SAN DIEGO - An ongoing dispute regarding a San Diego hotelier’s support of the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 has caused a spilt amongst attendees of the annual California Bar Association Annual Meeting.
The Conference of Delegates has moved to a new venue apart from the annual State Bar meeting being held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, which is under regular protest due to part-owner Douglas Manchester’s contributions to the Prop 8 campaign to ban same-sex marriage.
Most nights there is a noisy picket line in front of the hotel. Whether the State Bar should or could move its annual meeting was a great controversy in legal circles earlier this year. In the end, the State Bar decided that it was not prudent or possible to move their convention. However, the now truly independent Conference of Delegates found itself not bound by the State Bar decision.
The Conference of Delegates moved more than a mile away to the new Hilton Bayfront, near Petco Park. Attorneys or judges who want to attend both are left to chose between their walking shoes or taking a pedicab or taxi. The Conference of Delegates has created its own continuing education program in an apparent attempt to keep it participants in the Hilton and away from the Hyatt.
A potential peace branch was offered by both the outgoing and incoming presidents of the State Bar when they made the effort to travel to the Hilton to tell the Conference of Delegates participants how much the State Bar valued the Conference.
The annual meeting of the California State Bar Association opened in downtown San Diego on Thursday and will continue through Sunday. The annual meeting is the gathering of the state’s lawyers and judges held each year in the fall. The event rotates its location between several cities.
The Cal Bar’s Annual Meeting was last in San Diego in 2005. Next year it will be held in Monterey and it is scheduled back to San Diego in 2011. The meeting is traditionally a combination of three elements.
First, there is the availability for lawyers to receive a large amount of continuing education. Lawyers must participate in continuing education to remain in good standing with the Bar.
Secondly, there is the opportunity for various law-related organizations to also meet — for example, the state-wide judges association. Awards are usually given to outstanding lawyers and judges and the State Bar’s new president and board of governors take their oaths of office.
Lastly, there is the Conference of Delegates. The Conference of Delegates is an annual event which is part legislative initiative and part political convention. Lawyer members propose new laws or changes to existing laws.
If a proposal is passed by the Conference of Delegates, it is forwarded to the state legislature for possible enactment into actual state law. Several laws presently on the books became laws in this way.
For many years, the Conference of Delegates was a component of the State Bar. However, the Conference passed some resolutions with which Governor Pete Wilson disagreed. As a result, the Conference of Delegates was severed from the Bar in the late 90s and is now a separate and independent organization.
The organization’s independence was made very clear this year with the move to a separate venue.
The last time the State Bar met in San Diego, in 2005, the venue was the San Diego Convention Center. However, the Convention Center was booked for a large sporting goods convention, leading to the change of venue to the relatively new, large and elegant Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Normally, relocating the lawyers and the judges there would a prudent move.
It is likely that peace should return next year when the annual meeting is scheduled to be in Northern California in Monterey. However, the State Bar is coming back to San Diego in 2011. Presently, the annual meeting is scheduled to convene in–the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Garrison Klueck is an attorney and SDNN contributing writer.
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