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Last year, the theme of our annual meeting was “Meeting the Moment.”  We spoke about the monumental changes that were taking place in our Academy, our profession, and the legal and public landscape in which our profession serves.

This year, our meeting will focus on turning these changes in thinking and perception into changes in action.  Our theme is … Making It Happen.

We are planning a go-to program for anyone interested in how ADR can help courts. We are planning to begin on Thursday morning, March 7, with not just training, but The ACAN Workshop. This will be a hands-on experience, with programs on how to use and avoid the pitfalls of artificial intelligence (with a panel that includes Ana Sambold, Chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution), dispute resolution for blockchain contracts (with a panel that includes online dispute resolution luminaries Colin Rule and Amy Schmitz), and a World Café brainstorming program on how to promote the use of and professional opportunities for court-appointed neutrals in Florida (led by a leader of the Florida Bar ADR Section, Ana Cristina Maldonado). It will be fun, interactive and practical.

 

We expect the Annual Meeting program, beginning Thursday afternoon, March 7 and continuing through Saturday afternoon March 9, to include a keynote address from Hon. Benes Aldana, the President of the National Judicial College and special programs with Judge Paul Friedman (D.D.C.), the presiding judge in numerous complex litigation including the Pigford and Black Farmers cases.  Hon. Judith Levy (E.D. Mich.) (who gave a riveting program last year with ACAN Chair-Elect Deborah Greenspan on the Flint Water Litigation) and Hon. Denise Cote (S.D.N.Y.) (presiding judge in the Acetaminophen litigation) will join Judge Paul Friedman to discuss whether and when to use neutrals.  Fifth Circuit Judge (and former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice and trial judge) James Graves will join a panel to discuss creative ways of using neutrals to help with critical family law cases.  A panel of experts will discuss what we can expect in climate change cases.  ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Chair Ana Sambold returns to discuss how to expand ACAN’s benefit by participating the DR Section.  Ed Gentle will host an open forum on approaches to ethics based on hypotheticals we are planning to post on ACAN's website. Panels will also discuss the opioid litigation in New York and Seaside Collapse litigation in Florida with the judges who presided over them. They will explore new and creative ways for neutrals to assist courts in areas with they have not been extensively used or and special state programs and cutting edge issues in litigation and the intersection of AI and neutrals.

And there will be fun including an outing on a river boat for dinner and entertainment on an island, and a unusual skit about the Pigford case largely performed by the people who were there.

Do not miss this program, and don’t delay signing up. Registration closes on February 26.

REGISTER HERE