Minutes of April 11, 2001 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, April 11, 2001, at 8:00 a.m., at the Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

1. Attendance. Present were Tracy Fowler, Brent Manning, Lisa Jones, Dan Hindert, Judge Bill Barrett, Rod Snow, Deno Himonas, Frank Carney, and Willis Orton.

2. Approval of minutes. The minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and approved.

3. Co-sponsorship of ABOTA Trial Practice Seminar. Frank Carney discussed co-sponsorship of an ABOTA seminar on December 6, 2001, on trial practice. Further details are needed and we will followup with this in future meetings. There could be some interest in co-sponsorship, especially if ABOTA will provide the program and nationally-known speakers.

4. Co-sponsorship of UTLA/OPC Ethics Seminar. UTLA and the Office of Professional Conduct are co-sponsoring a three-hour “Ethics in Litigation” seminar on December 7, 2001. Like the ABOTA seminar, we need more details and Frank Carney will followup on this. It could be an easy way for our members to fulfill the last-minute need for three CLE credits in ethics.

5. Web Page/Mentoring Project. Frank Carney briefly discussed the status of the web page. The mentoring project is just underway and we are in the process of advising membership of the Bar of its existence. It can be found at:

http://www.utahbar.org/sites/litigation/html/mentors.html

6. Mid-Year Meeting in St. George. Bruce Badger reported that the keynote speaker, Dr. Donald Capra, was exceptional. He spoke on the effect AIDS will have on the world and the legal system. Merrill Norman's presentation on economic damages was also well-received, but more time was needed.

7. Annual Meeting: Rod Snow Breakout Session. Rod Snow reported on his breakout session, "What Judges/Lawyers Want From Each Other." The judges and lawyers are selected and we will survey the Section membership on their attitudes.

8. Donation to "And Justice For All" Campaign. Brent Manning proposed that the Section donate $1,500 to the "And Justice For All" campaign. Frank Carney and Bruce Badger spoke in opposition to the proposal; their position is that the program is an excellent one, but it is not a proper use of members' dues to donate to legal service charities. There was discussion on polling the members on how their dues ought to be used. The vote was 4-3 (Barrett, Badger, Carney opposed) to donate $1,500 to the "And Justice For All" 2001 campaign, but to also survey our members in the near future about how their dues money ought to be spent.

9. Interest on Section's Ban Account Balance. We noted that the Section has nearly $80,000 in the bank and yet we receive no interest on this money. That sum alone would finance a substantial yearly donation to an organization like “And Justice For All.” Bruce Badger was tasked with making inquiries about this.

10. Nomination for Distinguished Service Award. The Bar has asked us to make a nomination for the “Distinguished Service Award” given at the Annual Meeting. Frank Carney proposed Alan Sullivan, due to his many hours of volunteer time on the “And Justice For All” project, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, and other projects. This was unanimously approved and FJC will notify John Baldwin.

11. Proposed Revisions to Utah Rules of Evidence. We discussed the proposed amendments to Rules 701, 702, and 703 of the Utah Rules of Evidence. These will “Daubertize” the Utah law of expert admissibility. We agreed that there are Section members who would be in favor of such changes and that others would be opposed. Therefore, we cannot take a position as a Section on the wisdom of the proposed amendments but we will advise all members by e-mail of the May 21st deadline for comment. Tracy Fowler and Frank Carney will handle it.

12. Larry Pozner Cross-Examination Seminar: April 19th. Frank Carney reported on the status of this event. So far approximately ninety people are signed up to attend and we hope to have a sellout by next week.

13. Donation to "Lawyers Helping Lawyers." Richard Uday, Esq. Executive Director of "Lawyers Helping Lawyers" spoke in behalf of his organization and requested a major donation of $40,000, or whatever sum the Section felt comfortable in giving. We discussed this briefly, again some members raising the issue of the appropriateness of using dues money for charitable causes (admittedly worthy), and then decided to table further discussion until our next meeting.

14. Next Meeting. The next meeting of the Executive Committee was scheduled for Wednesday, May 9 th, at 8:00 a.m., as usual at the Bar Offices.

There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.

DATED this _____ day of May, 2001.

FOR THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary-Treasurer

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS
May 9, 2001

• June 13 Executive Committee meeting
• July 4-7 Annual Meeting of USB in Sun Valley
• July 6 Annual Breakfast Meeting of Litigation Section?
• Dec 6 ABOTA/Litigation Section Trial Practice Seminar
• Dec 7 UTLA/Lit Sec/OPC Ethics Seminar