Spring 2002 Bulletin
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The Bulletin Number 41, Spring 2002 “We are the priests of the profession. If not us, who?” Fellow Jim Coleman, winner of the 2002 Gates Award. See page 26. Breisacher Highlights of Spring 2002 Meeting on Page 5 Page 2 ! The Bulletin American College of Trial Lawyers STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The Bulletin The American College of Trial Lawyers, CHANCELLOR-FOUNDER founded in 1950, is composed of the best of the trial Hon. Emil Gumpert (1895—1982) bar from the United States and Canada. Fellowship in the College is extended by invitation only, after OFFICERS careful investigation, to those experienced trial STUART D. SHANOR, President WARREN B. LIGHTFOOT, President-Elect lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and DAVID W. SCOTT, Q.C., Secretary those whose professional careers have been marked JAMES W. MORRIS, III, Treasurer EARL J. SILBERT, Immediate Past President by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Lawyers BOARD OF REGENTS DAVID J. BECK CAMILLE F. SARROUF must have a minimum of 15 years’ experience before Houston, Texas Boston, Massachusetts they can be considered for Fellowship. Membership PATRICIA C. BOBB JAMES P. SCHALLER in the College cannot exceed 1% of the total lawyer Chicago, Illinois Washington, District of population of any state or province. Fellows are Columbia MICHAEL A. COOPER DAVID W. SCOTT, Q.C. carefully selected from among those who represent New York, New York Ottawa, Ontario plaintiffs and those who represent defendants in civil BRIAN P. CROSBY STUART D. SHANOR cases; those who prosecute and those who defend Buffalo, New York Roswell, New Mexico JOHN J. (JACK) DALTON EARL J. SILBERT persons accused of crime. The College is thus able to Atlanta, Georgia Washington, District of speak with a balanced voice on important issues Columbia FRANK N. GUNDLACH TOM SLUTES affecting the administration of justice. The College St. Louis, Missouri Tucson, Arizona strives to improve and elevate the standards of trial DAVID O. LARSON PAYTON SMITH practice, the administration of justice and the ethics San Francisco, California Seattle, Washington WARREN B. LIGHTFOOT MIKEL L. STOUT of the trial profession. Birmingham, Alabama Wichita, Kansas JAMES W. MORRIS, III DENNIS R. SUPLEE Richmond, Virginia Philadelphia, Pennsylvania EDWARD W. MULLINS, JR. SHARON M. WOODS “In this select circle, we find pleasure and charm in Columbia, South Carolina Detroit, Michigan the illustrious company of our contemporaries and take the ROBERT A. YOUNG Executive Director keenest delight in exalting our friendships.” —Hon. Emil Gumpert, COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Chancellor-Founder, ACTL E. OSBORNE AYSCUE, JR., Chair, Charlotte, North Carolina JOHN A. BARLOW, Longview, WA J. J. CAMP, Q.C., Vancouver, BC RALPH I. LANCASTER, JR., Portland, ME JOHN S. MARTEL, San Francisco, CA CONRAD M. SHUMADINE, Norfolk, VA W. STANCIL STARNES, Birmingham, AL PETER F. VAIRA, Philadelphia, PA DAVID O. LARSON (Regent Liaison) FROM THE EDITORIAL ! ! ! MARION A. ELLIS, Editor BOARD Telephone: 704-366-6599 E-Mail: [email protected] T his issue reflects a continuing effort to make your Bulletin more readable and more infor- mative. Beginning with a new-look cover page, you will find a number of innovations, both in format and substantive content. They reflect the American College of Trial Lawyers 19900 MacArthur Boulevard, Suite 610 suggestions of many of you. Irvine, California 92612 We have attempted to bring you more of the Telephone: (949) 752-1801 Facsimile: (949) 752-1674 flavor of national meetings, which many of you E-Mail: [email protected] (Continued on page 3) COPYRIGHT © 2002 The Bulletin ! Page 3 FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD sparse that successive Presidents felt compelled to catalogue all the College’s significant activities in (Continued from page 2) their letters to the Fellows, lest they go unnoticed. cannot attend. Thus, we have described the Spring By enhancing the scope of our coverage, we have Meeting program and, in a separate Notable enabled the President to focus his letters on mat- Quotes section, have included some of the high- ters he deems most important and pressing. lights from the program participants’ remarks. In this light, we call your particular attention Many of your Province, State and Regional to the last paragraphs of President Stu Shanor’s meetings, which more of you can attend, also fre- current letter. The statistics he quotes should quently feature programs worth sharing with the cause us all to stop and consider whether many of rest of the College. If you can preserve those pro- us tend to focus on worthy candidates for fellow- grams on videotape or audiotape and lend those ship ten years later than we should be looking at tapes to the Editor, we can transcribe them and them. feature your meeting, just