Events
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Receives Inaugural Transparent Courthouse™ Award
On October 15, 2007, United State Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (retired) received the IAALS Transparent Courthouse™ Award for a lifetime of work to promote excellence in America's courts. IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis introduced Justice O'Connor during a dinner attended by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, American Bar Association President-Elect, Tommy Wells, and leaders from the judicial, legal and academic community in Colorado and throughout the nation. Justice O'Connor also addressed students at the University of Denver. See the News page for media coverage of Justice O'Connor's visit.
Top Ten Forum: The Politics of Choosing Judges
In fall 2007, IAALS and the American Judicature Society hosted a panel discussion at the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Meeting. IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis and AJS Research Fellow Dr. Rachel Paine Caufield were joined by New York state Senator John DeFrancisco, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Harold See and Texas Representative Myra Crownover to discuss the heated debate over how judges are chosen in America. The panel discussion was selected as a Top Ten Forum from among 200 policy presentations.
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2007 Civil Justice Reform Summit
In spring 2007, IAALS hosted an unprecedented gathering of state Supreme Court Justices, federal and state court judges and top legal reform experts from the U.S. and England. Civil justice system best practices in Oregon, Colorado and Singapore were discussed and Lord Harry Woolf of Barnes—the architect of England’s legal system overhaul—made a presentation. The two-day event was moderated by IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis, who opened the session by discussing the urgent need to re-tool America’s civil justice system.
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