SECTION NEWS

The ABA Section of State and Local Government Law established the Jefferson B. Fordham Awards Program in 1998 to recognize and honor the accomplishments of practitioners and institutions active in the varied areas of practice associated with state and local government law. The awards honor outstanding attorneys and law offices that have achieved professional excellence within this area of the profession. Awards may be presented in the following categories on an annual basis: (1) Law Office Accomplishment, (2) Lifetime Achievement, (3) Advocacy, and (4) Up & Comers.

Submission of Nominations

Nominations must be received on or before March 1, 2005, by the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law. The Section’s Awards Committee will select recipients by July 1, 2005, and the awards will be presented at the ABA Annual Meeting at a special luncheon in Chicago this August.

Detailed Criteria for Selection

Below are the four categories for which the Jefferson Fordham Awards may be presented on an annual basis, and a brief description of the criteria used to select recipients in each category.

Law Office Accomplishment Award—Recognizes sustained, outstanding performance or a specific extraordinary accomplishment by a state and local government law office. Eligible candidates include all state and local government public sector law offices, including departments or units within such offices.

Lifetime Achievement Award—Recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of state and local government law by an individual over an entire career. This award is given for contributions over a number of years.

Advocacy Award—Recognizes outstanding advocacy or legal writing within the area of state and local government law. This award fosters and encourages excellence in advocacy, both written and otherwise, in state and local government law.

Up & Comers—Presented to a young practitioner as defined by the ABA (thirty-six or under) who, through his or her efforts and accomplishments, shows great promise to continue these contributions for future achievements.

Guidelines for Submission

Nominations of candidates in each of the four categories must be submitted in the following format with all the information requested:
1. Full name, addresses, and telephone numbers of the nominee.
2. Name of the law office’s director or manager for the Government Law Office Award, including size and mission of office.
3. Summary of nominee’s or office’s achievements (brief explanation of outstanding or extraordinary public and/or professional services rendered (50 to 100 words)).
4. An explanation of the nominee’s performance and service; information regarding the time frame for the services described; accomplishments or superior contributions over a number of years; outstanding advocacy or legal writing; qualifications as a young lawyer for the Up & Comer’s Award and past efforts and accomplishments that show great promise to continue contributions for future achievement; assessment of the impact of the service for which the individual or office is nominated (no more than two typed pages).
5. Names, titles, and phone numbers of three other persons (including at least one lawyer or jurist), who are familiar with the nominee’s performance, achievements, etc.
6. A brief statement about the nominator’s background that would assist the Awards Committee in evaluating the nominations.

Submit All Materials to:

Jackie Baker, ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60611-4714, 312/988-5652, fax 312/988-5121, or e-mail jlbaker@staff.abanet.org.

The focus of the Public Education Committee for 2004–05 is the publication of the School Litigator’s Desktop Handbook and the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, August 4–7, 2005. But before we turn to 2004–05, let us recap 2003–04.

At the Albany meeting in October 2003, the Public Education Committee participated in a series of themed presentations regarding the First Amendment and government. John M. T. Chavis II of Locke Reynolds in Indianapolis presented a program entitled, “Can You Shout ‘Food Fight’ in a Crowded Cafeteria?” This program started with a discussion of the First Amendment itself and the leading cases of Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969), Bethel Sch. Dist. v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986), and Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988). Mr. Chavis then went on to discuss the application of the Tinker/Bethel/ Kuhlmeier framework to a variety of interesting types of student speech including: students wearing the confederate flag on clothing, students wearing “redneck” t-shirts, students wearing shirts condemning President Bush for his Iraq policy, Internet usage by students, and student threats. Thank you, Mr. Chavis, for an interesting and informative program!

At the New Orleans meeting in March 2004, the Public Education Committee (in cooperation with the Government Operations Committee) provided the Saturday luncheon program entitled, “Diversity in Employment and Education in Light of the Supreme Court’s Michigan Decisions: What Can Be Done? What Should Be Done?” The keynote speaker for the luncheon was Jonathan Alger, assistant general counsel for the University of Michigan, who provided insight into the defense strategy of the university in the landmark cases of Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), and Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003). Mr. Alger’s presentation was followed by panel presentations by Professor David Gelfand and Professor Wendy Scott Brown from Tulane University, and Professor David Laycock from the University of Texas. Thank you to all of our speakers for a wonderful program at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education!

