Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Yesterday was a picture-perfect day to be by the St. Croix River -- so I was pleased to be able to attend the 10th Judicial District's Bench and Bar Conference in Stillwater. (The Minnesota State Bar Association set the whole program up as part of its continuing efforts to increase its presence and visbility outside the Twin Cities.)

The area that encompasses the 10th District -- which includes Anoka and Washington counties -- has undergone some radical growth in recent years. It was interesting to hear some of the judges and lawyers from the area discuss how that growth has affected them. Slated to get two more judges in the near future, the 43-judge district is second only to the 4th District (i.e. Hennepin County) in the number of judges that it has.

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson and Court of Appeals Chief Judge Ed Toussiant were among those who came to event, for which about 160 members of the local legal community signed up. The judges (or justice and chief judge, to be more precise) did an interesting and informative presentation on the recent key state appellate decisions.

Minneapolis attorney Chuck Lundberg and 10th District Judge Ken Jorgenson put on an entertaining and funny(!) ethics program (if that's not a contradiction in terms), which somehow managed to incorporate both a flashing siren and a video clip from Ally McBeal.

All-in-all, a nice event, made all the nicer by the fact that afterward I stopped for a meal on the deck of The Freight House, where the view of the St. Croix can't be beat.