A2J Briefing: News from the Field

Technology

  • LawSites reports on a survey of the Washington State Bar Association that reveals gaps in technology knowledge and cybersecurity practices. [6/17]
  • Kevin Frazier writes in The Regulatory Review on the need for a fundamental shift in the cultural norms surrounding data sharing. [6/16]
  • A recent NCSC webinar discusses how Orange County Superior Court is using an AI-powered Court Application Translation to serve Limited English Proficient individuals. [6/10] 
  • OpenAI’s newest model performs well on law school exams, Reuters reports. [6/5]
  • LegalZoom and Perplexity have entered into a partnership that will provide Perplexity Pro users with LegalZoom’s legal help directly within the application, Artificial Lawyer reports. [6/4] 
  • Anthropic’s CEO is warning of mass displacement of entry-level white collar jobs due to AI, MSN reports and Axios reports, among others. [5/28] 
  • An article in Lawfare argues that judges should not rely on AI for the ‘ordinary meaning’ of text. [5/22]

Regulatory Innovation 

  • The American Scholar profiles access to justice pioneer and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” recipient Rebecca Sandefur and the broader impact of the community justice worker movement. [6/4]
  • Legal Futures reports on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill and the long-awaited, but still pending, introduction of ABSs. [6/4]

Courts, Rules & Access to Justice 

  • Members of the Harvard A2J Lab share updates on the Lab’s Child Welfare project, which is testing the impact of embedding legal services in schools and hospitals. [6/16] 
  • Law360 reports on ‘facade law firms’ in North Carolina and beyond that are preying on consumers in debt. [6/13]   
  • Stanford Law School’s David Freeman Engstrom, Margaret Hagan, and Daniel Bernal discuss efforts to leverage technology to improve LA courts access in Stanford Legal Podcast. [6/12]
  • A new paper in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies explores ways of measuring the public’s perceived inaccessibility of courts and lawyers. [6/1]  
  • The Colorado Access to Justice Commission and Colorado Legal Services are launching another statewide listening tour to collect feedback from community members about barriers to navigating the state’s civil courts. [5/30] 

The Profession

  • The Florida Supreme Court has directed The Florida Bar to stop appointing delegates to the ABA House of Delegates and to rescind or withdraw current appointments. [6/17]
  • Law360 Pulse reports on the disconnect between how lawyers who serve consumers perceive their client relationships and how clients truly feel. [6/17]
  • Reuters reports on the latest in the State Bar of California’s efforts to enact a provisional licensure program for first-time test takers who withdrew from or failed the February bar exam. [6/12]
  • Aliza Shatzman writes in Bloomberg Law on the Transparency and Responsibility in Upholding Standards in the Judiciary Act. [6/2]
  • Jonathan Adler writes on the Civitas Institute’s platform, asking whether the ABA’s accreditation monopoly is coming to an end. [6/2]
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A2J Briefing: News from the Field

Technology 

  • Damien Charlotin has compiled a database tracking legal decisions in cases where generative AI produced hallucinated content. [ongoing] 
  • Judge David L. Horan (N.D.T.X.) issued a Standing Order Regarding Use of Artificial Intelligence. [5/15/25]
  • The AI pilot lead at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is exploring how district courts are using AI, FedScoop reports. [5/6/25]
  • Law.com reports on Garfield.Law, the first AI-driven law firm to receive regulated legal service authorization in England and Wales. [5/14/25]

Regulatory Innovation 

  • The Rhode Center released a new study on the Utah legal regulatory sandbox and the Arizona Alternative Business Structure program, Law360 reports. [6/2/25]
  • The Regulatory Review is publishing a series of essays on recent efforts by the Administrative Conference of the United States to support nonlawyer representation and assistance in federal agency proceedings. [6/2/25]

Courts, Rules & Access to Justice 

  • The Kansas Judicial Branch launched a new virtual self-help center. [6/2/25]
  • The State Bar of California has published an updated justice gap study, Law360 reports. [5/30/25]
  • A recent episode of Talk Justice podcast covers the Legal Services Corporation research brief “The Economic Case for Civil Legal Aid.” [5/27/25]
  • The American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Initiative published “State of the Art in Civil Legal Needs Surveys: A Comparative Perspective.” [5/25]
  • Matt Reynolds writes in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the rise of corporate landlords. [5/20/25]
  • The Pew Charitable Trusts surveyed states to identify whether and how court date reminders were being used across the country. [5/12/25] 
  • Cuts to the AmeriCorps program are impacting some court self-help programs, WGLT reports. [4/29/25] 

The Profession

  • The ABA Journal reports on challenges that women face in the legal profession. [6/1/25]
  • The Nevada Supreme Court approved a three-prong bar exam to launch in 2027, the ABA Journal reports. [5/28/25] 
  • Law360 reports that the California Bar has formally asked the California Supreme Court to approve a provisional licensure program in response to the February bar exam debacle. [5/27/25]
  • Illinois will move to the NextGen bar exam beginning in 2028, 2civility reports.
  • IAALS at the University of Denver launched a study to explore how different licensure pathways measure and uphold minimum competency in the legal profession. [5/13/25]

The ABA Journal reports that the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions is considering a proposal that would increase required experiential learning credit hours. [5/12/25]

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