Congratulations and best wishes to these IndyBar members on their career moves and accomplishments! Have something to share? Email Julie Armstrong to be featured.

 
Taft welcomes Elizabeth Little as an attorney in the firm's Bankruptcy and Restructuring group in the Indianapolis office. She provides integrated and strategic legal counsel on financial matters, including complex financial transactions, corporate debt restructurings, related litigation matters, and commercial contracts.

 
Chad Oswald has joined Dentons in Indianapolis as of counsel. A member of Dentons’ Commercial Litigation practice, Chad focuses his practice on fiduciary, commercial and real estate disputes. He also represents small businesses, shareholders, closely held business members and large corporations in complex commercial litigation.
 

ChatGPT is all anyone can seem to talk about these days, from grandmas to grade schoolers.  That is how you know when a technology has captured the popular zeitgeist. Now, if you haven’t used it yet, or are unfamiliar with it, ChatGPT is what is called a ‘generative AI’ tool, that is rendered in the form of a chatbot.

The nomination period has begun for the 2024 Boards of Directors for the Indianapolis Bar Association AND the Indianapolis Bar Foundation. There are also opportunities for service with the Association's Section and Division Executive Committees.  Volunteering with IndyBar is an invaluable opportunity to play a role in the future of our legal community.

Indiana has an Attorney Surrogate Rule (“the Rule”), which became effective in 2008. You can find the Rule in the Indiana Rules for Admission to the Bar and Discipline of Attorneys, specifically under Rule 23 in Part IV, Section 27. An Attorney Surrogate is, by definition under the Rule, a senior judge or another member of the Indiana Bar, in good standing, who has been appointed by a court to act as an Attorney Surrogate for another lawyer. 

There are advantages to law apprenticeships. Apprenticeships allow students to study law and sit for the bar without incurring law school debt. Law apprenticeship programs could be particularly beneficial to those who experience significant obstacles to attending law school, including cost and location. People already working in a law office in a non-attorney role have utilized these programs to develop an in-office legal education plan with a mentoring attorney without having to relocate for law school. Because of these advantages, law apprenticeships could be part of the solution to alleviate the shortage of attorneys in rural areas.

States have taken different approaches to try to alleviate this issue. North and South Dakota have implemented the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program. The South Dakota program provides attorneys with a $12,513 per year stipend in return for 5 years of practice in qualifying rural counties or municipalities. Participating local entities must pay 35% of the stipend. There have been thirty-one participants in the South Dakota program since it started in 2013. Out of the ten attorneys that have graduated from the program, seven have stayed in the rural communities to practice. The North Dakota Program is modeled off the South Dakota program and provides the attorneys with a $9,000 per year stipend for five years.

We recognize that getting pro bono hours can be a challenge for government attorneys, so we want to pass along a great opportunity for pro bono hours. The IndyBar operates a Virtual Help Desk on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that is in need of volunteers. 

If you frequently work with or represent municipal governments, you can find a comprehensive summary of new laws impacting municipalities passed during the 2022 legislative session in the AIM Statehouse Report. Most of these new laws will go into effect on July 1, 2022, but some are already in effect or have delayed effective dates.

The 2022 session of the Indiana General Assembly came to a close during the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, March 9. The short session was short in name only, with a wide range of heavy issues debated by the legislature, including the interplay between the legislative and executive branches of state government, employment matters and tax reform. On May 17, 2022, join the seven of the General Assembly’s lawyer-legislators to discuss the impacts that the 2022 legislative session will have on the practice of law in Indiana.

On April 22, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill revoking the Walt Disney Company's special taxing district status in the state. Since 1967, Disney has been operating under the establishment of the special district, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allows Disney in its Walt Disney World Resort area to provide for its own police and fire protection, roads, utility infrastructure and other matters traditionally reserved for local governments. The district is huge – nearly 40 square miles. It sits in Orange and Osceola counties, which have not had to provide those services and capital improvements for all those years.