ABA Annual Meeting Gets Under Way in Toronto, Features Prominent Jurists
Not one, but two U.S. Supreme Court Justices will join the more than 5,000 lawyers gathered in Toronto this week for the ABA Annual Meeting.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will speak on the state of civil education in the nation’s schools at a session on Saturday. Justice O’Connor is the special adviser to ABA Commission on Civic Education in Schools, which is designed to help boost knowledge and appreciation of the American government among students. She will receive this year’s John Marshall Award from the ABA Justice Center on Friday—along with William H. Neukom, former ABA president and founder of the World Justice Project—to honor her lifelong achievements in advancing the administration of justice.
Justice Breyer will speak at the meeting’s Opening Assembly on Saturday at the newly opened, state-of-the-art Koerner Hall at the historic Royal Conservatory of Music. The House of Delegates convenes Monday and closes Tuesday, the final day of the meeting.
David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, co-chairs of the ABA Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System, will be honored with the ABA’s highest award, the ABA Medal, during the House of Delegates session Monday. Boies, founder and chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, is widely regarded as one of the nation’s pre-eminent trial lawyers. Olson is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office and is one of the nation’s premier appellate and U.S. Supreme Court advocates. Time Magazine put the duo on its 2010 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The ABA Medal, which is presented by the ABA Board of Governors, honors lawyers who have provided exceptional and distinguished service to the law and the legal profession. Previous recipients include legendary Supreme Court justices such as Oliver Wendell Holmes and Thurgood Marshall, human rights activist Father Robert Drinan and William H. Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The annual meeting, which officially kicks off Thursday, offers a combination of more than 1,400 legal programs, including business meetings for association entities, CLE programming, luncheons, dinners, tours and other social activities and networking opportunities. A highlight of this year’s meeting is the president’s reception at the internationally acclaimed Royal Ontario Museum.
