Section News

Last Call for 2011-12 Leadership Nominations

Deadline: November 1

Election Day* is just around the corner, but there's still time to get your bid in for a Section of Family Law leadership position for the 2011-12 Section year.

The Nominating Committee is chaired by Chair-Elect Randall Kessler, Atlanta, GA. Members include: Gerald (Jay) Babbitt, Columbus, OH; Gregg Herman, Milwaukee, WI; Anne Marie Jackson, Washington, D.C., and Mary Vidas, Philadelphia, PA.

The committee seeks nominations for the following positions:

Chair-elect (one-year term)
Vice Chair (one-year term)
Secretary (one-year term)
Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates (three-year term)

At-Large Council Representatives (three positions; three-year terms)

Region III Representative (three-year term) composed of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois.

Region V Representative (three-year term) composed of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas.

To be considered for nomination, submit a letter of interest by November 1, 2010. Send your letter via e-mail with Word attachment to Section Director Paula Nessel, Paula.Nessel@americanbar.org and Chair-elect Randall Kessler, rkessler@kssfamilylaw.com.

You'll also need to submit a Nomination Data Form. You can download this form, and find more details about what to include with your letter of interest, on the Nominations page.

Be sure to read the description of responsibilities and duties, too, so you know what's expected of you.

Deadline is November 1, 2010.

*Our election won't be held until the 2011 Annual Meeting in Toronto, but you need to apply now in order to be considered.

It Happened in Fort Worth
Fall Meeting Recap
There were cowboys--or at least members dressed as cowboys--and there was culture. And that's just the beginning. If you weren't able to join us for the ABA Section of Family Law Fall CLE Conference earlier this month (October 20-23), here's a taste of what you missed.

The CLE sessions focused heavily on ethics, and one of the plenaries-- "The Perils of Pauline: Navigating Ethics in the Wild and Woolly West"--was a musical production written by and starring members of the Section of Family Law. It was one of the most well attended programs of the conference, and we hope to feature a snippet of it on our website or Facebook page soon.

Social events included a casual Mexican Fiesta at Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant (complete with margaritas and a beautiful outdoor garden patio), and a black-tie optional evening Gala at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth featuring music by a popular Beatles cover band (Me & My Monkey).

The Section was also honored to present awards. The "Friend of the Family" Award was presented to retired Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O'Neill for her work with the Texas Supreme Court in creating the Permanent Judicial Commission on Children, Youth and Families. Justice O'Neill received her award at a special luncheon at the City Club of Fort Worth; Dr. Karyn Purvis gave the keynote address.

The Section's Pro Bono Awards were presented during the Council Meeting, and recognized three local attorneys-- Ken Fuller, Julie B. Jacobson, and (now Judge) Joe D. Moss--for their significant pro bono contributions and services to family law clients in their communities.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to our conference sponsors and exhibitors: Tarrant County Bar Association; Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association; Eldon B. Mahon Inns of Court; Whitley Penn LLP; Koons, Fuller, Vanden Eykel & Robertson; LexisNexis; and Family Law Software.

If you'd like to purchase CLE materials on cd-rom, please check our website in the coming weeks. We will post a link from our Recent CLE Conferences page.

Dates Set for 25th Annual Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute

May 21-28, 2011
To celebrate our 25th year of excellence, the ABA Section of Family Law is kicking it up a notch! In order to bring you the best trial skills program available, we've joined forces with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the worldwide leader in advocacy skills training.

Save the dates and prepare to build your self assurance as you master the skills and techniques for success at trial. More information will be coming soon.

If you've already attended an ABA Trial Advocacy Institute or one of NITA's Basic Trial Skills Programs, join us for the Advanced Program (May 25-28, 2011).

Visit our TAI website in the coming weeks for more information or to register.

Spotlight On...

Know an ABA Section of Family Law member who should be recognized for his or her contributions to family law?

E-mail Jean Crowe your nominations for a future "Spotlight On..." feature.

Publications

Navigating Emotional Currents in Collaborative Divorce:
A Guide to Enlightened Team Practice


Kate Scharff, MSW, and Lisa Herrick, Ph.D.


Product Code 5130177

Designed to help all professionals--lawyers, as well as mental health professionals, financial neutrals, etc. -- who practice in the area of Collaborative Divorce, this important new book explains how marital dynamics (both conscious and unconscious), combined with the traumas of both the current divorce and those resulting from previous situations, will be re-enacted within the Collaborative process.

If these traumas and dynamic re-enactments go unaddressed, misunderstood or unmetabolized by the team they can impede progress, create difficulty in team functioning, result in a compromised agreement, or cause a complete break-down of the process itself.

Navigating Emotional Currents in Collaborative Divorce offers both a theoretical and practical roadmap for navigating the Collaborative process from an emotional point of view.

For more details or to see the table of contents, click the "More information" link below.

More information

To order today, call the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221 and request Product Code 5130177 or order online.

CLE Calendar

Teleconferences
**November 2, 2010**

Lawyer Websites:
Ethical Traps and How to Avoid Them

This program will focus on the recently issued ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion 10-457 on Lawyer Websites, which looks at websites as commonly-used tools for bringing lawyers and clients together and examines them in light of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The opinion works through what really happens when someone reads and responds to information posted on a lawyer's or a law firm's website.

