Minutes of July 11, 2001 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, June 13, 2001, at 8:00 a.m., at the Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

Attendance. Present were Tracy Fowler, Willis Orton, Dan Hindert, Brent Manning, Frank Carney, Scott Reed, Justin Toth, Mike Petrogeorge, Christy Campbell, Lisa Jones, Deno Himonas, Justin Toth, Rod Snow, Tracy Fowler, Brian Babcock, and Bruce Badger.

Approval of minutes. The minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and approved with changes made to the attendance list.

New Members. Two new members of the Executive Committee were introduced and welcomed: Mike Petrogeorge, an associate at Parsons, Behle & Latimer (and soon to be a clerk for Judge Steve Anderson of the Tenth Circuit), and Christy Campbell, an associate at Snell & Wilmer.

Inactive Members. Frank Carney reported that David Jordan wishes to resign after many years on our Executive Committee. Carney will check and see if Cameron Denning and Martin Olsen still wish to be members. Even though Judge Robert Hilder cannot make meetings because of his Summit County assignment, we decided he was a valuable asset and will keep him on board. Likewise, Debra Moore is a valuable asset even though she cannot make all of our meetings. We would like to have a member of the Bar Commission on our Executive Committee and for that reason and because of her many useful contributions we voted to keep Debra as a member unless she desires to resign.

Interest on Section Account. Frank Carney has not yet had a chance to discuss this issue with Scott Daniels and John Baldwin. Our nearly $80,000 balance accrues several thousand dollars in interest which the Bar simply takes. We’d like to gain control of that interest and may use it to fund worthwhile charities, such as “Lawyers Helping Lawyers” or “And Justice For All.” Carney committed to getting an answer on this issue.

Newsletter and Survey. Brent Manning has prepared a notification and survey to members. Frank Carney has some ideas on additional material to include and will advise the Executive Committee of his thoughts.

Annual Meeting. Rod Snow and Brent Manning reported on the results of the two sessions on professionalism and civility. These went well by all accounts. Both were well-attended.

Mentoring Page. Frank Carney discussed the lack of response to our new “Mentoring Page.” The Committee suggested advertising at the New Lawyers’ Mandatory CLE, on the New Lawyers’ listserve, and on the Small Firm/Solo Practitioners’ listserve. Carney will attend to this with Connie Howard.

David Ball: 2002 Annual Meeting. We have scheduled David Ball to speak on “Drama in the Courtroom” and “Arguing Damages to Juries.” Mr. Ball is a drama professor from North Carolina and frequent NITA speaker. He has also published two well-received books through NITA. However, in addition to Mr. Ball’s presentations (which may be up to four hour-long sessions), the Executive Committee feels that we ought to put on an additional session involving local judges.

Judges’ Bench Book. Various members agreed to conduct interviews of the judges in order to speed up the process of putting the bench book on line. They should conduct the interviews, have the interviews transcribed, and email them to Frank Carney. The assignments are:

Lisa Jones: DR Commissioners; Judges Dawson, Allphin and Maughan
Rod Snow: Jim Taylor, Ray Harding, Jr., and Fred Howard
Scott Reed: Steve Hansen, Lynn Davis, Guy Burningham, and Bruce Lubeck
Frank Carney: Stan Taylor, Gary Stott, and Guy Burningham
Deno Himonas: St. George and Cedar City judges and also Randy Skanchy
Brian Babcock: Judge David Sam

Lisa Jones suggested that we look into getting the Salt Lake County Bar’s judicial profiles on line along with the judges’ interviews. Frank Carney will look into this.

Evening with Third District Judges. Justin Toth reported in the status of this project. We are set for October 24th at the Bar Offices. Possible judges include Anthony Quinn, Ron Nehring, Leslie Lewis, and Dennis Frederick. Possible topics include: improving motion practice and improving jury practice. Frank Carney will speak to Ron Nehring about topics and judges for the panel and report at our next meeting. Justin Toth will confirm with Connie Howard that the facilities are set for October 24th.

Replacement of Frank Carney for Trial Academy. Frank Carney has indicated that he will not be leading the Trial Academy in 2002. This will be the fourth Trial Academy, held in even years since 1996. Frank is overwhelmed by the time commitment and needs to resign this position. Brent Manning proposed partially compensating Carney for his time spent on this project and there was a brief discussion. Carney does not know if compensation would make any difference to his decision and fundamentally opposes the concept of compensating any Section members for volunteer work. The matter was tabled for further discussion at the August 8th meeting.

Next Meeting. Our next meeting was set for Wednesday, August 8th, at 8:00 a.m. at the Law & Justice Center.

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

DATED this _____ day of July, 2001.
FOR THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS
July 10, 2001

• August 8 Executive Committee meeting
• September 12 Executive Committee meeting
• October 24 “Evening With Third District Court” (Toth)
• December 7 UTLA/Lit Sec/OPC Ethics Seminar (Carney)
• January ? Trial Academy Part I