MSBA Administrative Law Section
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MSBA Section on Administrative Law
2009-2010 Annual Report
Submitted By Eric L. Lipman, Chairman, 2009-2010 Program Year

Membership
The Section had 147 members during program year.

Continuing Legal Education
The Section developed and presented the following programs:

• October 26, 2009 preview of the U.S. Supreme Court Term;
• February 25, 2010 presentation on the best practices in rulemaking; and,
• June 17, 2010 program on mediation practice.

Pro Bono Activities
The Section spearheaded an effort to raise $8,000 from dues revenue from four MSBA Sections to support the Volunteer Lawyers Network. As a result of this collaborative – which includes a $4,000 contribution from the Administrative Law Section – VLN will be able be to add to its staff a full-time attorney and provide stipends for 1,600 hours worth of legal services performed by third-year law students. Funding the Beck Scholarship was a key initiative of the Section.

Website
The Section effectively leveraged the MSBA’s website to share meeting and program information with the Section membership and the wider community.

Section Newsletter
The Section continues its publishing collaborative with the Public Law Section by contributing content to the tri-annual Public Law News.

Council Meetings
The Section Council met monthly throughout the program year, by staggering short conferences in those months that it hosted a CLE program with longer planning and decision-making sessions in those months without a CLE program. Additionally, the Council made very effective use of the MSBA electronic mail list service and teleconferencing to resolve important operational issues between regularly-scheduled meeting dates.

Annual Meeting
The Section held its Annual Meeting on June 17, 2010.

Election Results
The following persons were elected to Section Office:

• Julie Brunner, Chair
• Patricia Winget, Vice Chair
• Tricia Matzek, Secretary - Treasurer

The Section will maintain its current Assembly representation:

• David Aafedt, Representative
• David Schultz, Alternate
  

MSBA Administrative Law Section
1996-97 Annual Report

The Administrative Law Section remained active during 1996-1997. The section obtained MSBA support for legislation to improve salaries for administrative law judges, then worked through the legislative process to seek enactment of the salary increases. The prospects were excellent for passage until politics entered the picture. The bill that included the salary increases, which Gov. Arne Carlson supported, became linked to a minimum wage increase that the governor opposed.
As a result, the bill did not pass during the regular session. We are hopeful that some compromise will be reached and the salary increase will be passed during the special session. The recent media attention to the larger issue of inadequate salaries for senior state agency professionals -- generated by state epidemiologist Mike Osterholm -- may produce additional support for the bill.

The section’s governing council met nine times during the year to oversee the work of the section and plan section activities. The section also sponsored CLE programs and, thanks to Professor Mel Goldberg of William Mitchell, continued to produce a section newsletter.

At the Administrative Law Section’s annual meeting, held in conjunction with the June 1997 MSBA annual convention, the section elected the following officers for 1997-98:
Audrey Zibelman, chair; Laura Nehl-Trueman, vice chair; Steve Mihalchick, secretary-treasurer.
The following new council members were elected: Cort C. Holten, William E. Flynn, and
Barbara J. Case. The following existing council members will continue to serve: Michael
Scandrett, Jocelyn Olson, Tom Muck, Dave Orren, and Mel Goldberg (ex officio).

Michael Scandrett,
Chairperson

- Last Updated 9/24/04 -