YourABA May 2020

Professional Development

Leadership, innovation, and the new normal

by Teresa J. Schmid, JD, MBA, LP.D, CAE, ABA Center for Professional Responsibility

The following contains purely informational, educational, or technical material. The views expressed herein represent the opinions of the author and have not been approved by the ABA House of Delegates or the Board of Governors and, accordingly, should not be construed as representing the position of the association or any of its entities.

Professional Development

Identity Theft 101: What you need to know

by Yuliia Litvinchuk, Law Technology Today

What identity theft comes down to is that your personal and confidential information ends up in the wrong hands and gets used without your permission for purchases and all kinds of fraudulent activities.

Professional Development

Law Day survey: Americans like online voting, early voting, and the ERA

As the prospect of in-person voting during a pandemic grows real for many Americans, most U.S. adults in a new American Bar Association survey say they favor online voting — but only after initially saying they opposed it in a previous survey one month earlier, before the COVID-19 pandemic became a national emergency.

Professional Development

Tips to help stressed-out lawyers during COVID-19 pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic puts into stark relief the extraordinary stressors that many people can face during these uncertain times. To help recognize the signs and symptoms of behavioral health disorders that can be adversely affected by such events, a panel of experts in the ABA webinar “Staying Mentally Safe, Sound and Sober During COVID-19,” offered strategies to address potential issues — and reinforced that how lawyers manage this crisis is part of their ethical responsibility to their clients.

Professional Development

Law Day survey: Americans like online voting, early voting, and the ERA

As the prospect of in-person voting during a pandemic grows real for many Americans, most U.S. adults in a new American Bar Association survey say they favor online voting — but only after initially saying they opposed it in a previous survey one month earlier, before the COVID-19 pandemic became a national emergency.

Professional Development

How much authority do state and local officials have during a health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic?

On April 13, the mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, rescinded $500 citations issued to congregants of a local church for violating a “shelter-in-place” order, after a religious freedom suit was filed against the city. The suit was among a handful of court actions related to states’ authority to limit the rights of U.S. residents to engage in activities such as attending church, traveling across state lines and enforcing eviction provisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.