Inside by Mike Malouf, Jr
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DECEMBER 2015 President’s Column hope you will attend our Christmas social Inside By Mike Malouf, Jr. and the presentation. 2015 Fall Social As the holidays The holiday season is a time of giving, 3 View photos from this CABA/JYL event approach, we often think and in this issue of our newsletter, we profile of those less fortunate some of the ways that CABA members have The Confession of Justice than ourselves. It is hard recently given back to our legal community Thomas Pickens Brady to believe that just a and the greater Jackson community. CABA 6 few blocks away from members joined with other local attorneys to your law offices, many provide free legal assistance to expunge prior Judicial Review Comes to families are struggling criminal convictions. Our members met with Mississippi, and Stays just to put food on the clients and prepared petitions and orders for 9 table and simply cannot afford Christmas expungement of eligible criminal charges. The gifts for their children. Our Capital Area Bar CABA Women’s Initiative co-sponsored the Former Justice James Robertson donates portrait to Supreme Court Association is working to ensure that no child first ever Policy Summit in Jackson, where 16 wakes up on Christmas morning without a gift. guest speaker Anita Hill addressed issues that CABA is partnering with Toys for Tots and will impact the economic security of women in be placing donation bins at the Mississippi Bar Mississippi. You can read more about these SOCIAL MEDIA Center and numerous law firms. We anticipate events in this issue of the newsletter. Follow Us on Facebook & Twitter! this will be our largest effort to provide gifts CABA will celebrate our accomplishments for the children in our community. CABA has not just during the holidays but throughout Statistics show that 90% of organizations now maintain social media profiles, and CABA is among that majority. placed donation bins in local law firms, and the coming year. CABA has an active social You can find the Capital Area Bar Association’s page on we will also collect toys at our Christmas media platform through Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and find us on Twitter (@CABALaw). Social social on December 3rd at the Old Capitol I encourage each of you to help us build our media is a simple way to improve communications Inn. That evening, CABA will present the social media presence by following us, liking within our organization, but we need our members to toys to the U.S. Marine Corps. Through the us, and commenting. You can also comment help to build an effective social media presence. If you are currently on Facebook or Twitter, please engage. overwhelming generosity of our association, on the articles in our newsletter using a new Whether you like us, follow us, or comment on posts, we will help hundreds of families. I look comment feature at the end of each article. you are helping build CABA’s social media profile. forward to everyone’s participation, and I Let us know what you think! CABA Honored as Pro-Bono Competition Winner CABA has been recognized as a competition winner by ABA President Paulette Brown for our pro bono event (the Expungement Legal Clinic at the Metro Center Mall) during National Pro Bono Celebration Week! FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE AND TO VIEW PHOTOS The views expressed in the articles published are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of CABA, its officers, directors, or staff. RESULTS FROM BAR EXAM TURN HEADS FOR WRONG REASONS For example, Muller notes on his blog no one still seems to agree on what the problem By Blake Smith that compared to July 2014, results from the is in the first place. The scores from July 2015 bar exam also fell in twenty other Consider a recent study by Law School the July 2015 Mississippi the following states: Alabama, Colorado, Transparency. According to the nonprofit bar exam are in, and the Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, AL, CO, CT, organization, overall law school enrollment is results are turning the FL, GA,Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, down 28% since 2010. As a result, the study heads of more than just New Mexico, New York, North LA, KS, MO, contends a growing budget crunch is spreading the individuals who MT, NM, NY, NC, Carolina, Oklahoma, across law schools and providing an appetite for failed it. Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, incoming students with lower average LSATs The Mississippi Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. and GPAs. The net effect, according to the Board of Bar Admissions OK, OR, PA, TN, VT, WA, WV, and WI. study, is that “many law schools are enrolling initially released the results last in September, The national trend towards lower passage students who face substantial risk of failing and law school graduates in Mississippi suddenly rates on state bar exams—and any controversy the bar exam to keep their doors open.” jumped to the top of a national list for reasons surrounding it—started even before then. Studies like the recent one from Law less deserving than others. Back in August 2015, Natalie Kitroeff School Transparency seem to lean in favor As Pepperdine University School of Law for BloombergBusiness reported on the fallout of Moeser’s side of the debate. In September Assistant Professor Derek Muller reported that had occurred the previous year after 2015, writing a follow-up piece titled “Bar on his blog “Excess of Democracy” at the the National Conference of Bar Examiners Exam Scores Drop to Their Lowest Point in time, only 51% of test takers had received a (“NCBE”) released results for the multiple- Decades,” Kitroeff quotes Moeser in Bloomberg passing score. For a moment, it looked like choice section of the July 2014 bar exam. In Business as saying the fact the average score on the bar passage rate in Mississippi had sunk a her article “Article Lawyers Getting Dumber?” the multiple-choice portion of the July 2015 dramatic 27 points compared to the relatively Kitroeff explained scores on the multiple- bar exam fell to the lowest it has been since robust 78% it had been the previous year in choice part of the bar exam hit their biggest 1988 was not unexpected and that law schools July 2014, according to Muller. annual drop in the entire history of the test had been admitting less qualified students. But at least for now, the story proved to from July 2013 to July 2014. On the other hand, the same article shows have somewhat of a happier ending. Earlier According to Kitroeff, the fallout began indications that the disagreement lingers; in November, the Mississippi Board of Bar when NCBE President Erica Moeser wrote another source in it cites the addition of a new Admissions released an updated list of results law school deans and said students who sat for section on civil procedure to the bar exam as from the July 2015 exam. This time the news the July 2014 bar exam comprised a less-able one explanation for the drop in test scores was better: 70.2% of test takers received a group when compared to those who previously from July 2014 to July 2015. passing score. took the test in July 2013. There is no reason to think that results Although the numbers are better, they As Kitroeff explained, a furious debate from the February 2016 Mississippi bar exam or continue to reflect a decrease when compared ensued: some blamed the bar exam; a few any other one after that are likely to settle the to the previous year in July 2014. For what it pointed to a software malfunction; and others score once and for all. But the fact the debate is worth, disappointed would-be Mississippi said graduating law students were less prepared. exists at all does present an opportunity for lawyers who failed the bar are not alone in At one point, the recent July 2015 bar all members of the bar to reflect on important this regard. The decline in the bar passage results in Mississippi and elsewhere might questions about the status and condition of rate in Mississippi from July 2014 to July 2015 have had the potential to prove one or more the legal profession as whole in the effort to is part of a recent national trend—one that of them right once and for all. Yet the only make it a better one for the lawyers of today might not be over if some critics are correct. thing they have made clear since then is that and for the lawyers of tomorrow. CABA NEWSLETTER 2 09.24.2015 FALL SOCIAL at Iron Horse Grill The CABA/JYL Fall Social was held September 24, 2015 at Iron Horse Grill. Chairmen were: Tammra Cascio and Margaret Smith. CABA Membership on Meeting/CLE October 20 The program was a panel discussion on professionalism featuring Chancellor John Grant, Judge Kent McDaniel, and William Wright, pictured with Jennie Eichelberger, Program Co-Chair, and Mike Malouf, Jr., CABA President. CABA NEWSLETTER 3 CABA Honored as Pro-Bono Competition Winner CABA has been recognized as a competition winner by ABA President Paulette Brown for having a pro bono event during the “And Justice For All: ABA Day of Service” during the National Pro Bono Celebration Week! We tied for first place as a bar association with between 500 and 5000 members. As you all know, we hosted the Expungement Legal Clinic at the Metro Center Mall on the Day of Service, October 30. CABA recently joined with the Mississippi Access to Justice Commission, the Mississippi Association for Justice, Senator Sollie Norwood and the City of Jackson to host an expungement workshop and legal clinic.