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Washington, DC
May 25, 2005
-- Although federal class action and asbestos reform have
received a great deal of national attention this year, recent
legislative victories in Missouri and Georgia reflect the
reality that the most significant legal reform action still
occurs in the states. States remain in fierce competition for
employers and, as several national surveys have reflected,
businesses seriously consider states’ civil justice environment
when deciding where to locate plants or offices. The need to
continue and intensify efforts to improve states’ civil justice
systems, and how best to pursue reform strategies, is the focus
of the latest edition of
Washington
Legal Foundation’s (WLF) CONVERSATIONS WITH
publication series.
Former two-term
Governor of Pennsylvania Dick Thornburgh moderates the
discussion which features Florida Governor Jeb Bush;
former Governor of Michigan and current President and CEO of the
National
Association of Manufacturers
John Engler;
and
Steve
Hantler, Assistant General Counsel to Chrysler LLC
and Chairman of the American Justice Partnership. Mr.
Thornburgh is currently Counsel to the law firm Kirkpatrick &
Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP, and serves as Chairman of the
Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.
The participants
provide insights on the pursuit and achievement of legislative
change, and the role that governors should play in the process.
Governors, they stress, must energize citizens, legislators, and
interested parties by connecting civil justice reform to job
creation and their overall economic agenda. It is also critical,
Mr. Hantler emphasizes, for national reform advocates to work in
partnership with local advocates, and
for all parties to agree on and pursue a common agenda.
Governors Bush and Engler both note that positive legal reform
must include electing supportive legislators and attorneys
general, and making sure judges who respect the rule of law
populate state judiciaries.
Finally, all three
participants reflect on recent successes, and the governors
recount past efforts in their respective states. Washington
Legal Foundation is a national, non-profit public interest law
and policy center. By utilizing a unique approach in forwarding
its mission publishing timely legal studies, engaging in
innovative litigation, and communicating directly to the public
WLF has become the nation's most effective advocate of free
enterprise.
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Washington Legal
Foundation is a national, non-profit public interest law and
policy center.
By utilizing a unique
approach in forwarding its mission publishing timely legal
studies,
engaging in
innovative litigation, and communicating directly to the public
WLF has become the
nation's most effective advocate of free enterprise. |
