July 15-18, 2009

Days 119-122 on the Road in 2009

On Wednesday afternoon Jan and I drove to Marriott's Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama, for the Annual Meeting of the Alabama State Bar. This was a meeting that I was particularly looking forward to for at least three reasons: (1) Jan was getting to go with me; (2) we could drive and not fly; and (3) I was not on any of the programs.

We arrived on Wednesday in time to have dinner at the Grand Hotel with our friend, Claude Burns. We also ran into Oscar Price and his wife, Emily, and so the five of us had a very enjoyable dinner.

The next morning the meeting kicked off with the Opening Plenary Session. Scheduled to make the presentation was Barry Richard of Greenburg, Traurig of Tallahassee, discussing the evolution of the writ of habeas corpus and other laws, together with the balance of power between the branches of government. However, Mr. Richard, being a trial lawyer, was stuck in a trial and could not extricate himself. At the last minute, President Mark White imposed upon Dean Charles Gamble to take over for the Plenary Session.

Dean Gamble gave his usual extraordinary presentation, prepared in less than 24 hours. He discussed the cost of multi-million dollar Supreme Court races in Alabama. In this presentation Dean Gamble talked about the indirect cost of these multi-million dollar Supreme Court judicial races as follows:

(1) The potential to diminish the weight of intellect and experience in candidates for the Court.

(2) The lost weight of incumbency.

(3) Election by whim (noting that we in Alabama have not been too greatly embarrassed, yet).

(4) It poisons, distorts, and corrupts the overall political environment and negatively impacts the internal workings of the Court.

(5) It affects the results.

Suffice it to say, this summary rendition of Dean Gamble's conclusions do not do anything close to justice to his oral advocacy skills in presenting them.

Also, that morning, President Mark White, despite my desire not to be a participant in any of the events, imposed upon me to assist him with the presentation of the official hats and cameras to the Alabama State Bar "consultants," lead by the 11-year-old son of State Representative Jeff McLaughlin, a former colleague when he was a lawyer at Maynard Cooper, but now a state Representative from Scottsboro. These consultants, all of which were younger than Jeff's oldest son, were designated "the fun police" and took their job quite seriously. It was wonderful to see that there were over 200 attendees under the age of 13 at the Alabama State Bar meeting.

The second Plenary Session, on Friday, dealt with diversity as a competitive advantage. The keynote speaker was Cornell Boggs III, Chief Responsibility and Ethics Officer of MillerCoors. Cornell had recently relocated to Chicago from Denver. This session alerted all of us to a number of issues that perhaps had not occurred to us and definitely increased our overall confidences as informed and enlightened attorneys in today's multi-cultural environment. I at least had a chance to briefly speak to Cornell, the younger brother of my good friend Paula Boggs, who is the General Counsel of Starbuck's in Seattle. Paula is also very active in the American Bar Association.

Friday also meant that I got to play some golf with former ABA Board of Governors member Wade Baxley, his son Hamp, and ABA Alabama State Bar Delegate Billy Coplin at the Lakewood Golf Course at the Grand Hotel. This golf scramble was to benefit the Kids' Chance Program of the Alabama Law Foundation, a very worthy cause. It was great to spend a relaxing afternoon with Wade, Hamp, and Billy, especially since we were benefiting Kids' Chance, a program that provides scholarships to children whose parent has been killed or disabled in an job-related accident.

On Saturday morning, we had the Grande Convocation, the highlight of which was the installation of Thomas J. Methvin as the 133rd President of the Alabama State Bar, and the election of Alyce Spruell of Tuscaloosa as the President-Elect to the Alabama State Bar. Alyce will, at the conclusion of the Alabama State Bar meeting next, become the first female President of the Alabama State Bar. This was truly a momentous day in the history of the Alabama State Bar.