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standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, collegiality; people who recognize the importance of the rule of law, the need for courage, the power of civility, and people who can argue a winning case with proportionality and a losing case with a sense of dignity. “So how did you get here, all of you inductees and your fam- ilies? Well, first of all, as you know, this is not an honor for which you could apply. Someone had to notice you and to et, but somehow they get a list of your trials, the opposing counsel and the judges, and with that list in hand, your state or province committee conducted an investigation of you and your trial practice. Now, we don’t have in the College the assets of the FBI or the Canadian Intelligence Security Service, but we’re pretty good at doing investiga- tions, and so we do. And they look into the nature of your trials, the kind of trials they were; were they long trials, short trials, complex trials? know that you, out of all the people they see advocating in the courtrooms, you are distinguished in some very import- ant ways. It might have been a judge, it might have been a law partner, it might have been an opposing counsel, but someone somewhere recognized that you were special and they got your name in front of the province or state com- mittee, which then undertook to do an investigation of you, your trial advocacy and your sense of ethics. “The first thing they did was to get a list of your trials. That might have been the hardest part of the whole process because as you know, you’re not supposed to know that you’re being considered until you get the letter from the College inviting you to be one of us. So maybe they get a list from a partner, maybe they get a list from a court dock- “But that’s not the end of the process. With the recommen- dation of your state or province committee, the National Office commences an independent confidential poll of you in your state or province, and every Fellow in the state or SUMMER 2023 JOURNAL 60 “There was a past president of the College who practiced in a different era, who once said to me, you know, Doug, I’ve had over 500 jury trials to verdict, and some of them lasted more than a day. So we know that you all try a lot of different kinds of cases, but we can investigate each kind and satisfy ourselves, through your state or prov- ince committee, that you are talented and ethical and have a body of work throughout your careers that rep- resents the finest in trial advocacy.