National Office

Podcast

New episodes of Season Fourteen launch on Thursdays. With guests like Former White House Counsel Greg Craig, San Francisco Attorney Elliott Peters, and a spotlight on mentoring, this season is full of inspiring stories about life and law. Listen at actl.podbean.com or on your favorite podcast app.

National Office

Spring Board of Regents Meeting

The Board of Regents met in La Quinta just prior to the Spring Meeting.

Outcomes of that meeting included:

• Approval of the 2026-2027 College budget
• Approval of a change to the Bylaws, clarifying particular steps of the candidate nomination process
• Approval of the 2026 Emil Gumpert Award winner
• Approval to extend an invitation to two distinguished jurists to receive Honorary Fellowship in the College
• Approval of the concept of a new web page from the Legal Ethics and Professionalism Committee, addressing a series of ethical dilemmas faced by trial lawyers
• Approval of a white paper written by the Mental Health Awareness Committee, Law Firm Mental Health Best Practices
• Approval of the nomination of a judge to receive the Thurgood Marshall Equality and Justice Award
• Review of the College’s strategic plan and its related public relations efforts
• Approval of 70 candidates for Fellowship

National Office

Civil Bar Roundtable

Treasurer Katie Recker traveled to Washington, DC on March 6–7 to attend the American Civil Trial Bar Roundtable. The roundtable is an annual conference seeking to “foster[] open dialogue on the status of the U.S. civil justice system.” Approximately thirty-seven representatives from member organizations and observers (of which the College is one) were in attendance. This year’s program centered on emerging legal and institutional challenges. The Roundtable also highlighted a recent advisory opinion from the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Codes of Conduct permitting federal judges to publicly defend judicial independence within defined limits, presenting a potential opportunity for future programming involving members of the judiciary.

In The Spotlight

Alistair Dawson

Texas Fellow Alistair Dawson will be posthumously inducted as a “Texas Legal Legend” by the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas. Dawson passed away unexpectedly at the age of 61 in August 2025.

In the Spotlight

Lynn Neuner

The Legal Aid Society has appointed New York Fellow Lynn Neuner as chair of its board of directors. Neuner is also a trustee of the ACTL U.S. Foundation. 

In The Spotlight

Steve Pasarow

Los Angeles Fellow Steve Pasarow was presented with the H. Gilbert Jones, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Los Angeles Chapter of ABOTA. It is bestowed upon those members of the LA Chapter who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to ABOTA and its principles, exemplary service to the LA Chapter in particular, and model professionalism over the course of a distinguished career. Pasarow is only the eighth recipient over the past 30 years to receive this prestigious award. The award was presented by Regent Donna Melby, a former President of both the Los Angeles Chapter and National ABOTA.

In the Spotlight

Lester Pines

Wisconsin Fellow Lester Pines was named a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. The award recognizes educators, researchers, mentors, artists, and civic or business leaders from across Wisconsin who have made significant accomplishments in their fields and substantial contributions to the cultural life and welfare of the state and its people. Notably, in addition to Lester, there are only five other attorneys previously inducted as Fellows: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Shirley Abrahamson & Janine Geske; UW law professors R. Alta Charo & Willard Hurst; and long-time elected member of Congress, Rep. Henry Reuss.

In The Spotlight

Veronica Richards

Pennsylvania Fellow Veronica Richards received the Champion of Justice Award from the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association (WPTLA) on May 8th. This is the WPTLA’s most prestigious award and is given to a trial lawyer for their lifetime efforts in representing the most vulnerable people in our society.  

In the Spotlight

DeMaurice Smith

Maryland Fellow and former Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith has released a book titled “Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America's Game.” The book can be found on Amazon.

Heritage Committee

DID YOU KNOW that several of our Canadian Fellows are also thespians?

In the fall of 2005, two trial lawyers on opposite sides of a homicide file had coffee during a break in the proceedings. Both would eventually become Fellows of the College, but at that time they were simply discussing their mutual love of theatre and brainstorming about the fundraising potential for lawyers and judges to perform a stage production. That hope to help perpetually cash starved Edmonton theatre companies led to the formation of the Players de novo. Six months later, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie was performed by a mix of seven junior and senior lawyers and one judge, to a sold-out audience. The cast of that inaugural show included those two trial lawyers: now deceased Fellow Laura Stevens and Kevin Mott, KC. Kevin has continued his involvement in the Players de novo annual productions to this day.

Over the last 20 years, more than 300 lawyers and judges have taken the stage to raise over $1.8 million for local theatres and arts education, including six Fellows.

