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All aboard for Monterey

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At the State Bar’s Annual Meeting in Monterey next month, California attorneys will find dozens of MCLE programs on topics ranging from elder law to the hottest issues in cyberspace to rainmaking to the latest legal developments in their fields.

But one-stop shopping for MCLE courses is not all they will find. Martin Luther King III will be in town, as will best-selling author Isabel Allende. Chief Justice Ronald George will present his annual State of the Judiciary address. A new State Bar president will be sworn in. And it will all take place in a spectacular coastal setting that is home to a world-renowned aquarium and many other visitor attractions.

Several thousand lawyers are expected to attend the Oct. 5-8 convention, which celebrates the State Bar’s 79th anniversary.

This year’s keynote speakers also will include William Bedsworth, an associate justice of the Fourth District Court of Appeal and author of the monthly humor column. Susan Stamberg, award-winning veteran of National Public Radio (NPR)’s All Things Considered, will address the California Women Lawyers 32nd annual dinner.

Los Angeles attorney Sheldon Sloan will be inaugurated as the State Bar’s new president and will host a reception at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Participants can earn up to 20 hours of MCLE credit, have access to an Internet Café in the exhibition hall and, if so inclined, exhibit work in the annual bench and bar art show.

For detailed information on the events and educational programs, as well as hotel and travel arrangements, visit www.calbar.ca.gov/archive/calbar/annualmeeting. Lower priced “early bird” registration, offering a $100 savings, ends Sept. 6, and the pre-registration deadline is Sept. 13. Registration after that date must be on site.

Registration can be completed online or, as in years past, by mail or fax. A single registration fee buys entry to all but the special ticketed events.

Martin King III
King III

The four-day event will kick off Thursday, Oct. 5, with a luncheon featuring King, who has been motivating audiences around the world for the last 20 years with a message of hope and civility. King, the eldest son of Martin Luther King Jr., is the president and CEO of the King Center in Atlanta.

Thursday evening, a complimentary opening night reception will be held in the Exhibit Hall at the Monterey Conference Center. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and no-host cocktails will be available, and more than 100 different vendors will display the latest in attorney services and supplies.

Also slated for Thursday evening is the 30th annual California Women Lawyers dinner featuring Stamberg. CWL will honor the late Tanya Neiman, longtime director of the Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP) in San Francisco, and Mark Hanis, president of Genocide Intervention Network. Tickets to the event are $95.

Throughout the day Thursday, presidents-elect and executive directors of bar associations can attend the Bar Leaders Conference, which focuses on skills essential to leadership.

Friday gets off to an early start with a breakfast, co-sponsored by the bar’s Business Law Section, which will feature Justice Bedsworth, who in addition to writing his humor column, works for the National Hockey League as a goal judge at Mighty Ducks and selected playoff games. Tickets are $25.

Isabel Allende
Allende

Friday’s State Bar luncheon, at $40 a ticket, will feature Allende, author of The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna and most recently, Forest of the Pygmies. In 1996, she created the Isabel Allende Foundation, which makes grants in the fields of literacy, health, education, protection and empowerment of women and children, and peace.

The day will close with the presentation of the 2006 President’s Pro Bono Service Awards, the prestigious Loren Miller Legal Services Award and the Jack Berman Award of Achievement for Distinguished Service to the Profession and Public, followed by the president’s reception at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The reception ($60 for adults, $30 for children) opens the entire aquarium exclusively to State Bar guests. Attendees can explore coastal wetlands, the rocky shore, a living kelp forest and the undersea waters of Monterey Bay, as well as the newly redesigned Ocean’s Edge. The ticket fee includes admission, hors d’oeuvres and shuttle bus transportation from the Annual Meeting hotels.

On Saturday morning, Sheldon Sloan will be sworn in as the bar’s 82nd president. Five new members of the bar’s board of governors and the new CYLA board members will begin their terms, and new members of the board of the California Judges Association also will be sworn in.

Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will deliver the address at Saturday’s Bench and Bar Luncheon. Kozinski, often described as a libertarian, is always entertaining and thought-provoking. Luncheon tickets are $40.

The bar’s Office of Legal Services, Access & Fairness Programs will hold its fifth annual diversity awards reception Saturday evening. Outgoing State Bar President Jim Heiting will present awards to two attorneys and one bar association noted for promoting diversity in the legal profession. Michael Nava, a California attorney who has written seven Henry Rios mysteries and “Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America,” will be the reception’s keynote speaker.

Also on Saturday, a complimentary closing night reception in the Exhibit Hall will provide attorneys with a final opportunity to tour the exhibits.

Capping the day’s activities will be the annual dinner dance and casino night. Attendees can dance to the music of Pride & Joy, one of Califor-nia’s most popular bands for more than 20 years. Tickets are $75 a person.

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Sunday morning will open with an early 5K fun run/2K power walk along Monterey’s bayside recreation trail. The $25 entry fee includes a T-shirt, light refreshments and the awards.

From Friday through Sunday, the independent Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations will convene at the Hyatt Regency Monterey to debate resolutions affecting all areas of law and legal practice in California. Officially separated from the State Bar, the group’s independent status enables it to lobby without restriction.

For many attendees, MCLE credit is the draw. Attorneys in compliance Group 1 (last names begin with A-G) face a Feb. 1 deadline.

Courses will be offered Thursday through Sunday and will cover the full spectrum of legal practice, from disability rights to elder law, from ethics to rainmaking, from taxes to trusts. There are courses on office and time management, attorney’s fees, writing well, using electronic evidence in court and conquering paper clutter and e-mail overload. Several courses — such as “Google 201: Intermediate Google” (Thursday, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m.) — offer tips on the most effective use of the Internet or other forms of technology.

Need to get credit in ethics, substance abuse or elimination of bias? There are plenty of offerings that fit the bill, including: “Therapeutic Jurisprudence” (Thursday, 2:15 – 4:15 p.m.), “Lessons Learned from Wal-Mart: Using Class Actions to Success-fully Challenge Gender Bias Discrim-ination” (Thursday, 2:15 – 4:15 p.m.) and “Legal Malpractice: Common Pitfalls and New Traps for the Unwary” (Friday, 10 a.m. – noon).

Timely topics will cover such areas as doing business with India, the rights of foster children, trade

mark problems on the Internet, e-commerce taxation, archeological considerations in land use, cyber-sleuthing on the Internet, California’s new Limited Partnership Act and the top 10 patent law decisions by federal courts in the past year.

The California Supreme Court Historical Society will hold a panel discussion of the court as a legal pacesetter on Saturday afternoon, offering two hours of MCLE credit, to be followed by a reception, with several justices in attendance.

The educational programs and meetings will be held at the Hotel Pacific, Hyatt Regency Monterey, Monterey Marriott, Portola Plaza and the Monterey Conference Center.

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