Next week (May 12 - 15, 2011), the ABA Section of State & Local Government Law is meeting in Portland, Oregon.
This is our Spring Meeting (complete agenda here), and is co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and the American Planning Association. In addition to the business and administrative meetings (I promise, the meeting of the Condemnation Law Committee will be brief), we've lined up an impressive selection of CLE programs. Topics include:
- Sex, Drugs, and Government - local government regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries, most definitely a hot topic.
- Green Building - This panel will discuss the issues of Green Building Ordinances, ongoing cases involving the preemption of local green building codes under federal law and other challenges and pitfalls with Green Building Ordinance initiatives.
- Cyberbullying - This program will explore the challenges that the Internet brings to protecting students from harassment while at the same time respecting the Constitutional rights of free speech, due process, and personal privacy.
- Ethics of Social Networking - Get your ethics MCLE here. If you are reading this blog - or if you participate in social networking - you will love this session.
- Judicial Review of Local Land Use Decisions - Two Views - Hear two thoughtful judges, one from a trial court and another from an appellate court, discuss how they approach their review duties. How do such principles as due process, separation of powers and the scope of review, among others, affect their approach to this task?
- Regionalization - A panel discussion of lawyers and planners from Portland’s Metro and other regional government entities across the US (including my colleague Mark M. Murakami, to speak about Hawaii's experience) will share their expertise on the challenges, successes and failures of regional efforts around the country as to affordable housing, transportation networks, transit-oriented development, economic development and urban growth boundaries.
- Land Use Hot Topics - Our annual run down of the issues included with the broad category of "state and local government law," including land use, environmental, administrative law, First Amendment, RLUIPA, exactions and impact fees, zoning, and education. Lunch is included. I'll be presenting a short article on the latest in Public Use in Eminent Domain. Did I mention lunch was served?
- Mobile Workshop - We're taking a walk and bus tour of area sites. Not your ususal tourist fare, we're viewing them through the lens of land use lawyers, including a brewery.
Disclosure: I'm the CLE Coordinator for the SLG Section, so I have a vested interest in you attending; I don't get a commission or anything like that, but if we put on a good program, people will think I am brilliant. So please join us.
If you can't attend in person, many of the CLE programs will be webcast live. For more information, go here. For the complete meeting agenda (including all CLE sessions) and registration information, go here.
If you are able to join us in person, please also consider attending the several social and networking events, and the committee meetings, in addition to the CLE. Bring your business cards and meet your colleagues from around the nation. If you do, please find me and say hello.
