Day on Torts

My wife and I are headed to Phoenix today, this time for for a Board of Directors meeting for the National Board of Trial Advocacy. I was in Boston for a committee meeting of the group two weeks ago; this meeting is our annual mid-winter meeting customarily held (surprise!) at a location with warm weather. Our annual meeting will be held in Seattle in July.

One of the items on the agenda at the meeting is the potential adoption of a new “civil litigation advocacy” certification. This certification, if adopted, would be available to lawyers with substantial experience in litigation but who lack sufficient experience to receive civil trial certification.

Recognizing civil ligitation as a speciality is controversial, but in my opinion there is a real need to recognize demonstrated competence for ethical lawyers who have a litigation practice but lack sufficient face time in front of a jury. I drafted the original set of standards for the proposed certification, but Barry Nace of Washington, D.C. has improved upon them.

Here is an interesting case out of the DC Circuit that warns us that an oral motion to amend is not appropriate in federal court and therefore it was not error to deny it.

This speech, by the General Counsel of Boeing to Boeing executives, is a fine example of a lawyer who is trying to steer his employer in an appropriate direction.

One sample: “We as the leaders of the Boeing Company get to choose what kind of culture we are going to have. And we make these choices every day by what we do and frankly what we choose not to do. But the consequences of all those choices are our collective responsibility.”

There are more of these people out there than some plaintiff’s lawyers would like to admit. Thanks to the WSJ Law Blog for letting me know about this speech.

William Childs, author of the Torts Prof Blg, assembled the thoughts of several bloggers concerning the President’s comments about the lack of OBs in rural areas. He was kind enough to include my prior post on the subject.

Drake Holliday, a Legal Aid attorney in Nashville for 30 years, died February 2.

Drake was one of those people who refused to turn his back on the poor. When President Reagan cut back on legal services to the poor, Drake stuck it out and continued to help thousands and thousand of Tennesseans. He knew poverty law, and he used to help people fight back.

He was active in political campaigns for men and women who believed that the poor deserved a fair shake. He was particularly active in Bill Purcell’s political career, helping him get elected to the State House (where he later served as Majority Leader) and later as Mayor of Nashville.