Piggybacking off of the success of its 2022 and 2023 lecture series, the Commercial Division Advisory Council held its third annual lunchtime Zoom lecture series during June for summer interns working with Commercial Division Justices, summer associates at law firms, and this year expanding it to lawyers and bar associations worldwide. The stated goal of the series was to educate the future lawyers and others about the Commercial Division and commercial practice, the wide variety of cases that come before the Commercial Division, and the value of clerking, interning, and litigating in the Commercial Division.

At these lunch-and-learns, those who zoomed in were fortunate enough to learn about essential litigation topics from the following distinguished speakers:

Date	Topic	Speakers
June 6, 2024	Motion Practice	Hon. Joel M. Cohen Robert J. Giuffra Jr.
June 12, 2024	Written and Electronic Discovery	Hon. Margaret A. Chan Hon. Richard Platkin Lynn K. Neuner Linton Mann III George S. Wang
June 18, 2024	Depositions	Hon. Timothy S. Driscoll Hon. Andrea Masley Roberta A. Kaplan Timothy S. Martin John C. Quinn
June 26, 2024	Trials	Hon. Robert R. Reed Loretta E. Lynch Daniel J. Toal

By now, you are likely fully aware that we litigators at Farrell Fritz are huge proponents of the Commercial Division, and so we jumped at the opportunity to introduce our summer interns to its virtues through this lecture series.

Mary Tonna, who will begin her third year at Hofstra Law School in the Fall, found it “encouraging to have attorneys and judges take the time to speak to us and share their experience in the Commercial Division.” She also found it especially “interesting to hear how the discovery process has changed and how it will continue to change with the introduction of AI.”  Ms. Tonna also shared that she “loved how knowledgeable the speakers were” and found that “listening to judges and litigators go through each step of motion practice and discovery was particularly interesting because each judge may have different rules or practices.” She added that many of the attorney lecturers “highlighted how important it is to familiarize yourself with a certain judge’s rules! That for me was a great tip and one takeaway that stood out to me.”

Isaiah Dickerson, a rising 2L at St. John’s University School of Law, “found each lecture to be entertaining and informative as we have heard from a wide array of experienced and knowledgeable speakers.” In particular, Mr. Dickerson enjoyed the lecture on depositions where he “learned the important role depositions play in the litigation process,” and highlighted that he specifically appreciated hearing from Roberta Kaplan, who spoke about her deposition experience and even showed a video of her conducting a deposition with former President Donald Trump in October of 2022.

Sean Meaney, who will begin his second year at Hofstra Law School in the Fall, shared:

“The program provides a great opportunity for people who hope to succeed in the legal profession to become more accustomed with the various inner workings of the legal field, and has greatly added to the educational experience of my summer. By introducing some topics which I have had little experience with previously during these lectures, I am able to better understand and feel more confident when I deal with related-topics in my work. Furthermore, the lectures have been very interesting and have been a point of conversation with my fellow summer-associates.”

We hope that you all took advantage of this lecture series, and enjoyed it as much as we did here at Farrell Fritz!  We thank Bob Haig and the Commercial Division Advisory Council for alerting us to this program, and continuing to devote themselves to the Commercial Division’s flourishment.