Chair’s Message

The Annual Meeting is scheduled to be in-person in Chicago this year and we are in the process of finalizing the Section schedule. The schedule will include Executive Committee and Council meetings, various CLE offerings and time for our traditional committee gatherings on Saturday, August 6, 2022. We are planning to have a networking reception, a Chair-Elect’s reception and an organized Saturday afternoon tour for attendees. We will also host the Jefferson B. Fordham Awards Luncheon. Look for more details soon and we hope to see you in Chicago.

Our relationship with the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University serving as Editor for the upcoming issue of The Urban Lawyer has been finalized and we thank Jessica A. Bacher, the Section of State and Local Government Law’s Vice Chair, and Executive Director of its Land Use Law Center, as well as Pace Law School’s Andy Gowder, for their efforts. Pace is working hard to finalize the next issue and we hope this is only the beginning of a productive relationship.

The Section has published a number of books in the past six months and others are in the pipeline. Our next book, Heirs’ Property and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act: Challenges, Solution and Historic Reform, is scheduled for publication later this spring. Thomas W. Mitchell and Erica Levine Powers are the Editors of it and we thank them for their efforts in bringing this book to fruition. Professor Mitchell is a professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, where he co-directs the Program in Real Estate and Community Development Law. He is an expert in the area of heirs’ property and we are fortunate to have an association with him.

Our Mid-Year Virtual Meeting was a success. We offered several strong and well-attended programs. Thanks to Kathy Kinsman, Editor, State and Local Law News, and Co-Chair of our Native American Tribal Law Committee, for her efforts in planning and moderating two of our programs centering on restoring taken Native American and African American lands. Thanks also to C. Elisia Frazier for moderating a well-attended implicit bias in the courtroom program. Finally, thanks to Patricia Salkin and Andy Gowder and participants of the Ethics Jeopardy! program. All were informative and well-organized programs. We are lucky to have so many talented members to provide strong programming.

Finally, as we look forward to our Annual Meeting, it will mark the end of my year as Chair and the beginning of our our incoming Chair Jennifer Bragar’s term. I am here to support Jennifer as she transitions into the role. She is busy planning the Fall Meeting in Portland, so please put September 29-October 2 on your calendar now. I look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming meetings!