American Bar Foundation

05/09/2024

🌟 Delighted to share insights from the recent William C. Hubbard Conference on Law & Education hosted by the American Bar Foundation, in collaboration with Stanford Law School and the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession.

This spring's conference delved into pressing issues shaping the legal profession's future, with a focus on the ABF's After the JD study.

Read highlights from the keynote address, conference speakers, and panel discussions at the link below.

The ABF hosted the second biennial William C. Hubbard Conference on Law & Education at Stanford Law School March 25-26, 2024.

04/23/2024

The ABF’s Access to Justice Research Initiative is proud to announce the 2024-25 cohort of ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholars. Each scholar offers unique expertise to advance the program’s core mission: generating impactful research on access to justice and translating it into real-world policy and practice.

Joining us from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, Cassie Chambers Armstrong will compare civil protective order processes in rural and urban courts and their similarities and differences.

From Wake Forest University School of Law, Alyse Bertenthal will explore access to justice issues that surface in environmental courts and tribunals across the United States.

From the University of Southern California, Deisy Del Real will examine how immigration policies and political contexts impact Venezuelan migrants’ legalization processes.

Amy Widman will join us from Rutgers Law School, and will explore non-lawyer representation in administrative decision-making.

And from Georgetown University Law Center, Daniel Wilf-Townsend will examine the use of bank account garnishment as a debt collection tool in civil litigation in state courts.

https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/the-abf-jpb-access-to-justice-scholars-program-chooses-five-new-scholars-for-its-2024-25-cohort/

The American Bar Foundation’s (ABF) Access to Justice Research Initiative, founded by ABF Faculty Fellow and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Sandefur, is proud to announce the 2024-25 cohort of ABF/

04/01/2024

The American Bar Foundation is hiring a new Director of Major Gifts and Grants! Working closely with the Executive Director and Senior Director of the Fellows, the Director of Major Gifts and Grants will play a key role in developing and sustaining support for the empirical research in law and society produced by the ABF.

https://american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/8c5fad2f0a04-director-of-major-gifts-and-grants

** To apply, please submit a résumé and a cover letter describing your interest in the ABF combined as a single PDF. ** About the ABF The ABF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research institute that expands knowledge and advances justice through rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and le

03/01/2024

Please welcome Mark Suchman to the School of Sociology faculty! Mark was hired as part of the Moveable Dream Hires program. Led by deans and provost, this program aims to attach high-performing, top-caliber faculty to Purdue, and Mark is just that! He also currently serves at the Executive Director of the American Bar Foundation.

Welcome and Boiler Up, Mark! 🚂

10/18/2023

Last week we celebrated the launch of Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law, edited by Tom Ginsburg (American Bar Foundation, The University of Chicago) and Benjamin Schonthal (University of Otago).

Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law offers the first comprehensive account of the entanglements of Buddhism and constitutional law in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. It offers a complex portrait of “the Buddhist-constitutional complex,” demonstrating the intricate and powerful ways in which Buddhist and constitutional ideas merged, interacted and coevolved. (Cambridge University Press)

09/11/2023

This weekend we were thrilled to host a fantastic ABF / The JPB Foundation Access to Justice workshop full of insights on how to translate research to support evidence-based civil justice policy and practice.

Thanks to experts from Alaska Legal Services Corporation, National Science Foundation (NSF), The Pew Charitable Trusts, Russell Sage Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation for sharing their expertise.

Read more about the Access To Justice Research Initiative: https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/access-to-justice-research-initiative/

08/18/2023

Sharing some of our favorite photos from the Fellows events at the 2023 American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Denver, CO! Thank you to the wonderful Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

See more event photos on the ABF website: https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/recap-of-the-fellows-events-at-the-2023-annual-meeting/

06/01/2023

The ABF is pleased to welcome five outstanding undergraduate scholars to the 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program: Ahmad Abdulwadood, Dianna Garzón, Tasfiya Kashem, Victoria Ylizaliturri, and Judy Zhang.

The SURF program allows students from underrepresented backgrounds who are considering careers in the field of law or social science to gain a hands-on learning experience with an ABF researcher over the course of eight weeks. SURF Fellows also gain unparalleled insight into a career in law, scholarship, and legal aid through site visits to local law firms, legal aid clinics, law schools, and advocacy groups.

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) has chosen five outstanding undergraduate scholars to take part in the 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. These students were selected from…

05/08/2023

05/04/2023

We're thrilled to share that ABF/Northwestern University Doctoral Fellow in Law and Social Science Brandon Alston has recently received multiple awards in recognition of his outstanding work.

Brandon was awarded the prestigious Dwight McBride Award from Northwestern University for his exceptional contributions to diversity and service on Northwestern’s campus (pictured). Additionally, he recently received the Young Alumni Award from his alma mater, Haverford College, and the Norman White Outstanding Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology.

These awards are a testament to Brandon's hard work, dedication, and the significant impact he's made in the sociolegal community. We're proud to have him at the American Bar Foundation.

Join us in congratulating Brandon for these awards!

04/28/2023

Congratulations to Bonnie Honig, ABF Affiliated Research Professor and Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Political Science at Brown University, for being awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for her work in legal theory and language!

“We are so proud at the ABF that Professor Honig is getting this recognition,” said ABF’s Interim Executive Director Bryant Garth. “One of the great and unrecognized contributions the ABF makes to law and legal theory is to attract brilliant and innovative scholars ostensibly from outside law—in Professor Honig’s case political theory—in a process that potentially brings novel insights to both law and other disciplines. Professor Honig enriched the ABF by her presence, and it is gratifying to see that her time at the ABF helped prepare her to produce cutting edge legal, as well as political, theory.”

Read more: https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/bonnie-honig-receives-guggenheim-fellowship-for-research-in-legal-theory-and-language/