May 9, 2022 – The last two years have presented unprecedented challenges to businesses, households, and governments around the world to adopt and adapt. As the saying goes, it’s been a crazy couple of years.

Yet legislatures across the country have continued to work on multiple issues from elections, to criminal justice, to proposals to respond to the pandemic. How have legislatures responded to the crisis? How have approaches differed between states? And how has the day-to-day machinery of lawmaking and lobbying had to adapt in a time of masking and social distancing? The State Bar of Wisconsin’s Annual Meeting and Conference (AMC) will answer some of these questions with a special panel of national presenters representing the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), National Center for State Courts (NCSC), and the American Bar Association (ABA).

As the Nation Goes: A National Perspective on Legislative Trends

This panel will be moderated by the Director of the Wisconsin Legislative Council, Atty. Anne Sappenfield, and will explore how state legislatures and congress have dealt with two years of pandemic law making. Additional pressures related to criminal justice and law enforcement reform, state redistricting, and pending litigation left legislatures grappling with pressures not dealt with before, all within a climate of uncertainty and anxiety during an ongoing global pandemic. The AMC program will highlight what it was like to enact laws across the nation, deal with pressures on the judicial branch, and watch a narrowly divided congress.

What we Learned: State and National Perspectives on Operating Courts During the Pandemic

In addition to challenges to legislatures, courts around the country have also found themselves with unique challenges that required innovation and flexibility to meet the challenges of the pandemic. While our definition of “normal” was changed in every way imaginable, court operations had to continue. In this AMC panel, Judge Jerilyn Dietz of Manitowoc County will moderate a review of how the courts adapted their operations during the pandemic and where changes might be made going forward, both in Wisconsin and across the nation. Judge Dietz will be joined by Dr. Bill Raftery of the National Center for State Courts and Amber Peterson of the Wisconsin Office of Court Operations.

The programs will begin Thursday afternoon, June 16, with the former starting at 2:40 p.m. and the latter immediately after at 4:20 p.m. The Annual Meeting and Conference will take place over June 16 and 17 at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva.

Registration is now open – you can learn more about the Annual Meeting and Conference’s CLE programs, lodging and other information here.