Commercial & Business Litigation Committee

Mission

Our committee focuses on issues facing litigators with broad commercial practices, including substantive areas such as bankruptcy, creditors rights, professional liability, and trade secret law, and procedural matters such as e-discovery, privilege, ADR, and international litigation.

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Announcements

Young Lawyers Subcommittee to Initiate Mentor Program

The Young Lawyers Subcommittee of the Commercial and Business Litigation (CBL) Committee is pleased to announce the launch of a mentoring program. The Young Lawyers Subcommittee is looking for both seasoned attorneys interested in serving as mentors and less-seasoned attorneys looking for the opportunity to get to know and benefit from the wisdom, experience, and knowledge of a mentor.

Mentors can also help introduce mentees to others at meetings and events, such as, for example, at the upcoming Section of Litigation Annual Conference scheduled for April 18–20, 2012, in Washington, D.C. If you are interested in serving as a mentor or would like to be a mentee, please indicate your interest by email to Melissa.Colon-Bosolet@weil.com.

Litigation Trends Report Available Now

As the Litigation Advisory Sponsor to the ABA Section of Litigation, Navigant has created Litigation Trends Analysis [PDF] for distribution to Section members. The report covers recent trends, notable cases, and significant litigation or investigations in the first and second quarters of 2011.

Committee FAQ Available Now

The Commercial & Business Litigation Committee has released an FAQ document [PDF] detailing the structure and organization of the committee.

Message from the Chairs

Thank you for visiting the Commercial & Business Litigation Committee web page, which is a valuable source for timely news, legal updates, and committee activities. Our committee is the largest and one of the most active in the Section of Litigation due to the commitment of our subcommittee chairs and members. As we move into 2012, we seek to improve on our past successes by continuing to provide members with opportunities to become more informed on legal issues and to network with great attorneys throughout the country. We will do this through a variety of activities.

Programs
We will sponsor six CLE programs at this year’s Section Annual Conference, scheduled for April 18–20, 2012, in Washington, D.C. The six program topics are:

Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool for Minorities and Women;
Doing Well By Doing Good: The Importance of Pro Bono to Your Business Model;
Internal Corporate Investigations: What Makes Special Committees So Special?;
Privilege Issues in Antitrust Litigation: In the Words of Enforcers;
Deposition Practice in Complex Cases: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; and
Electronic Information and Data Security Law.

We also will hold a committee business meeting at the Section Annual Conference to discuss committee initiatives, leadership and author opportunities, and future CLE programs and webinars.

Committee Networking Events
At the annual conference in April and the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, in August, we will hold “no-host” committee dinners. These dinners are open to all committee members who wish to attend. Past dinners have included Moroccan food and belly dancers in Toronto, Canada; steaks and scotch at one of New York’s finest steakhouses; and a smorgasbord of seafood in Washington. The committee dinners are very popular events and are always sold out. Look for email updates and sign up for an evening of great food, fine wine, and networking with other committee members from across the country.

Distance and Regional CLE
In addition to programming at the in-person meetings and conferences, we also participate in the Section of Litigation’s Distance CLE program, where we typically present two CLE programs via teleconference to Section members throughout the country. These one-hour programs provide high-quality CLE to members in a low-cost, easy-to-attend format. These programs are a great way to market your expertise in a particular area of the law. They also allow members who may not be able to attend the annual meetings the opportunity to earn CLE credits. Please check our web page for dates and dial-in information for our upcoming programs.

Webpage
We urge you to take additional time to check out all of the content available on our webpage, including our circuit court updates, articles, news updates, and information about our subcommittees and how to participate in CLE programs at the Section Annual and ABA Annual Conferences. If you are interested in submitting content to our web page, please reach out to either of our web page editors with any content you would like us to consider. Nathaniel Boyer can be reached at 212-918-3084, and John R. Bielema Jr. can be reached at 404-572-4504.

Our web page can publish content from 500 words to 3,500 words, and we are constantly looking for the most timely and relevant information.

Newsletter
Our committee publishes a quarterly newsletter. Each newsletter focuses on a theme and contains articles by leading lawyers, judges, and academics that are packed with information, analyses, and strategies for both new and seasoned practitioners. Our upcoming newsletter schedule is as follows:

Privilege & E-Discovery
Delaware Corp. & Private Equity
Ethics & Professional Liability
Hot Topics & Trends for the New Year

Spring 2012
Summer 2012
Fall 2012
Winter 2013

If you are interested in contributing an article for any of these issues, please contact our newsletter editor, Kelly A. Kszywienski at 602-382-6384.

Subcommittees
The primary reason for the Commercial & Business Litigation Committee’s great success is the hard work of the talented lawyers that chair our subcommittees. These subcommittees cover a broad range of substantive areas and are very active in providing the content for CLE programs, our webpage, and our newsletter. We invite you to review our list of subcommittees, and we urge you to contact any of the subcommittee chairs to learn how you can participate in their work.

Again, we thank you for your interest in the Commercial & Business Litigation Committee, and we welcome you to become more involved in both the committee and the ABA. The Section of Litigation is the leading voice for trial lawyers in this country, and we are proud to be a part of it. Please contact us with any ideas or suggestions you may have for how the committee can continue to best serve you and the legal community.

Dori Ann Hanswirth, 212-918-3631

Angelo A. Stio III, 609-951-4125

Elizabeth T. Timkovich, 704-350-7780

Chairs, Commercial & Business Litigation Committee