The Corporate Counseling and Litigation Subcommittee and the Indemnification and Insurance Subcommittee of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee held their traditional joint meeting at the ABA Business Law Section Spring Meeting in Dallas, Texas on April 10, 2008. The meeting was lively and produced much discussion regarding the recent evolution of the corporate and business entity attorney-client privilege. As a result of the meeting, a CLE program was proposed by the subcommittees and accepted for inclusion at the ABA Annual Meeting.

On August 11, 2008 from 8-10 am, the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee will sponsor a CLE committee forum at the ABA Annual Meeting in New York City on "Protecting the Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege." The program will focus on the areas of Protecting the Privilege in Governmental Investigations, Internal Corporate Investigations and Litigation Involving Former Directors & Officers, focusing on a number of recent decisions, and is designed to provide in-house and outside counsel with the tools they need to succesfully represent corporations and business entities in today's complex legal environment. We again anticipate a lively discussion and are putting together an interesting panel.

We are also anticipating the expected June 2008 release of the "Annual Review in Business and Corporate Litigation 2008," to which both subcommittees have contributed chapters, covering such matters as options backdating, stockholder litigation, creditors' rights, stockholder derivative suits, appraisal actions, advancement and indemnification actions and attorney-client privilege.

The Subcommittee on Business Courts provided information in connection with a Nevada Legislative Subcommittee's study of business courts, as well as to the Office of the Mississippi Secretary of State. Co-Chairs Rick Gross and Lee Applebaum, and former Chair Mitchell Bach, were among a panel of experts making themselves available to the Nevada Legislators with questions on business courts, and the three also participated in a business court webinar sponsored by Business Law Today and the Section of Business Law. For the fifth year, Lee Applebaum coordinated the Business Courts chapter in the Annual Review of Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation, which includes a number of Subcommittee members as authors, among whom is Vice-Chair Cory E. Manning; and Lee spoke on the subject during the Annual Developments authors' presentation at the Spring Meeting in Dallas.

The Subcommittee met in connection with the Section Spring Meeting in Dallas. The Subcommittee and volunteers completed an update to the Chapter on Non-Profit Law as part of the 2008 Edition of the Annual Review of Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation. The Subcommittee is presently working on plans for the following (1) a public service project in connection with the ABA Annual Meeting in New York, (2) a public service project in connection with the Spring Meeting in Vancouver, (3) an electronic survey to be published and co-sponsored by the Young Lawyers Forum to solicit feedback on how we might improve participation in public service projects at Section meetings, and (4) in cooperation with the Pro Bono Committee of the Section, we are researching possible long-term partnering prospects with national community-oriented organizations to plan and implement public service projects at future Section meetings.

The Women's Business Advocates subcommittee strives to foster and promote the ever-expanding leadership role of women in the legal profession and the business community. To that end, during this Year's Business Law Section Annual meeting in Dallas, Women's Business Advocates hosted a Reception Celebrating Women in the Judiciary and in Business. The Reception was held April 11, 2008 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the beautiful Nasher Sculpture Center. The weather cooperated creating the perfect setting for the more than 200 women (and men alike) to mingle in the garden and enjoy the food and drink sponsored by Dallas firm Carrington, Coleman, Sloman and Blumenthal, L.L.P. Most important, two extraoridinary women were honored Ebby Halliday and Justice Carolyn Wright

Ebby Halliday is one of the most inspiring women in Texas. She has worked for over 60 years creating the Ebby Home Team, one of the largest and best-known privately owned residential real estate firms in the country. The Company participated in approximately 19,000 property transactions in 2006, exceeding a sales volume of more than $4.7 billion -- marking the best year in sales in the company's history. The Ebby Home Team is No.1 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, No.1 in Texas and No. 18 in the nation, as listed by REAL Trends, Inc. who ranks the top independent residential real estate firms in the country. Ebby Halliday has approximately 1,600 staff and sales associates, including more than 130 bilingual associates. Her business success is parralleled by her incredible civic involvement.

Justice Carolyn Wright is a fourth generation Texan, born in Houston, Texas. Justice Wright has served in the judiciary for the last 20 years. While many of the positions held by her have been historical firsts for women and minorities serving in the Dallas judiciary, her election to the Court of Appeals marks the first time in Texas history that an African American woman has ever won a multi-county election for any elected office. She is currently one of thirteen justices on the Fifth District Court of Appeals. Her prior judicial service includes three elections as a State District Judge and an appointment as an Associate Judge in the Family District Courts. Prior to her judicial service, she was engaged in the private practice of law in areas of family, juvenile, and business transactions and litigation. Prior to and during law school she worked for the federal government in a law-related field of juvenile justice. Her professional memberships include: Chair and Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, a $14 million dollar charity; Fellow of the Foundations of the Dallas Bar and Dallas Young Lawyers; Member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, the National and American Bar Associations; and local minority bar, the JL Turner Legal Association; service for many years as a Faculty Member, Texas Center for the Judiciary and National Judicial College, Reno, Nevada.; and appointed by the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to: an Appellate Tribunal for the appeal of a removal of a judge from office; a National Task Force to set standards for mediation practice; and the Judicial Ethics Committee.

Both women provide examples of leadership and service for us all.

Special Thanks to Robert Witte, Robert Rupp, Kendyl Hanks, Peter Walsh and Mitchell Bach who made the event such a great success.

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