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NUMBER 56 SPRING 2007 THE BULLETIN ivil rights leader and Fellow Oliver W. Hill, Sr. of Richmond, Virginia, received a special greeting from Queen Elizabeth II in Richmond on May 3, two days after his 100th birthday. C His daughter-in-law Renee Hill looks on. The queen is smiling after Hill said, “Why don’t you stick around for the party tomorrow?” Con’t on page 18 This Issue: 64 Pages PROFILE: John C. “Jack” Major p. 36 In This Issue WE WANT YOU TO WRITE! The Editorial Board of the Bulletin is accepting applications from Fellows who would like to try their hand at writing news articles for publication. We especially welcome those who have prior non-legal writing and editing experience. n We will give you assignments, give you a deadline, confer with you in editing your submissions and give you a byline, attributing to you published articles that you wrote. n We will maintain the existing independent Editorial Board, which oversees the Bulletin’s structure and contents and addresses the editorial policy issues that arise from time to time. n Examples of possible assignments include profiles of Fellows such as the one of Justice Jack Major that you will find in this issue, reports of regional, state and province events, particularly ones that you attend, and the brief obituary notices we carry in each issue. — E. Osborne (Ozzie) Ayscue, Jr. Chair, Board of Editors [email protected] IN THIS ISSUE From the Editorial board ............................ 3 College urges increase in judges’ pay .......... 35 Spring Meeting overview ............................ 4 Profile: Justice John C. “Jack” Major .......... 36 Justice Abella made Honorary Fellow .......... 6 College inducts one hundred fifteen .......... 38 Fellows to the Bench .................................. 11 Inductee’s response ....................................40 Justice Kourlis calls for reform ................... 12 In Memoriam ............................................ 42 Officer nominations .................................. 15 NY Fellows give trial demonstration .......... 46 Denver Fall Meeting planned ..................... 16 Meet the new Regents ................................ 48 Eleventh Circuit CLE Program .................. 18 NFL referee/lawyer addresses meeting ........ 50 Nat’l Center Director on decline in trials ... 20 Prof. Galanter on the vanishing trial .......... 54 Awards, Honors and Elections ................... 22 California Justice is Gates Award winner ....58 Baby Boomers’ Bible author speaks ............ 23 Gumpert Prize winner thanks College…...60 Limits on G’tmo counsel opposed .............. 25 Last original inductee dies….……………62 Canadian Bar President speaks ................... 26 Nat’l Moot Court winners announced...….62 Admiral Inman gives Powell Lecture .......... 31 Kathy Good retires……………………….63 A current calendar of College events is posted on the College website at www.actl.com, as are a current compendium of the ongoing projects of the College’s National Committees. 2 w THE BULLETIN F R O M T H E American College of Trial Lawyers E DITORIAL BOARD The Bulletin Chancellor-Founder The cover of this issue speaks for itself. A photograph Hon. Emil Gumpert of wheelchair-bound Courageous Advocacy Award (1895-1982) winner and Fellow Oliver Hill shaking hands with the Queen of England and inviting her to his 100th birth- Officers day celebration captured a once-in-a-lifetime vignette. David J. Beck, President Mikel L. Stout, President-Elect In this issue we report on the Spring meeting of the Joan A. Lukey, Secretary John J. Dalton, Treasurer College at La Quinta. Michael A. Cooper, Immediate Past President Growing concern with the vanishing trial phenomenon Board of Regents was the subject of three addresses at the meeting, those David J. Beck Robert A. Goodin of National Center for State Courts president Mary Houston, Texas San Fransisco, California Campbell McQueen, Professor Marc Galanter and Paul D. Beckman Philip J. Kessler Justice Rebecca Kourlis. McQueen addressed what are Baltimore, Maryland Detroit, Michigan assumed to be among the causes of the problem and Raymond L. Brown Joan A. Lukey Professor Galanter’s statistical analysis of trends in fed- Pascagoula, Mississippi Boston, Massachusetts eral district courts began to examine some of those as- Michael A. Cooper Brian B. O’Neill sumptions. Justice Kourlis outlined the approach that New York, New York Minneapolis, Minnesota her organization, the recently formed Institute for the J. Donald Cowan, Jr. John S. Siffert Advancement of the American Legal System, is taking Greensboro, North Carolina New York, New York towards exploring possible solutions. John J. (Jack) Dalton Mikel L. Stout Atlanta, Georgia Wichita, Kansas You may find Professor Galanter’s statistics eye-opening, Michel Decary Robert W. Tarun Montreal, Canada Chicago, Illinois particularly those that indicate that the greatest casualty of the vanishing trial phenomenon he first identified Francis X. Dee Thomas A. Tongue Newark, New Jersey Portland, Oregon and named