Minutes of September 12, 2001 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, September 9, 2001, at 8:00 a.m., at the Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

1. Attendance. Executive Members present were Willis Orton, Frank Carney, Scott Reed, Christy Campbell, and Bruce Badger.

2. Interest on Litigation Section Account. Frank Carney has been discussing this topic via email with John Baldwin and Scott Daniels. The interest taken by the Bar on our member funds is approximately $5,000/year and we pay the Bar an administrative fee of $5,700. One thought is a setoff on our administrative fee. Frank Carney will explore this and report back.

3. Members’ Survey. Frank Carney reported that Connie Howard has received over 70 written responses to Brent Manning’s membership survey. They are still trickling in and will be forwarded to Willis Orton in the next two weeks.

4. Mid-Year Meeting Committee Representative. Bruce Badger agreed to handle this and will attend the next meeting of this Committee.

5. Annual Meeting Committee Representative. Christy Romero volunteered for this task. The Committee will not meet until January and our work is largely done with only one breakout session to put together.

6. Government Relations Committee Liaison. Deno Himonas has previously agreed to serve in a related capacity and we voted to make him our representative on this new Committee of the Bar, charged with monitoring legislative developments.

7. Status of Judge’s Benchbook Interviews. We discussed our slow progress in this area and agreed to focus on the Fourth District first. Frank Carney will call Judge Stott and make arrangements for Frank and Scott Reed to speak to the judges of that district at their next monthly meeting.

Status of Mentors’ Page. Frank Carney reported that an advertisement for the mentor’s page appears in the new Bar Journal but that only two inquiries had been received since the service started months ago. Christy Romero suggested an email to the Young Lawyers’ Section and the Solo Practice Section; Frank recalled after the meeting that this was done about a month ago with no visible effect.

8. MUJI- Civil (2d Ed.) Willis Orton has discussed the slow progress toward getting MUJI- Civil (2nd Ed.) out. John Young is presently concentrating on getting the criminal instructions done and then will deal with the civil version. We discussed ways to help John and Frank Carney mentioned that the major part of the work was done by subcommittees, most of which are still in existence. What needs to be done is to get those subcommittees up and running with a deadline to submit amended instructions. Willis Orton will ask John about this.

9. Evening with Third District Judges. Frank Carney reported that this seminar is ready to go; Judge Nehring and three other Third District judges will attend. The subject matter still needs to be defined and the materials prepared.

10. Trial Academy 2002. Frank Carney will not be handling the Trial Academy any longer and Willis Orton, Tracy Fowler, and Scott Reed are in the process of finding a replacement. Gordon Campbell was recommended and met with unanimous approval. Willis Orton will followup with Gordon.

11. Ethics Program. Frank Carney reported that UTLA doesn’t really want our help for the December 7th Ethics Seminar, at least not if it means splitting the fees. So we will remove this from our agenda.

12. Membership Terms. Last meeting there was some discussion of membership terms to weed out inactive members. The bylaws in fact provide for two-year terms. Frank Carney agreed to update the membership list found on our web site to reflect the terms of the present members.

13. Next meeting. Our next meeting was set for 8:00 am on Wednesday, October 10th.

14. There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 8:50 a.m.

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

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS
September 11, 2001

• October 10 Executive Committee Meeting
• October 24 “Evening With Third District Court”
• November 14 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 12 Executive Committee Meeting
• January ? Trial Academy, Part I?
• March Mid-Year Meeting in St. George