President's Page - Volume 90, Number 1.

Volume 90, No. 1

March 15, 2023

Mark R. Beebe

On February 22, we closed our "wildly" successful Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas. Arguably infected by the romanticization of the Lone Star history and the self-assurance with which our Texan hosts approach most any conversation, I dare say that the Midyear Meeting highlighted and displayed what can only be described as IADC exceptionalism. What Texas refers to as its "exceptionalism" is part cult, part romantic folklore delivered with some swagger. While America promotes that its westward expansion and challenges of the frontier undoubtedly shaped our national persona-optimistic, determined, self-reliant-Texas "beefed it up like an Angus bull on steroids," according to one commentator.

While in Austin, the IADC did what it does best-we taught, we learned, we networked, we socialized. We fulfilled the IADC's core purpose: we enhanced the development of skills, professionalism, and camaraderie. An illustrative sampling of the impressive CLE presentations included the exploration of the future of strategic risk management with a panel of elite trial lawyers explaining that we can indeed design ideal strategies to better and more successfully defend our clients. Seasoned trial lawyers educated us about why voir dire is not only among the most critical parts of any trial but also the most entertaining and fun. We learned about how the collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium in Florida created a tidal wave of litigation extending far beyond who was responsible for the collapse, how a mediator triangulated the conflicting claims and defenses in an expedited ADR proceeding, and how impressively major aspects of these cases were resolved in less than a year.

We reported our progress on the IADC's Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)-increasing our members' satisfaction with their engagement and with their business development opportunities generated from the IADC. In the first four months since rolling out the WIGs, we have conducted 113 monthly Substantive Law Committee meetings, following a revamped format to...