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Year in Review

Poll: Which ABA Journal magazine cover from 2024 was your favorite?

By Jackson A. Thomas

December 20, 2024, 10:35 am CST

We covered a wide array of diverse, in-depth and hard-hitting legal topics at the ABA Journal this year.

Of the many feature stories that we highlighted in 2024, six took the coveted top spot and were selected for the cover of our prestigious 109-year-old magazine. Looking back, we want to know: Which ABA Journal magazine cover from 2024 was your favorite?

Cast your vote by 11:59 p.m. CT on Friday, Jan. 10.

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3. Dive into our favorite long reads of 2024

Year in Review

Dive into our favorite long reads of 2024

By Lee Rawles

December 23, 2024, 9:35 am CST

The end of the year will hopefully bring you some downtime for leisure reading. We’ve curated a list of some of our favorite web and print long reads from 2024. There’s a mix of popular features and some under-the-radar stories that you may have missed. In keeping with the theme, it’s a long list.

In 1991, personal injury lawyers Zachary Bravos and Todd Smith took on the strangest medical malpractice case of their careers—a case that led them to tales of satanic cults, child abuse and cannibalism.

As anyone who pays attention to current events knows all too well, Taylor Swift has become ubiquitous. And in at least two law schools, she’s the subject of a class available to students wanting to gain practical knowledge about the law by studying her various legal entanglements and how she emerged stronger.

There are law firms in which Carrie Garber Siegrist, a senior associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Goodwin Procter, might have had to be secretive about her diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD. But at Goodwin Procter, Garber Siegrist says, she feels embraced and supported.

The Kentucky Derby has long been known as “the fastest two minutes in sports,” but the 150th Run for the Roses on Saturday will take place without Muth, a horse some say may have been the fastest in the field this year.

Pete Pontzer’s story is a reminder that lawyers can have meaningful and fulfilling lives after retirement. However, as Pontzer quickly admonishes, there are some important steps to take long before leaving a full-time legal career.

Serious injuries have occurred when exuberant football fans engaged in the time-honored revelry of making goal posts a trophy of a significant or improbable win. Some of those harmed have sought to lay blame and seek compensation. In several such cases, it took referees in black robes to sort it out.

Now in its 25th year, the esteemed literary magazine’s weekly competition features a wordless single panel cartoon. Contestants submit a caption for the image. The publication’s editors choose their three favorites from the 5,000 to 10,000 entries. Online public voting—with generally more than a half million votes cast—determines the winner. There is no cash prize for winning, but the bragging rights are priceless. Wood is the contest’s most successful participant—by a lot.

An increasing number of law schools around the country are offering cannabis law courses, but some professors think that even more are needed. “We’re still playing catch-up.”

Many public service attorneys had an overwhelming feeling that massive student loan debt would travel through life with them. But many of those attorneys got relief in the past year, thanks to recent changes to the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Critics argue that “excited delirium” has no medical foundation, and that its origins are plagued with racism. The term’s role in high-profile police misconduct cases has prompted major medical organizations to repudiate its use.

There has been an explosion of AI-generated music featuring the living or resurrecting the dead. But as artists push the limits of parody, fair use, right of publicity, infringement and authorship, there is one overarching question: Is any of this stuff legal?

Immigrants coming to the U.S. face legal uncertainties along with difficult living conditions and the pain of family separations. Yet a hope that opportunities will outweigh the travails is strong with many new arrivals. That’s something lawyers who help immigrants understand well—including those who are immigrants themselves.

Each state sets its own rules for formerly incarcerated people who want to practice law. In Kansas, Mississippi and Texas, for example, no one with a felony can practice law. But even for those who live in less restrictive states, there are other hurdles to overcome.

“People are like, ‘Why did you go to law school?’ I tell them, ‘I’m setting up a joke that I’m going to tell in 14 years. I’m a planner,’” Liz Glazer says.

While progress has been made in the past 25 years, members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities continue to be underrepresented at the highest levels of the legal profession.