Kevin was bitten by the theatre bug at fourteen years old and has learned every aspect of theatre production over those fifty-eight years. As Past Alberta Province Committee Chair, Kevin knows that as we search for new candidates for the College, we often ask ‘would you want to spend a day in a fishing boat with X?’ His test has been, “would I want to spend five hours being vulnerable in a rehearsal hall with X?’ After forty-five years of practice, Kevin’s close friendships with the lawyers and judges he met in that rehearsal hall and his continued love of theatre keep him practicing and playing. Who but a trial lawyer would so faithfully embrace a playwright’s creation, delve into the character and give voice to the role?

U.S. Foundation

Foundation Update

As the U.S. Foundation’s fiscal year draws to a close at the end of June, we have awarded more than $800,000 in grants, to causes including training of capital defenders, programs promoting the rule of law, and defense of the wrongfully convicted. This is the largest amount the Foundation has ever given in a fiscal year, yet we still were not able to fund all the worthy applicants. All Fellow contributions go directly to the organizations we support, as administrative costs are covered by our investment returns. Please consider making a donation before the end of June to support these deserving organizations.



June 30 is also the deadline for grant submissions to be considered by the Trustees in the fall. If you know of an organization doing impactful work, please refer them to the Foundation web page where they can download our application form. 

Furthering the Mission

General Committees

Admission to Fellowship: The Committee continues to explore ways to streamline the nominations process while maintaining the high standards of the College. A Fellow may now nominate an eligible lawyer for Fellowship, provided the nomination is seconded by at least two other Fellows and supported by detailed letters from the proposer and the seconders. To ensure impartiality, neither the proposer nor any seconder may be a partner, associate, or relative of the candidate. Nominations are submitted on the Proposal for Fellowship (Form H) along with the supporting letters to your state or province chair or to the National Office. Form H can be downloaded from the “Nominate a Fellow” section of the Fellow Hub on the College’s website.

Federal Rules of Evidence: On August 15, 2025, the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States issued its Request for Comments on Amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, and Criminal Procedure, and the Federal Rules of Evidence. There are two proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence--(1) a proposed amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 609, entitled Impeachment by Evidence of a Criminal Conviction; and (2) a proposed new Federal Rule of Evidence 707, entitled Machine-Generated Evidence. The Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules invited public comments on the proposed amendments to FRE 609 and the proposed new FRE 707. Over the past seven months, the Committee analyzed, studied, and discussed the proposed Amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 609 and proposed new Federal Rule of Evidence 707. After obtaining Executive Committee approval, the College’s Federal Rules of Evidence Committee submitted comments on February 4, 2026 (click here to view the letter). For the reasons stated in that letter, the College is in favor of the proposed Amendments to FRE 609 and new proposed FRE 707. Chair Hank Fellows will be presenting a lunch and learn program on proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 707 on April 8, 2026. He will also be attending the next Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules meeting on May 6, 2026, and will report to the College on the outcome of the meeting.

International: The International Committee is sending two teams of Fellows to Pretoria (team led by Diane MacArthur) and Cape Town (team led by Judy Barrasso) in April for a week of training for the South African lawyers in or near each locale. The Committee has been actively planning for 2027 with possible conferences in Portugal, Latvia, the Bahamas, Ireland, and Argentina.

Mentoring: The Committee is preparing for the fifth year of the Summer Judicial Internship Program in partnership with Just The Beginning – A Pipeline Organization, through which the College provides Fellows as mentors to first-generation law students who will be interning with federal judges around the country. The Committee will receive the list of judges and their interns in early April and will reach out to State Chairs for help in matching interns with Fellows. The program takes place in June and July, and the individual mentoring is supplemented with two Committee webinar presentations on Career Opportunities and Professionalism, Ethics, and the Role of the College. The committee encourages Fellows to volunteer to mentor – the experience over the last four years has been incredibly rewarding for the law students and the Fellows who have served as mentors. The College’s Trial Tested Podcast will feature Mentoring Committee Chair Missy Wright, Immediate Past Chair John Siffert and Committee Member Kimball Anderson on an upcoming episode. 

Teaching of Trial and Appellate Advocacy: The Committee is actively seeking participant attorneys and faculty Fellows for:

• 8^th ACTL Trial Advocacy Program, in Chicago, Friday, August 21 – Sunday, August 23, hosted by Latham & Watkins.

Please suggest attorneys whom you believe would benefit from the opportunity to develop their trial advocacy skills. Email Program Chair Tom Heiden or call 616-560-4446 for more information.

Mark Your Calendars

View all upcoming events at www.actl.com/events