PBCBA BAR BULLETINS pbcba_bulletin_Nov. 2019 | Page 6

ABA DELEGATE REPORT 2019 ABA House of Delegate Annual Meeting DAVID MILLER Dear Readers: I hope this bulletin finds each and every one of you well. By way of reminder, I have been appointed to serve as the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s delegate to the American Bar Association (the “ABA”). This past August, I attended the 2019 ABA House of Delegate Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California as your delegate. At the 2019 Annual Meeting, there were fifty- seven (57) resolutions brought before the House for consideration. Notwithstanding that a handful of the resolutions were amended during the meeting itself, all but seven (7) of the resolutions were approved. Below, please find a list that provides a brief overview of the approved resolutions (note: this list does not include the approved resolutions that pertain to the ABA’s constitution and bylaws). If you have a resolution you would like to propose at the next ABA meeting, or if you have an idea for something that you think might be a good resolution, please let me know so that we can work together on it. I can be reached at [phone] (X 216) and/or [email protected]. 10A - encourages online providers of legal documents to adopt the ABA Best Practice Guidelines for Online Legal Document Providers. 10B - Urges Congress, state, local, territorial, and tribal legislatures to enact legislation and appropriate adequate funding to ensure equal access to justice for Americans living in rural communities by assuring proper broadband access is provided throughout the United States. 10C - Urges all private and public universities and colleges to uphold the principles of free expression on university and college campuses to promote freedom of debate and thought, and to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it. 100A - Encourages state, local and territorial jurisdictions that do not presently have a central panel system to consider establishing this model of state administrative law adjudications in appropriate cases. 100B - Encourages federal, state, and local governments to consider taking measures to maximize the ability of all Administrative Adjudicators to render decisions, freely, fairly, and independent of agency interference. 101 - Urges Congress to make the ameliorative provisions of the First Step Act retroactive and urges the President and Attorney General to take action to implement the provisions of the Act. 102 - Urges state, territorial, tribal courts and law schools to adopt a “Pro Bono Scholars”-style program in their respective jurisdictions to allow law students, in the final semester of their third year of law school, to obtain a fulltime, externship placement providing supervised pro bono services and to allow these scholars to take the February bar examination (if offered) during their final semester of law school. 103A - Urges Congress to repeal the statutory exclusion of dental care and dentures from Medicare and expressly add coverage of comprehensive dental and oral health services to the Medicare program. 103B - Urges all lawyers who provide advance care planning as part of their estate planning services to take into account the eight principles that were developed through the John A. Hartford Foundation funded project. 104 - Urges Congress to enact legislation to resolve the conflict between some state and federal law over marijuana regulation and to update federal marijuana policy. 105 - Urges state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to enact statutes, rules or regulations and judges to promulgate policies to limit the possession of firearms in courthouses and judicial centers to only those persons necessary to ensure security. 106 - Urges all legal employers of lawyers to implement and maintain policies and practices to close the compensation gap between similarly situated male and female lawyers. PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 6 107 - Urges each state’s highest court, and those of each territory and tribe, to study and adopt jurisdictionally appropriate proactive management-based regulatory (PMBR) programs to enhance compliance with applicable rules of professional conduct and supplement existing disciplinary enforcement mechanisms. 108 - Grants reaccreditation to the Child Welfare Law program of the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the Family Trial Law and Criminal Trial Law programs of the National Board of Trial Advocacy. 110A - Supports legislation creating the establishment of a Copyright Small Claims Program, with authority to adjudicate copyright small claims as a lower-cost, less time-consuming alternative to federal court litigation of copyright claims. 110B - Urges federal courts to interpret the clause “where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business,” in the special venue statue, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) when applied to Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation under 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(2) to mean a district in which the defendant who filed an ANDA application is anticipated to commit acts of infringement. 110 C - Supports the principle that a patentee may recover lost profits under 35 U.S.C. § 284 resulting from foreign activity incidental to domestic infringement of a patent pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 271(f). 111 - Urges the United States Government, state, territorial, and tribal governments to take a leadership role in addressing the issue of climate change and urges Congress to enact and the President to sign appropriate climate change legislation. 112 - Urges courts and lawyers to address the emerging ethical and legal issues related to the usage of artificial intelligence in the practice of law.