Last week we participated in the 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain program in San Francisco, and a good program it was. It was the 32nd annual ALI-CLE (formerly ALI-ABA) program on the topic of eminent domain and land valuation. The attendance ran to some 150 attendees, which these days is pretty good for a national CLE program. Actually, your faithful servant started doing this program (among others) back in 1970 when it was run by PLI, which for us makes it a total of 44 years.
What we talked about was “100 Years in 60 Minutes,” a summary of our experience — “our” being your faithful servant who spoke about his adventures and misadventures in practicing and helping to shape eminent domain law, and Michael Berger who is widely acknowledged as the foremost inverse condemnation lawyer, who did the same thing, only he spoke on his life in fighting the takings battle, starting with the early days of airport litigation, to the current state of regulatory taking law. Each of us put in some 50 years doing this stuff so together we made the 100 years. As the British would say, it was a jolly good show, and we hope that those of our readers interested in the subject of eminent domain will get their DVDs from ALI-CLE and take it all in.
If you are interested in getting an immediate overview of what transpired there, check out the blog www.inversecondemnation.com which is run by our fellow blogger Robert Thomas. He was there as planning co-chairman of the whole shebang and one of the speakers. A good read, that. Also if you want that DVD, it’s available from ALI-CLE, 4025 Chestnut St., Philadelphia PA 19104-3099; or you can call (800) CLE-NEWS. If eminent domain is your thing, you should take it in on the tube.