This was the last week of the legislative session. It was a busy session with over one hundred bills passing through the complete legislative process. Yesterday afternoon the budget bill, HB 1001, was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers before they adjourned. 

Many members of the Indianapolis Bar Association, of which there are more than 4,000, do not realize that the charitable arm of the IndyBar, the Indianapolis Bar Foundation, has a Legacy Society for those interested in planned giving. COVID-19 has left many of our members considering their estate planning and personal legacies. As you consider your planning, please consider becoming a member of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation’s Legacy Society. 

Senate Bill 389 was approved by the Indiana Senate on April 14 after concurrences from the Indiana House. At the time of this writing, the bill is still awaiting Governor Holcomb’s signature. If signed, the new law would make significant changes to Indiana’s Isolated Wetlands Program as well as lesser changes to the 401 Water Quality Certification Program.

The Indianapolis Bar Foundation will boost its impact in the community in 2021 as it awards $60,000 in grants to both a community partner through its $35,000 Community Empowerment Grant and local attorneys through its Crisis Empowerment Grants, which will total $25,000.

Twenty-three judges and lawyers who applied for an opening on the Court of Appeals of Indiana will be interviewed by the Judicial Nominating Commission May 13-14 in person.

Our calendar has something for everyone this week! Check out what we've got going on this week and read the latest IndyBar news here.

This week saw the third reading deadlines pass for both chambers as well as the first full week of conference committee hearings.

United States v. Arthrex was recently argued at the Supreme Court in a case that may have significant implications in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Arthrex Inc. owns U.S. Patent No. 9,179,907, which is directed to a knotless suture securing assembly. The ‘907 patent was challenged in an inter partes review proceeding by Smith & Nephew, Inc. and Arthrocare Corp., and a panel of three Administrative Patent Judges of the PTAB issued a final written decision finding a number of claims of the ‘907 patent unpatentable as anticipated.

The world has been flipped upside down during the course of a year. One thing that has not changed over the past year: the Indianapolis Bar Association’s commitment to the positive growth and development of early-career lawyers in our community.

When racial disparity and inequality came to a head in Summer 2020, it quickly became obvious that the association had a responsibility to respond and to act on the many long-standing contributing structural issues present not only throughout the country but here at home in the Indianapolis community as well.