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By Mark K. Leeman, Leeman Law Office
Thanks to the generosity of the IndyBar Appellate Section Jill Ellis Scholarship, I was able to attend the Appellate Judges Education Institute (AJEI) Summit in Boston last November.
The AJEI is the preeminent provider of appellate judicial education in the United States, but all lawyers are invited to attend the Summit and join the federal and state appellate judges from across the country in practical and engaging educational programming. Attending a conference with this crowd is an education itself.
The Summit spans four days, with scheduled classes, breakout sessions, and dinners. Attendees were also invited to attend organized field trips with colleagues to such places as Fenway Park, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the State Capitol, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. I visited the JFK Library and was profoundly moved as I walked through the Library’s long, blacked-out hallway commemorating that tragic day in Dallas.
Indiana’s judges and lawyers were well represented at the Summit, with both current and retired Indiana Supreme Court Justices presenting throughout the week.
On the Summit’s opening day, Justice Goff, Retired Justice David, and Terry Harrell, the executive director of the Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, presented an ethics seminar entitled Ethics and Wellness for the Legal Community. They stimulated serious and thoughtful conversation between deputy attorney generals, appellant public defenders, and attorneys regarding the emotionally taxing materials, issues, and evidence that we are all called to evaluate every day. It was comforting to discuss our common challenges and to learn techniques for handling the stress.
Of local interest, Jennifer Shircliff, a staff attorney at the Indiana Supreme Court, commanded an audience during a break-out session titled, It’s Past Time for Real e-briefing. Retired Indiana Justice Frank Sullivan moderated an engaging discussion on John Adams and Thurgood Marshall: Running Against the Wind to Gain Liberty and Justice for All. He and his panel shared inspiring stories about how both men helped form our modern judicial system by daring to take unpopular cases at risk to their own careers.
The Summit also featured impressive presentations from judges and lawyers across the country, including an engaging breakout session on developments in state law following the United States Department of Justice’s report on civil rights abuses in the City of Feguson. Dean Erwin Chemerinsky summarized last year’s United States Supreme Court decisions, and he highlighted some important cases to follow during this year’s session. Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who famously represented the Guantanamo Bay detainees in the landmark case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, answered questions about his career and discussed strategy and challenges in arguing before the Supreme Court.
The final day included a workshop on legal writing, which featured advanced discussions on practical linguistics. Breakout groups were presented with challenging logic puzzles from real cases.
Boston itself was a highlight. After the day’s activities, I toured the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which has a remarkable collection of art from the Americas, including pre-Columbian art from the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans.
I would like to thank the Executive Committee of the IndyBar Appellate Practice Section for making it possible for me to attend. And I encourage my colleagues to attend AJEI and apply for the Jill Ellis Scholarship next year.
Next year’s Summit runs from November 13 to 16 and will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where, if you are interested, you can visit the Minneapolis Institute of Art.•
Mark K. Leeman is an experienced appellate litigator with Leeman Law Office. Leeman has litigated nearly 200 appeals before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the Indiana Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He received is undergraduate degree from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and received his J.D. From the Indiana University School fo Law Bloomington (now the IU Maurer School of Law).
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