Most dog moms and cat dads accept the hard truth that they will likely outlive their beloved animals. But what happens when pets outlive their humans?

Millennials are more willing than prior generations to switch jobs to achieve a work environment that fits their needs. However, they can “run up against a wall” with billable hours.

Innocence clinics usually don’t work with clients convicted of minor offenses. They focus on more serious crimes where the stakes are much higher: people on death row or those serving life sentences for murder or sexual assault.

Netflix’s Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare, released in December 2023, sounds like a cheesy 1980s slaughter-fest horror film. Sadly, the events relayed by the documentary are far from fiction.

It isn’t often that a bipartisan group of U.S. solicitors general gather in public to discuss their unique role in the legal system and even gripe a little about the U.S. Supreme Court. But that’s what happened recently in a packed hotel ballroom before the ABA 2024 Litigation Section Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

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3. Tune in to our favorite podcasts of 2024

Year in Review

Tune in to our favorite podcasts of 2024

By Lee Rawles

December 23, 2024, 9:57 am CST

The ABA Journal staff have conversations with fascinating lawyers every day. But in our podcasts, you get to listen in on some of those discussions.

In partnership with Legal Talk Network, we produce the monthly Legal Rebels Podcast, hosted by Victor Li, a Journal assistant managing editor, and the semimonthly The Modern Law Library, hosted by Lee Rawles, a Journal assistant managing editor. Here are our favorite episodes from 2024.

Legal Rebels Podcast

The Legal Rebels Podcast speaks with trailblazers and explores legal tech trends. Subscribe and never miss an episode.
Apple | Spotify | Google Play

What does the future hold for licensed paraprofessionals?: Much has been made of the gigantic access-to-justice gap in this country. According to a 2022 study by the Legal Services Corp., 92% of Americans do not receive any or enough help for a civil legal need. There are many reasons for this.

Tests into and out of law schools—what’s changing and why: Not much can strike more terror into the hearts of aspiring lawyers than the LSAT and the bar exam. Right now, these tests are having a moment.

Will generative artificial intelligence (finally) spell the end of the billable hour?: With the advent of generative artificial intelligence tools that can perform tasks in minutes but might take lawyers or legal professionals hours, could we finally see the end of the billable hour?

The future of DEI programs in the legal industry: The lack of diversity when it comes to race, gender, sexuality, disability and social class within the legal profession is nothing new. However, the last decade has marked a gradual increase in diversity across all fields.

The Modern Law Library

The Modern Law Library showcases books and authors with a legal connection. Subscribe and never miss an episode.
Apple | Spotify | Google Play

Horse-loving lawyer left the law to help run a Colorado ranch: Ami Cullen grew up loving horses and competing in hunter/jumper events. But when it came to her career, she decided that law would be her calling. She graduated from law school and began work with a law firm in Maryland working on medical-malpractice cases. Then a visit to a Colorado dude ranch changed everything.

‘The Originalism Trap’ author wants to see originalism dead, dead, dead: Originalism is the ascendant legal theory espoused by conservative legal thinkers, including the majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices. But far from being an objective framework for constitutional interpretation, says author and attorney Madiba K. Dennie, its true purpose is to achieve conservative political aims regardless of the historical record.

‘Watchdogs’ author has no regrets about choosing civil service over the NBA: Glenn Fine’s career-long crusade against corruption might have its roots in his college days. As a point guard for the Harvard basketball team, Fine had his personal best game Dec. 16, 1978, the same day that he interviewed for—and received—a Rhodes Scholarship. He put up 19 points against Boston College, including eight steals, and the team nearly eeked out a win against the favored Boston players. A remarkable day.

James Patterson dishes on his new legal thriller, ‘The #1 Lawyer’: James Patterson has written bestsellers in many genres. But as he tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of The Modern Law Library podcast, he has always been fascinated by legal thrillers, courtroom dramas and crime novels. He even considered becoming a lawyer—before his literary career took off.