Listen to and ask questions of two members of the committee that drafted the opinion, and learn how to avoid possible ethics perils in the design and use of your existing or future website.

This program is produced by the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility and co-sponsored by the ABA Section of Family Law.
Register today!

**November 17, 2010**

Defending the Drug User...
P.S. Your Client Is a Liar

Join our expert faculty as they provide valuable information about technical applications, limitations, nuances, and myths of various drug and alcohol testing methods.

This program will include a discussion about the products used to attempt to falsify or negate a test result or cleanse the system of toxins. This presentation will also focus on the use of such information in presenting evidence in family law cases regarding substance use and compliance with court orders for testing.
Register today!

Spring CLE Conference
April 6-9, 2011
Ritz-Carlton
Amelia Island, FL

Save the date for fun in the sun at our Spring CLE Conference! More information will be coming soon.

*****

Stay up-to-date on CLE offerings with our CLE Calendar.

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

Best of the List Serve

Look for Best of the ESQ list to return next month.

Not on the ESQ list? All of our lawyer members are encouraged to subscribe. Sign up from your myABA page. (Click on the link in the Lists box.)

AICPA Corner

A column by members of the AICPA's Forensic and Valuation Services Section
This month's column is by Jerome Johnson, CPA\ABV\CFF, CVA.

Read this month's AICPA Corner: Divorce Costs! I can deduct them on my taxes, can't I? (You will need to log in to the ABA website.)

Tech Corner

An Introduction to the Microsoft Office Word Web App

In 2010, Microsoft released Microsoft Office Web Apps, the free-of-charge online versions of--or "online companions" to--Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Office Web Apps are Microsoft's first online offerings of its Office product line. Read on to discover how the Word Web App compares to your local (PC/Mac) version of Word and to other online word processing software such as Google Docs.

For starters, the functionality of the Word Web App is quite limited. Where there are nine Ribbon tabs of menu commands in Word 2010 (File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View, and Add-Ins), only four are available in the Word Web App. The other five--Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and Add-Ins--and most of their menu commands are not available in the Word Web App.

The Word Web App lacks collaboration and annotation features, such as the ability to create and edit tracked changes, comments, and references (e.g., footnotes and endnotes). Although you can edit some parts of documents that contain footnotes or endnotes, you cannot edit the footnotes or endnotes themselves. You also cannot edit any part of a document that contains tracked changes or comments. If you try to open a document for editing in the Word Web App, and the document contains tracked changes or comments, you will see the following message, "This document cannot be opened because it is set to track changes or contains tracked changes or comments. To edit this document, open it in Microsoft Word."

Google Docs can have similar problems importing Word documents with tracked changes or comments--sometimes such documents cannot be uploaded to the Google Docs servers, or the text of all tracked changes will be displayed simultaneously, making the current state of the document unclear. However, Google recently introduced a redlining feature for tracking changes natively within Google Docs and has the ability to create comments within Google Docs, while the Word Web App currently lacks these features.

Another collaboration feature present in Google Docs and currently missing in the Word Web App is the ability for multiple users to edit a document simultaneously. The Word Web App does allow you to "share" documents with other users online in that multiple users can view the document simultaneously in viewing mode. However, if someone is editing a document in the Word Web App's editing mode and another person tries to open it for editing, a pop-up message will appear saying that the file is locked for editing by the other user.

If a user edits a shared document online, or downloads it, edits it offline, and then re-uploads it, Word Web App will store the different versions of the document, which can be viewed through the Version History feature. But Word Web App does not highlight the changes from version to version in any way, nor does it have the Compare Documents/legal blackline feature that your local version of Microsoft Word has.

Given all of these limitations, you might wonder if there are any reasons to use Word Web App. The Word Web App does have some advantages over Google Docs for storing and viewing existing Word documents online. Any Word document can be uploaded into the Word Web App and the app's viewing mode will display Microsoft Word document formatting quite faithfully, including displaying tracked changes and other complex formatting features. (Documents with features that can't be opened for editing in editing mode will still be displayed accurately in the Word Web App's viewing mode). Google Docs does not have separate viewing and editing modes, and Word documents with complex formatting often cannot be viewed accurately in Google Docs, and sometimes cannot be uploaded at all due to conversion errors.

Aside from Word Web App's uploading and viewing conveniences, Google Docs may currently offer more extensive collaboration, reviewing, and editing features. This may change in the future--Microsoft recently announced that its hosted software program for businesses ("Business Productivity Online Suite") has been renamed Office 365, indicating that Microsoft may invest more resources into improving and developing its online versions of Word and the other Office Web Apps as part of Office 365.

   —Stephen Stine, ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

Ask Us! Have you found a great technology deal somewhere? Is there a technology question that's been on your mind? Tell us or ask us about it! We may feature your info or answer your question in a future edition of the eNewsletter. If there's some other technology you would like us to investigate, just e-mail glazerh@staff.abanet.org. Keep the Tech Corner working for you!