Minutes of October 9, 2002 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, September 11, 2002, at 8:00 a.m., at the Utah Law & Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

1. Attendance. Executive Committee members present were Bruce Badger (Chair), Jim Palmer (for Wayne Klein), Willis Orton, Lee Curtis, and Frank Carney. Bryan Pattison in St. George and Kevin Fife in Logan attended by speakerphone.

2. Minutes Approval (Badger) The minutes from September were approved with minor changes.

3. Trial Academy report (Carney). Frank Carney reported that the Trial Academy 2002 was a success, with nearly one hundred fifty registered and in attendance. Most of the attendees were New Lawyers. The speakers were Judge Mike Murphy, Judge Robert Hilder, Judge Leslie Lewis, Judge Ron Nehring, Scott Daniels, Richard Burbidge, Mike Hansen, Bryon Benevento, Tom Karrenberg, David Slagle and Colin King.

4. Financial Summary. Jim Palmer reported our total gain in August was $16,651.12 from membership dues after deductions for expenses.

5. September CLE report (Badger) Bruce Badger reported that the Section Luncheon on September 24th went well. Dr. Cory Hammond, from the University Medical School, spoke and was impressive. He gave a very practical presentation on reducing stress. This was preceded by a discussion of Rule 8.3 by Rich Uday, who pointed out that the rule excludes reports to “Lawyers Helping Lawyers.”

6. Notice on CLEs. Bruce Badger mentioned that there have been comments from Section members about short notice on CLEs. We addressed the need for notice as early as possible, even if details cannot be provided. Also, quarterly section email updates can be used to keep members about forthcoming CLEs.

7. Bar Leadership Training Bruce Badger reported on this event. There were several points of interest to the Section:

The governmental affairs committee needs a member from our section on their committee. Frank Pignanelli has kept watch on the legislature for us. We will ask Deno Himonas about doing this for us.
There was a request for us to help fund “Lawyers Helping Lawyers.” This will be put on our agenda for the next meeting. Bruce Badger gave us a memorandum from Rich Uday outlining the need and the request. Bruce suggested $5,000 as the size of our donation and we will consider this at our next meeting.
A web page was discussed where the public could have access to solving legal problems. There would be “modules” written by the sections. Bruce was initially skeptical. They want to get people like Siegfried & Jensen to advertise on the web page. George Daines is in charge of this. Our initial response was negative. Bruce Badger expressed concerns about the quality of advice given. Lee Curtis was concerned about the bar sponsoring the advertising of lawyers. We were all skeptical of increasing the level of professionalism through this method, as was suggested by the proponents. Bruce will call George Daines about the status of the program and provide further information at our next meeting.

8. Contribution to "And Justice For All" From CLE Fees. We clarified our position on contributing interest on the Section account balance to AJ4A. We will pay the interest on our Section account balance to AJ4A, subject to yearly review. We will not pay an additional add-on from CLE attendees’ registration fees to AJ4A.

9. Other fees to Bar for CLE's. Bruce Badger reported that net revenues for the seminars are split 75% to the Bar, if held at the Bar Offices. Then we have to pay to use the facility and for the food. If held outside of the bar offices, then the Bar takes 90%. If there is a loss, we bear it. We feel this is unfair. Pam suggested that we speak with John Baldwin about this and will therefore invite him to our next meeting.

10. St. George Golf and CLE at Sunbrook- November 8th Willis Orton mentioned that the brochure for this CLE was just recently approved and should be mailed soon. We also voted to increase the contribution to $750 for golf prizes.

11. Mid-Year Meeting: March 2003. Justin Toth was unable to attend our meeting, but reported by email as follows:

I attended the Mid-Year Planning Committee meeting on Friday, September 20.The Committee asked each Section of the Bar to commit to covering one topicfor the Program Schedule. I volunteered that the Litigation Section wouldprovide at least one topic which would be, no surprise, in the LitigationTrack of the Program. It seemed as though many of the smaller sections ofthe Bar also wanted to present topics in various areas. However, I told theCommittee that, in addition to providing our one topic, the LitigationSection would be willing to provide additional topics and speakers for thosetopics if the Committee needed additional material.The Committee has not yet chosen a "theme" for the Mid-Year Meeting andthere was some debate about whether or not to do so. The Committee decidedto resolve that issue at the next meeting. Likewise, the Committee made nodecision on a Keynote Speaker and simply asked Section representatives tomake suggestions at the next meeting. The Committee also wanted the Sectionrepresentatives to have proposed topics for the next meeting. So, my questions to the Executive Committee are as follows:1. Does the EC have any specific topics it would like to see covered at theMid-Year Meeting?2. Does the EC have any concrete suggestions (read, connections) for aKeynote Speaker?

We deferred discussion of these matters until our next meeting.

12. Annual meeting: July 2003 (Badger). We agreed that we will not sponsor.

13. Next meeting: Our next meeting was set for Wednesday, November 13th, at 8:00 a.m. at the Law & Justice Center.

The meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m.

DATED this _____ day of October, 2002.
FOR THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION SCHEDULE

2002

• November 8 St. George CLE ‘n Golf
• November 13 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 15 Quarterly Email Update to Members
• December 11 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 19 Appellate Practice Seminar

2003

• January 8 Executive Committee Meeting
• February 12 Executive Committee Meeting
• March 15 Quarterly Email Update to Members
• March 12 Executive Committee Meeting
• March 13-15 USB Mid-Year Meeting in St. George
• April 9 Executive Committee Meeting
• May 14 Executive Committee Meeting
• June 15 Quarterly Email Update to Members
• June 11 Executive Committee Meeting
• July 9 Executive Committee Meeting
• July 16-19 USB Annual Meeting in Sun Valley
• August 13 Executive Committee Meeting
• September 15 Quarterly Email Update to Members
• September 10 Executive Committee Meeting
• October 8 Executive Committee Meeting
• November 12 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 15 Quarterly Email Update to Members
• December 10 Executive Committee Meeting