The 66th Annual Meeting of the State Bar of Michigan will take place Wednesday through Friday, September 12-14, 2001 at the Lansing Center and Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing.

The meeting will feature three prominent keynote luncheon speakers: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an expert in government responsibility for environmental issues, will address the luncheon on Wednesday; Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida, Archbishop of Detroit, will speak on Thursday, and Barry S. Scheck, DNA expert and co-founder of The Innocence Project which helps wrongly convicted inmates to overturn their convictions, will keynote on Friday.

"We are looking forward to having Mr. Kennedy, Cardinal Maida and Mr. Scheck joining us this year," said Elaine Charney, chairperson of the Annual Meeting Coordinating Committee. "They are exciting and diverse speakers, and I believe they will provide Michigan lawyers with stimulating and thought-provoking information on current issues related to their respective areas of expertise."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York. Mr. Kennedy's reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions including successfully prosecuting governments and companies for polluting the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, arguing cases to expand citizen access to the shoreline and suing sewage treatment plants to force compliance with the Clean Water Act.

Cardinal Maida received a Licentiate in Canon Law (J.C.L.) from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. In 1964, he was awarded a Doctorate in Civil Law (J.D.) from Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh. Cardinal Maida was admitted to practice law before the Bar for the State of Pennsylvania, the Federal Bar in Western Pennsylvania and the United States Supreme Court. On May 7, 1990, Pope John Paul II named then Bishop Maida Archbishop of Detroit and on October 30, 1994, a Cardinal.

Barry S. Scheck, a Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, is best known as the DNA expert on the defense team of the O.J. Simpson trial. Mr. Scheck is a frequently sought-after expert by many federal agencies, and has served as counsel in a variety of civil and criminal cases. He also serves as a Commissioner of the Forensic Science Review Board for New York State. Mr. Scheck is the 1996 winner of the Most Outstanding Criminal Defense Lawyer in America.

The three-day Annual Meeting will be centering on the themes of "Corporate/Business, "Access to Justice" and "Litigation/Probate." During the convention, the 38 sections of the State Bar of Michigan will hold business meetings and elections, as well as a variety of programs of interest to the members of the State Bar of Michigan and the legal community.

Some of the highlights of the special Continuing Legal Education programs include a Wednesday morning workshop entitled "Improve Your Quality of Life…Without Leaving the Law!" The workshop aims to increase career satisfaction for both new and experienced lawyers by tapping suggestions, strategies and tactics for improving the quality of life and law practice without violating professional or ethical standards.

Wednesday afternoon will feature Martin E. Latz, a nationally renowned negotiation speaker who teaches negotiation at Arizona State University Law School.

"60 Tips in 60 Minutes" on Thursday morning will cover everything under the technology sun on how to work faster, better and smarter with computers. This is a fast paced session followed by a more specialized program, which will introduce the participants to palm-sized computers.

The Law Practice Management Section of the State Bar of Michigan will present a panel discussion on Thursday afternoon to look at the future of MDPs, marketing, law practice management and law office technology. Meanwhile, the Open Justice Commission will host a presentation on open justice issues.

The main events on Friday will include a technology session on e-filing, presented by the Membership Services Committee of the State Bar of Michigan. This two-hour program will feature a national presenter demonstrating how to go paperless in an electronic world.

On Friday afternoon, Todd Winegar of Salt Lake City, Utah will present a memorable film and newsreel footage of famous trials, each one of which is used as an object lesson to demonstrate courtroom Do's and Don'ts'.

For more information, please contact Mary Kelly of the State Bar of Michigan at (517) 346-6311.