With 2010 barely out of the gate, we have already been reminded that the forces of nature can be unbearably cruel, striking with neither mercy nor warning. Earthquakes are not given names. We shall not in future years be personalizing this most recent tragedy with monikers like Katrina, Carol, Andrew or Rita, killer storms that ironically sound like great aunts, friends, and next door neighbors. The identifiers this time will be cold and harsh: The year, the locus, perhaps the death toll, the Haitian earthquake of 2010, more than 100,000 lost. We at the American College of Trial Lawyers, in concert with all of our fellow Americans and Canadians, send our prayers to the victims of this terrible disaster. May God, by whatever name she or he is known to each of us, offer peace to the departed, solace to those who mourn them, and assistance to those who struggle simply to survive.

As the organization comprised of the preeminent trial lawyers of North America, we are not uniquely suited to offering direct assistance when a natural disasater strikes, particularly outside the borders of our two great countries. Unlike the admirable organization Doctors Without Borders, our skills are not universally transferable across national boundaries. And, because the earthquake victims are not within our midst, we cannot open our offices, our conference rooms, our phones, and our computers to colleagues in the Bar who have fallen victim to nature’s wrath, as we did on the Gulf coast following Katrina and Rita. But, because we are an organization of generous and caring individuals, each of us will do what he or she can. Some of us will give money. Others will provide services to families of our own nationalities in search of lost loved ones, or in search of comfort when the worst truth is visited on them. Still more of us will help our Haitian residents, citizens or otherwise, to find loved ones, or at least to find answers. Some of us will open our arms and our offices to Haitian Nationals who are joining us anew, having left their old lives lying in ruin behind them.

How can I be so sure that the Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers will do their part in this time of need? The answer is simple: That is who we are. That is what we do. We are a breed unto ourselves. In the terminology of the law, we are sui generis. We are neither a bar association that lends strength in numbers to lobbying and other self-protective efforts of our profession, nor are we a professional networking group that focuses upon referrals and business generation. Rather, we are an invitation-only association with three key missions: to maintain and improve the standards of our profession, the ethics of our profession, and, most critically in recent years, the administration of justice. Betterment is our focus: We strive to better ourselves as advocates and as guardians of the ethics of our profession, and to better our communities by protecting and strengthening how justice is administered in our two countries.

To know us better, check out our newly revised Code of Pretrial and Trial Conduct, with its forward by Chief Justice John Roberts. Then, take a look at the Final Report and Pilot Project Rules of our Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice in collaboration with the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. Or, read through the list of publications more broadly, to find those that might be of particular interest to you. If there is a major legal issue that has been of significance to the trial bar in the last several years, you will likely find a white paper discussing that issue in a balanced and scholarly way.

We shall do our part. We always do.

If you are a Fellow, please log-in and go to my blog below. Tell me how you and others known to you are fulfilling the missions of the ACTL, whether and how you would like the College to do more, or anything else that is on your mind. Thank you.