is bench trials. Indeed, his statistics may tend to indicate that the shifting role of the judiciary Charles H. Dick, Jr. John H. Tucker San Diego, California Tulsa, Oklahoma from trying cases to managing dockets is a larger factor than we might have assumed. Some of the anecdotal Bruce W. Felmley Chilton Davis Varner Manchester, New Hampshire Atlanta, Georgia evidence adduced at the conference to which Justice Kourlis referred, held after our Spring meeting and Editorial Board centered around the participation of Honorary Fellow E. Osborne Ayscue, Jr., Charlotte, North Carolina, Chair Lord Harry Woolf, at which the College was repre- Susan S. Brewer, Morgantown, West Virginia James J. Brosnahan, San Francisco, California sented, tended to suggest that firm trial dates, set soon Andrew M. Coats, Norman, Oklahoma after a case is filed before judges who know how to try Timothy D. Kelly, Minneapolis, Minnesota Hon. Garr M. King, Portland, Oregon cases, may be an effective way to reduce both cost and Warren B. Lightfoot, Birmingham, Alabama Conrad M. Shumadine, Norfolk, Virginia delay, regardless of the procedural rules under which Michael A. Williams, Denver, Colorado the court operates. G. Gray Wilson, Winston-Salem, North Carolina J. Donald Cowan, Jr., Greensboro, North Carolina, Regent Liaison We commend all three articles to your study. This is a problem the College is committed to trying to solve. Marion A. Ellis, Editor Telephone: 704.366.6599 Email: [email protected] Threats to judicial independence have been a pervasive American College of Trial Lawyers problem in the United States in recent years. We have Dennis J. Maggi, CAE Executive Director come to accept the fact that, for better or worse, poli- 19900 MacArthur Boulevard, Suite 610 tics plays a major role in the appointment process in its Irvine, California 92612 Telephone: 949.752.1801 Facsimile: 949.752.1674 federal judicial system. Indeed, controversial court de- Email: [email protected] Website: www.actl.com cisions at both the trial and appellate levels are cynically COPYRIGHT © 2007 analyzed in the media in terms of who nominated the Con’t on page 30 THE BULLETIN w 3 FELLOWS and GUESTS GATHER FOR SPRING MEETING AT LA QUINTA Reminders of the College’s origins abounded at the 57th Spring Meeting of the College at La Quinta Resort and Club in the Southern California desert. Among the College’s guests was Vancouver Island in the Straits of McQueen outlined many of the sug- Phyllis Cooper, widow of Grant Georgia, a part of British Columbia, gested causes of the phenomenon. Cooper, one of the founders and president of the Canadian Bar Professor Galanter presented a set of original members of the College and Association. He recounted the ef- statistics that more closely defined its 12th president (1962-63). She forts of his bar to resist the Canadian the historical trends in the volume of and her husband had hosted at their government’s changes in the process jury and non-jury trials in the Federal Los Angeles home the April 4, 1950 of selecting Federal judges that gave courts in the United States as they gathering at which Emil Gumpert the appearance of departing from a relate to changes in the overall levels first presented his idea of the College merit-based appointment system. of trials and of trials in various kinds to a group of his friends. of litigation and in various parts of The so-called vanishing trial phe- the country. The College presented the Samuel E. nomenon was the subject of the pre- Gates Litigation Award to California sentations of three speakers, Rebecca Ellen Hemley, Executive Director Chief Justice Ronald M. George for Love Kourlis, Executive Director of of the Boston-based Center for his outstanding creativity and lead- the Denver-based Institute for the Legal Aid Education, last year’s re- ership in guiding the largest court Advancement of the American Legal cipient of the Emil Gumpert Award system in the Western world. In his System; Mary Campbell McQueen, for Excellence in Improving the acceptance remarks George cred- President of the National Center Administration of Justice, described ited Judge Gumpert, a family friend, for State Courts; and Professor her organization’s program to teach with steering him to law school and Marc Galanter of the University trial skills to legal aid lawyers and the to a career on the bench, as well as of Wisconsin School of Law, whose use to which the College’s $50,000 officiating at his wedding. He also 2004 paper first gave this trend a grant had been put. challenged the College to take an name. active role in educating the public Phoenix trial lawyer and National about the proper role of the judi- Kourlis, who left the Colorado Football League referee Ed Hochuli ciary in a democratic society in the Supreme Court to found an Institute ended the Friday program with an face of persistent threats to judicial whose goals she defined for the entertaining inside view, illustrated independence. audience, suggested that the loss of with film clips, of the life of an public confidence in the courts is NFL official.