President's page.

• Author: Lay, John T., Jr.

I wanted to take this opportunity in IADC's oldest ongoing publication to announce the publication of the updated and expanded Defense Counsel Training Manual. Thirty years ago, in 1986, then President of the IADC, Bernie Alsobrook, conceived the idea of an in-house training manual for members of the organization, their law firms, and corporate law departments. During his tenure as President in 1987-1988, Dick Davis created a special committee to develop an extensive in-house training program with the manual being the initial step. The First Edition of the Defense Counsel Training Manual was published in February 1989 during the presidency of George McGugin.

The original concept for the manual was fairly modest, an outline and resource for existing in-house training programs of law firms and law departments. At the time, the idea that law firms were obligated to act as education centers for newly graduated lawyers was still developing.

As the original manuscripts were being created, an interesting phenomenon occurred. The very best lawyers in the IADC volunteered to contribute sections in their respective areas of expertise. In addition to being a resource for in-house training programs, the manual blossomed into a compendium of thoughtful essays written by some of the most skilled and successful defense counsel in the United States.

The success of the Defense Counsel Training Manual exceeded every expectation. Back in 1986, the IADC had approximately 1,500 members, but by the end of 1994, more than 7,000 copies...