The Catchline BULLETIN OF THE ASSOCIATION OF REPORTERS OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS June 2017 Volume XXXVI No. 1
CONTENTS President s Message... 3 Education Committee Report... 4 2
President s Message Hello everyone! I hope that you have received the information regarding the annual meeting and that you will join us in beautiful Lake Tahoe, NV, August 3 through 6. We will be meeting at Harveys Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel and Casino. Leah Walker has put together an educational program that should prove very beneficial. We will hear about product innovations from West, Lexis, and Lexum; learn about training law clerks with regard to the work that Reporters do; hear about Nevada s experience creating an intermediate level Court of Appeals; tour the Nevada Capitol and Supreme Court or Legislature; hear a talk from the cohost and coproducer of A Way with Words ; learn about the science of legal rhetoric and legal writing; discover how to diagnose and revise difficult and unclear appellate writing; and hear about relationship-building between Reporters and Clerks. The meeting will also feature activities beyond the meeting room. On Wednesday night, our traditional gathering the night before the meeting kicks off will be at Ciera s steak and chop house, with a three-course meal at a fixed price. On Thursday evening, Thomson Reuters will sponsor a cruise and full dinner on Lake Tahoe aboard the Tahoe Paradise yacht; this trip will also feature a DJ. On Friday afternoon, we will have a tent set up on the 15th hole at the PGA Tour event that week, with a catered lunch and open bar. This event is sponsored by LexisNexis. The first twenty people to sign up for this event will also be eligible to take a behind the scenes tour with Golf Channel. We ve left Friday and Saturday nights open for you to explore the Lake Tahoe region on your own. Some of the attractions in the area include the Thunderbird Lodge, which is fascinating and puts on great events; the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare festival, which will be presenting The Hound of the Baskervilles on Friday and Love s Labour s Lost on Saturday in a natural amphitheater on the shore of Lake Tahoe; and gondolas right near the hotel, offering amazing views (and dinner!). At the meeting, we will be looking for someone who would be willing to serve as vice president next year, unless I can find someone before then who is willing to stand for election to the position. If you are interested, or if you know someone who is, please let me know. At our business sessions, we ll also have updates on initiatives recently started. With the weather turning nicer, I hope that you all get a chance to enjoy it. And again, I hope you ll cap your summer by joining us in Lake Tahoe! Brian Redmond ARJD President 3
Education Committee The Tahoe meeting schedule is nearly settled, and I want to thank Brandee Mooneyhan for being so helpful with connections and information and the members of the Education Committee, Brian Redmond and Geri Cepeda, as well as Chris Fallon, for providing suggestions, advice, and guidance. We are playing a bit with the scheduling this year, and I look forward to the feedback of the board and members on how that worked or didn t work. We are planning a tour of the Nevada Capitol and Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon. Friday afternoon will be open so members can enjoy lunch and golf at the Barracuda Championship courtesy of Lexis. Saturday will be a full day of sessions, which I m hoping will keep people in town through Sunday morning, when we hope to have a joint session with the Clerks of Court association. Additionally, while keeping the block scheduling from last year, we have decided to cut the 30 minute breaks in half, and allot 15 minutes to a break and 15 minutes to a legal solutions provider to discuss new products and innovations. Daniel Poulin of Lexum will be speaking on Thursday, Leslie Matheny of Lexis will have a speaker on Friday, and Tom Leighton will be providing a Thomson Reuters speaker on Saturday. I think this will be a good way for us to have a chance to see what s coming down the pipeline and ask any questions we may have regarding their products. Chief Justice Michael Cherry will welcome us to Tahoe. Former member of the Nevada reporter s office, Sarira Sadeghi, will teach us how to train law clerks better so that they can produce better opinions. Members of the Nevada court of appeals will talk to us about the process of creating a court of appeals from scratch. Friday morning we ll hear from Grant Barrett, a co-host and co-producer of A Way with Words, a radio program (www.waywordradio.org). He will be discussing slang and informal language, as well as the use of emojis and emoticons instead of actual words, and the potential impact on judicial opinions. Kathy Stanchi will discuss the science of legal rhetoric and legal writing. As a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Legal Writing, she is excited to meet with a group devoted to improving legal writing. She has gained national attention as the principal organizer behind the recent United States Feminist Judgments Project, which rewrote many US Supreme Court cases in from a feminist perspective. More information on that is available at: https://sites.temple. edu/usfeministjudgments/ On Saturday, Elizabeth Francis of the National Judicial College will explain to us how to diagnose and revise difficult and unclear appellate writing. There will be a roundtable on creating style manuals, with advice and suggestions for those who want to create or update their own style manuals. Mary Joe Beck of Ohio and Cara Brousseau of New York have confirmed their willingness to share their experiences and I am looking for a third (and fourth!) member to participate preferably one that is not already on the executive board and with their hands full. If you have any suggestions or wish to volunteer, let me know. There will of course be a Hot Button Forum and time for the business meetings. Leah Walker 4
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2016-2017 Officers President: Brian Redmond, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court Vice President: Mary Joe Beck, Supreme Court of Ohio Treasurer: Kevin J. Loftus (Ret.), Supreme Court of Connecticut Secretary: Vacant Past President: Brandee Mooneyhan, Nevada Supreme Court and Court of Appeals 2016-2017 Committee Chairpersons Annual Meeting: Brian Redmond, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court Communications: François Boivin, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada Education: Leah A. Walker, Colorado Court of Appeals External Outreach: Mary Joe Beck, Supreme Court of Ohio The Catchline Editor: François Boivin, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada Assistant Editor: Charles Nezan, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada Newsletter Publisher/Layout & Design: April Patterson, Composition Specialist, Supreme Court of Nevada Distribution: Daniel Spurling, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court Special Thanks To: Amanda Patterson, Dee Stahl, Janet Carter, Nancy Schreihans, and Amanda VanEver https://www. instagram.com/amandasdoodlesanddesigns/ for their photo contributions. Volume XXXVI, No. 1 June 2017 ARJD Web site: http://arjd.washlaw.edu/ ARJD Contact Information The Catchline (suggestions, comments, and questions): info.arjd@gmail.com ARJD Members Facebook page: http:/www.facebook.com/groups/members.arjd/ E-mail (to send communications directly to all ARJD Facebook group members via Facebook Wall): members.arjd@groups.facebook.com E-mail Address Changes and Corrections? Please alert us by sending an e-mail to: info.arjd@gmail.com. 6