The goal is to simplify the rules and address new areas of class actions and electronic filing. The new rules should "work for those who have to use them lawyers and the clerks of the court," said Chief Judge G. Patrick Murphy.
For additional information, contact the rules committee chair, Rebecca R. Jackson, by e-mail at rrjackson@bryancave.com.
Mengler named law school dean in Minnesota
"It's a great opportunity to work at a law school that has a distinct faith-based mission," Mengler said, "one that carries out the highest values of the profession, provides service to the community and is committed to excellence in teaching and research."
Mengler announced last August that he would step down as dean in Champaign at the end of the current academic year. "I have felt for awhile the need to take on a new challenge," he said. "The St. Thomas position certainly is that."
The new law school opened last August with 120 students, under founding dean David Link. Classes will be conducted for at least another year in Terrence Murphy Hall on the university's downtown campus while a $31 million law school building is constructed.
The new facility is expected to be ready for use by the 2003 fall semester, and the university anticipates full enrollment of 450 students by 2008. Rev. Dennis Dease, the university president, said Mengler would be "a perfect fit. He is a seasoned dean of one of the top 25 law schools in the United States."
A 1981 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Mengler joined the U. of I. faculty in 1985 and became a full professor in 1991. He was associate dean for academic affairs for a year before becoming dean in 1993, and he also was the university's interim provost for seven months in 1998.
During Mengler's tenure, the faculty has increased from 27 to 37, and the curriculum has grown from 85 upper-level course titles and 98 sections to 125 courses and 141 sections. The number of endowed chairs and professorships increased from seven to 21.
A member of the ISBA Committee on Judicial Evaluations for several years and principal drafter of many of its current procedures, Mengler is a member of the Special Committee on the Future of the Courts Conference. He is a consultant to the Federal Courts Study Committee.
If you have been activated, or know of a colleague who has, mail details to Stephen Anderson, ISBA, Suite 900, 20 S. Clark St., Chicago, Ill. 60603, or send an e-mail to sanderson@isba.org.
Corporate lawyer enjoys challenge of Olympic archery
By Jeff Cappel
A competitive bowman for more than 30 years and a partner at Arnstein & Lehr, Miller is president of the National Archery Association of the United States (NAA).
A regular competitor in national, regional and state tournaments, he finished in 31st place in the NAA tournament last year, earning the right to compete in the subsequent U.S. open competition.
The corporate and business attorney grew up in Milwaukee, where he found indoor, commercial archery ranges. "I went to them and discovered that I had the ability to shoot competitively," he said.
Although he shot only recreationally while in college and law school at Northwestern because of time constraints, he became more active in the sport after his 1979 law school graduation.
As president of the NAA, Miller oversees an organization recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the governing body for Olympic archery. NAA is also responsible for the Pan American team and the Junior Olympic archery development program for youths.
Miller also sits on the board of governors for the National Archery Foundation, which was set up after the 1984 Olympic Games. Funds from the foundation are used by the NAA.
As part of his NAA duties, Miller was in Beijing, China, in September, when the United States was attacked by terrorists. "I was representing the U.S. in the Federation de Internationale de Tira a l'Arc Congress," an international organization for archery, he recalled.
As one of 65 worldwide delegates, Miller voted on proposed changes to the international rules governing Olympic, international and national archery championships. This congress was held alongside the World Target Championships.
The U.S. target team was scattered throughout the country on Sept. 11 and had been scheduled to fly into O'Hare for a flight to Beijing. Learning of the attacks, Miller and NAA executive director Rick Mack contacted headquarters in Colorado Springs to make sure the team was safe.
After speaking with the Olympic Committee and the U.S. Embassy, Miller decided it would be an individual choice for team members to attend. As it turned out, they couldn't get out of the U.S. because the airports were shut down.
"So we weren't able to participate in the world championships," Miller said, "which was a terrible thing for us because he had very competitive archers."
That won't affect the U.S. in the Olympics, however, since positions are determined by finishes in several tournaments. The Beijing tournament had no bearing on the Olympics, but the 2003 world championships will.
Miller's NAA presidency has taken up much his time, but it's not overwhelming. "It's like everything else," he said. "You budget your time between client business, which comes first, and NAA matters."
He finds his archery responsibilities not so different from corporate law work. "It's just like doing any kind of transaction," he explained, "in that you're trying to get something accomplished in the best way possible."
Miller's wife, Kathy, also shoots competitively. Their children, 16-year-old Stephanie and 14-year-old Jonathan, have won national titles.
"Law and archery are the two things we do in my family," Miller said, adding that his wife and mother were legal secretaries. Archery dictated that he would live in Naperville. "The larger archery clubs are in this area," he said, "like in North Aurora and Bolingbrook."
Miller discussed the two types of tournament archery equipment: recurve and compound. "Recurve is the only type of archery that's allowed in the Olympics," he said. "Recurve is what you always think a bow looks like, with no pulleys."
Miller and his wife use compound or tournament compound bows, which are not allowed in the Olympics or Pan Am games, but are allowed in all other international competitions. "We're trying to get them into the Pan Am games," he said.
Miller compares archery to golf, in that it is a very mental sport. "You need to have the basic fundamentals of form," he explained. "After that, what separates a good shooter from a national or Olympic shooter is really one of mental abilities to compete under extreme pressure."
Physical fitness is also critical, as there is a minimum physical requirement to make the U.S. archery team. Both of Miller's children lift weights and focus on leg strength, which is critical for endurance and the way a bow is pulled back.
