Forgive me for the length of this post, but I'm writing while the thoughts are fresh, and before I get back to the real world. Those of you who may have emailed me in the past week, or who saw this post know that I've been occupied with the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Meetings, CLE's, and more meetings. Some of it very useful, some merely necessary.
As usual, I spent most of my time with my main group, the Section of State and Local Government Law, where, unless my colleagues change their minds soon (there's still time, guys), I will become the Chair of the Section at about this time next year.
This is the ABA we're talking about -- an organization with a mixed reputation among members of our profession -- and some of you have asked me why it is I am involved in the Association when many of our peers don't see the value of joining or participating. So I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you about my reasons, and encourage those of you who are not currently with us to overcome your past experiences or what you've heard, and give it a try. Or at least come join me in the upcoming two years.
When you mention ABA, a lot of lawyers have harsh opinions. I hear things like, "The ABA is not relevant to my practice," "the ABA isn't interested in hearing differing viewpoints," "the ABA is political," and "the ABA is focused on the concerns of Big Law, not mine." This the organization, after all, that adopts ethics rules like this, and that spends a lot of time promoting what can seem like a singular viewpoint: accept and promote that viewpoint and you are celebrated; question it and ... maybe you're not so welcome. I agree with much of this criticism, having witnessed these things firsthand. The organization seems to lose sight of the fact that participation is voluntary. And because lawyers have been voting with their feet, the ABA's membership rolls are a constant source of discussion.
But this is only part of the story. Yes, there's a lot of this. But -- at least in my Section -- there's also some very relevant and highly useful work being done that makes our profession and our practices better. We publish books and articles (our Section publishes the practice-oriented law review The Urban Lawyer, a title familiar to many of you), and produce quality CLE programming on a truly broad scope. For example, in this past year, I've attended programs on eminent domain, land use, election law, ethics, appellate practice, and (get this) municipal and state responses to contagious disease. That latter one may sound-off-the-wall, but I actually learned something new and useful.
And the people involved in this work don't come from only one side of the spectrum. Colleagues include Professors Steve Eagle (regulatory takings guru) and David Callies (a past Section Chair), the Attorney General of Oregon Ellen Rosenblum (our current Chair), Dwight Merriam (a recent past Chair), my source for all things RLUIPA Dan Dalton, Donna Frazier, Andy Gowder, Ben Griffith, and Ed Sullivan (also past Chairs), Patty Salkin (of Law of the Land blog fame), and Howard Roston (current Chair of the Section's Eminent Domain Law Committee), to name a few. Section participants come from private practice, the bench, academia, government, and corporate law departments. Our roster includes speakers from Pacific Legal Foundation, Illinois Policy Institute, Goldwater Institute, Owners' Counsel of America, and the Cato Institute. We're definitely not having a one-sided conversation.
In 2017-18, I plan on keeping this up and making it better. My big goal for my time occupying the Chair is to make the Section and the ABA more relevant to our colleagues. Get more of you who are not joining us to do so. Cut the signal-to-noise ratio. Provide value and give you a reason to join us.
I'm planning now, with a focus on the Section's two big annual in-person conferences, one the fall the other in the spring. Here's the calendar:
- Fall State and Municipal Law Conference - Savannah, GA (October 5-8, 2017)
- Spring State and Municipal Law Conference - Detroit, MI (April 19-22, 2018)
- ABA Midyear meeting - Vancouver, BC (February 1-4, 2018)
- ABA Annual meeting - Chicago, IL (August 2-5, 2018)
If you have ideas for these conferences, I want to hear them. Email me with programming ideas, speaker suggestions (it's ok to suggest yourself, by the way), topics we should cover. Book and article ideas. Things that would make the ABA and our Section relevant and useful to your practice. If you join up with us, we'll find a spot for you. This isn't like some other sections where it takes years to get into a leadership role if you want one. And, we're really easy to get along with (a plus for lawyers, right?).
I can't imagine my practice being what it is without my participation in ABA and the Section of State and Local Government Law. I'd like you to have that same experience.
