Federal Judiciary

State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting - Houston - June 26-27, 2008

By Michael Smith

Last week Jamie and I  took our oldest Grayson (9) to the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting in Houston,  It was my last meeting as a member of the State Bar board of directors representing the 25 Northeast Texas counties of Bar district 1 - I was replaced by Susan Fisher from our firm's Sherman office Thursday morning.  I attended the various bar board events, the Litigation Section council meeting (my first as an officer - I went into the officer rotation this year as treasurer) and several seminars and events.  My favorites were:

• Jeffrey Toobin, senior legal analyst for CNN and staff writer at The New Yorker speaking about the U.S. Supreme Court at the bench/bar breakfast.  We went to dinner with Mr. Toobin the night before with the Litigation Section council, and thoroughly enjoyed his talk (and am looking forward to reading his new book The Nine on the Supreme Court). Did not get to visit with him, other than to note that Marshall native Bill Moyers is a good friend of his dad's while getting my book signed.  But thoroughly enjoyed his talk.
• A debate on immigration sponsored by the Lit Section including panelists David Martin of the University of Virginia School of Law, Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza,and Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies. ESPN Legal Analyst Roger Cossack moderated - he's a repeat player in both this role and the dinner the night before, where he holds forth on sports law issues - always a highlight.
• Judicial panel moderated by LS chair Alistair Dawson and featuring Judge Royal Furgeson of San Antonio.
• Judicial panel sponsored by the State Bar Intellectual Property Section on patent litigation featuring Judges Chad Everingham, Barbara Lynn and Nancy Atlas.  Topics included stays pending reexam, patent rules, "hate mail" between lawyers, and what judges like and don't like.

One of the highlights for us (and the reason we brought the nine year old, who had to sit through two dinners with dozens of lawyers, and did so perfectly enough to merit a Speed Racer helmet) was that LS former chair Talmage Boston had scored us seats at Friday night's match between the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox at the Astros' stadium, which is across the street from both the convention center and our hotel. 

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on June 29, 2008 (boomark / email).