Miller's enjoyment of archery is enhanced because his family is so active in it. "It's a small sport," he said, "and I pretty much know everyone who's involved."
Judges, poker players watch for clues to veracity
By Jeff Cappel
A tell can be expressed in a player's handling of his cards, some movement in his chair or change of facial expression. Such factors also may reveal whether the player is pulling a bluff.
For the poker player, it comes down to discovering the truth about what cards the opponent is holding. Similarly, a judge is confronted with seeking truth in the courtroom, from witnesses or attorneys.
Who is to be believed? How do you tell if someone is lying? Do physical reactions and responses always indicate truthfulness, or lack of it?
This topic took center stage in the Dec. 14 panel, "Objective Indicators of Deception in the Courtroom," sponsored by the Illinois Judges Association during its convention in Chicago.
The study of human deception is only about 30 years old, said Stan Walker, a teacher of interrogative and interview techniques who wrote the book, "The Truth About Lying: How to Stop a Lie and Protect Yourself from Deception."
In the old days, Walker said, truth-determining studies were little more than staged deception events that relied more on guesswork than anything else.
He cited a study, conducted years ago by the Rand Corp., that showed the handling of forensics and the interviewing of witnesses, victims and suspects had the greatest impact on the successful outcome of a case.
Walker participated in the government-funded study, "Microanalysis of Verbal and Non-Verbal Behavior," which identified various cues that had higher rates of occurrence when a person was being deceptive.
Participants studied the taped interrogations from 36 adjudicated felony cases, having advance knowledge of the truth or falsity of statements made by the interrogation subjects. A list of verbal and non-verbal indicators was compiled to determine whether any occur repeatedly when truth or lies are told.
"We realized that people have their own base of behavior," Walker said, "and that there is no one universal gesture which indicates truth or deception."
No specific type of behavior could be targeted to identify deception. Signs of stress can be misinterpreted as signs of deception.
"There were times when an individual would be deceptive and there would be no bodily cues," Walker said. "Other times, there would be no verbal deception, but a body language cluster would appear."
The study also showed that job experience did not necessarily enable a person to spot what was known to researchers to be a lie. No better than 50 percent of participants at any experience level could do it.
"The only group that was better at spotting liars, and indeed hit 62 percent, was inmates," Walker said. "So I guess that validates the saying, it takes one to know one."
Walker discussed another study, which revealed that what is taught in law enforcement academies may be incorrect by as high as 50 percent, depending upon the situation.
He surveyed 875 police officers nationwide two years ago and found that 16 percent had no academy experience and 60 percent had no training in interview skills. He spoke about one guilt-or-innocence indicator he came across.
"One instructor said that you could determine a person's guilt or innocence by placing a paper clip in the middle of the table," he said. "If a subject picked it up and played with it, they're guilty. That's actually being taught."
Walker added that one training program stressed that liars gesture more with their left hands. "I can't find any scientific basis for that," he quipped.
Humans are bad at spotting deception for reasons that include looking for the wrong cues (fidgeting or lack of eye contact) or tending to like the subject and believe in his or her innocence.
Special agent Marie Dyson of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico, Va., said that it's essential to learn how to talk to people. "They have to learn to want to talk to you," she said, "and you have to give them the opportunity to do that."
A profiler of serial killers, Dyson said most her cases are circumstantial. "We don't have the DNA or smoking gun," she said, " but we do have a personality of the offender."
Her team looks at the behavior of those who commit murder, rape or child abuse, stalkers, and international or domestic terrorists. These acts will reveal the offender's personality and tell investigators what they're dealing with.
Determining why the crime scene was chosen, learning as much as possible about the victim, and studying lab reports will provide valuable clues to the offender's personality. Dyson said that knowing about the offender's behavior after an offense is also important.
Assistant U.S. attorney Mitchell A. Mars, chief of the Organized Crime Section in the Northern District of Illinois said that "by its definition, the study of lying is the study of contradictions. It's a scary proposition when you deal with pathological liars, people who have no ethical responsibility when it comes to truth telling."
Although courtroom practitioners don't have access to government investigators, Mars suggested ways that practitioners can spot deception.
"Observe as many witnesses in the case as possible," he said, "and compare their testimony with other witnesses. I don't mean to suggest that you find truth by majority, but it is a crude and effective way of testing opinion."
Mars also prefers narrative responses, as opposed to yes-and-no answers, because the are better indicators of whether details are coming from memory.
He agreed that relying on facial and bodily movements on the part of witnesses, as indicators of the truth, isn't always the best way. The lawyer may be seeing the witness for the first time in a courtroom environment.
"It's very helpful to know how that person acts outside the courtroom," Mars said, "but if you don't, you have no basis for comparison."
Dr. Leonard Miller, co-editor of the Journal of Integrative Psychiatry and a trial attorney for 40 years, told how distorted perceptions can affect eyewitness testimony.
"The brain can only hold so much information," Miller said, "so things will happen which will affect whether you know the truth or not." Blocking unpleasant, unwanted memories is another truth-inhibiting factor.
Miller added that there have been cases where blocked memories were freed, but an inherent danger in this method is suggestibility. Individual bias plays a major role in determining who and what someone believes, he cautioned.
Jochner, Gamrath win more writing awards
In addition to high levels of activity in ISBA sections and committees, Chicago attorneys Michele M. Jochner and Cecilia G. Gamrath have created a dynasty in annual competition for Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest honors.
Jochner, administrative assistant to Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow, took first place this year for the fourth time her seventh award in nine years with "Big Brother May be Watching: The Conflict Between Privacy and Cyber-Age Police Investigation."