I attended a session for Bar Presidents at #ABAAnnual this year covering the same frightening history. The parallels to now are terrifying. bsky.app/profile/josh...
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Thank you to all who joined us in Toronto! The Fellows of the ABF hosted several memorable events during the @americanbar.org's #ABAAnnual — from the CLE Program: "Safeguarding Democracy" to the Fellows Business Breakfast.
We look forward to next year's #ABAMidyear in San Antonio Texas!
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Toronto sculpture sign.
Sad to be leaving Toronto, but glad for all the great conversations and learnings from #ABAAnnual.
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When lawyers are afraid to speak up in favor of the rule of law, we are already in a crisis. This is happening now. - panelist at #ABAAnnual
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If you walk down the street and ask people if they support the Rule of Law, 9 1/2 out of 10 will not know what that means.
We have to find a way to teach what is at risk of being stripped away right now. - Panelist at #ABAAnnual
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Responses - both internally and externally - to @americanbar.org actions against Trump/Republicans attacks on the judiciary and legal profession have been overwhelmingly positive.
5 to 1 in favor. Even higher ratio on social media.
#ABAAnnual
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Executive director of the @americanbar.org states that the ABA’s actions are based on policies voted on by the members of the ABA House of Delegates.
Lawyer members have set these policies and priorities. The ABA is acting under those directives.
#ABAAnnual
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The @americanbar.org has filed suit against Trump/Republican actors to halt government intimidation of lawyers and law firms.
This is bar leadership in turbulent times. #ABAAnnual
www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...
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Importantly, an @americanbar.org membership committee member told me that they are seeing an increase in members since standing up.
Voluntary bars that are worried about losing members, you will gain more than you lose by speaking out. #ABAAnnual
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Bar Associations that get pushback from members of standing up for the Rule of Law should point out their existing policies and past actions showing a practice of advocacy on behalf of the judiciary. #ABAAnnual
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Continued:
“The [Texas] Supreme Court will accept nothing less, and if the Bar does not live up to that high standard, I want to hear about it.”
I view this as a threat against legal profession speaking up against bad faith actors in government. #ABAAnnual
www.txcourts.gov/supreme/news...
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110 state, local, and subject-focused bar associations joined with the @americanbar.org to denounce recent attacks on the #RuleOfLaw by elected officials. #ABAAnnual
www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...
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Each bar association leader should ask, “Why should your lawyer members join with you?”
If your response is to pay dues, you are not leading.
Bar leaders must be builders of a continuing movement. A movement that does not give up and will not give in!
- Patrick Palace at #ABAAnnual
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If we don’t take care of the caretakers of the justice system, we will lose both the people and the justice system all at once. - Patrick Palace at #ABAAnnual
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Inclusion is not a box we check, but a building of strength that we can utilize together. - Patrick Palace at #ABAAnnual
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Attending NCBP Saturday
Morning Plenary:
Leading Together in Turbulent Times at #ABAAnnual
Leading in turbulent times is not about perfection, but about showing up with clarity of purpose. - Patrick Palace, President of the National Conference Bar Presidents
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Washington State Bar Association’ Legal Technology Task Force recommends a permanent oversight committee that keeps up to date on #legaltech advances and issues guidance quickly.
#ABAAnnual
www.wsba.org/connect-serv...
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Bar Associations have a duty to educate judges and lawyers about not just how #LegalAi but also which tools meet the required standards.
Name tools and vendors.
Bars need to get active, not reactive. #ABAAnnual.
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Courts barely have technology themselves and we’re asking them rule on the use and types of #GenAi that are acceptable as evidence and courtroom exhibits. #ABAAnnual #LegalAi
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Attending NCBP Workshop 1B-The Al Imperative: How Forward-Thinking Bars
Navigate Technology, Ethics, and Access to Justice. #ABAAnnual
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Deborah Enix-Ross, ABA Past President and Senior Adviser to the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton, closes the Fellows CLE at ABA Annual 2025 in Toronto.
Concluding the panel, Deborah Enix-Ross urges the audience, “It’s important for us to pull together on this fundamental aspect of the legal profession. . . . to consider the things we, in the profession, can—and should—be doing now.” #ABAAnnual @americanbar.org
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David Driesen, author of Specter of Dictatorship (Syracuse University Press), discusses how presidentialism threatens our democracy and what to do about it at the Fellows CLE Program at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto on August 8, 2025.
Huq and past ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross are joined by @syracuselaw.bsky.social's David Driesen, who argues an insufficiently constrained presidency is one of the biggest systemic threats to democracy. Driesen urges the US to learn from the mistakes of Hungary, Poland, and Turkey. #ABAAnnual
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Fellows CLE Program at ABA Annual Meeting 2025, “Safeguarding Democracy, a panel moderated by Deborah Enix-Ross, Senior Advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton and the Past President of the American Bar Association and including Aziz Z. Huq, ABF Collaborating Scholar and Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at The University of Chicago Law School and David M. Driesen, University Professor at the College of Law, Syracuse University
“Looking across backsliding democracies, you see a distinctive pattern in which law is deployed as an instrument to unravel democratic institutions.”
At the Fellows CLE at #ABAAnnual, ABF Affil. Scholar Aziz Huq opens a talk on evolving tactics and efforts to defend rule of law. @americanbar.org
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Welcome, ABF Fellows, to #ABAAnnual in Toronto!
Visit Fellows registration for ribbons and details on the weekend line-up, from a CLE w/ ABF Affil. Scholar Aziz Huq and @daviddriesen.bsky.social to an Oscar-worthy opening reception. 🎬 @americanbar.org www.americanbarfoundation.org/event/fellow...
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“The mimicry of law by decree is not the rule of law.”
Important and timely audience thought from this session.
We should not treat every utterance, social media post, and illegal executive order as law.
Do not give the illusion of propriety to these actions.
#ABAAnnual
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The 1939 Decree against Public Enemies “Folk Pest Law” allowed criminal penalties for theft could carry a death sentence if the accused was charged with exploiting the special conditions of war. In just a few years, judges imposed 16,500 death penalties. #ABAAnnual
www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...
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Lothar Kreyssig was the only German judge who attempted to stop the mass-murder of persons deemed "unworthy of living" under the Aktion T4 "involuntary euthanasia" program.
Judicial support would lead “entire sectors of communal living are excluded from [having] rights...”
#ABAAnnual
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The Nuremberg Race Laws created legally-bizarre, court-supported outcomes, like older children being considered Germans and younger being stateless depending on birthdates - as well as enabling later horrific abuses and human rights atrocities. #ABAAnnual
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1935 Nuremberg Race Laws strips German Jewish citizens from Reich citizenship. It also prohibits them from having relationships or intimate relations with persons of “German blood.” #ABAAnnual
www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/p...
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Audience is asked to review the ruling from contractual dispute case filed by film director Henry Koster. Court held that interpreting laws though popular opinion lens negated Koster’s employment contract because he was Jewish.
We are asked, did the court follow the law at the time? #ABAAnnual
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