Jeanne Barnum Selected to Participate in the ABA’s 2012 Advanced Planning Leadership Program

Jeanne Barnum, co-chair of the Firm’s Construction Industry Practice Group, has been selected as one of seven members of the American Bar Association’s Construction Litigation Committee to participate, along with the Committee’s chair persons, in the ABA’s 2012 Advanced Planning (AP) Leadership Program.

The AP Leadership Program is a significant component of the Section on Litigation’s overall Strategic Plan. The committees, which were competitively selected and will have the close support of senior Section leaders and staff, will engage in an intensive multi-month planning process which will include a systematic and rigorous evaluation of how the committee is or is not meeting the needs of its members. The committees will undertake a four step process: an assessment of what the committee has done over the prior 3-5 years; an assessment of what committee members want and need; a “think tank” session on how to meet those needs and wants; and the development of concrete plans. At the end of the process, each participating committee will have an enhanced three-year plan with specific projects, assignments, benchmarks and milestones for accomplishing them.

Participating committees are expected to act as incubators for new ideas to deliver benefits to members. In particular, the participating committees will focus on current or upcoming hot topics within the committee’s areas of responsibility. Additionally, the participating committees will develop a business plan with detailed goals, benchmarks, and success metrics in programming, publications, website, membership and subcommittee structure. Committees will be encouraged to both deliver traditional member benefits in new ways and develop new member benefits. The culmination of the program will be a full-day face-to-face planning session following the Section Annual Conference in Washington, DC, in April 2012, with submission of the final three year plan by May 15th.

At the present time, more than 2,300 members belong to the Construction Litigation Committee, one of the fastest growing committees and currently the second largest substantive law committee within the ABA Section of Litigation.