2025 has brought and will continue to bring challenges to the rule of law and access to justice. You, our members, have been meeting the moment by leveraging your voice, power, and influence in service to protecting the rule of law and defending our democracy. For that, I thank you.  

I can become so immersed and caught in thought that the world around me fades away. Many or most of you know what I mean because sometimes you do it too. It is the opposite of being distracted. It’s when all your wits light up like lasers, fly into action, and illuminate every contour and crevice of your mind. It’s where you go looking for ideas, answers, insights, and hoping for epiphanies. In the physical world, this can translate to coffee getting spilled on your keyboard, not hearing the phone ring, etc. Until now, actually really just now, I never thought of giving it a name. Maybe thoughtscape. Of course, if I had come up with that during my defense lawyer years, the entry “Deep in a thoughtscape related to issues of...” on a client’s invoice would not have been well received, although it could have replaced several detailed sentences describing the same thing.  

The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently issued Formal Opinion 515, outlining the ethical obligations when “A Lawyer’s Discretion to Report When a Client Commits a Crime Against the Lawyer or Against Someone Associated with, or Related to, the Lawyer.” While not something that happens often, when it occurs, it raises significant ethical issues. In particular, the opinion addresses the circumstances under which a lawyer may disclose information and explores the duty of confidentiality under ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 and the implicit exceptions to this rule in such situations.  

Drones, technically called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), are a technological development being utilized more and more in the personal, commercial and governmental sectors.