At a retreat last month, the State Bar Board of Trustees
discussed various new regulatory ideas, including a limited-practice licensing
program that would create a new class of professionals who could give legal
advice.
In the 20th year of the Jack Berman Award of Achievement,
which recognizes young lawyers who have shown extraordinary commitment to pro
bono, the California Bar Journal caught up with a few of its past winners and
found them doing amazing work. Emily Arnold-Fernandez, for example, is
expanding the nonprofit she founded to help refugees around the globe.
The judicial branch was spared additional cuts to its
operating budget, but the effect of previous budget cuts means that courtrooms
will continue to go dark and the public will continue to endure service
reductions.
California law corporations must follow State Bar rules
even if none of their attorneys is admitted to practice law here, an appellate
court has ruled.
The new year is off to a good start for the State Bar’s
discipline unit, which ended 2012 with an investigations backlog of just five
cases.
It’s not too early to submit nominations for the President’s
Pro Bono Awards and the Loren Miller Legal Services Award. The deadline is
March 15.