SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

Newsletter Archive

Within the last month a committee appointed by the U.S. District Judges in the Southern District of Ohio, and chaired by Charlie Faruki, completed its work. The committee was charged with reporting, as required by law, in connection with the proposed reappointment of Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz for a third term of eight years, and to recommend to the judges of the Southern District of Ohio whether such a reappointment should be made. The committee recommended reappointment; its report was delivered to Chief Judge Walter H. Rice.

Ann Wightman was a panelist this month at the Ohio State Bar Association's CLE Institute course, "The Woman Advocate." Ann spoke on the subject of "Depositions and the Gorilla Adversary."

FG&I began its 2000 fall attorney recruitment campaign this month. The firm has begun recruiting with several law schools, including the University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Dayton. The firm welcomes interest from students at other law schools as well and wishes to maintain a diversity of law schools in its lawyers. FG&I seeks candidates for associate and summer clerk positions in 2001; strong academic performance is required; law journal experience is preferred. Contact Jeff Cox at (937) 227-3704, or by e-mail at jcox@fgilaw.com.

The Summer 2000 edition of Dayton Lawyer, the publication of the School of Law of the University of Dayton, contained an article titled "Lawyers and Leaders," reporting on a scholarship endowed by Faruki Gilliam & Ireland P.L.L. FG&I has donated money to the School of Law for a scholarship, among the criteria for which are academic excellence and leadership potential.

In a survey taken at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation earlier this year, the leading concerns of Section of Litigation members included the increasing costs of litigation and the effects of technology on the practice. FG&I is using the latter to ameliorate the former. We are closely tied electronically to many of our clients, routinely use e-mail to transmit documents quickly and cheaply, produce many of our trial exhibits in-house, and are working on other ways to handle litigation cost-effectively. For example, with each lawyer and paralegal having direct Internet access, research on the Internet has proven to be a cheaper, faster way of doing some investigatory research. For another example, within the last year Charlie Faruki tried a case in which two of the witnesses testified via videoconferencing; the panel of arbitrators and counsel were in one room in Dayton, and the witness was in another state. The panel and parties watched the direct and cross examination by videoconference, with each witness having been provided a set of the documents in advance.