"In this select circle, we find pleasure and charm in the illustrious company of our contemporaries and take the keenest delight in exalting our friendships."
- Emil Gumpert, Chancellor and Founder
May 2023
If you could go back and give yourself advice as a recent law school graduate, what would you say? What about as a new associate? Or the eve of your first trial? Mentoring a law student, young associate or lawyer provides an opportunity to share with someone else the lessons you have learned – not just about trial skills, but about professionalism, ethics, collegiality and the mission of the College.

The mandate of the Mentoring Committee states that the purpose of the committee is: “To facilitate and promote mentoring by ACTL Fellows of young lawyers, with the goals of creating career opportunities and of imparting the core principles of the College.” There are multiple College programs that provide mentoring opportunities. The Diversity Program develops trial skills in lawyers of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, the Trial Training Boot Camps provide courtroom training for young lawyers and by sponsoring four law school competitions, where many Fellows also judge, the College is providing valuable mock trial experience.

The Mentoring Committee is offering another opportunity to mentor young law students through its support of Just The Beginning: A Pipeline Organization. In addition to the College and the U.S. Foundation providing financial support, the committee is facilitating the match of Fellows to 100 first generation law students who have been selected for judicial internships with federal judges this summer.

The College only invites exceptional trial lawyers to Fellowship. By providing mentorship to the next generation of law students and young lawyers, you not only benefit the future of the College, but the future of the profession.

For more information on how you can become a mentor, contact me at JSiffert@lswlaw.com.

John Siffert
Mentoring Committee Chair
Law Student Competition Round-Up
National Trial Competition
The final rounds of the National Trial Competition, co-sponsored by the College and the Texas Young Lawyers Association, took place March 30-April 1 in San Antonio, Texas. The winning team, and recipient of the $10,000 cash prize funded by Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, was from UCLA School of Law, composed of Peter Jones and Sarah Stebbins. The runner up, and recipient of the $5,000 cash prize funded by Beck Redden LLP, was also from UCLA School of Law. The Best Oral Advocate was Isiah Chavis, of Mercer University School of Law. 
The two semifinalist teams, receiving $1,500 each from Polsinelli, were Howard University and Mercer University. National Trial Competition Committee members traveled to Texas to serve as judges and jurors, with President Harriman judging the final round.
Sopinka Cup
The finals of Sopinka Cup Competition also took place in Ottawa, Ontario over the weekend of March 17-18, 2023. Past President Mike O’Donnell attended the event, which was created by the College in honor of the late Justice John Sopinka in 1999 and is administered by The Advocates’ Society. Justice Sopinka’s daughter, a judge herself, also attended the event. The first-place team was from McGill University and Best Oral Advocate was Nassima Kaddoura from Western University. 
Gale Cup Moot
The finals of the Gale Cup took place for the first time in Ottawa, Ontario over the weekend of March 4-5, 2023. President Harriman attended the event, which is co-sponsored by the College and the Criminal Lawyers Association. The winner of the Gale Cup was the University of Toronto and the Dickson Medal for best oral advocacy went to Benjamin Maclean-Max of the University of Toronto.
National Moot Court
The National Moot Court Competition, co-sponsored by the College and the New York City Bar Association, took place in February, 2023. President Harriman attended and judged in the final round. The winning team was Mercer University School of Law and the Best Oral Advocate went to John D. Flowers, also from Mercer University.
Get Involved
Are you wondering how else you can contribute to fulfilling the College’s mission? Serving on a College Committee is a great way to get involved, and it is the work of the committees that moves the College forward.

  • State and Province Committees are responsible for the identification and nomination of potential new Fellows, and they also organize local outreach activities.
  • General Committees each have a specific mandate to guide their work, engaging in activities such as publishing white papers, supporting advocacy training, and much more.

