Last Thursday morning, Carla and I drove to Arizona to attend the annual conference of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and to take the opportunity to visit my Aunt Norma. After the pleasant five-to-six-hour road trip that used less than a tank of the Alfa Romeo’s gas and, during which, we frequently snacked and listened to part of Carla’s Audible book Hitler in Los Angeles by Steve Ross, we checked into our room on the 22nd floor of the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. On just the next city block was the Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where the conference took place.
After a brief rest and change to dress clothes, we walked across the street from the front of the hotel to the Arizona Center and had a light dinner at the Corner Bakery. There I enjoyed a very fine bowl of Big Al’s Chili, and then a donut-sized Bundt cake with sprinkles, while Carla had a turkey-avocado Cobb salad. We walked around a few blocks and hailed a t-shirted Downtown Phoenix Ambassador who happily filled us in on the local landmarks and gave us a pamphlet containing a map and directory of the area. Continuing our walk, we had just passed the local Hooters at the Arizona Center when Carla spotted Kathy and Tad Callister. I figured it fortunate that neither we nor they were coming out of Hooters. Anyway, it was good to see our long-time friends again. Tad was the speaker for the Friday-night fireside that was part of the conference. They were looking for a place to eat, so we suggested the Corner Bakery. They walked in that direction and we walked back to our hotel.
For us, the conference began that evening with registration, a welcome from the law-school dean, and a speech by Katrina Lantos Swett on defense of “Freedom of Religion, Conscience, and Belief”. I recalled that her father, the late and former California Congressman Tom Lantos, received an honorary BYU degree at the time of John’s 2001 graduation. Swett’s talk, and many of the conference’s other talks and presentations took place in the Great Hall, a large auditorium-type room with a wall that raises up to open into the courtyard, where dessert was served after the talk. Then and the next day, breakfast, lunch, and evening desserts were pleasingly catered there by Citron Catering.
We got to bed early and rose early Friday morning for the catered 7:15 a.m. breakfast—orange juice, scrambled eggs (for those so inclined), and plenty of bacon, thick sausage, fried potatoes, and breakfast pastries. After breakfast, we gathered in the Great Hall for a speech by Elder Lawrence Corbridge, a recently released General Authority, on “The Influence of Righteous Lawyers and Judges.” Breakout sessions followed; we went to a first session by Nathan Smith on “Privilege and Confidentiality in the Ward Council” and a second by Stephen Davis on “Joseph Smith’s 1839 Grand Jury Proceeding in Daviess County, Missouri:–both were quite interesting. In the breakout room before Davis’s presentation, I spotted Don Pearson a row or two in front of us; I called to him, and he came up and sat by us during the presentation and then joined us for lunch in the courtyard—it was good to seen another long-time friend. Don lives in Vancouver, Washington.
The lunch included a too-large -to-finish sandwich–I got beef and Carla had turkey. After lunch, we returned to the Great Hall where Murray Snow, the Chief Judge of the federal District Court in Arizona received an award and spoke. Elder Wilford Andersen, another recently released General Authority, and another former member of the Glendale First Ward during our long sojourn there, followed with a talk on “Christian Lawyering Within the Adversarial System”.
Breakout sessions followed: we attended former G1 Ward member Jack Welch‘s presentation on “What the Book of Mormon Teaches Us About Law, Justice, Mercy, and Humility” and then Richard Bushman‘s on “Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Modernism”.
Carla and I signed up for a “dine-around group”: Kara Woods, the student host for our group, took us to the Province Urban Kitchen and Bar in the Westin Hotel. We had a congenial group: the other lawyers were Trent Tanner of Nebraska; Carolyn Last, who works here in Colorado; and DeeAn Gillispie Strub of Arizona. Kara had spent some time working in the relatively small island nation of Timor-Leste—a new one on me. Carla and I recommend our respective dinner menu choices of excellent salmon and mahi-mahi. The group also had the shareables “cauliflower croquettes” and “shrimp and grits”; we also shared three good desserts.
After dinner, we returned to the Great Hall where Tad made his fireside presentation: maybe the finest speech of a fine conference on “What Place Do Morals and Religion Have in the Law?” Kathy told us that Tad is preparing a book on the topic of the founding of the United States—his fifth book. She also said that she has been called as the Relief Society President in their Utah ward, replacing Sherry Dew.
Saturday morning was another breakfast from a different caterer: also good. A panel discussion in the Great Hall on the “Ethics of Providing Pro Bono Services” was conducted by Michael Brown, an Arizona Court of Appeals judge; Ann Ching, a professor at the law school; and Nancy Greenlee, a local lawyer involved in cases of attorney discipline. Carla and I attended a breakout session by a panel consisting of Brent Gardner, Gaylene Vonnie Gomez Vera, and Doug McAllister on “Ethical Issues Facing the Church in South America”—-it was really shocking to hear how legal systems operate there. Gardner managed legal affairs for the Church in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay; and McAllister served as legal counsel for the Church most recently in Brazil. Vera got her law degree in Peru and opened a branch of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society in Piura.
A speech of Utah Supreme Court Justice Tom Lee, on impartialism in judging, followed the breakout session. Lunch—more sandwiches in the courtyard—was followed by an award presented by 91-year-old federal Ninth Circuit Senior Judge J. Clifford Wallace to a Pakistani Supreme Court justice Jillani, who made a video in which he accepted the award. Ninth Circuit federal judge Jay Bybee then spoke on “The Meaning of an Oath”. Finally, three lawyers from the Church’s Office of General Counsel, including Associate General Counsel Bill Atkin, made a presentation on what it’s like to work there. We thought this was a really good conference—so good that Carla wants to go the one next year announced for Atlanta, Georgia.
When the conference concluded, Carla and I drove out to Mesa to Aunt Norma’s where we had dinner with Norma, Sandy, Kent and Terri, Craig and Vicky, and Scott. They brought some good Mexican food from Someburros, and we had a most enjoyable evening eating and visiting. We drove Sandy home and stopped on the way so she could make some xerox copies for me of old family photos that Norma had passed along to her. We also gassed up at QT to get the Alfa back home.
When we arrived back at the hotel, our hotel parking lot was full, so we had to park at the Arizona Center. I had a bad night with an intestinal attack that I get at times. Unfortunately, this caused us to not try for a nearby ward sacrament meeting. Fortunately, my system cleared out early that morning and I was able to return to our car, check out of the hotel, and comfortably drive back to California. We couldn’t get Carla’s book to play back well, so we listened most of the way to Sirius Radio’s 50’s music hits station. The desert was pretty on the way. Once well into California, we did run into some rain and some stop-and-go traffic along the way. Pasadena was cloudy but dry. Watching the house while we were gone, Joseph was here when we arrived (he has a PS4). All in all, we had a great trip.