David Boies to Address ABA, Leadership Poised to Debate High-Profile Issues
Updated: Big-name lawyers and closely watched topics are already creating headlines as some 8,000 lawyers gather in San Francisco this week for the ABA Annual Meeting.
Legal heavy hitter David Boies is the featured speaker during the association’s Opening Assembly on Saturday. He’ll be speaking about the rule of law. But a few days later, a topic near and dear to his latest work involving same-sex marriage legislation is scheduled for debate when the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates meets on Monday and Tuesday.
Boies is one of the lead attorneys in a legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages. The trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger ended recently in U.S. district court and the judge’s decision to strike Proposition 8 came Wednesday.
Many observers predict fireworks over the proposed House of Delegates recommendation, which requests that the ABA urge territories and tribal governments “to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.” The lead sponsor is the Individual Rights and Responsibilities section.
But the 561-member House can be tough to predict, and debates don’t always occur where expected. As the annual meeting gets under way, there is no way to get a read on how the debate over the same-sex marriage recommendation will unfold, says Judy Perry Martinez of New Orleans. She chairs the Committee on Rules and Calendar, which sets the schedule for sessions of the House.
“I’ve heard nothing on it. Radio silence,” Martinez said. There has been little traffic on the House e-mail discussion list regarding the same-sex marriage recommendation or, for that matter, any other business scheduled for the annual meeting. “We’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds in the House,” she said.
On Thursday, ABA President Carolyn Lamm issued a statement noting that the ruling by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California “points out what a very significant legal issue or series of issues marriage equality raises.”
” We know that marriage equality impacts issues in families’ lives — taxation, succession, custody of children, breakup and others,” Lamm said. “As the nation’s largest organization of lawyers, we in fact need to consider these issues because it impacts the lives of the public. We will be debating them on Monday and this certainly helps to inform our debate.”
Also sure to draw a headlines when the House meets will be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who will receive the American Bar Association Medal, the ABA’s highest honor.
In addition, set to present at some of the 1,500 scheduled sessions are top lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice. But it remains to be seen whether they will use those platforms to issue key policy pronouncements or choose to keep their remarks under the news radar.
There is precedent for government officials to use appearances at ABA annual meetings to announce policy initiatives. Last year, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., used his first speech to the association’s House of Delegates to lay out the Obama administration’s plans to develop new strategies for dealing with crime in the United States.
On Friday, Tony West, the assistant attorney general who heads up Justice’s Civil Division, will address a program sponsored by the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice that looks at the division’s agenda. Then on Saturday, the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities will sponsor a “conversation” with Laurence Tribe, who has taken a leave of absence from Harvard Law School to serve in the Justice Department as senior counselor for access to justice.
The annual meeting, which officially kicks off Thursday, offers a combination of business meetings for association entities; CLE programming; luncheons, dinners, tours and other social activities; networking opportunities; and just a dash of pomp at events like the Opening Assembly, the President’s Reception and the two-day session of the policy-making House of Delegates. Attendees even can donate a pint of blood at a drive sponsored on Friday by the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.
Last updated at 4 p.m. Thursday to add Carolyn Lamm’s statements.
