Dear Colleagues,
I write as the Chair of the State Bar’s Litigation Section Executive Committee to invite and encourage you and your colleagues to apply for appointment to one of the open seats on the Executive Committee for the 2012-2013 term. Applications are being accepted until February 1, 2012. We are sending this e-mail to you because you are listed as the contact for your association with the State Bar. We encourage you to share this e-mail with your members, and to encourage applications by your association’s membership.
Each year, the Litigation Section makes a special and concerted effort to solicit applications from as diverse a pool of California attorneys as possible. We recognize the immense value of having a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds represented on the Executive Committee. And by better reflecting our membership and the community we serve, we can more effectively implement programs to benefit all California lawyers and Californians generally.
The Executive Committee comprises 15 attorney members as well as over a dozen judicial and attorney advisors. The Executive Committee oversees all aspects of the Litigation Section (the State Bar’s largest section with nearly 10,000 active members), including with respect to rules and legislation affecting litigation in California, the publication of California Litigation Review, Litigation Magazine and Litigation Update, the Legal London exchange program, the Law Suits charity program, and much more. Membership on the Executive Committee offers a valuable opportunity to become involved with the statewide Bar, contribute to the community, and network with attorneys, judges, and others involved in the legal profession. We have enjoyed our time on the Committee both for the professional benefits and the personal friendships. We highly recommend the experience.
More information about the Litigation Section can be found at: http://litigation.calbar.ca.gov/
Application information and forms are available on the bar’s website at:
ADOBE: http://cc.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/11/documents/2012-13_StateBarApplication3_12211.pdf
WORD: http://cc.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/11/documents/2012-13_StateBarAppointmentApplication_Word%20Fill-in_12211.doc
Again, please share this letter and application with your colleagues who might be interested. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I welcome your call.
I wish you and yours all the best of the holidays and a very prosperous new year,
Best wishes,
Michael A. Geibelson
Eligibility: The 2012 Law Student Essay Competition is open to all students currently enrolled in law school in the United States or Canada. The essay must be the student’s original, unpublished work. The prize is graciously sponsored by the law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP (www.dorsey.com) with offices around the world including Toronto and New York.
$500 Prize and Publication: The winning article will be published on the Canadian American Bar Association website.
Essay Topic: Compare U.S. and Canadian law in an area of law of your choice.
Format: The essay must not exceed 2000 words (including endnotes, no footnotes). Include citations and endnotes where reasonably appropriate in order to aid readers. Do not include your name or any other identifying information anywhere in your entry. Submit your entry as a PDF or Microsoft Word file. Submissions that fail to conform with these rules will be disqualified. E-mail your entry to president@canambar.com by March 1, 2012. In your e-mail, include your name, law school, year of study, mailing address, and phone number (do not include this information anywhere in your essay). By submitting an essay in this contest, the entrant grants the Canadian American Bar Association the permission to edit and publish the essay on its website.
Judging: The essay will be evaluated by a committee of Canadian American Bar Association members on the following criteria: clarity of the analysis; quality of the analysis and research; quality of writing, including organization, grammar, syntax, and form. Neither the contestant’s identity nor their academic institution will be known to the committee. The winner will be announced in March 2012.
CABA member Cedric M. Shen of Los Angeles will be speaking in Dallas at the Canadian Consulate on November 17th at the third annual “Cross-Border Tax & Investments Forum” presented by the Canadian-American Chamber of Commerce. The focus of this event will be to inform participants about issues related to investments in Canada and the U.S. with focus on the unique circumstances that Canadians living in the U.S. find themselves. For further information please visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=b4pel9cab&oeidk=a07e526wrcocbc7c64e
The Canadian American Bar Association is requesting nominations for the annual John D. Lawson Award which recognizes Canadians who have excelled in the practice of law and/or made an outstanding contribution to the law or legal scholarship in the U.S.
Last year’s recipient was Jonathan Anschell, CBS Television Executive Vice President and General Counsel.
The award is named after John D. Lawson, who was born in Hamilton Ontario in 1852 and graduated from Osgoode Hall in 1875 before embarking on aremarkable legal career in the United States. Between 1876 and his death in 1922 he was a noted practitioner, law reformer and judge, a prolific and widelyrespected treatise writer and national bar journal editor, a law professor and dean, one of the founding members of the Association of American Law Schools and a leader of the International Law Association. While working in Missouri, New Jersey and California he always maintained close ties to Canada and his home province and to this day remains a model of Canadian legal success south of the 49th.
Please send your nominations for the 2011 John D. Lawson Award to our award committee at: president@canambar.com
Please include with your nomination a brief description of why you believe the person you nominated should be recognized and attach any other information and documents the award committee should consider.
Nominations are due by Friday November 11, 2011.
http://www.law.pitt.edu/events/2011/10/continental-lawyering
On Tuesday October 25th Professor Bernard Hibbits is going to be in D.C. at the Canadian Embassy giving a talk to local Pitt Law alums on “Continental Lawyering”. The focus of the talk will be the cross-border migration of American and Canadian lawyers from the colonial period right up to the present. If interested in attending please RSVP to Allison Saras, director of constituent relations, at lawalum@pitt.edu; call 412-648-1305; or visit law.pitt.edu/events to register online today.
I am pleased to introduce this link for fellow members living in Orange County California. www.canadiansinoc.com
The mission statement of “Canadians in OC” is “To be the Canadian networking focal point in Orange County connecting fellow Canadians together to promote a sense of community and to support personal and business networking through the celebration of a shared Canadian heritage.”
A fun, robust group (as are all things Canadian!).
CABA member Scott Gaffield (Yale, USC, UCLA) has left the Los Angeles office of Skadden Arps to join Octagon as Senior Counsel. Octagon is the world’s largest sponsorship consulting practice and a pioneer and leader in athlete and personality representation and management. With more than 900 employees globally, Octagon manages/influences billions in worldwide sponsorship rights fees and activation and works with hundreds of blue-chip corporate clients, more than 800 Athletes & Personalities clients, and manages more than 5,000 events per year. Leading stakeholders in the sports and entertainment world continue to look to Octagon to provide leadership in understanding fans’ passions and how these insights can build more effective, efficient and measureable marketing programs. www.octagon.com
Scott is also a volunteer consultant at the nonprofit organization Bizroots, Inc. which helps inner-city entrepreneurs build, grow and develop successful businesses in the L.A. area.
On behalf of the Canadian American Bar Association – and as a fellow Skadden alumnus – we wish Scott the best in his new career.
David McFarlane
President
Toronto Social/Neworking Event TONIGHT (5-8 pm)! Come out to the Martini Bar at the Pantages Hotel in Toronto for some free drinks and mingle with in-house counsel and other members of the Canadian American Bar Association.
We have an upcoming social event during the ABA Conference next week in Toronto. On August 4th at the Martini Bar at the Pantages Hotel, from 5-8 p.m. we will host a lively event for our Ontario/NY members and their guests. Please come out and meet other in-house counsel and attorneys with cross-border interests. Free drinks!
If interested please contact Daniel.Bourque@xerox.com or secretary@canambar.com
