So. Cal. Chapter of American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Names Family Law Jurists of the Year at Balboa Bay Club

The Southern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), the nation’s foremost organization promoting excellence in the practice of family law, presents its 23rd Annual Trial Advocacy Institute, entitled “The Art of Examination at Trial and Deposition (and Much, Much More),” providing an in-depth focus on taking, defending and using depositions at trial, Saturday, January 16 – Monday, January 18, 2016, at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California. The three-day symposium, geared for attorneys, features nationally acclaimed deposition expert and author Peter Hoffman as keynote speaker and more than a dozen legal experts, including numerous AAML Fellows, covering such other topics as preparing witnesses, introducing exhibits, private judging, and direct and cross examination. The event also includes a black-tie awards dinner on Saturday night at which esteemed Superior Court Judges Hank M. Goldberg and Erick L. Larsh, and Superior Court Commissioner William Y. Wood will be named Family Law Judicial Officers of the Year.

“The institute is designed for family law specialists and practitioners who want to expand their knowledge in the field and take their practice to the next level,” said 2016 Institute Dean Stephen J. Wagner, partner at Dick & Wagner in Sacramento and San Diego, CA, and an AAML Southern California Chapter Board Member. “Leading family law judges, attorneys and experts will provide practical up-to-date information to help elevate the standards and advance the cause of matrimonial law.”

Wagner further states, “We are also proud to honor at our awards dinner three pillars of matrimonial law.

Judge Hank M. Goldberg will be named Los Angeles County’s Family Law Jurist of the Year; Judge Erick L. Larsh will be honored as Orange County’s Family Law Jurist of the Year; and Commissioner William Y. Wood will receive accolades as San Diego Family Law Jurist of the Year.”

Each day’s session begins with a hot trial tip, a discussion regarding the rules of evidence, and guest speakers include Justice Sheila Sonenshine (Ret.), Hon. Steven Denton (Ret.), and civil litigator Cynthia Chihak, as well as AAML Fellows Sharon Blanchet, Sharon Bryan, Bruce Cooperman, Saul Gelbart, Larry A. Ginsberg, Ron Granberg, Suzanne Harris, Ed Thomas and Peter W. Walzer, and Andrew L. Hunt, CPA.

Keynote speaker Peter Hoffman is the author of the Effective Deposition: Techniques and Strategies That Work (with David Malone). A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, he is a Professor of Law and Director of Skills Programs at Elon University Law School in Greensboro, North Carolina. Previously, he taught at the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Nebraska College of Law. Hoffman has also taught as a visitor at the University of Michigan, University of Hawaii, University of San Diego, Washington University -- St. Louis and City University of Hong Kong. He has taught more than 400 litigation-related CLE programs in 33 states and territories and 16 foreign countries. He also served as an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Palau and is an Academic Member of the International Society of Barristers.

Enrollment in the three-day institute is $975. (Dinner tickets are separate: $75 for the prelude supper on Friday; $150 for the black-tie awards dinner on Saturday; and $50 for the dessert and piano bar on Sunday.) The Balboa Bay Club is located at 1221 West Coast Highway, Newport Beach, California 92663. For tickets and information, please call 916.920.9504 or visit www.aamlsocal.com.