as we do the national We continue to seek your comments, positive meetings. and negative, about your Bulletin. ! In this issue, we feature the work of the Inter- Ozzie Ayscue, Chair national Committee, as well reports of several ini- Communications Committee tiatives the College leadership has recently under- [email protected] taken. Some of you may remember a time when The Bulletin’s coverage of College activities was so NEW YORK MEETING SET FOR OCTOBER 17—23 New York (and a Fellow of the College), and P resident-Elect Warren Lightfoot has ar- Bryan Stevenson, a dynamic young African ranged a star-studded program for the 52nd Annual American lawyer in Montgomery, Alabama. Meeting to be held on October 17-23 in New York White will talk about terrorism from a U.S. Attor- City. ney’s perspective. She has joined the New York At presstime for this issue of The Bulletin, con- firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Stevenson, whose firmed speakers were U.S. Supreme Court Justice entire practice is representing death row inmates, Stephen Breyer, FBI Director Robert Mueller, is chair of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. English Master of the Rolls Sir Nicholas Addison Program events are being added to make this Phillips, Phil Howard, author of The Death of Com- meeting one of the most outstanding in recent mon Sense, and John McGoldrick, General Coun- years. sel of Bristol- Myers Squibb. Fellows’ reservations forms for this meeting Other speakers will include Mary Jo White, will be mailed in late June. ! Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Page 4 ! The Bulletin I N MEMORIAM Philip W. Tone (1923 — 2001) of recruits whom he was scheduled to take to the P hilip W. Tone, the 39th President of the South Pacific. Fortunately, the war soon ended. American College of Trial Lawyers, former fed- At the end of the war he returned to the Uni- eral judge and former partner in Jenner & Block, versity of Iowa where he completed his law de- died on November 28,2001, at Manor Care Nurs- gree in 1948, had post graduate work at Yale and ing Facility in Glenview, Illinois, because of com- later served as a law clerk for United States Su- plications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 78 preme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge. He com- years of age. menced the practice of law in Chicago, joining He was born in Chicago and grew up in Park what is now Jenner & Block, and was a partner Ridge, a town that he loved, where his selection until he was appointed to the United States Dis- as high school valedictorian and his football talent trict Court for the Northern District of Illinois in led to a scholarship at the University of Iowa. He 1972. In 1974 he was appointed to the United received his undergraduate degree before being States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit called into the Army in World War II. He was where he served until 1980, when he returned to sent to Europe where he led a tank battalion. He Jenner & Block to resume the practice of law. served in the 743rd Tank Battalion under General His son, Jeffrey, observed: “He really loved Omar Bradley and his unit fought across France the law. It was a combination of the intellectual to Aachen, where the first Americans entered challenge, the adversary process, the competition. Germany. He was wounded in action and was I think one of the reasons he left the bench was furloughed to an Iowa hospital for recovery that he missed that, he missed being with people.” where, with a weekend pass, on March 10, 1945, His good friend, United States Supreme Court he married his college sweetheart, Gretchen Altfil- Justice John Paul Stevens, said that “tolerance, lisch. Upon his recovery this 21 year old first lieu- fairness, remarkable intelligence, professionalism tenant was sent to Fort Knox to train a battalion (Continued on page 25) The Bulletin ! Page 5 LA QUINTA RESORT HOSTS COLLEGE’S 52ND SPRING MEETING United States Deputy Attorney General Larry H onorable Ronald W. George, chief jus- Thompson described the Department of Justice’s tice of the California Supreme Court, was the first response to the challenges of terrorism. of several distinguished speakers at the 52nd Spring CNN anchor Jeanne Meserve, daughter of Meeting on March 14-17 at La Quinta Resort and late past president Bob Meserve, painted a dis- Club in La Quinta, California. turbing picture of the inability of the Federal bu- La Quinta, an idyllic canyon retreat in the reaucracy to respond effectively to the aftermath Santa Rosa mountains of southern California, has of 9/11. hosted smaller College functions in the past. The Donald Kempf, FACTL, chief legal officer of recent addition of ballroom facilities made it suit- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, treated us to his able for the first time for a national College meet- collection of vignettes from movie portrayals of ing.