The second day of the 2016 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation conference went as well as the first. Here are some highlights:
- Austin Mayor Steve Adler (pictured above), who is (was?) also an eminent domain lawyer, welcomed us to his city.
- We moderated a discussion between Andy Gowder and Dana Berliner about "First Amendment for Fifth Amendment Lawyers: Free Speech, Signs, Defamation, FOIA, and RLUIPA Claims," how takings lawyers deal with these issues when they crop up in their cases.
- One update from that session: at nearly the same time that we were talking about Central Radio, the case about the Norfolk, Virginia "anti-eminent domain" sign, the Fourth Circuit issued its opinion on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court. We'll have more in a full post soon, but here's the bottom line for now: no, the City can't ban the sign ("we hold that the sign ordinance challenged in the plaintiffs’ complaint is a content-based regulation that does not survive strict scrutiny"). How timely.
- We also attended sessions on ethics for eminent domain lawyers (with Jamila Johnson, Joe Sherman, and Bob Neblett), Class Actions in Inverse Condemnation Cases with Martin Wolf, a really great session from electrical engineer Robert Dew on Powerline Cases, Voir Dire Tips from Janet Handy and Christian Torgrimson, and how the probability of rezoning impacts valuation (with Nikelle Meade, Dwight Merriam, and Charles Ruffin). Also, three experienced eminent domain trial lawyers (Christian Torgrimson, Roy Brandys, and Dan Hannula) shared "war stories" about some mistakes they have made over their long careers, and how they recovered from them.
- We ended the day with filmmaker Ted Balaker (pictured below), whom we interviewed about his soon-to-be-released movie about the Kelo case, "Little Pink House." More on that in a separate post.
Day Three, with our usual stalwarts Mike Berger and Jim Burling is ongoing right now, and we'll have more on today in another post.
