Randall T. Shepard

Four Big, Dumb Trends Affecting State Courts

LL.M., 1995, University of Virginia School of Law. 1. Canon 30 admonished that: A candidate for judicial position should not make or suffer others to make for him, promises of conduct in office which appeal to the cupidity or prejudices of the appointing or electing power; he should not announce in advance his conclusion of law on disputed issues to secure class support, and he should do nothing while a candidate to create the impression that if chosen, he will administer his office with bias, partiality or improper discrimination. FOUR BIG, DUMB TRENDS AFFECTING STATE COURTS

Jury Trials Aren't What They Used to Be

LL.M., 1995, University of Virginia. 1. 1 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 318 (Arthur Goldhammer, trans., Library 2004) (1835). 2. MARK TWAIN, ROUGHING IT (1872), reprinted in THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN LEGAL QUOTATIONS 222 (Fred R. Shapiro ed., 1993). 3. See STEPHEN BATES, THE AMERICAN JURY SYSTEM, CANTIGNY CONFERENCE SERIES SPECIAL REPORT 9 (2000). 4. 1 FRANCIS X. BUSCH, LAW AND TACTICS IN JURY TRIALS § 2 n.3 (1959). JURY TRIALS AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE

Indiana's Place in American Court Reform: Rarely First, Occasionally Last, Frequently Early

Globalization. Justice John Paul Stevens gave a speech recently in Indianapolis about the effects of a globalizing world economy on the American court system and on the American legal profession. When an American employer strikes a commercial deal with a business partner in Asia or Europe, both parties need to understand how their own domestic law and customary international law will affect the transaction. Likewise, lawyers for the American company and lawyers for the company overseas need to help facilitate that transaction by plying their trade far away from the place where they are licensed. America’s state courts, as regulators of the bar, are actively examining how to support those arrangements, so important to our domestic economy.

Plu Ca Change: Indiana Judges and Salaries

1972; University of Virginia, LL.M., 1995. 1. 1995 Ind. Acts 280. Section 7.1 of the Act established a state-wide base salary of

Making Good Law Requires More Lawyers

90,000 for full-time circuit, superior, municipal, county, and probate judges. Section 7 increased the salaries of Court of Appeals judges from

Building Indiana's Legal Profession

76,500 to

Why Law Review Survey Issues Are a Good Idea

110,000 and increased the salaries of Supreme Court justices from

Elements Of Modern Court Reform

81,000 to

Access to Justice for People Who Do Not Speak English

115,000. 2. Governor’s Veto Message for House Enrolled Act 1856, STATE OF INDIANA JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 112th General Assembly, 1st Reg. Sess., at 1328 (2001); STATE OF INDIANA JOURNAL OF THE SENATE, 112th General Assembly, 1st Reg. Sess., at 1176 (2001). 3. 2004 Ind. Acts 95. The Public Officers Compensation Advisory Commission is comprised of two members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, two members appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, two members appointed by the Governor, two members appointed by the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, and one member appointed by the Chief Judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals. The Commission is charged with reviewing the current salaries of public officers and considering recommendations and information regarding suitable salaries. On a biennial basis, the commission must recommend to the Legislative Counsel and Budget Committee suitable salaries for those public officers identified by the act. PLU CA CHANGE: INDIANA JUDGES AND SALARIES

What can dissents teach us

While we lawyers largely think of ourselves as people who “practice” law, the fact is that we “make” law regularly during the course of our work. Lawyers and judges do this by interpreting statutes, resolving litigation, and forging common law as a matter of course. Lawyers also make law in a rather different setting. Legislative bodies at all levels of government have long been places where the voters sent lawyers to represent them in much greater proportion than the number of lawyers in the population. The contribution of lawyers to legislative deliberations has been a good and important one for the whole of society. We are in danger of losing it.