The Michigan Board of Law Examiners announced that they have created a new and improved scoring system for the Michigan Bar Exam that they will begin to utilize while scoring the July 29 exam. The BLE says they expect the new scoring system to more accurately measure test takers’ competence by ensuring that essay test scores across administrations reflect the same skill level and reflect differences in the difficulty between the multiple choice and essay portions of the exam. The Michigan Bar Exam is administrated each February and July, and has two parts: a 200-question multiple choice multistate bar exam…
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Michigan Board of Law Examiners Announces Changes to the Bar Exam
2014 SBM Economics of Law Practice Survey results posted online
The 2014 State Bar of Michigan Economics of Law Practice survey report has been posted online. The survey is conducted every three years and the results are used daily throughout the state in courtrooms, law firms and by lawyers in all occupational areas. As referenced by the Michigan Supreme Court in Smith v. Khouri, it is the primary resource used by trial courts to determine attorney fees. It provides the benchmark for more than 50 specific fields of practice by geographic location. Survey results also contain data about salaries, benefits, hours worked and job satisfaction for attorneys in non-private practice…
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Learn to find great tech at a low price at the SBM Solo & Small Firm Institute
Noted technology cheapskate journalist Rick Broida will teach attorneys at the State Bar of Michigan 2014 Solo & Small Firm Institute how to find great deals on technology that lawyers need. And, as you can see from the You Tube clip below, he’s not afraid to let lawyers know what technology is unnecessary and overly expensive as well. Join the State Bar of Michigan and Institute for Continuing Legal Education September 18 and 19 in Grand Rapids for this year’s Annual Meeting and Solo & Small Firm Institute. Scholarships are still available for slots at the Solo & Small Firm…
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In Memoriam: Hon. Claudia House Morcom
The Hon. Claudia House Morcom died Aug. 17. A true civil rights giant, 50 years ago Judge Morcom risked her life to register minority voters and desegregate public facilities in Mississippi. She devoted her life to establish racial and gender equality through her work as an attorney. Judge Morcom earned her juris doctor at Wayne State University Law School and became the first African American woman to work at one of the nation’s first integrated law firms, Goodman, Crockett, Eden, Robb, and Philo. She served as the southern regional director of the National Lawyers Guild Committee for Legal Assistance and…
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SBM Congratulates Young Lawyers Section for Winning ABA Awards of Achievement
The State Bar of Michigan congratulates the SBM Young Lawyers Section for winning First Place Awards of Achievement in two out of four categories from the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, as well as the Outstanding Public Service Award from the American Bar Endowment. The awards were presented at the ABA Annual Meeting in Boston on Aug. 9. The SBM YLS won the Comprehensive Award of Achievement for the full breadth of new and expanded programs they offer throughout the 2013-2014 bar year, including their New Member Orientation, Sports & Entertainment Symposium, Annual Summit, public speaking workshop, immigration law…
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JUDGE: MICHIGAN TEACHERS CAN EXIT UNION ANYTIME
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s largest teachers’ union should allow members to resign at any time and stop enforcing an annual one-month opt-out window, a state labor judge ruled, relying on the state’s right-to-work law that took effect last year.
The administrative law judge, Julia Stern, recommended Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Employment Relations Commission order the Michigan Education Association to no longer limit school employees to leaving the union in August. She said the right-to-work law incorporated a federal law interpreted to give public employees the ability to leave their union anytime.
The state’s largest public-sector union said Thursday that fewer than 5,000 of 110,000, or 5 percent, of active members opted out last month. Opponents countered that roughly 50,000 had no incentive to leave because they still have to pay fees for bargaining and other services — even if they decide not to belong and pay full dues — until their labor contracts lapse. The union said the 50,000 figure is high.
The legal decision and the union’s decision to make public its latest membership figures followed an intense month of lobbying by organized labor and pro-business groups to persuade teachers to leave or stay, in the first real test of the law that no longer allows forced union fees as a condition of employment.
Lawyers on both sides learned of Stern’s decision Wednesday night.
“Judge Stern’s ruling goes along with our belief that teachers are professionals and not piggybanks for the MEA,” said Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation.
Steven Cook, the union’s president, said its members believe in the union and public education, and “no amount of outside rhetoric is going to dissuade them.”
An appeal is planned, first with the commission — controlled 2-1 by Republicans — and then likely the state appeals court and ultimately the Michigan Supreme Court.
“We probably have a couple years more of this to go,” Wright said.
The union’s general counsel, Michael Shoudy, said the resignation process has been in place for more than 40 years.
“We remain hopeful that MERC will find the August window to be consistent with the law,” he said.
A significant number of dropouts over time would deliver a financial blow to the influential union. Members pay up to $640 annually to the state union and $182 to the National Education Association, along with local dues.
The ruling directly affects seven employees in four school districts — Saginaw, Battle Creek, Grand Blanc and Standish-Sterling — who complained they were unable to drop their membership after missing the August window in 2013. If the decision stands, it could have broader implications for other unions with time restrictions on dropping out.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed lawsuits and labor complaints on behalf of the teachers, accusing the union of not publicizing the opt-out period and threatening to send members who unsuccessfully tried to leave in other months to collections for not paying their dues.
Union leaders have defended their policies, saying the job of a membership association is not to help people resign and contending that the annual monthlong window is essential for planning and budgeting.
The judge agreed with the reasoning for the window but said the law changed with the passage of the right-to-work measure. Stern dismissed allegations that the union violated state labor law by trying to send members to collections for not paying dues. She also said unions have no duty to educate their members about the right-to-work changes.
About 8,000 members stopped paying dues last school year after another Republican-written law, which ended automatic dues deductions from school employees’ paychecks, took effect. The union said several thousand have resumed paying dues.
In the past two years, Republican-controlled legislatures in Michigan and Indiana have passed laws making union fees voluntary, and other Midwestern states are considering the idea.
source: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/judge-michigan-teachers-can-exit-union-anytime
U.S. Department of Justice Seek Applicants for Attorney General Programs
The United States Department of Justice seeks applicants for the Attorney General’s Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program. Law students and eligible graduates can apply for the program online before Sept. 2. There are 207 Honors Program positions, including openings in the following components: Antitrust Division (14) Civil Division (29) Civil Rights Division (12) Criminal Division (12) Regular Trial Attorney (8) – These are permanent positions. Asset Forfeiture Fellowship Program (4) – This is a three-year fellowship which may be extended or converted to a permanent position. Drug Enforcement Administration (3) Environment & Natural Resources Division (15) Executive…
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Prosecutor Kym Worthy: Office is 'criminally underfunded'
Kym Worthy says in the last two years she’s lost 90 lawyers and that Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano has slashed her budget to the breaking point. “I honestly don’t think that the Ficano administration gives a damn about public safety the way that they should,” she said.
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SBM Representative Assembly to Present Two Awards on Sept. 18 in Grand Rapids
The State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly will present its Michael Franck and Unsung Hero awards to two outstanding members of the legal community on Thursday, Sept. 18 at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. The presentation will take place at 9:30 a.m. during the assembly’s general session, which is being held in conjunction with the SBM Annual Meeting. Michael Franck Award Julie I. Fershtman is a brave and bold leader. She paves the way in her field of equine law, traveling the country trying cases, writing books and a blog, and speaking to attorneys as an equine expert. She has…
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Expected witnesses in Detroit's bankruptcy trial
Here is the list of ‘will call’ witnesses lawyers are expected to testify in the bankruptcy trial that begins Tuesday.
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