‘The Lawyer Millionaire’ author shares the 7 biggest money mistakes lawyers can make: Finances are a fraught area for many attorneys. Despite a high earning potential, new lawyers often start out with a financial disadvantage because of the opportunity cost of the years devoted to school and bar prep, coupled with high student loans.

How to strike up conversations that build your book of business: Networking is something that comes naturally to some people. But if the idea of talking to strangers makes you break out into a cold sweat, there’s help and hope, says Deb Feder, author of the book After Hello: How to Build a Book of Business, One Conversation at a Time.

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3. Our favorite Instagram posts from 2024

Year in Review

Our favorite Instagram posts from 2024

By Jackson A. Thomas

December 23, 2024, 10:34 am CST

It’s been another riveting year in the legal industry and for our coverage at the ABA Journal. And like clockwork, 2025 will be here before we know it.

Over the last year, we’ve featured on our Instagram page myriad photos and videos.

Check out some of our favorite Instagram posts from 2024 below, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

1. Swift justice

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2. Checkmate for BigLaw associate

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3. Lawyer writes children’s book

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4. California teen passes bar exam

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5. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Broadway

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6. Smiles all around

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7. Spotlight on ABA’s president-elect

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8. 2024 end-of-year office holiday party

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9. Horse-loving lawyer runs Colorado ranch

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3. Horse-loving lawyer left the law to help…

The Modern Law Library

Horse-loving lawyer left the law to help run a Colorado ranch

By Lee Rawles

December 4, 2024, 4:00 pm CST

Ami Cullen grew up loving horses and competing in hunter/jumper events. But when it came to her career, she decided that law would be her calling. She graduated from law school and began work with a law firm in Maryland working on medical-malpractice cases. Then a visit to a Colorado dude ranch changed everything.

In Running Free: An Incredible Story of Love, Survival, and How 200 Horses Trapped in a Wildfire Helped One Woman Find Her Soul Cullen shares a lightly fictionalized version of the journey that she’s been on for more than a decade.

Just as Cullen once did, Running Free’s main character Emme Muller visits the C Lazy U Ranch in Granby, Colorado, on a girl’s trip and falls in love with the wrangling way of life. She decides to leave her life as an East Coast lawyer to work at the ranch—initially planning it as a six-month sabbatical from her career.

Instead, she stays, eventually becoming head wrangler and marrying another employee at the dude ranch. But in October 2020, the East Troublesome Fire, the second-largest wildfire in Colorado history, imperiled the C Lazy U Ranch. Muller has to work with her employees and horse-loving community members to evacuate the ranch and save 200 horses from a relentless and rapidly shifting fire.

That part of Running Free is also true, Cullen tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of The Modern Law Library podcast. Now the director of equestrian operations at the C Lazy U Ranch, it was Cullen’s responsibility to save the herd of horses through two harrowing wildfire evacuations and an ice storm that sent fleeing horse trailers careening off the roads back in 2020.

After the fire was out and recovery had begun, Cullen felt a compulsion to put down her experience in writing. The first attempt produced 80 pages that read like a legal brief, she tells Rawles. By fictionalizing her experiences and creating some composite characters, she was able to write Running Free, her first novel.

In this episode, Cullen discusses deciding to leave the law, what it’s like to help run a dude ranch, leadership skills that she learned from working with horses, and why you’re never too old to take up equestrianship.

In This Podcast:

Ami Cullen

Ami Cullen hails from Chester County, Pennsylvania, where her love for horses first blossomed. Growing up, she competed in the hunter/jumper discipline at the national level. After earning her law degree from the Catholic University School of Law in Washington, D.C., Cullen practiced medical-malpractice defense law at a law firm in Bethesda, Maryland. However, it was during a vacation at the C Lazy U Ranch that she discovered her true passion: ranch life and taking care of horses. Currently, Cullen is the director of equestrian operations and oversees all aspects of the C Lazy U Ranch’s Equine Program. Certified as a horsemanship association instructor in English and Western disciplines, Cullen delights in connecting people with horses and teaching novice equestrians horsemanship.