Minutes of December 13, 2000 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, December 13, 2000, at 8:00 a.m., at the Utah Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

Attendance. Present were Tracy Fowler, Shawn McGarry, Brian Babcock, Frank Carney, Scott Reed, Willis Orton, Scott Reed, Justin Toth and Cameron Denning.

Minutes from Last Meeting. The minutes from the November 8th meeting were approved.

New member- Justin Toth. Justin Toth was welcomed as a new member of the Executive Committee. Justin is presently on staff at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics Committee.

Governmental Relations Committee. The Bar has asked us to appoint a member of the Litigation Section to its Governmental Relations Committee. Tracy Fowler will speak with Dino Himonas about this; if Dino is unable to accept this task, Scott Reed will handle it.

January 19: Appellate ADR Seminar. This is set to go. We have committed to fund half of the cost for the speaker from the Tenth Circuit.

March 15-17: Mid-Year Meeting in St. George. Dr. Capra from Oklahoma will be the keynote speaker, sponsored by us. Merrill Norman to speak on economic analysis of damages in a breakout session. Bruce Badger is in charge of all arrangements.

July 4-7: Annual Meeting in Sun Valley. We will sponsor three breakout sessions. The first will be concern the Robinson-Patman Act. The second– chaired by Rod Snow– will be on the topic of “What Lawyers Want From Judges.” The third will be on the topic of civility issues with Shawn McGarry in charge.

February 23-24: Cliff Osmond Drama Workshop. This workshop on drama in the courtroom is set for February 23 and 24 at the Law and Justice Center. Attendance is limited to twenty-five people. Janet Goldstein is in charge of arrangements.

MUJI Civil- Second Edition. Tracy Fowler spoke with John Young who indicated that the Annual Meeting is his goal for having the Second Edition finished. We approved John's use of a paid law clerk to assist. Anyone with a particular interest in areas of the model instructions should contact John Young. Frank Carney will see that the membership is informed via the listserve of the opportunity to see on drafting subcommittees.

Meetings Minutes to Members. We also agreed that Executive Committee meeting minutes should not only be available on our website, but also sent to those on our listserve with other Section news on a monthly basis

Secretarial Help on Email Access. We approved the expenditure of up to $300 by Frank Carney for secretarial assistance in updating the listserve with the email addresses of Section members.

Utah Bar Journal. Justin Toth reported that the Bar Journal is soliciting a yearly "Case Developments" articles from us. They would like to have one article address a general area once a year, such as civil procedure. Justin will handle this.

Web Page. Frank Carney indicated that the Judges’ Bench Book is progressing. Bruce Badger and Frank met with the Third District Judges on November 16th to schedule interviews. We've also decided to put the best articles from Voir Dire magazine on our web site.

April 19th: Larry Pozner Seminar on Cross Examination. A seminar on cross examination with Larry Pozner is set for or April 19th from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Law & Justice Center. Frank Carney is handling the arrangements.

Section Account Balance. We have more than $81,000 in our account. The Bar has urged us to spend down our balance. We discussed various alternatives: reducing the dues to $25; making at least some of our seminars free to members;

Utah Business Magazine. Asked us to proposed the five "most feared" litigators in Utah. We agreed that this was a foolish proposal and would only encourage the jackasses in our profession. We decided to ask the magazine to change the topic to "most respected" trial lawyers and then we might have suggestions to make.

Next Meeting. The next meeting of the Executive Committee was set for Wednesday, January 10, 2001, at 8:00 a.m. at the Law and Justice Center.

There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m.

DATED this ______ day of December, 2000.
_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS
December 13, 2000

• January 10 Executive Committee Meeting
• January 19 “Appellate Mediation” Seminar (with ADR Section)
• February 14 Executive Committee Meeting
• February 23-24 “Drama in the Courtroom” Seminar (Goldstein)
• March 14 Executive Committee Meeting
• March 15-17 St. George Mid-Year Meeting (Badger)
• April 11 Executive Committee Meeting
• April 19 “Cross Examination With Larry Pozner” (Carney)
• July 4-7 Annual Meeting in Sun Valley (Manning)