FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

Kick-off Lunch & Vinous Salute
Annual group photo on lawn at 1:15PM

Connecting with the Modern Juror (1.0 CLE hour)*   
Presented by Claire Luna, Jury Impact, Inc.-Costa Mesa, CA

If you haven't done jury research in the past three years, then you don't know your jury. The COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly visible racism, eroding trust in institutions, contested elections and growing economic equality have forever changed the public's views on healthcare, litigation and damages.  As juror perspectives have changed, the defense bar must also pivot and develop narratives that resonate with them.  Jury consultant Claire Luna will talk about who the modern juror is and how to effectively connect with them in the courtroom using candid and at times alarming focus group footage from research throughout America.  

Hot Button Issues (1.0 CLE hour)*   
Round robin, interactive member discussion moderated by Julianne Hall, Elam & Burke-Boise

Dollar-Ski School Rm

Current Ethical Issues in Idaho (1.0 Ethics CLE Hour)* 
Presented by Joseph N. Pirtle, Esq., Idaho State Bar

Session will include the most common ethical issues addressed by Bar Counsel’s office and the applicable Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct. Will include discussion on recent Idaho Supreme Court decision impacting client files under Rule 1.16(d).

*An application for 3.0 CLE credits (1.0 in ethics) for the underlined activities above will be submitted to the Idaho State Bar.

Implicit Gender Bias in Judicial Opinion Writing: Does it Exist? (1.5 Ethics CLE Hours)*    
Presented by Hon. Mary Pat Gunderson, District Court Judge, Iowa (Retired)

The “Me Too” Movement has forced corporations, and the entertainment industry as well as state and federal executive and legislative branch officials to take a hard look at gender inequities and sexual harassment in the workplace.  But, how does our judicial system fare?  Is the one branch of government charged with being fair and impartial in the interpretation and application of our laws truly fair and impartial?  This presentation takes a look at the real possibility of implicit gender bias in judicial opinion writing by deconstructing four recent Iowa Supreme Court ethics opinions written by an all-male Court wherein the victims were female clients and/or intimate partner of the male attorney/abuser. Not only do the case results themselves raise questions, but the language those results are wrapped in may be even more revealing.  This presentation examines both the results and language through the eyes of an Iowa trial Court judge in Iowa’s largest judicial district.  Please note: Judge Gunderson’s presentation will contain descriptions of physical/sexual assault and domestic abuse.

Recent Idaho Supreme Court Case Standouts: What You Need to Know! (.50 CLE Hour)*  
Presented by select IADC members

Break

Not Just Monopoly Money: Combating Nuclear Jury Verdicts (1.0 CLE Hour)* 
Presented by Jill Cranston Rice,Esq., Dinsmore & Shohl LLP-Morgantown, WV  

Whether a verdict is $17 million or $170 million, juries are awarding break-the-bank verdicts.  This discussion of nuclear verdicts will explore what is happening in society and in our cases that is contributing to these nuclear verdicts and what we as defense lawyers can do to combat them, including a look at Idaho trends and verdicts.

IADC Golf Tournament (Scramble Format)- Check-in by 12:15;
Shotgun start at 1:00PM!   
Tournament coordinator: Tyler J. Anderson, Moffatt Thomas-Boise

Reception & President’s Dinner (casual attire) - With live music by: Travis McDaniel    
               

*An application for 3.0 CLE credits (1.5 in ethics) for the underlined activities above will be submitted to the Idaho State Bar.

Claire Luna is the managing partner and senior vice president at Jury Impact, headquartered in Irvine, California.  Claire has been with the company for nearly 18 years and heads the company’s daily operations, sales and client communications and is consistently the lead in providing messaging and strategy assistance to attorneys during focus groups, witness preparation, jury selection, trial monitoring and exit interviews.   

Claire has worked on focus group projects in 48 states, prepared more than a hundred witnesses to testify at deposition and trial, and led jury selection in dozens of trials throughout the country covering the civil litigation spectrum.  More than half of the company’s work is focused on healthcare litigation.  She has also led presentations in front of upward of a thousand people discussing the company’s research and methodology as well as juror trends during the past two decades. 

Claire was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2001 through 2005 and has also worked for the Seattle Times and Fort Myers News-Press.  She holds bachelor’s degrees in print journalism and psychology from the University of Southern California, where she was the first Latina editor in chief of the Daily Trojan.

Joseph N. Pirtle joined Bar Counsel’s office in April 2022. Before then, Joe was a shareholder and civil litigation attorney with Elam & Burke in Boise. Joe received his B.S. in Business Finance from the University of Idaho in 2001 and his J.D. from the University of Idaho College of Law in 2004.

Joe was a member of the inaugural class of the Idaho Academy of Leadership for Lawyers, and later served for three years on its steering committee. He is a past chairperson of the ISB Litigation Section as well as a mentor for the Idaho Trial Skills Academy. Joe served many years as a member of the Idaho Lawyer Assistance Program and was pro bono counsel to the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline for many years.

Mary Pat Gunderson was appointed in 2011 District Court Judge in Polk County, Iowa, where she presided over both criminal and civil jury and bench trials.  Judge Gunderson served as Chair of the District’s Law Clerk Hiring Committee and Co-Chair of the Polk County Bench Bar Committee. She has also held positions on both the Board of Directors for the Polk County Volunteer Lawyers Project and the Iowa Supreme Court Task Force on Family Law.  The Iowa Association of Women Attorneys awarded Judge Gunderson the 2020 Arabella Mansfield Award in recognition of her support of women in the legal profession,

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Gunderson served as a Polk County Magistrate from 2005-2011.  From 1989-1996, she was an Assistant Polk County Attorney, where she prosecuted over 25 felony jury trials including kidnapping and first-degree murder.

She graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1988.

Upon retiring in 2017, Judge Gunderson co-founded the Iowa Center for Children’s Justice.  She currently splits her time between Des Moines, Iowa, and Ketchum, Idaho.  The presentation she will give draws from her 2018 publication in the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law and subsequent legal developments.  Since the article’s publication, she has presented her research on implicit gender bias in the judiciary to numerous organizations, including the Iowa Supreme Court, the Utah Supreme Court, the National Association of Women Judges, and the Washington D.C. Bar Association.

Jill Cranston Rice is a Partner in the Morgantown, West Virginia office of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, where she serves on the Firm’s Board of Directors and co-chairs the firm’s Health Law and Public Policy Practice Group.  She has an health care and commercial litigation practice, representing hospital systems, insurance companies, financial institutions, and small and large businesses.  She has been a registered lobbyist in West Virginia for nearly 25 years, representing various sectors ranging from health care organizations to a global data provider.  Jill currently serves as president of the West Virginia Insurance Federation and is the lead lobbyist for the property and casualty insurance industry in West Virginia. 

Jill serves on the DRI Board of Directors and is a Past President of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia.  Among her recognitions, in 2021, the National Law Journal named Jill an Insurance Trailblazer, and the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia named her the 2022 Defense Lawyer of the Year. 

She and her husband, Clayton, have three grown children, two dogs, and one cat.