The College is working on appointments for the 2023-2024 term, which begins in September. Visit our Get Involved page to learn more about committee service. From there, you can fill out our online Get Involved form and we will work to get you appointed to one of the committees that interests you. Because appointments do not begin until late September, you may not receive an appointment letter until late August. Please reach out to Amy Mrugalski, amrugalski@actl.com with any questions.
Task Force on Mental Health Awareness
The College has initiated a Task Force on Mental Health Awareness to study the issues impacting the mental health of Fellows of the College, whether resulting from the pressures of trial work or struggles by family members of a Fellow. If you are interested in participating in this newly formed Task Force, please reach out to Amy Mrugalski at amrugalski@actl.com.
Fellow Clare Connors was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii in 2022. Prior to her appointment, she served as the Attorney General for the State of Hawaii.
International Committee: Warsaw
Fellows Cynthia Grimes, Brent Gurney, Nancy Hollander, Knut Johnson, Thomas Pope and Scott Richardson met in Warsaw the week of April 17, 2023, to participate in a trial advocacy program in conjunction with the Warsaw Bar Association. The Teaching Abroad Subcommittee of the International Committee of the College, chaired by Joseph Steinfield, organized the program, which invited young lawyers, bar trainees and at least one law student, to participate. Each day began with a short lecture and discussion by ACTL faculty members, followed by small groups with each participant presenting a cross examination and closing argument based on a Polish criminal case, translated into English.

The differences between the US and Polish systems are significant. Nevertheless, the participants enthusiastically presented in accordance with their system and were grateful for the input from the Fellows, praising the hands-on, participatory nature of the program.

Fellows who have an interest in participating in these workshops and who have some criminal defense experience as well as this type of training, are encouraged to contact Amy Mrugalski at amrugalski@actl.com to be placed on an interest list for future programs. 
New Jersey State Committee Helps Endow Scholarship
In 2020, the son of Hon. Esther Salas was murdered and her husband wounded in an attack at their home in North Brunswick. Judge Salas’s son, Daniel Anderl, was twenty years old at the time and had planned to pursue law as a career. A scholarship was created in honor of Anderl and is fully endowed, in large part due to the efforts of the New Jersey State Committee and Fellows of the College. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a Rutgers Law School student, alternating between the two Rutgers campuses. Read more here.
General Committees

Access to Justice and Legal Services: The committee will be presenting a CLE Program at the Annual Meeting in San Diego. Committee Chair Mark Surprenant reports that an all-star panel has been put together for this program which will focus on the excellent work being done by innocence projects and how Fellows can make a difference in exonerating innocent persons. The panel will discuss their own remarkable experiences in this area and address significant ethical and other issues pertinent to freeing the innocent.

Federal Criminal Procedure: The committee recently submitted a proposal to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure to amend Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to allow a criminal defendant to obtain a non-jury bench trial without the government’s consent if the defendant presents reasons sufficient to overcome the presumption in favor of jury trials. The proposal was based on a white paper published by the Federal Criminal Procedure Committee entitled “Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Should be Amended to Eliminate the Requirement that the Government Consent to a Defendant’s Waiver of a Jury Trial.” The proposal was taken up at the April 20, 2023 meeting of the Rules Committee and can be found here

Heritage: Fellow Terry West of Shawnee, Oklahoma was interviewed by Regent Dan Folluo in March and three other senior Fellows from Oklahoma were interviewed recently. Other interviews are planned and the committee is fortunate that Fellows who are not committee members have offered their assistance in performing these interviews. 

Judicial Independence: The committee finalized their draft "Open Letter" to the United States Senate and submitted it to the leadership of the College. The letter suggests improvements to the confirmation process for nominees to the federal bench, especially the process employed by the Judiciary Committee for confirmation of Justices to the Supreme Court. The Executive Committee provided input and the letter will now be presented to the Board of Regents for approval. Once approved, the College will engage in a plan to distribute the letter to the media and members of the Senate.

