Heather Gerken, Yale Law School’s first woman dean, is stepping down after serving as dean for eight years to become president of the Ford Foundation.

Many court-appointed attorneys have stopped taking on new clients as they fight for higher pay rates from the state.

Supreme Judicial Court Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt is weighing whether to invoke protocol that could lead to the release of criminal defendants who have no lawyers amid a work stoppage.