Welcome to the website of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

The ACTL is unique among the many organizations comprised of members of the Bar.  In the parlance of our profession, we are sui generis, or one of a kind.  One cannot apply to join the ACTL, nor can an existing Fellow (member) simply tap a friend to join our ranks.   Rather, a State Committee in the U.S. or a Province Committee in Canada must identify, or three current Fellows must nominate, an experienced trial lawyer who meets the highest standards of professional excellence, ethics, and collegiality.  The rigorous review process then undertaken is unparalleled.   At the end of the day, the men and women who are invited to join us are universally well suited to the College’s entirely apolitical missions of maintaining and improving the standards and ethics of our profession, and, most particularly, the administration of justice.  When we gather, we greatly enjoy the collegiality of our Fellowship, but we never lose track of the reasons that we exist.

It should come as no surprise that the most important issue relating to the administration of justice in the past decade and arguably in our generation, i.e., the treatment and handling of Guantanamo detainees, has been a matter of much discussion within our Fellowship.  Within our ranks, we can present compelling and strongly-held positions favoring trial of the remaining detainees in Article III courts or before military judges sitting on military commissions.  Because people of good faith differ as to the appropriate approach – Fellows will recall the excellent but conflicting positions espoused by Prof. Stephen A. Saltzburg and former White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig at our recent Spring Meeting – the ACTL has taken no position with regard to which approach strikes the proper balance between due process and national security.
 
However, the ACTL has not hesitated to speak in defense of the key constitutional principle involved in the detention of actual and alleged enemy combatants at Guantanamo:  The writ of habeas corpus, that is, the right of one who is incarcerated to due process of law, including judicial review of his incarceration, must not be abrogated.  This lofty constitutional premise is not solely within the protection of those at one end of the political spectrum.
 
Following logically from the premise that the writ of habeas corpus must not be abrogated, the attorneys who have defended the Great Writ through their representation of Guantanamo detainees, often in the face of substantial adversity, are to be celebrated, not maligned.  We are certainly not alone in this view:  As recent criticisms of these advocates have again reared their ugly heads, the nature and extent of the response, again from both ends of the political spectrum, have been up-lifting.  It is indeed true:  We are a nation of laws, not of men (and women).
  
The ACTL commends the scores of Fellowsand other attorneys, who have taken on pro bono representation of detainees over the past several years, often under adverse circumstances and in the face of derision.  We shall honor the Fellows who have engaged in such representation at our 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.  Regardless of our individual political views and of our differing opinions as to how the conclusion of this chapter in our history is to be written, we are united in our reverence for our constitution and steadfast in our defense of the Great Writ.  We know that we owe all of these attorneys a debt of gratitude for the time, expense, and heart that they have devoted to this effort on behalf of all of us.  We can never fully repay that debt, but we can certainly express our thanks.