Dean's Address

The time to start is now rather than waiting until it may be too late.

If all of us become more sensitive to consideration and reconsideration of what is good about and what may merit change or improvement in our litigation delivery system or systems, useful changes should be easier to implement, the system should work better, respect for and adherence to the system will increase and hopefully a system of justice which has survived and grown in the United States for over 200 years will continue to be nourished by the gentle rain which might flow from the cloud which I see and, to continue the weather analogy, we may find a rewarding rainbow develop from the reflection of an enhanced litigation delivery system.

In my office I have a copy of a 1942 painting by John Rogers. The sky is filled with towering gray clouds. The field below is a golden color of wheat ready for harvest. To someone who has never lived on a farm, it is at most a stiff life painting.

To the farmer, the wheat will provide a bountiful crop if those powerful storm clouds do not generate the wind and rain that will beat the wheat to the ground and ruin his harvest.

The farmer is helpless and can only wait out the storm. We are much more fortunate. We have the ability to divert the storm cloud which may overshadow our legal delivery system. We can do so if we commit ourselves to the task for the benefit of our future clients and for the benefit of the legal delivery system which has been so good to us.

Thank You.

G. Alan Cunningham, Dean
International Academy of Trial Lawyers