The current focus of the Committee’s efforts is on the publication of the School Litigator’s Desktop Handbook. This publication is designed as a reference for school district litigators to use when they receive a complaint and are planning their initial defense strategy and preparing a responsive pleading. The book chapters and authors are as follows:

I. Initial Handling of Claims, Philip Erickson,
II. Employment Discrimination and Harassment, Eric Harrison,
III. Breach of Collective Bargaining Agreement, Duty of Fair Representation and Arbitration, Ron Kramer,
IV. 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Philip Erickson,
V. First Amendment, Tom Wheeler,
VI. Fourth Amendment, Tom Wheeler,
VII. Fourteenth Amendment, Philip Erickson,
VIII. Freedom of Information Act, Jim Hanks,
IX. Open Meetings Act, Jim Hanks,
X. Special Education, Mary Klimesh,
XI. Environmental Claims, Shamus O’Meara,
XII. Tort Claims and Governmental Immunity, Steve Stapleton, and
XIII. Reporting and Claims Management, Richard Pevner.

Each chapter will contain subsections regarding development of the law, elements of the cause(s) of action, defenses and affirmative defenses, practice pointers, and references. We hope it will be a truly useful resource for the practitioner. Look for the School Litigator’s Desktop Handbook in 2005. And we hope some of the chapter authors will present on their topics as applied to all municipalities at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Chicago, August 4–7, 2005.

Ethics Updates, CLEs Highlight Active Year

The Ethics Committee had a very successful 2003–04 and is looking forward to an active new year in 2004–05. The Ethics Committee submitted an article titled, Recent Developments in Ethics Conflicts of Interest Relating to Former and Current Government Clients, which was published in the Fall 2003 Committee Reports issue of The Urban Lawyer. The article updated the status of the 2002 Model Rules of Professional Responsibility and the responses of state bar associations to those changes. In addition, because no ethics case update had been published in The Urban Lawyer for several years, the article included summaries of decisions relating to professional ethics and government practice since approximately June 2001. In addition, the Committee submitted an update of changes in the Model Rules and in state professional codes and caselaw since June 2003 for publication in the Urban Lawyer’s Fall 2004 issue.

The Ethics Committee presented CLEs at the Section’s Fall Meeting in Albany (October 2003) and its Spring Meeting in New Orleans (March 2004). In both instances, role-playing was used to highlight ethical issues frequently encountered by government lawyers and lawyers who practice before state and local governments. The written materials provided with these sessions outlined the pertinent model rules, provided examples of state rules that differ from the model rules, and included case decisions. The attendees at both sessions actively participated in the presentations by recounting their own experiences and discussing the issues raised from various perspectives. From all reports, the presentations were well received.

The Committee plans to work with other Section committees to offer either a stand-alone ethics CLE program or a joint program with an ethics component at the Section’s 2005 Spring Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Over the next year, we will follow up on attempts to reinvigorate participation in the Committee. We will continue to identify current members and enlist new members who will actively participate and contribute to the Committee’s activities. Increasing Committee participation will continue to be a goal over the coming year. If you have an interest in joining the Committee, please contact Michael Donaldson at 850/224–1585 or e-mail mdonaldson@carltonfields.com.

Midyear Meeting • Salt Lake City, Utah • Sheraton Hotel

Friday, February 11, 2005

1:30–5:00 p.m.
Board Room, Mezzanine Level
Executive Committee Meeting

Saturday, February 12, 2005

8:00 a.m.
Executive A, Mezzanine Level
Breakfast & Council Meeting

1:00 p.m.
Board Room, Mezzanine Level
Urban Lawyer Advisory Board

2:30–4:30 p.m.
Board Room, Mezzanine Level
Publications Oversight Board Meeting

The Midyear Meeting website, www.abanet.org/ midyear/2005/home.html, contains detailed information about the meeting.

There is no registration fee for the Midyear Meeting, and you can register several different ways: online, by fax, by mail, or on-site at the Grand America Hotel. The deadline for advance registration is January 7, 2005.

New this year, exclusive airfare discounts are now available through the ABA Online Travel website. Midyear Meeting registrants can make airline reservations and still take advantage of specially negotiated discounts on ABA preferred carriers. Visit the airline information page, or contact Tower Travel, the official travel agency of the ABA, at 800-921-9190, for more information.

If you have any questions, please call the ABA Meetings & Travel Department at 312/988-5870.