"Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up."
– Anne Lammott - Novelist
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This has been the most unusual year that any CAL-ABOTA President has probably ever faced. We began our lockdown and lockout with COVID back in March 2020, and we are still locked down at this time and actually things are beginning to get worse, but as of Monday, December 14, 2020, vaccines were being distributed around the country. Everyone is hopeful that by mid-year, the virus will be somewhat quelled and the vaccinations will start to do their job.
I was privileged to attend one of my last CAL-ABOTA events on Friday, December 11, 2020, which was the virtual swearing in of the San Francisco Chapter Officers. They introduced me to a new virtual concept which was REMO where you sat at your banquet table virtually and were then able to move around and join others at their banquet tables through the night. During the course of that night, there were tremendous speeches given by Doris Chang the outgoing President as well as the Incoming President, Wilma Gray and something that Joseph McMonigle their former President said in his speech really rang true for me.
He said (paraphrasing), in this time of pandemic with everything somewhat topsy turvy, there was something comforting about being able to meet with your ABOTA brothers and sisters even if it was only virtually. The word "comforting" was a word for CAL-ABOTA 2020 in my estimation. Also, innovative is another word I would use as to CAL-ABOTA 2020.
I have never been more proud of this organization or my ABOTA brothers and sisters than I was this year. Every chapter made efforts to continue the great work that ABOTA does through the chapters and to keep their members engaged and informed.
We were able to have four different virtual meetings this year of the CAL-ABOTA Board. At each of those meetings we discussed how the chapters were doing in terms of events and we also discussed at two of the meetings what the various courts were doing in the chapter locations. Through those board meetings we were able to keep each other informed on the chapter events and status in the courthouses for civil jury trials.
We have all been so fortunate and most of us have been able to stay busy and even, for some, busier than normal. While a lot of businesses are
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having significant issues because of the pandemic, we, as lawyers, continue to represent those individuals and businesses that need our help through this time period in order to make certain that justice is served throughout our state and indeed across our nation with the other ABOTA members.
I have been greatly honored this year to serve as your President. It was one of the highlights of my career and indeed, my life. I have made some very dear friendships and acquaintances and enjoyed each and every acquaintance that I met throughout the year. I only wish that I could have met all of you in person rather than virtually. The only meeting I was able to attend in person was in San Diego before the pandemic struck. I want to thank my CAL-ABOTA Board: Wally Yoka President Elect, Don Carlson Vice President, Frank Pitre Treasurer, Bryan Reid Immediate Past President, Bill Smith 2018 Past President, and Denise Taylor 2017 Past President. I want to give a special thank you to Executive Director Jennifer Blevins for all her work this year.
I was privileged to give speeches to each of the chapters with Luther Battiste, the National President and Peter Riley the National Foundation President, on multiple occasions and to hear Luther and Peter talk about the state of our ABOTA organization across the country.
I wanted to share with each of you what the chapters have done as part of this newsletter and to let you know about some very clever virtual activities.
Orange County had a meeting for their membership with an ugly sweater contest. The Riverside/San Bernardino had a meeting where they started with the "Cheers" song because the idea for the "Cheers" show came from a tavern in Redlands. They also then showed a retrospective of Bill Shapiro through the years playing guitar and all the great music he produced. They also have another great musician in that chapter named Bob Warford. He had been a musician with Linda Ronstadt and also with the Eagles. They played a retrospective of his career. Finally, they had Bryan Reid showing off his dance moves in a rotary club dancing with the stars video retrospective. It was cleverly done and really interesting to all.
The San Diego chapter had a Halloween meeting where they invited a renowned author Richard Lederer to speak about his various musings and books through the years. They also had an ugly sweater contest.
It was really inspiring to see how much was done by each of these chapters and I hope you all are inspired as well.
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In no particular order, this is what occurred through the year in California with the CAL-ABOTA chapters.
ORANGE COUNTY
Under the leadership of President Hon. Nancy Zeltzer, the Orange County chapter in 2020 implemented a new committee for community outreach which was charged with further volunteerism on behalf of the chapter and its members. It also initiated a new chapter award which is a Volunteer of the Year Award. They established a scholarship program to assist deserving law students. They added to their ranks five new members who are a diverse group of individuals. They had a law school post grad fellowship program as well as a live event at the beginning of the year which was a gala installation dinner to celebrate the Hon. Nancy Zeltzer as incoming President. The chapter created a mentor program where each new member is assigned to a chapter mentor for the first year. The Orange County chapter committed and finalized a pledge of $50,000 to the Foundation so they have contributed a total of $85,000 to the Foundation overall. They collaborated with the Orange County Trial Lawyers in a webinar held in October. They developed close relationships with the Orange County Department of Education and had a Teachers Law School which they do every year. They conducted a Masters in Trial in January and they taught the Mendez v. Westminster case which is an Orange County case similar to Brown v. Board of Education to students at the Mendez Intermediate School. They attended a breakfast every month where the Presiding Judge for Orange County would advise on the status of the courts.
