On January 30, 2007, from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m., you’re all invited to a special event hosted by the Association for Conflict Resolution’s New England Chapter: “Advanced ADR Marketing: Online Strategies for Building Business“. This workshop will show dispute resolution professionals how to move beyond the static web site to leverage the power of the internet to build thriving practices.

Moderated by Tammy Lenski, author of the blogs I Can’t Say That and Mediation Marketing from Mediator Tech, this workshop will explore three different web-based marketing tools, blogs, podcasts, and e-newsletters. Panelists include Robert Ambrogi, who co-hosts the legal affairs talk show and podcast Coast to Coast and who blogs at his eponymous Lawsites, Christine Pinney, who has been creating and publishing monthly e-newsletters and marketing materials for her clients for almost a decade, and me.

This program will be held at Suffolk University Law School in downtown Boston (Suffolk Law students are admitted for free with a valid ID).

To register or for more information, visit the NE-ACR web site.

See you there!

The Boston Globe reports today that the deans of the major law schools in Massachusetts joined some 100 law school deans as signatories to a letter protesting the controversial call by a Pentagon official to boycott law firms representing Guantanamo detainees.

Among the law deans joining the protest is Robert H. Smith, dean of Suffolk University Law School, my alma mater, and a respected mediator.

The text of the letter is as follows:

We, the law deans undersigned below, are appalled by the January 11, 2007 statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles “Cully” Stimson, criticizing law firms for their pro bono representation of suspected terrorist detainees and encouraging corporate executives to force these law firms to choose between their pro bono and paying clients.

As law deans and professors, we find Secretary Stimson’s statement to be contrary to basic tenets of American law. We teach our students that lawyers have a professional obligation to ensure that even the most despised and unpopular individuals and groups receive zealous and effective legal representation. Our American legal tradition has honored lawyers who, despite their personal beliefs, have zealously represented mass murderers, suspected terrorists, and Nazi marchers. At this moment in time, when our courts have endorsed the right of the Guantanamo detainees to be heard in courts of law, it is critical that qualified lawyers provide effective representation to these individuals. By doing so, these lawyers protect not only the rights of the detainees, but also our shared constitutional principles. In a free and democratic society, government officials should not encourage intimidation of or retaliation against lawyers who are fulfilling their pro bono obligations.

We urge the Administration promptly and unequivocally to repudiate Secretary Stimson’s remarks.

Let freedom ring.

As Nobel peace prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King once observed,

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

These powerful words, echoing down the years, are summoned up for visitors to the 91st edition of Blawg Review, hosted by the blog Public Defender Stuff. This special edition of Blawg Review serves as a tribute to the life and life-work of Dr. King, invoking the principles of liberty and justice and honoring those who fight for them.

This is one edition of Blawg Review that no mediator should miss.