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Key Facts
- National overview: The American Bar Association held its 2013 Midyear Meeting in Dallas from February 6 to 11 to formulate professional policy recommendations.
- National overview: The House of Delegates adopted resolutions aimed at protecting human trafficking victims from prosecution for nonviolent offenses.
- Federal level: The federal government subsequently expanded trafficking protections through the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013.
- National overview: The 2013 agenda included critical early discussions on cybersecurity and the unauthorized practice of law.
- Federal level: Congress later passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 to protect non-federal entities sharing cyber threat data.
- National overview: The association approved ethical guidelines to encourage unbundled legal services for self-represented litigants.
Last reviewed: May 2026. Legal rules, forms, deadlines, and procedures can change by jurisdiction, agency, and court system.
- 2013 Human Trafficking Policy Resolutions and Discussions
- Subsequent Federal Human Trafficking Legislation Updates
- Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Priorities in 2013
- Expanding Federal Cybersecurity Frameworks After 2013
- Modernizing Legal Ethics and Professional Practice Rules
- Unbundling Legal Services for Self Represented Litigants
- Sources
The American Bar Association House of Delegates met from February 6 to 11 in Dallas for the 2013 Midyear Meeting. The gathering highlighted emerging challenges in American law, focusing on human trafficking, the rapid expansion of cybersecurity threats, and the modernization of legal ethics in a globalized economy. While the association sets professional policy rather than binding law, the resolutions passed in 2013 reflected significant shifts in how the legal profession approached vulnerable populations, digital security, and access to justice.
2013 Human Trafficking Policy Resolutions and Discussions
At the 2013 Midyear Meeting, the House of Delegates adopted a series of resolutions designed to protect victims of human trafficking. The policies encouraged jurisdictions to prevent the prosecution of trafficking victims for nonviolent offenses committed in conjunction with their trafficking. The resolutions also supported allowing victims to assert an affirmative defense and seek the vacatur of criminal convictions that directly resulted from their exploitation.
Subsequent Federal Human Trafficking Legislation Updates
The policies discussed in 2013 mirrored a growing national focus on human trafficking. Later that same year, the federal government enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013, which targeted human trafficking in supply chains and amended the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to include labor contract fraud. Federal law continued to evolve with the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, providing the Department of Justice with expanded tools to prosecute buyers and traffickers while directing forfeited assets toward victim restitution programs.
Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Priorities in 2013
The 2013 Midyear Meeting also served as a critical forum for addressing cybersecurity. With the increasing volume of electronic data and the risk of data breaches, the organization emphasized the need for legal professionals to understand technology and safeguard client information. These early policy discussions paved the way for more formal guidance on how law firms and corporations handle sensitive digital assets.
Expanding Federal Cybersecurity Frameworks After 2013
In the years following the Dallas meeting, federal authorities significantly expanded the national cybersecurity framework. Congress passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which established protections for non-federal entities sharing cyber threat indicators. The federal landscape further evolved with the creation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the passage of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022, underscoring the enduring relevance of the cybersecurity topics debated in 2013.
Modernizing Legal Ethics and Professional Practice Rules
Beyond criminal and digital threats, the 2013 Midyear Meeting updated professional ethics guidelines to reflect modern practice. The Commission on Ethics 20/20 introduced resolutions amending the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. These changes permitted limited practice authority for foreign lawyers serving as in-house counsel. The organization has a long history of addressing pressing professional and national issues, as seen in the election reform discussions at the 2008 meeting and earlier broad policy statements like the 2007 resolution regarding firearms on private property.
Unbundling Legal Services for Self Represented Litigants
To address the growing number of self-represented litigants, the House of Delegates adopted Resolution 108. This resolution encouraged practitioners to offer limited-scope representation, commonly known as unbundled legal services. By providing a framework for attorneys to assist clients with specific parts of a legal matter without committing to full representation, the policy aimed to increase access to justice across state and federal court systems.
