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    2025 ABA State & Local Government Law Annual Meeting Schedule

    August 7-9, 2025, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Annual Meeting Registration

    Registration is now open for the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto. Hotel reservation links to the ABA housing block can be found in your meeting confirmation email.

    Thursday, August 7, 2025

    1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
    SLG Executive Committee Meeting
    Fasken LLP, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    • Zoom Phone: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID:

    2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
    Presidential Showcase CLE
    It’s a New World: The United States Supreme Court and Canadian Perspectives (Jointly sponsored with Criminal Justice Section and International Law Section)
    Fairmont Royal York

    This 90-minute panel with bring experts from Canada & United States to discuss cases of interest from the recent terms of the supreme court and how those cases are impacting the courts and the rule of law. This panel will also discuss which cases and challenges are coming up in future terms.

    This panel will also expose lawyers to what is happening in other countries to make them more effective for their clients. Understanding the most impactful cases of the recent term.

    Moderator:  Rory Little, Joseph W. Cotchett Jr. Emeritus Professor of Law, Sullivan Professor of Law, UC Law San Francisco San Fransico, CA

    Speakers

    • Justice Sally Gomery, Ontario Court of Appeal
    • Kannon Shanmugam, Partner, Paul Weiss, Washington, DC
    • William Hurd, Special Counsel, Eckhert Seaman LLP, Richmond, VA
    • Peter N. Mantas, Partner, Fasken, Ottawa , ON

    Co-sponsors: Law Student Division, Young Lawyers Division

    3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Fairmont Royal York
    SLG (CLE) – Children Who Never Came Home: US and Canada Responses to Native Boarding School Abuses (Jointly sponsored with Judicial Division)

    This program will discuss the US and Canadian Native Residential/Boarding School Era, during which many Native children were removed from their homes and communities only to suffer horrific abuses and tragic deaths. The panel will further discuss Canada's enactment of the Truth and Reconciliation Act, with appropriations to fund programs and activites working towards healing those who continue to suffer from the historical trauma. The panel will also discuss the historic apology issued by US President Joseph Biden, along with the organizations that are working towards similar legislation in the United States.

    Moderator: Hon. Lisa L. Atkinson, Chair, Tribal Courts Council; Regional Representative, National Conference of Specialized Court Judges, Keaau, HI

    Speakers

    • Wilson Pipestem, Founding Partner at Pipestem Law; Counsel to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Member Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Tulsa, OK
    • Robert O. Saunooke,  Singleton Schreiber | Senior Counsel, Member Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Member of Tribal Courts CouncilCherokee, NC
    • Andre Bear, JD and Masters of Law Candidate, member Canadian Nêhîyaw (Plains-Cree), former advisor to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada for the implementation of TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) Call to Action 66
    • Stuart Wuttke, Nahwegahbow Corbiere Genoodmagejig, Barristers & Solicitors, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Co-sponsors: Law Student Division, Young Lawyers Division

    5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
    SLG Chair-Elect Reception/ Happy Hour w CJS / Int’l
    Fasken Law Firm, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    Friday, August 8, 2025

    9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
    SLG (CLE) – From Forest to Frame: The Legal Landscape of Mass Timber
    Fasken LLP, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    Mass timber, an engineered, wood-based structural material suitable, has come to the forefront of building design, carrying the promises of efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency and the potential to address deeply-rooted issues, such as the housing and housing affordability crisis that grips Canada and the United States.  This program will explore the legal issues related to mass timber – from managing and harvesting forest resources to revising codes to better enable mass timber construction.

    Moderator: A. June Bradley, Associate, Tomasi Bragar Dubay, Portland, OR

    Speakers

    • Andrew Jeanrie, Partner, Bennett Jones; Toronto, ON
    • Ryan Mitchell, MJMA Architecture & Design; Toronto, ON
    • Emmett Snyder, Whitefeather Forest Community Resource Management Authority, Toronto, ON

    Co-Sponsor: Forum on Construction Law

    10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., Fasken LLP
    SLG Land Use Committee
    Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    • Zoom Phone: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID

    12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
    SLG Jefferson B. Fordham Awards Luncheon
    Cactus Club Café, First Canadian Place, 77 Adelaide St W, Toronto, ON

    In 1998, the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law was inspired to establish the Jefferson B. Fordham Awards to honor the accomplishments of practitioners and institutions active in the varied areas of practice associated with State and Local Government Law.

    The 2025 Jefferson Fordham honorees:

    Daniel J. Curtin, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award

    • Beverly McQueary Smith, Prof. Emerita, Touro Law School, Kingwood, TX
    • Samuel S. Olens, Dentons LLP, Atlanta, GA

    Anita P. Miller Advocacy Award

    • Robert H. Thomas, Director, Property Rights  Litigation & Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, CA

    Up & Comers Award

    • A. June Bradley, Associate, Tomasi Bragar DuBay, Portland, OR

    (This is a ticketed event at $75. Please purchase tickets through ABA Annual Meeting registration site.)

    2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
    SLG (CLE ) Voting Rights for US Citizens Abroad: Deciphering the Alphabet Soup of UOCAVA and FVAP
    Fasken LLP, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    What are your rights and responsibilities as a US citizen living or spending time abroad during a federal, state or local election? How do UOCAVA, FVAP, and FPCA set the voting framework for military and overseas citizen voters? This panel will set the background and rights and responsibilities for voters to vote in federal, state, local, and tribal elections. They will also explore innovations in voting abroad and in the states – from online voter registration to online absentee ballot requests and in some cases online voting – and the legitimate security concerns that accompany them.  Discussion will range from practical tips to ensure access to the ballot box as well as a discussion of the security of the electoral process and how that impacts the use of technology in voting.

    Moderator: Elizabeth M. Yang, President, WStrong LLP, Reston, VA

    Speakers

    • Baxter Hunt, Consul General, US Consulate Toronto (Invited)
    • Jason Kaune, Partner, Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni, LLP© 2025, San Francisco, CA
    • David Wheeler, Neal Gerber Eisenberg, Chicago, IL 

    Co-sponsors: Civil Rights and Social Justice, Standing Committee on Election Law, International Law, Law Student Division

    3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
    SLG Meet and Greet
    Fasken LLP, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

     

    4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
    SOC Business Meeting
    Fairmont

    Saturday, August 9, 2025

    9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
    SLG Publications Oversight Board - POB
    Fasken LLP, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street, Suite 2400

    • Zoom: Phone: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID:

    10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
    TBD

     

    11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
    SLG All Committee Meeting

     

    12:30 p.m.– 2:00 p.m.
    SLG Council Meeting & Nominating Committee Report

    • Zoom: Phone: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID:

    2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
    SLG Urban Lawyer Advisory Board - ULAB

    • Zoom: Phone: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID:

    4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    ABA General Assembly

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