The Supreme Court of New Mexico, with generous assistance from SJI, has convened a committee dedicated to the development of an alternative, supervised-practice means of licensure that focuses on a skills-based assessment of a bar applicant’s legal abilities. The National Center for State Courts, as contractor on the project, assisted the committee by gathering information about similar models in other states and surveying local interested persons so that the qualifications and requirements of the program fit the needs of New Mexico. The committee expects to provide a final report to the New Mexico Supreme Court this spring.
While a two-day written examination has been used for decades, new reports questioning its efficacy in assessing a bar applicant’s readiness to practice law prompted the New Mexico Supreme Court to explore additional means of admitting attorneys to the practice.
Under the program, candidates must graduate from an accredited law school and will receive a conditional license to practice law upon acceptance. Candidates then work with a supervisor to submit regular work product for review by the Board of Bar Examiners to determine the candidate’s competence to practice. A candidate proves their practice readiness with actual legal work product and may begin working and earning a paycheck much sooner. For supervisors, this program will provide a pool of candidates who are able to practice upon graduation while also giving rural practitioners a new recruitment tool to encourage attorneys to practice in different parts of the state.
July 1, 2023
The National Judicial Network: A Lifeline Helping Judges Better Serve Human Trafficking Victims and Immigrant Victims of Crime and Abuse The National Judicial Network (NJN): Forum on Human Trafficking and Immigration in State Courts offers judges an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and information sharing. Judges from all over the country who are interested in the …
June 1, 2023
The Good Judge-ment Podcast is an educational, web-based podcast for judges, lawyers, students and nerds of all kinds. The podcast started in 2016 as a supplement to ongoing educational programming for Georgia Superior Court judges. From that beginning, it has grown to a bi-weekly program with hundreds of subscribers and over 125 episodes. The hosts, …
May 1, 2023
With the certification of 64 resource judges and four court resource attorneys’ mid-summer 2022, the National Courts and Sciences Institute (NCSI) completed Phase 1 of a SJI-supported strategic initiative to discover ways to train judges and court personnel to cope with novel, changing, Covid Science in the Courtroom. Judges from 12 jurisdictions in coordinator-facilitated teams …
April 1, 2023
During the past two years, Neighborhood Preservation, Inc. worked with the City of Memphis and Shelby County to launch the local Emergency Rental Assistance program, a $90 million program with a strong eviction prevention and legal services component. The SJI grant supported the development of court data tools to identify ERA applicants facing upcoming court …
March 1, 2023
To improve guardianship case management, the National Center for State Courts is leading two SJI-funded projects to help guide courts through guardianship monitoring. Developing a Judicial Response Protocol to Address Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in Guardianship Cases features an interactive tool designed to help judges respond to allegations of harm to individuals subject to guardianship. …
February 1, 2023
DV AWARE stands for Domestic Violence Analysis, Warning, Action, Recovery, and Engagement. Perpetrators of domestic violence can threaten the safety and well-being not only of their intimate partners and children, but also courts and communities. Beginning with a grant from SJI in 2021, the DV AWARE Project sought to support juvenile and family court systems …