LOS ANGELES
Under the leadership of President Michael Schonbuch, the Los Angeles chapter held an executive committee meeting both in April and June. On June 18 they had a webinar entitled,
"Civility Matters Now More Than Ever" and they had almost 400 attendees. They had a general membership meeting in September which included the swearing in of new members. They had an MIT they held by Zoom presented over four different Tuesdays with over 1,300 attendees and a dozen sponsors. They had a new subcommittee that they appointed on membership applications and vetting. They continued with their Fellowship Program where a number of students spend a month with a defense firm and then with a plaintiff firm and finally with a superior court judge. They have their virtual swearing in meeting on December 16, 2020.
SAN FRANCISCO
Under the leadership of President Doris Cheng, as I mentioned above, the San Francisco chapter did a virtual swearing in that was business attire and semi-formal in regards to their new officers. That was a wonderful and inspiring holiday cocktail reception. On October 22 they did a rebooting civil jury trials update via Zoom webinar. They did a Northern Ireland webinar in October. They also did a Masters In Trial in October in regards to voir dire and closing arguments called, "Master Trial Strategies In A Brave New World." In September they did "Inside Baseball - How Cases Are Settling In The Bubble." In June they did "Who is Zooming Who" about taking virtual depositions Aretha Franklin-style. In May they did a membership social hour. They also did a webinar "Rebooting Civil Jury Trials Insights and Musing From The Bench" webinar in May. In April they did a membership social hour. They did their annual membership dinner on February 20, and they also did the Jack DeMeo luncheon on February 5. They focused on increasing the number of women in their membership and also participated in ABOTA's "Dismissed With Prejudice Conference." They created a hardcopy photo directory for all chapter members to maintain contact with each other. They collaborated with CAOC, ADC, CAL-ABOTA and other trial lawyer organizations to propose statewide emergency orders to the judicial council and the governor. Doris Cheng, their President, delivered the invocation for the October National Board Meeting and many of their members served in a national capacity as well.
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SACRAMENTO
Under the leadership of President Steven Gurnee, while Sacramento had to cancel many of their usual events, they did have a successful member mixer at Dan Wilcoxen's home in January and then they had their Installation Dinner Dance in February. Both those events were well-attended. They had to cancel their popular Sharing God's Bounty dinner for St. Philomene's, as well as their golf tournament and summer BBQ and other events. They were able to stage Civility Matters programs presented at law schools and they are presenting one with the San Francisco chapter this month. They had a virtual free day of education in October that was composed of six separate hour-long seminars on a variety of important topics. They had 120 attendees. They had the member business meeting remotely and they honored Bill Wilson a long time member of the chapter. They made contributions on behalf of the chapter to a number of different worthwhile causes because they had money to give back to the community. That was appropriate since Sacramento was the first recipient of the CAL-ABOTA Community Service Award last year.
CALIFORNIA COAST
Under the leadership of President Gordon Bosserman, the Cal Coast chapter held a February 27 membership meeting with "War Stories" from prominent ABOTA members. On June 18 they had an ABOTA membership meeting talking about the "Future of Civil Proceedings During COVID-19 and Beyond." On September 16 they had a membership meeting. On November 4 they had "Civility in the Age of COVID" that they presented. On December 9 they had a membership meeting.
SAN JOAQUIN
Under the leadership of President Greg Mason, they did all of their monthly board meetings by Zoom and conducted a Civility Matters and an MCLE on January 3, at the San Joaquin College of Law. They held their annual dinner October 3 at the Mulholland Citrus Party Barn with appropriate social distancing.
SAN DIEGO
Under the leadership of President George Brewster, San Diego held a trial masters program in person at the beginning of the year. They then held an in-person meeting which was the only meeting I was able to attend in person. They had Zoom special events including updates on courts and trials as well as three dinner meetings and they actually delivered a Grub-Hub meal for the October Halloween meeting to all members who signed up. They made two donations to Feeding San Diego on behalf of the Chapter and they did a high school chapter pairing for mentorship as well as mock trial training and other support.
RIVERSIDE/SAN BERNARDINO
Under the leadership of President Jay Korn, a membership meeting was held on October 15, 2020 with a “Cheers” theme as mentioned above. They also held a Civility Matters program on December 3. The final number for that Civility Matters program was over 95 individuals.
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CLOSING THOUGHTS...
It has been my distinct honor and privilege to serve as your 2020 CAL-ABOTA President. I will continue to serve ABOTA as a National Representative on behalf of my chapter and I have been appointed to the Civility Task Force chaired by Justice Curry. I am also working on another committee regarding courts and the legislation.
I will very much look forward to the day when we can all see each other again and enjoy the comradery, cocktails and closeness of our membership in ABOTA.
"Hope is being able to see light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu
I wish all of you Happy Holidays and a wonderful 2021.
Christopher P. Wesierski
President, CAL-ABOTA
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