SECTION NEWS  

Call for Nominations:

Tenth Annual Jefferson Fordham Awards

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.

Who Was Jefferson Fordham?

The Fordham Awards commemorate the career of Jefferson B. Fordham, who was elected the first Chair of the Section of Local Government Law in 1949. During his years of outstanding service, the Section became the distinguished national resource for the advancement of state and local government law practice. His local government law case book, in which he addressed planning and finance, housing and blight, transportation and congestion, in short, the entire range of urban problems whose solutions required a larger concept of community, revolutionized the teaching of this field. He pioneered the concepts of home rule and the landmark decisions sustaining interdisciplinary studies under bar sponsorship. He was a visionary in teaching that the tough problems of local government did not lend themselves to simplistic solutions.

Submission of Nominations

Nominations must be received on or before April 20, 2007, by the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law. The Section’s Awards Committee will select recipients by July 6, 2007, and the awards will be presented at the ABA Annual Meeting at a special luncheon in San Francisco, California, on Friday, August 10, 2007.

Detailed Criteria for Selection

Below is a list of the four different areas for which the Jefferson Fordham Award 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 (thirty-six or under) as defined by the ABA who, through his or her efforts and accomplishments, shows great promise to continue these contributions for future achievements.

Guidelines for Submission

Nominations for recipients 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 law office’s director or manager for Government Law Office Award, including the size and mission of the 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 whose past efforts and accomplishments show great promise to continue contributions for future achievement; assessment of the impact of the service for which you are nominating the individual or office (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 606l0, fax 312/988–5121, or e-mail jlbaker@staff.abanet.org.

Public Education Committee Report

The Public Education Committee works collaboratively with the members of the Section of State and Local Government to address the full breadth of issues faced at all levels of public education, including legal issues involving public educational employees, the First Amendment, students, public contracts, and school safety and security. The Committee is presently chaired by Mary Kay Klimesh, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw LLP in its Chicago office, and the Committee’s vice-chair is James C. Hanks, an attorney with Ahlers & Cooney, P.C. in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Committee is presently focusing its efforts on organizing a teleconference to address the serious issues of public school safety, particularly at the K-12 level. The teleconference will address risk management strategies to address school safety concerns as well as emergency response measures. This teleconference will be linked to the recently published Section book, School Violence: From Discipline to Due Process, edited by Mr. Hanks. This book, written as a practical resource for practitioners, addresses the constitutional and statutory requirements involved in preventing and responding to school violence and school safety issues. The Committee is very pleased that this book provides a useful resource to assist practitioners in addressing an important issue, which is applicable to public schools across all jurisdictions. It is hoped that the teleconference, which hopefully will occur in early 2007, will include panelists who authored chapters in School Violence and will give participants an opportunity to further their practical and legal knowledge base to assist in advising public schools in risk management, school safety, and responding to violence that occurs on school premises.

The Committee is focusing on increasing participation in its efforts and welcomes any suggestions. Feel free to
contact Committee Chair Mary Kay Klimesh at mklimesh@ seyfarth.com with any comments, suggestions, or questions.

Ethics Committee Update

The Ethics Committee had a productive 2005–06. During the year the Committee, on behalf of the Section, submitted comments to the ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege. The Task Force was set up and charged with the task of investigating the effect of current regulations and government policies on the confidentiality of attorney-client communications and attorney work product. The Task Force historically focused on the attorney-client privilege issues from the corporate and business perspectives, and that government should not be allowed to obtain privileged information from a business during a government investigation of that business.

With the assistance of Patty Salkin, the committee has educated the Task Force that government lawyers also face great challenges with the attorney-client privilege as it relates to effectively representing government. In addition, Patty Salkin published a law review article, titled Eliminating Political Maneuvering: A Light in the Tunnel for the Government Attorney-Client Privilege. This article addresses many of the concerns raised with the Task Force. The Committee plans during the coming year to make a formal presentation to the Task Force, with the goal of issuing a resolution or other guidance from the Task Force to the ABA that assists in addressing these issues.

The chair of the Ethics Committee continued this year to serve as a member of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility/Section Officers’ Conference, Joint Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The Joint Committee assists sections and divisions in coordinating professionalism initiatives by identifying issues and alerting members to ABA projects and initiatives that could benefit members. In addition to the above activities, Marti Chumbler, a past chair of the Committee, this year assisted in the publication of a book that addresses many ethical issues concerning technology and access to public records. The working title of the book is Open to the Public: The Impact of Information Technology and Electronic Access on State Public Records Laws. It is anticipated that the book will be published in mid-2007.

The Ethics Committee is currently planning to present a stand-alone CLE ethics program this year at the Section Spring Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although in the past presentations have consisted of role-playing by a cast of characters used to highlight ethical issues frequently encountered by government lawyers and lawyers who practice before state and local governments, the Committee is working this year on a new approach to the ethics presentation that will be informative but hopefully entertaining at the same time. We are currently considering several topics for the upcoming CLE. The Committee is certainly open to ideas for hot topics. Please do not hesitate to contact the Committee should you have any suggestions.

A primary mission of the Committee continues to be enlisting new members who will actually participate and contribute to Committee activities. The Committee looks forward to a very active 2006–07. If you have an interest in joining the Committee, please contact Michael Donaldson at 850/224-1585, or e-mail mdonaldson@carltonfields.com.