Page 21 - ACTL Journal Fall24

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The fourth ACTL Trial Advocacy
program was held
May 10-12 in Toronto at
Tétrault and was a resounding success.
Our society is diverse. Our courthouses are diverse. The lawyers trying cases in those courthouses ought to better mirror the diversity in our society. The College is perhaps best equipped to help enable the next generation of excellent, ethical, and professional trial lawyers. These programs are designed to train and encourage lawyers with a commitment to diversity.
The program was capped at fifty partici-
pating lawyers; it was oversubscribed by
a broadly diverse group of lawyers from
Canada and the United States. The in-
ternational faculty were Fellows prac-
ticing in both countries. Fellow Junior
Sirivar and the McCarthy Tétrault firm were superb hosts. Tom Heiden chaired the program with vol- unteer faculty Fellows David Ross, Jim Quinn, Ger- ald Ivey, Jan Conlin, Junior Sirivar, Josh Weinstein, Gordon McKee, Anil Kapoor, Roslyn Levine, Scott Hutchinson, Michael Feder, Julie-Martine Loranger, Kent Thomson, and Past President Doug Young.
American Bar Association attacking their diver- sity programs on the ground that those programs discriminate to the supposed detriment of per- sons not diverse. Without trying to assess the merits of those complaints, the College remains committed to helping promote diversity in our profession. So we persevere.
The focus of the program is the quality of advoca- cy rather than any overarching social policy. The target audience is largely lawyers in government and public interest roles. Large law firms can and do train their young litigators, many of whom are diverse. The population that the program seeks to reach are people whose employment does not easily afford this sort of opportunity.
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court hand- ed down its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, striking down raced-based affirmative action in college admissions. In the wake of that decision, a number of organizations have brought complaints against prominent law firms and even the
FALL 2024 JOURNAL