Section News

2007 Annual Meeting
While the Section has many events and activities planned for Annual, we will also be bringing the Proposed Model Act Governing Assisted Reproduction before the ABA House of Delegates. The resolution was drafted by the Reproductive and Genetic Technologies Committee and was approved by Section Council in February 2007. The ABA House of Delegates meets August 13-14 in San Francisco.

Read the Proposed Model Act Governing Assisted Reproduction on the committee's website. (pdf)

We hope you'll join us for the Section's Annual Luncheon on Saturday, August 11. Chair Jim Preston will preside over the awards ceremony, and will also be in charge of the raffle held for Spring Meeting attendees who filled out an online survey. Raffle winner(s) must be present at the luncheon in order to claim any prizes.

Once you return from Annual, don't forget to check our website to sign up for our Fall CLE Conference in Memphis, TN. (See CLE Calendar at right for more information.)


Law Students

Schwab Essay Contest Winners Announced
The votes have been counted, and it's time to congratulate the winners of this year's Schwab Essay Memorial Contest!

First Place
"Smoke Screens: Why State Laws Making It a Crime to Smoke in Cars Containing Children Are a Bad Idea"

Lila Slovak
Temple University Beasley School of Law

Second Place
"My Two Dads: Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Applying California's Recent Supreme Court Cases to Gay Couples"

Jessica Hawkins
Washington University School of Law in St. Louis

Third Place
"Interpretation of Islamic Marriage Contracts"

Tracie Rogalin Siddiqui
Georgetown University

Winners are invited to the Annual Awards Luncheon on Saturday, August 11, to accept their award certificates. Winning essays may be published in Family Law Quarterly and/or on the Section's website. Finally (and perhaps best of all), we are also offering a free Section membership to each winner. (Winners must be members of the ABA in order to be eligible for this offer.)

The Section would like to thank Chair Jeff Atkinson and all of the judges for their hard work in determining this year's winning essays.

Visit the Schwab Essay Contest website for more information. We will soon be updating the site for the 2008 contest.

Committee Corner

Making Committees Work for You
They say a committee is only as good as its members--okay, they may not say that exactly, but the idea still applies--so we'd like to give you some tips on making the most of your committees.

If you've joined a committee, make sure you've signed up for its list serve. Committee list serves are a great way to exchange information (whether it's a question, a good resource, or something else). Use committee list serves to begin a dialogue with others who are interested in the specific topic area, or come up with ideas for CLE presentations and programs put on by the Section of Family Law. Once your committee has come up with a CLE idea, propose it for one of our Fall, Spring, or Annual Meetings, or suggest it for our teleconference series.

You can join a committee list serve right from the committee's webpage. (It's usually to the lower right of the page, but may be situated elsewhere on the page.)

If someone has come up with a great resource, consider adding it to your committee webpage. Or if it's something that you think all of the Section of Family Law might benefit from, submit it to our Members Only Online Resource Center. (Just e-mail Hilary Glazer at Hilary.Glazer@americanbar.org and include the title of the resource, where it should be posted on the website, what the topic is, etc.)

If your committee's discussion list doesn't seem to be generating many e-mails, don't be shy. Start the conversation, ask a question, share a resource. As long as it's related to your committee's topic and scope, it's appropriate for the list serve.

For more information and to see which committees are available for you to join, visit the Committees website.

Publications

The Family Lawyer's Guide to Stock Options
(includes CD-ROM)
Lester Barenbaum
Robert D. Feder
Walter Schubert


Product Code 5130147

Just published in May 2007, this book provides a complete examination of executive stock options within the unique context of family law. Written by experts in financial compensation and a practicing family lawyer, The Family Lawyer's Guide to Stock Options begins with a discussion of whether a grant of an option should be considered marital property, to what extent exercising an executive stock option generates income for child support and alimony, valuation, taxation, and the advantage and disadvantages of the immediate offset vs. the deferred distribution approach.

More information (including a table of contents)

To order today, call the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221 and request Product Code 5130147 or order online.

Best of the List Serve

This month's Best of the FamLawEsq list features two questions that focus on UIFSA/UCCJEA and spousal support.

Read more about this month's selected topics. (You will need to log in to the ABA website.)

Not on the list? All of our lawyer members are encouraged to join this popular discussion list. Read more about How to Join FamLawEsq in the Members Only section of our website.

CLE Calendar

ABA Family Law Annual Meeting
August 10-12, 2007
San Francisco

There's still time to join us in San Francisco for our Annual Meeting. Register on-site so you don't miss out on our CLE programming: Hot Tips from the Experts; Contemporary Issues in Assisted Reproduction; and Managing Business Valuation Engagements. There will also be networking and social events you won't want to miss! Visit our website for more information.

TeleConferences
Want to gain CLE credit from the comfort of your own office? The teleconference series can help! To keep abreast of future topics, visit the Section Calendar online.

Our next teleconference will take place in September, so keep an eye on our website for more information.

Unable to attend a teleconference? Not to worry, you can learn on your own time when you purchase the CLE materials.
See a listing of available CLE materials

Tech Corner

Take Note of Microsoft's OneNote Software
Microsoft Office OneNote helps you organize notes you intend to incorporate into a lengthier document. Originally designed with Tablet PCs in mind, Microsoft OneNote offers many benefits to desktop and laptop users alike. Family Law practitioner and ABA Family Law Section member Stephen M. Worrall refers to Microsoft Office OneNote as The Ideal Note-Taking Tool for Today's Lawyer in his TabletPCLawyer blog.

Microsoft OneNote was first released as part of Microsoft Office 2003 in October 2003. If you're contemplating a Microsoft Office 2007 upgrade, Microsoft OneNote 2007 is included in Microsoft Office 2007 Home & Student Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Ultimate Edition. While OneNote will run as a standalone application, it was designed to complement Office and integrate seamlessly with its components.

Reviewer James Marshall at about.com likes to think of Microsoft OneNote as a go-between for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook. If you're a Microsoft Office user, you should be up and running in Microsoft OneNote immediately. While several of the Microsoft Office 2007 applications have a new look, Microsoft OneNote 2007 still uses the traditional menus. You can easily share files between Microsoft Word and Outlook and OneNote using menus you're already familiar with. Read James Marshall's review.

You can create a Microsoft Outlook appointment, contact or task within Microsoft OneNote. Taking notes at a meeting? No problem; it's very simple to insert Microsoft Outlook meeting details into your notes. Learn more about these features from Microsoft Office's Crabby Office Lady.

Microsoft OneNote also works powerfully with Microsoft PowerPoint, allowing you to import PowerPoint slides into OneNote to make relevant notes. With group permission, you can also record the presentation and OneNote will automatically put markers within your notes that determines where to start the audio (or video) when you click a marker.

To sum up....Technolawyer Neil Squillante likes Microsoft OneNote and sees it as a great tool for many lawyers. (See Squillante's Technolawyer Blog for his review.) And Legal Writer Mark Voorhees declared, "Microsoft may have finally written a program for lawyers, although it isn't aimed specifically at the legal market. Microsoft OneNote helps people take notes on their computer. Note taking is not rocket science, but it occupies a fair chunk of billable hours by lawyers." (Read more of Mark Voorhees on Microsoft OneNote at Law.com.)

   —Tonya Johnson, ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

Tell Us! Do you use OneNote? Is there different note-taking software you like? Got a tip about how you use technology? Feel free to share it with us; we may use your quote in a future edition of the eNewsletter! Or is there some other technology you would like us to investigate? Just e-mail glazerh@staff.abanet.org