NAWJ LANDMARK SPONSOR DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO LLP HOSTS LAUNCH OF NEWEST PROGRAM ON ADMINISTRATIVE, MILITARY AND SPECIALIZED COURTS

Landmark Sponsor firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLP hosted the launch of NAWJ's newest program on Administrative, Military and other Specialized Courts on July 23, 2009 at its offices in Washington D.C. Elaine Metlin, Esq., a member of the NAWJ's Resource Board, and a partner at Dickstein Shapiro chaired the Planning Committee, working closely with NAWJ Vice President for Districts, Hon. Joan Churchill, a retired Immigration Judge, who drew the panel and served as moderator. A diverse panel of judges from 6 different types of unique courts in the Washington Metro area presented a brief overview of the breadth, complexity and volume of the cases they handle:

• The Hon. Paige Marvel, U.S. Tax Court explained that the Tax Court is one of three courts where taxpayers can challenge their tax bills, but the only one where tax payers can litigate their bill before paying. In the past year the Tax Court has handled 31,900 disputes for a total of $23 billion in dispute. In more than 2/3rd of their cases, the tax payer is unrepresented. Appeals go to the 12 different U.S. Courts of Appeals.
• Hon. Jeri Somers, Vice Chair of the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals explained the jurisdiction of her Court, which handles claims involving civilian departments of the Federal Government.
• Hon. Joan Churchill, U.S. Immigration Judge retired, who served over 24 years on the bench of the Immigration Court, which is housed in the U.S. Department of Justice, mentioned that the number of judges rose from 30 when she began to over 200 now. She explained that the large increase in caseload is due largely to the increasing numbers of asylum cases, which has occurred while Congress has, over the course of the years, reduced the other forms of relief available.
• Hon. Ann Yahner, Principal Administrative Law Judge with the DC Office of Administrative Hearings, reviewed the role of a city/state centralized office hearing administrative appeals from a variety of administrative agencies. She discussed that the largest percentage of their decisions are final decisions from which appeals go to the DC Court of Appeals (the highest Court for DC), while some of their decisions are not final decisions.
• Col. Dawn Eflein, the first woman Chief Trial Judge of the U.S. Air Force touched on the role of U.S. Military courts, which operate throughout the world. She referenced the challenges presented for criminal trials by the recent Supreme Court decision requiring presentation of witnesses in connection with forensic reports.
• Hon. Pauline Newman, who has sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit since its creation in 1984, gave a wrap up which stressed the value and importance of the many different types of special courts. She concluded with historical background of her own role in advocating for the creation of the Federal Circuit, in the face of political skepticism about specialized courts. She described the tension between general and specialized courts as an ongoing one. Her own court has a variety of types of cases that come before it, including patents, tax, veterans claims, and numerous others.

Program Chair Elaine Metlin made opening and closing remarks. Hon. Joan Churchill gave a brief background of the history of NAWJ and its structure and objectives. Carol Feinman, Chair of the NAWJ Administrative Judiciary Committee greeted attendees and Hon. Cathy Serrette, NAWJ District 4 Director gave an update of recent and upcoming District. Resource Board members Nicole Erb, White & Case LLP, Bridgia Benitez, Esq. of Wilmer Hale, and Amy Mauser, Esq., Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP participated with the planning.

Over 40 persons attended the panel. After the presentations, the audience, which consisted of attorneys from local law firms, members of NAWJ, students, law clerks, and members of academia mingled with the panelists and each other at a reception sponsored by our hosts.

The program, with another prestigious panel, will next be presented at the NAWJ Annual Meeting in Memphis, in October. The title of the October panel will be: Where have all the Cases Gone? to emphasize the increasing caseloads of the administrative and other specialized courts, while the numbers of trials in the general courts has been steadily declining.

For more information contact Marie Komisar at NAWJ. Tel: (202) 393-0222