Judge stands firm in Trump fraud case, law firm Cooley launches congressional investigations group, JD-Next program awaits ABA approval, and more ?
Reuters Legal
From the courts to law firms, we bring you the latest legal news. Subscribe to our newsletters: https://bit.ly/3nhgllA
?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here are today's top legal stories:
?? Judge in Trump fraud case would not back down
Arthur Engoron, a cabdriver-turned-judge who found?Donald Trump?liable for fraud, did not hold back in accusing the former US president of trying to take him for a ride.
In ordering Trump and his family business to pay a $355 million penalty, Engoron displayed the wit, humor and disbelief he has often shown in more than three years overseeing the?civil fraud case?brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, including a trial spanning three months.
"The English poet Alexander Pope first declared, 'To err is human, to forgive is divine," Engoron wrote near the end of his 92-page, single-spaced decision.
James, an elected Democrat, sued Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and others, saying they violated state law by overstating the value of Trump's properties in order to inflate his net worth and obtain better loan and insurance terms.
?? Law firm Cooley taps longtime Hill lawyer for new congressional investigations group
U.S. law firm Cooley said that Susanne Grooms, former chief counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, has joined the firm to lead a new congressional investigations practice.
Cooley hired Grooms, a former federal prosecutor, as a Washington, D.C.-based litigation partner. She has worked at litigation firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink since March 2021.
Grooms said she was attracted to the prospect of working with the firm's base of technology, social media, artificial intelligence, life sciences and healthcare clients.
They are "at the forefronts of their fields, in areas where Congress is looking to investigate in order to determine whether to regulate or how to regulate in these new areas," she said.
She previously served in senior leadership of the House Oversight Committee from 2011 to 2021, and as general counsel for the House Select Committee on Benghazi from 2014 to 2016.
?? Law school admissions program JD-Next seeks ABA's blessing
领英推荐
Alternative law school admissions program JD-Next could soon join the LSAT and the GRE in gaining the American Bar Association’s stamp of approval.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is slated Thursday to consider a request by JD-Next’s operator to deem the program a “valid and reliable” predictor of an applicant’s law school grades—a designation that would enable law school admissions offices to use it without special ABA permission, as they do with both the LSAT and GRE.
Supporters say JD-Next is an important new tool for law schools because it captures participants' law school aptitude without reproducing the racial score disparities seen on other standardized tests.
That message is resonating with law schools, particularly since the U.S. Supreme Court in June significantly curtailed the consideration of race in college admissions. Nearly 50 law schools have received special ABA permission to admit new students with JD-Next scores since the court’s decision.
Unlike the LSAT and the GRE, which are standardized exams taken in one sitting, JD-Next begins with an eight-week online contracts course for prospective law students and culminates in a law school-style exam that covers what they’ve learned.
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law developed the program in 2019 with financial backing from the nonprofit organizations AccessLex Institute and Educational Testing Service, which produces the GRE.
Given the elimination of affirmative action, it would be "disappointing" if the ABA did not support the JD-Next's "goals of equity, diversity, and efficiency," said its program director David Klieger.
?? Online law graduates get pathway to take Indiana bar exam
Graduates of law schools not accredited by the American Bar Association are eligible to take the bar exam in Indiana following a Feb. 15 rule change by the state’s high court, but they will have to go through an individual approval process.
The Indiana Supreme Court?amended, ?its attorney admissions rules to enable graduates of non-ABA law schools to request a waiver to sit for the licensing exam, provided they are eligible to take the test in another state. That means graduates of fully online law schools and graduates of California-accredited law schools may petition to take the Indiana bar, because California already allows both of those groups of graduates to take its exam.
The rule change takes effect on July 1, with the February 2025 bar being the opportunity non-ABA graduates may petition to take.
The change will help address the shortage of rural lawyers in Indiana, said Martin Pritikin, dean of the fully online Purdue Global Law School, which first?requested?the Indiana rule change in 2022.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great day!
For more legal industry news, read and subscribe to The Daily Docket.
Genealogist and Luxury Retail Sales (??????????)
2 周Nauseating to find that I share some linkedin connections with this fool.