Boies, Schiller & Flexner partner Stephen Zack is to begin his one-year stint as the American Bar Association’s new president today. Zack, who was born in Cuba, will be the first Hispanic-American to lead the ABA. Zack discusses some of his priorities as he assumes his position, including access to legal services, diversity in the legal profession, and the struggle to prepare an adequate legal framework for addressing the fallout from natural or man-made disasters.

President Barack Obama called on the Senate Tuesday to vote on long-stalled nominees for the federal judiciary — an issue that has appeared relatively low among his priorities. He said that some nominees have been waiting as long as eight months to be confirmed and that some legislators “have used parliamentary procedures time and again to deny them a vote in the full Senate.” Obama has rarely pushed the judicial nominee issue in public, but Tuesday’s remarks signal a possible shift.