Steven Pynes and his wife were very nice friends I made at the conference.
What do people think about UU's take on service?
My experience at the JRCLS Annual Meeting. Short answer - It was good time and worth the "break" from school.
The sessions were hit or miss. I didn't like the keynote speakers. Here is an article about Elder Wittman's talk, which wasn't too amazing. It seemed like retelling of Elder Oak's BYU talk from last year. http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58808/Religious-liberty-is-being-challenged-worldwide.html
Steven Covy was the Keynote on Friday night. I thought he sounded like a snake oil salesman. He could have titled the talk "The Platitudes of Steven Covy".
The theme of this year's conference was "Service for Good through the Law." There were session on pro-bono work, professional courtesy, mentoring and the importance of serving in the community. In the afternoon, there were breakout sessions on various practices. I attended the immigration law session, which was very interesting. Immigration law provides a great opportuinty for pro bono service. The session outlined the resources avaliable to non-immigration attorneys who want to take up a pro-bono case. The Utah Association of the Immigration Attorneys provides pro bono attorneys free access to local immigration attorneys for guidance and information on how to proceed in difficult immigration cases.
The other panel which I found interesting was the opening session on Friday morning. The President of BYU and the President of the University of Utah spoke. The U of U president spoke about the qualities of leadership. He poked fun at the slew of "leadership books" which fill the racks at Barnes and Noble. With all the leadership books, there should be many more great leaders. He stated that the best leaders, specifically from the scriptures, never read leadership books, rather they had certain qualities that made them great. King Benjamin was an example of service. He related a story about a meeting of general authorities with a stake president. As the meeting was supposed to start, the Stake President had not arrived. On inquiry, the General Authorities found out that he was in the gym setting up chairs for the Sunday Meeting. They remarked, "If the stake president is in the gym doing the work of a deacon, who is doing the work of a Stake President." He analogized this to the law practice. It is very easy to go to a soup kitchen and get the immediate satisfaction of service> However, is the best way we can give service? It is much better for us to spend our time fighting the legal battles in the courts. We may not get the immediate satisfaction or public notice of service, but we will have a greater impact in the long run. One quote a I particularly liked was, "Aritifice in service is an anathema to progress".
Amber Fullwood and her classmate from Creighton School of Law in Omaha, NE.
So, outside of the meetings, this was a very good conference for a student. I met lawyers from all around the world. I sat next the General Counsel for the Church in Asia, and the chief litigator for the largest insurance company in Utah. I met judges in Arizona and California. Also, the food was very good. They reserved the conference center lobby on Friday night and set up a united nations of buffets, each table had a selection of favorite foods from a country - england, italy, brazil, greece, ect.
