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April 30, 2016

Chair’s Message

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.

—Harriet Ann Jacobs

Since the last newsletter issue, the Section of State and Local Government has had two extremely successful meetings. At the ABA Midyear Meeting in San Diego, we had three outstanding programs: “Cars, Cars, Cars,” “Water and the Drought” and “Hot Topics in Diversity Law: Same Sex Marriage and Employee Benefits Discrimination.” The diversity of the panelists was excellent and the diversity of topics speaks for itself. Moreover, the collaboration with other ABA divisions/sections was amazingly beneficial and gave our members exposure to those sections’ programming and benefits without any additional cost. We were able to collaborate with the Antitrust Section, Law Student Division, Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Senior Lawyers Division, Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities, and the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division.

In April our human souls were revived at the Section’s Spring Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the of that beautiful tropical paradise, which is still part of the United States, we were able to collaborate not only with our usual partner, the Section of Public Contract Law, but also with the ABA Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity, the ABA Cybersecurity Task Force, and the ABA Disaster Response Committee. In addition, the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico hosted a lovely reception, for which the Section is eternally grateful. The “cherry on top” for this meeting was the attendance of ABA President Paulette Brown. Thank you, President Brown, for coming to share with us! A few of the sessions of note wereDemystifying Implicit Bias in the Legal Profession,” for which a “part two” has been requested; the “Cybersecurity Response Exercise,” of which we will present part two at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco; and “A Tale of Two Municipalities (Detroit and Puerto Rico): Legal and Practical Issues Facing a Financially Distressed Municipality.” Please watch for a re-broadcast or a continuation of these and other sessions from the Spring Meeting.

As always, our great programming is not limited to our in-person meetings. If you cannot join us at an upcoming meeting, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of our Section’s webinars and publications. The Section’s newest publication, Ferguson’s Fault Lines: The Race Quake That Rocked a Nation by Professor Kimberly Jade Norwood, is not only one of the most informative and best-selling legal books currently on the market, but also will be the subject of a panel discussion at the Annual Meeting.

The Section of State and Local Government Law continues to be at the forefront of great programming and resources within the ABA and the legal profession, and we thank you, our members, for your contributions and support.