ABA Section Of State & Local Gov't Law - Condemnation Law Committee

These past few days, I've been attending the annual meeting of the ABA in Chicago. It was a chance to meet new colleagues, associate faces with those whom I've only had e-contact, and reacquaint myself with old friends.

I'm also the new Chair of the Condemnation Law Committee of the State & Local Government Law Section. I'm honored to have been delegated the task of leading a group which includes some of the most experienced and learned condemnation lawyers in the country among its members, from both condemnor and condemnee perspective.

One of the jobs of the Chair is to encourage those who are not section and committee members to join us. In that vein, here are some of the benefits of participating:

• We'll be continuing our program of regular teleconferences on new cases and hot developments in eminent domain and regulatory takings law. The last call, for example, discussed the Sotomayor nomination and the beachfront judicial takings case. These calls are informal round-table type discussions and often feature well-known expert participants. And best of all, the calls are included as part of section membership.

• CLE programs, both in-person at the meetings, as well as without-leaving-home programs at virtual meetings. Latest examples: at the ABA meeting, Professor Steven Eagle led a session on The Appropriate Role of Government in Urban Revitalization: BIDS, TIFS and Other IFS, and in April, the section sponsored low-cost virtual CLE programs on Hot Topics in Land Use Law (RLUIPA, cell tower siting, pretext and public use, impact fees and exactions) and Condemnation Hot Topics (issues of particular interest to condemnation lawyers). These programs feature national experts in their subject areas.

• Access to scholarly and practical publications, including The Urban Lawyer (the SLG section's quarterly peer-reviewed law journal on topics of state and local government law), State and Local Law News (a newletter on immediate issues), and topical books such as Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context and At the Cutting Edge 2008: Land Use Law from The Urban Lawyer. We're also publishing an Eminent Domain handbook next year. Section membership gets you an extra discount over the ABA membership discount in many cases.

• An evolving network of law blogs by Section members including Dwight Merriam's land use posts at the IMLA blog, and Dean Patty Salkin's Law of the Land blog.

• The opportunity to participate in e-mail listservs on a variety of topics, and a subscription to Government Law News, an email "60-second update on what's happening."

• Did I mention that law students can join the section and the Condemnation Law committee for free?

Please consider joining us. To learn more, drop me an email.