How Have You Been Involved In Legal Education?

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to give presentations to trial lawyers, not just in Iowa, but throughout the country. I’ve been invited back to these organizations, sometimes year after year, which is very rewarding, but what’s also rewarding is I’ve never put together a seminar or a program where I didn’t learn something myself. So, I’ve been fortunate to have cases that other lawyers take notice to. So, I’ve been asked to talk about how we put those cases together and what made a difference in those cases. So, it’s my chance to share with my colleagues and other trial lawyers these things. It is personally rewarding and I also feel like I’m a part of a professional good when I do that and share those experiences. Over the years, I’ve kept forms and various articles I’ve written and presentations I’ve given. I’ve kept all those materials, going back about 12 years ago I started to put them together into a book, this was literally an 8 to 10 year process. I put together a book called Iowa Pleading Causes of Actions and Defenses. And basically it takes you from the beginning of a case and how you plead it. It has forms, it has case law, statutory law, it has procedure law, it has tips, it is something I’ve become known for. The law schools recommend it to their students, it’s a practical how-to-do-it type of book. While I’m the principle author of that book, almost every lawyer at LaMarca Law Group contributed a form, an idea, and so that was also part of the reward. But it’s a very widely acclaimed work by practicing attorneys, so it’s kind of fun knowing that I shared my experience with them and it’s also a source of referrals, where lawyers will call me and ask about different things in the book and so that exciting.