A Speech by Richard Turbin, TIPS Chair of the Tort and Insurance Practice Section, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting (August, 1999).

Here is my takeover speech - not with guns and violence but in the best ABA and TIPS tradition - using our advocacy skills to defend liberty and pursue justice. It is with great pride as well as with some trepidation that I accept the honor of serving as Chair of the Tort and Insurance Practice Section for the next year. Pride because I am truly honored to lead what I believe is the best lawyers organization in the world, but trepidation also because it is an awesome responsibility and I understand that I will have to work very hard and exercise considerable wisdom to prove equal to the task.

Before we look towards where we want to go it would be prudent to look backwards from where we have come. By almost every standard of measurement TIPS finds itself strong and robust. Our member services are excellent, our publications peerless, our CLE exemplary. Our latest educational service, e-DICTA, was born and will mature on the Internet. TIPS tackles the most important national issue, gun violence, and introduces intelligence and wisdom into the dialogue.

We can be proud of TIPS because it has not shrunk from the fight to preserve the civil justice system in America. We have testified in congress and provided the legal arguments to defeat the efforts to deprive Americans of their right to access their legal system when they are injured in automobile collisions. Likewise we did not shrink from our obligations to oppose the crusade to nationalize Y2K law and give partial legal immunity to the computer industry. Although one can argue that it would have been more prudent for TIPS not to have taken a stand on those controversial legal issues, it would not have been the right thing to do.

What makes me so proud of TIPS is that we have constantly tried to do the right thing. And more than anything that has been the secret of our success.

Yes, striving to make TIPS an empowering home for plaintiff’s attorneys has been the right thing to do.

Yes, striving to re-empower insurance and corporate lawyers within the TIPS home has been the right thing to do.

Yes, striving to cure the difficult relationship between insurance defense attorneys and the insurance industry is the right thing to do.

Yes, striving to help the insurance industry with their insolvency problems has been the right thing to do.

Yes, working to create better diversity within TIPS and our legal system is the right thing to do.

Yes, working to solve the gun violence problem in America is the right thing to do.

Yes, working to stop violence in our schools and to offer assistance to domestic violence victims is the right thing to do.

Yes, working to provide the best possible continuing legal education, publications and services for our members is the right thing to do.

And, fighting for the preservation of our civil justice system in America is the right thing to do.

And fostering the rule of law throughout the world is the right thing to do.

As we look forward to the new millennium we see the fruits of our past labors. Our former leaders are bringing their ideals and leadership skills to the greater ABA. Our ranks are being swelled by many creative lawyers from the young lawyer and law student divisions. Many more plaintiffs’ lawyers and solo and small firm practitioners are coming home to TIPS. Many of our general committees, standing committees, and task forces are working with dynamic success. Thanks to the outstanding work of many TIPS leaders and our talented and hard working staff, and especially because of the quiet wisdom of outgoing chair Kip Reader, TIPS finds itself financially and organizationally healthy and at the top of its game.

But, I ask for your hand and your heart so we may continue this journey to take TIPS to new horizons in the new millennium. We are the most important organization of tort and insurance lawyers in the nation but we should also be the most important tort and insurance law organization in the world. I ask you to come with Mike Cass, Jim Campbell, Rai and myself to China in November to assist the government of Guangdong province develop its products liability law. I ask you to come with TIPS to London in July 2000 to teach and learn from our European brethren. Our dynamic international TIPS committee is developing plans to bring TIPS to South Africa and TIPS might be asked by Japan to help redraft its automobile insurance law. These are worthy aspirations and deserve our support. I ask for your hand and your heart to bring TIPS to a new horizon in continuing legal education by supporting our first trial advocacy academy, to debut in Reno on May 1, 2000 and make it the best in the nation.

I ask you to extend your hand and heart to our chair-elect, Mitch Orpett, in his efforts to forge a new and healthier relationship between insurance defense attorneys and the insurance industry. I ask you to extend your hand and your heart to follow up Kip Reader’s trail blazing work on our gun violence problem.

And finally I ask you to extend your hand and your heart to insure that America’s civil justice system, the finest in the world, be preserved.

There is no doubt that TIPS will continue to do the right thing.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the honor of playing a role in this great adventure—as TIPS rises to new horizons and meets the new challenges of the new millennium.