The State Bar Association of North Dakota Summer 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 8

SBAND 116th Annual Meeting Wrap-Up
North Dakota’s 125th anniversary of statehood and its legal
heritage were among the programs during the 116th annual
meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota, held
June 17 to 19 at several downtown Bismarck venues.
The meeting’s Plenary Session was a program on “The
History of Law in North Dakota” that was presented at the
historic Belle Mehus Auditorium. Presenters were University
of North Dakota History Professor Kim Porter, former
Grand Forks Herald publisher Mike Jacobs, Supreme Court
Justice Dale Sandstrom and Bismarck attorney Bill Pearce.
Each spoke on the development of law and the legal
profession beginning with Dakota Territory and through the
unsuccessful efforts to adopt a new state constitution in 1972.
The closing program of the meeting also provided a review
of the people and events in North Dakota’s history in a
presentation called, “Drawn to History,” by historian and
artist Steve Stark of Fargo.
This year’s Mart Vogel Lecture on Professionalism and Legal
Ethics on Friday covered the topic of “Marijuana: The Legal
Ethics of Legalization.”
Presenters were Alex Kreit, Associate Professor and Director
of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Thomas Jefferson
School of Law in San Diego, California; Jim Coyle, the
Attorney Regulation Counsel for the Colorado Supreme
Court, and Kara Johnson, Acting Disciplinary Counsel for
the Disciplinary Board of the North Dakota Supreme Court.
The panel’s moderator was UND School of Law Dean
Kathryn Rand.
Downtown Bismarck venues where SBAND annual
meeting programs were held included from top, the
Luft Rooftop Bar for the opening night social, the
Courtroom at the Burleigh County Courthouse for
a CLE on jury trials by Ron McLean, and the patio
of the Fiesta Villa Restaurant, the former Northern
Pacific Railroad Depot, where Judge Jim Hill and PSC
Commissioner Julie Fedorchak presented a CLE on
railroads.

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Shown at the top of this page is artist Steve Stark
sharing the history of North Dakota in illustrations.

THE GAVEL