In 2013 the National Judicial College celebrated their 50th Anniversary and hosted their 50th Symposium on Civility entitled, "Civility in the American Justice System: Promoting Public Trust and Confidence." The Symposium was held on April 7th and 8th at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA and addressed "judicial, lawyer, litigant and other court user conduct; the role of codes of conduct; actions available to encourage litigants and others to participate in a civil manner; and identify principles that promote civility "by all for all" for those who participate in the American justice system."
On the second day of the Symposium, Connell Foley partner, Brian Steller, was part of a very prestigious panel of industry giants including, National Judicial College President, William Dressel, Hon. Donald W. Lemons, Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Michael A. Pope, Esq., a Partner with McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago and Thomas E. Spahn, Esq., a Partner with McGuire Woods in Virginia on a panel entitled, "Identifying the Concepts." This presentation allowed the panelists to share the work they have done with their state bar/entity on creating civility codes and discussed how the codes were developed, challenges that were faced, and accomplished successes. They also discussed similarities and differences between the different codes and how the panelists were able to effectively get the word out to the public and put the new codes into practice.
Mr. Steller is a certified Civil Trial Attorney and focuses his practice on insurance defense and coverage, professional and product liability and corporate liability matters. He has tried to verdict well over 60 matters in both state and federal courts and is also an accomplished Appellate attorney, having argued several times before the New Jersey Court of Appeals and before the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Mr. Steller is the Immediate Past President of the Northern New Jersey Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), serves on the Board of Directors for the National Organization, and is a Life Fellow of its Foundation. He is also the Creator, Academic Administrator, and Dean of the ABOTA Trial College. In 2003, Mr. Steller was elected President of the Essex County Bar Association and was sworn into his post by then - New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice, James R. Zazzali.
In addition to Mr. Steller's panel participation, Connell Foley is pleased to be a Judicial Proponent Sponsor of the event.
Other participants include Federal and State Court jurists from around the country; other recognized leaders of the Bar; academics and Deans from Law Schools and members of the media including Mark Shields of PBS' "News Hour."
For more information, feel free to contact Brian Steller at 973.535.0500 or bsteller@connellfoley.com, or visit the National Judicial College website at www.judges.org.