W I N T E R
N E B R A S K A A S S O C I AT I O N O F T R I A L AT T O R N E Y S
P R E S I D E N T ’ S
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VOLUME 30, NO. 3 2024
M E S S A G E
AN INTRODUCTION AND AN ASK
INSIDE NATA Leadership................4 Practice Pointers................6 The Prairie Barrister.........10 Young Lawyers.................12 The Cost of Collisions.......14 NATA PAC.........................16 NATA PAC Contributors.....................17 Incorporating AI into Your Law Practice........... 20 Inside NATA..................... 28 NATA Winter Seminar...... 32 Washington Update......... 34
Well this should be interesting! Here I am writing my first President’s Message for NATA less than two years after writing my last “Young Lawyer” article for the organization. I look at the list of past NATA presidents and it is easy to immediately say “well I don’t measure up to those litigators.” In my time moving through the chairs, I have watched first hand the work done by Jason Ausman, Brock Wurl, Todd Bennett, and Jon Urbom. Again, the bar is set high. I am particularly thankful for the leadership Jon Urbom provided in shepherding NATA through the transition from Stella to Deborah. NATA truly has been in great hands for a very long time. I will surely end with a sense of failure at the end of this year if I try to measure myself against the heavyweights that have come before me. Instead, my approach is simply – do the work. Whatever the organization needs from me, I will be ready and willing to roll my sleeves up and do the work. My aim is to be accessible and receptive to all NATA members. Is there something NATA is involved in that you think misses the mark? Is there something NATA is not involved in that you think we should be? My email inbox is always open and my phone is always on. I’m blessed to have the support of an unbelievably talented and invested executive committee. Jennifer Turco Meyer, Elizabeth Govaerts, Cameron Guenzel, Jon Urbom, Matt Lathrop, and Pete Wegman constitute a team of leaders that truly accomplish the goal of surrounding myself with people smarter than me. From a day-to-day standpoint, NATA is in the terrific hands of new executive director, Deborah Neary. I can’t predict how the next year will go for NATA, but I can confidently say we have a team in place to take any challenge head-on. In one sense, my goal for the upcoming year is simply to not mess up a good thing. This is not an organization in need of massive overhaul or even a pivot from our past and current goals and efforts. NATA has never shifted from its primary purpose to preserve the justice system and defend the Constitutional right to trial by jury. As long as that mission remains at NATA’s core, we will be in good shape. That is not to say NATA is a static, unchanging monolith of an organization. Like every other strong organization, evolution over time is key. We must adapt to the changing world around us when necessary. In my years with NATA, we have had numerous discussions regarding how we maintain our membership numbers, the best services we can provide to our members, and how NATA can most effectively accomplish its mission of defending the civil justice system in Nebraska. Elizabeth Govaerts (Powers Law and NATA’s current Secretary) recently approached me about scheduling a NATA meeting exclusively focused on analyzing our current strategies and services and evaluating where and how we can improve. Elizabeth hit the bullseye with this recommendation. This leads me to my first significant ask as NATA’s president – please consider attending next year’s NATA Summer Meetings.
2025 NATA SUMMER MEETINGS CHICAGO JULY 9 – 12, 2025 CHICAGO ATHLETIC CLUB
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