committee Chair Jonathan Cole and Interim Executive Director Barry Kolar are in Washington, D.C., through Wednesday to build relationships with new House and Senate members and advocate for issues important to lawyers. The group has heard from ABA leaders on issues to be discussed in legislative meetings and from the Legal Services Corporation about the need to increase access to civil legal services. See the full schedule for the week.

Tennessee lawyers representing the state at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in New Orleans heard updates on the profession from a variety of ABA leaders at the TBA’s annual delegation breakfast on Sunday. Among those addressing the group were ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross, ABA House of Delegates Chair Gene Vance, ABA President-elect Mary Smith and ABA Executive Director Jack Rives. The delegation, under the leadership of former TBA President John Tarpley, also heard from TBA President Tasha Blakney and took part in a Saturday reception honoring former TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson. See photos from those events here.

Tennessee lawyers representing the state at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in New Orleans heard updates on the profession from a variety of ABA leaders at the TBA’s annual delegation breakfast on Sunday. Among those addressing the group were ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross, ABA House of Delegates Chair Gene Vance, ABA President-elect Mary Smith and ABA Executive Director Jack Rives. The delegation, under the leadership of former TBA President John Tarpley, also heard from TBA President Tasha Blakney and took part in a Saturday reception honoring former TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson. See photos from those events here.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and recently retired justice Stephen Breyer have been named honorary co-chairmen of a nonpartisan group devoted to educating the public about the Constitution. The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia said the pair will be spokesmen for civics education and civility in politics. The justices' decision to work together "is especially meaningful in this polarized time," said Jeffrey Rosen, the center's president. At the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago earlier this month, Breyer said, "The nonpartisan work of the National Constitution Center is essential, and I look forward to working with Justice Gorsuch to promote civil dialogue and debate." Read more from the center.

Bloomberg Law reports that the American Bar Association's (ABA) House of Delegates has "passed a non-binding resolution discouraging changes to state rules barring the sharing of legal fees with non-lawyers. But it also encouraged state bar groups to explore innovations designed to increase access to justice by making legal services more affordable." Arizona and Utah have loosened restrictions on firm ownership and North Carolina, California and Michigan are considering similar measures. Sam Skolnik reports that "[t]he changes are often touted as access to justice measures, but they could also allow law firms to seek outside investors and permit the Big Four accountancies and other for-profit businesses like litigation funders to compete to provide legal services in the U.S."

The American Bar Association's (ABA) House of Delegates voted Monday to withdraw a proposed diversity and inclusion resolution, Standard 206. The resolution was revised three times between spring 2021 and February 2022, and an ABA spokesperson told Law.com that "[t]he resolution, aimed at bolstering the ABA’s existing diversity and inclusion standard, was withdrawn to await further consideration and discussion with other entities." Christine Charnosky reports, "The most recent amendments to Standard 206 would have required individual law schools to ensure the effective educational use of diversity by providing (1) full access to the study of law and membership in the profession to all persons with a particular focus on underrepresented groups related to race and ethnicity, (2) a faculty and staff that includes members of underrepresented groups with the same focus related to race and ethnicity, and (3) an inclusive and equitable environment for a larger list of groups, according to the executive summary." A PDF of the full article is available.

At the American Bar Association annual meeting this past week in Chicago, three Tennessee lawyers were recognized. Former TBA president Danny Van Horn took office as chair of the ABA’s Litigation Section and was celebrated at a reception hosted by his firm. He will serve during the 2022-2023 bar year, which marks the section’s 50th anniversary year. Van Horn is a trial attorney in the Memphis office of Butler Snow. Then at a reception hosted by the TBA, Knoxville lawyer Heidi Barcus and Nashville lawyer Sam H. Poteet Jr. were honored for their ABA service. Barcus, a special counsel at Lewis Thomason, is the immediate past chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and an ABA Fellow. Poteet, a principal at Manier & Herod, is a past chair of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section and past chair of the ABA Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section’s Fidelity & Surety Law Committee. See more photos from the meeting.

The American Bar Association’s policymaking body, the House of Delegates (HOD), convenes next month to conclude the ABA 2022 Annual Meeting with more than 30 items on the agenda, including several resolutions that address the country’s incarceration challenges and other criminal justice issues. Also, the HOD will host a roundtable discussion “Democracy in Peril: How Can We Change the Course for America?” on Aug. 8, at 11 a.m. CDT. The program will explore the causes of concern about the future of U.S. democracy and of those around the world. 

The American Bar Association House of Delegates adopted a number of new policies at its Mid-Winter meeting last week. Two will impact law schools and law students, Reuters reports. First, law schools must now provide (1) education in bias, cross-cultural competency and racism both at the beginning of students’ legal studies and again later in their law school careers; (2) information about financial aid and student loan debt resources; and (3) well-being resources. Second, bar admissions authorities were asked to adopt clear and uniform policies allowing for accommodations for lactating individuals during bar exams. See all resolutions considered.

The 2022 ABA Midyear Meeting, which will take place Feb. 9-14, had been scheduled to held in-person in Seattle, Washington. Yesterday, the group’s board of governors decided to transition the meeting to a fully virtual format given the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Watch for updates on the meeting webpage.