Message from the Chairs

Welcome to the 2007-2008 bar year and the Commercial and Business Litigation Committee website. We are pleased to co-chair the committee, which is one of the largest and most active in the Section of Litigation. As we plan and implement our activities throughout the year, we have one over-arching goal: to provide our members with information and programs that help them become more informed, more skillful lawyers and more valued counselors to their clients. We achieve that goal through a variety of activities.

Programs: We sponsor a variety of CLE programming at two annual meetings: the Section Annual Conference each spring and the ABA Annual Meeting each August. This year, the Section Annual Conference will be in Washington, DC, April 16-18, and the Annual Meeting will be in New York City, August 7-9. Please save these dates and plan to attend both meetings. In addition to providing top-notch CLE programs, these meetings provide invaluable opportunities to meet and to share ideas and experiences with lawyers and judges from all over the country.

Committee Breakfast Meetings: At both annual meetings, we hold a committee breakfast meeting, at which we conduct the business of the committee and, often, present a short substantive program. Much of our day-to-day interaction is, of necessity, by conference call and e-mail. The breakfast meetings are a wonderful opportunity to meet our members personally, plan up-coming events, and spark ideas for future activities. Recent breakfast meeting programs included a presentation comparing e-discovery procedures of Canada, England, Mexico and the United States, and a program called “What Commercial Litigators Need to Know About the New Bankruptcy Legislation.”

Committee Dinners: At both annual meetings, we hold a “no-host” committee dinner, open to any committee member who wishes to attend (space permitting). We promise good food, good wine and great company. We encourage you to watch for e-mail notices of the dinners and RSVP quickly, as the dinners are popular and the limited seating tends to go fast.

Distance CLE: In addition to programming at the in-person meetings and conferences, we participate in the Section’s Distance CLE program. This means that, typically twice a year, we plan and present a CLE program via teleconference to Section members throughout the country. These one-hour programs provide high quality CLE to members in a low-cost, easy-to-attend format, and are a great way to reach out to members who may not be able to attend the annual meetings. Recent programs dealt with litigation under UCC Article 9 and securities litigation.  We hope you will dial in to these programs.

Website: Since you are reading this Chair’s Letter on our Committee’s website, we know you are acquainted with the website. But we urge you to take some additional time to check out the other content available on the website, including information about our subcommittees (and how to contact subcommittee chairs), articles, program materials, links to other helpful legal sites, and information about upcoming meetings and programs. We are committed to providing up-to-date information that will help you stay abreast of current developments, both in the Section and in your practice.

Newsletter: Our committee publishes a fine newsletter four times a year, featuring articles by leading lawyers, judges and academics. It is one of the newsletters chosen for the Section of Litigation’s “production model” under which design is handled by the ABA’s design professionals, and has been recognized by the Section as the best newsletter published in its production model program. The newsletters are packed with information, analysis, and strategies for both newer and more seasoned litigators. For committee members who prefer to obtain their content electronically, the newsletters also appear on our website. Each of the newsletters is built around a substantive theme. Recent issues have focused on professional liability litigation, ADR in business cases, and damages issues in commercial cases.  Upcoming issues will focus on other aspects of ADR and expert witnesses in commecial cases.

Case Commentaries: Our new Case Commentary editors and their Editorial Board post on our website summaries of noteworthy cases in each of the circuits. We invite you to check it out and keep abreast of significant legal developments.

E-Alerts: We publish periodic “e-alerts,” which are very brief e-mail messages alerting our members to upcoming meetings or events, new cases or legislation, or other legal developments or information of interest to our members.

Subcommittees: None of this would be possible, without the hard work of our subcommittee chairs. We have many subcommittees covering a broad range of substantive areas. Our subcommittee chairs are a very diverse group in every respect. They devote countless hours and boundless energy to the work of the committee, and we are enormously grateful to them. We invite you to review our list of subcommittees, and we urge you to contact any of the subcommittee chairs to learn how you can increase your involvement.

Other Publications: Our committee took the lead in a joint effort by several committees to publish a special joint newsletter about e-discovery. It was one of the first of its kind and has been promoted as a new type of publication for the Section. We are also in the process of preparing a handbook on litigation of trade secret disputes, which we also expect to publish this bar year.  Work also is underway on model UCC jury instructions. We welcome ideas for other potential publications.

Thank you for your interest in the work of our Committee. The Section of Litigation is the leading voice of trial lawyers in this country and we are proud to be a part of it. We look forward to working with you and invite you to contact us with any ideas or suggestions you may have for how to continue to meet our goals.

David Coale
Lamont Jefferson
Co-Chairs, Commercial & Business Litigation Committee