National Trial Committee: Thirty law schools competed in San Antonio, Texas on March 30-April 1, 2023. All teams participated in three preliminary rounds after which the top scoring teams went on to the quarter finals, semi-finals and ultimately the finals. The case file used in the competition involved a self-driving car that hit and killed a bicyclist. The problem was written by NTC committee member Marty Jones. (For winning teams, please see Law Student Competition Round Up earlier in the newsletter) The committee wishes to express gratitude to the Fellows who helped judge the regional competitions and the finals. Committee members will be reaching out to Fellows again next year to sign them up as judges in the regional rounds that will take place in February, 2024. 
Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award Announcement

The Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award is given to honor a lawyer or judge, whether or not a Fellow of the College, who has made a significant, exceptional, and lasting contribution to the improvement of the litigation process. At its Spring Meeting, the Board of Regents approved the recommendation of the Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award Committee to present Hon. Jeremy Fogel with the Gates Award at the 2023 Annual Meeting in San Diego. Judge Fogel has a passion for understanding and addressing the human side of judging and has been instrumental in implementing training for judges in the emotional and psychological dimensions of decision-making.
Upcoming National Meetings:
More events can be viewed on the College website. Click here for the Events Calendar.
2023 Annual Meeting
September 21-24
Marriott Marquis
San Diego California
2024 Spring Meeting
February 29-March 3, 2024
Arizona Biltmore
Phoenix, Arizona
Northern California Fellows Dinner, Berkeley: April 6, 2023

President Harriman attended the Northern California Fellows Dinner at the Claremont Hotel, her shortest commute to a College event this year. State Chair Melinda Haag kicked off the evening by welcoming everyone and acknowledging some special guests, which included Judicial Fellow Jon Streeter, Judge Fern Smith, the new U.S. Attorney Izzy Ramsey, and Judicial Fellow Ann Moorman. President Harriman spoke about the competitions the College sponsors, the boot camps, and the Diversity Trial Advocacy Program – all designed to help nurture the next generation of trial lawyers. She also mentioned recent initiatives, including the Judicial Independence Committee’s open letter to the Senate, Justice Broderick’s talk at the Spring Meeting on mental health awareness, and the Task Force on Civics Education as a way to help garner respect for the rule of law. Additional speakers included Fellow Cris Arguedas, recipient of the Charles B. Renfrew award, and guest speaker Nic Marais.  
Utah Fellows Dinner, Salt Lake City: April 21, 2023

President Harriman and her sister Kathy journeyed through the snow to the Salt Lake Country Club for the Fellows dinner on a Friday evening. They enjoyed a cocktail reception with the Utah Fellows, including Past President Fran Wikstrom and Immediate Past State Chair Andrew Morse, with a beautiful view overlooking snow-capped hills. While discussing the merits of a code of ethics for the United States Supreme Court, attendees at the reception observed a herd of elk nearby. After dinner, State Chair Shawn McGarry introduced Regent Dan Folluo and President Harriman, who spoke about the Judicial Independence Committee at the College, the Task Force on Civics Education, as well as the newly formed Task Force on Mental Health. Fellow Wally Bugden then gave a tribute to Fellow Brooke Wells, a retired United States magistrate judge and the first Female Fellow inducted in Utah.
The College has been notified of the passing of the Fellows listed below. The date after each name notes the year of induction into the College, and the date following the city is the date of his or her passing. A tribute to each will appear in the In Memoriam section of a subsequent issue of the Journal.


Colorado
Michael W. Krumholtz, ’07, Timnath, April 20, 2023

Florida
John F. Corrigan, ’76, Jacksonville Beach, April 18, 2023

Massachusetts
Raymond J. Kenney, Jr., ’74, Woburn, April 3, 2023

New Mexico
*Stuart D. Shanor, ’79, Roswell, April 12, 2023

New York
Alan J. Hruska, ’76, New York, March 29, 2022
George Weisz, ’86, Lido Beach, March 29, 2023

Nova Scotia
Hon. David R. Chipman, ’76, Halifax, April 23, 2023

Ohio
Eldon S. Wright, ’72, Youngstown, October 4, 2018

Quebec
Richard E. Shadley, ’94, Montreal, April 12, 2023

Tennessee
Thomas I. Carlton, Jr., ’88, Nashville, April 22, 2023
George B. McGugin, ’84, Nashville, April 16, 2023

Texas
Timothy R. McCormick, ’01, Dallas, April 16, 2023

*Past President of the College
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