Casey Pipes will be one of the featured speakers at the American Law Institute’s annual course, Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, being held Thursday-Saturday, January 28-30, 2016 in Austin, Texas.   The presentation Mr. Pipes will give, along with Robert Bainbridge, MAI, will focus on highest and best use in the context of takings of convenience stores.

Firm member Joseph Babington recently participated as faculty at the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel’s “Deposition Boot Camp” held in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 7–8, 2015.  During this learn-by-doing seminar, Mr. Babington presented on topics including the purposes of depositions, laying foundation for cross at deposition, and deposition technology options, and also worked individually with four of the 24 students attending the Boot Camp on the basics of deposing a fact witness, a plaintiff, and an expert witness. The Boot Camp was sponsored by the FDCC, the nation’s premier defense counsel group, of which Mr. Babington is a member and for which he serves as assistant chair of the drug and medical device subcommittee.

Firm member Patrick Finnegan served on the faculty for an National Business Institute seminar titled, “Everything You Don’t Know About E-Discovery (But Wish You Did),” which was held in Mobile on December 10th.  Mr. Finnegan gave two presentations at the seminar.  One focused on federal and Alabama case law and rules of procedure concerning e-discovery, including the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to e-discovery that became effective earlier this month.  To read the paper that Mr. Finnegan prepared for this presentation, please click here.  Mr. Finnegan also gave a presentation titled, “Practical Tech Advice for the Non-Techy Attorney,” in which he addressed the technical aspects of preserving, collecting, reviewing and producing electronically stored information.

Casey Pipes is coauthor of an article appearing in the November 2015 issue of the Alabama Lawyer titled, “Alabama Enacts Major Revisions of Alabama Code 8-1-1.”  Mr. Pipes was a member of a committee convened by the Alabama Law Institute in 2011 to rewrite Section 8-1-1, Alabama’s Restrictive Covenant Act, a notoriously vague statute that had created much confusion in this area of law.  The committee, which was composed of judges, law professors and leading practitioners, completed a proposed replacement for the Act in late 2013, which was then sponsored as a bill in both houses of the Alabama Legislature.  After working its way through the legislative process, the bill was signed into law by the governor on June 11, 2015.  It will take effect on January 1, 2016.  Mr. Pipes’ coauthors on the Alabama Lawyer article are Will Hill Tankersley, Richard J.R. Raleigh, Jr., and Adam K. Israel.

On June 11, 2015, at the annual meeting of the Trial Attorneys of America in Chicago, firm member Joseph P. H. Babington presented a paper entitled “Assault on the Gatekeeper?: A Discussion of the Ninth Circuit’s Recent Pomona Decision and other Judicial Shortcomings in Applying Rule 702 and Daubert.”  The presentation focused on the ways that some federal courts are ignoring or misapplying the text of Fed. R. Evid. 702 and the revised admissibility standards for expert testimony following the United States Supreme Court’s Daubert trilogy and presented tactics for combatting this trend.  Mr. Babington successfully argued for petitioners in the final case of the trilogy, Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U. S. 137 (1999).  Firm associate Samuel C. Rosten co-authored the paper presented by Mr. Babington.  TAA is a national products liability defense group limited to 200 members.

Casey Pipes recently joined other eminent domain and condemnation law experts from across the nation in a Virtual Round Table discussion concerning some of the latest trends and developments in this area of practice around the United States.  The forum also included an international dimension, with a focus on the eminent domain and condemnation landscape in Brazil, including a discussion about a high speed train that will join Rio de Janeiro – São Paulo – Campinas.  To learn more about the round table, please click here.

Chris Conte will give a presentation on preferential and fraudulent transfers under Title 11 U.S.C. §§ 547 and 548 at a seminar sponsored by the National Business Institute that will take place on December 15, 2014 at the Holiday Inn in Downtown Mobile.  Mr. Conte will discuss the various types of avoidance actions, the elements required to prove them and the defenses available to defendants.

Casey Pipes will give a presentation concerning pre-condemnation action considerations for owners of property targeted for condemnation at a real estate law seminar taking place on October 17th at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel, which is located at the Riverchase Galleria in Birmingham, Alabama.  The seminar is being co-sponsored by CLE Alabama and the Real Property, Probate & Trust Section of the Alabama State Bar.

Casey Pipes will present a paper titled, Land Use Law: Current Issues in Subdivision, Annexation and Zoning, at a National Business Institute seminar to be held in Mobile, Alabama on October 2, 2014. Mr. Pipes will focus on legal and practical considerations relating to annexations by municipalities.