About 17 lawyers are planning a trip to Buffalo's French sister city, Lille, for a three-day international conference and two days of touring in October. About 6,000 lawyers are expected to attend the conference, at which French ozysident Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to speak.

Bar Association of Erie County president Giles Manias will speak on ethics, client confidentiality and business secrets at one of the sessions. "Lawyers participating in the takeovers of companies suddenly have diverse loyalties, and it's become a hot topic in the European community," he said.

The conference is hosted by Le Barreau de Lille, Lille's bar association, which has maintained a connection with the Erie County Bar for seven years.

The local association has regularly hosted French law students in the summertime. Under the Napoleonic Code, French law students must complete an internship, which can be in another country. French law student Audrey Demuynck is currently interning with the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo Inc., having already spent time in the city's corporation counsel office, and will also spend a stint at Hiscock & Barclay LLP.

Hiscock partner Mark McNamara, who has lived in France, helped promote the relationship between the two bar associations. He said the connection between the organizations is "planting a lot of seeds (that will) flower in the future."

The Erie County Bar is establishing a similar relationship with the Kent Law Society in England.

Pietruszka joins ABA House of Delegates

Erie County Court Judge Hon. Michael Pietruszka was elected to the American Bar Association's House of Delegates at the organization's annual meeting in New York City. He will represent the membership of the National Conference of Specialized Court Judges.

Pietruszka was also appointed Judicial Division liaison to the Introductory Judicial Education Project, an initiative of the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence. The project will study education programs designed to prepare lawyers who aspire to judicial service.

ABA names Flynn to committee post

David Flynn was appointed additional vice chair (at large and for brownfields) for the American Bar Association Site Remediation Committee within its environment, energy and resources section.

Flynn will assist the committee's chair in implementing an action plan. The committee deals with legal, technical and scientific issues relating to remediation of contaminated property.

The Phillips Lytle LLP partner concentrates his practice in the areas of environmental law and energy.

Canisius College prof pens book

Patricia Erickson, chair and associate professor of sociology, anthropology and criminal justice at Canisius College, is co-author of the new book "Crime, Punishment and Mental Illness: Law and the Behavioral Sciences in Conflict" (Rutgers University Press, 2008).

The book examines the response of contemporary American society to crimes by people with mental illness and explores the role of mental-health experts in criminal cases where the defendant is mentally ill. Looking at high-profile cases, it examines how criminal law and behavioral science, respectively, account for criminal behavior, incarceration of criminals with serious mental illnesses and problems created by current policies.

Erickson wrote the book with Steven Erickson, a lawyer and forensic psychologist who is the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers Fellow at Yale University.

Foundation to study impact of judicial pay

The Atlantic Legal Foundation is undertaking a study on possible impact of the current level of judicial compensation on New York's economy and business community, and on the diversity of the bench.

State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Hon. Judith Kaye filed a lawsuit against the governor and Legislature in April questioning why judges have not received a salary increase in 10 years. New York ranks 49th among the states in judicial compensation, accounting for cost of living.

Some critics have claimed that lawyers with expertise and experience in commercial issues cannot afford to leave private practice to serve on the bench, and that that negatively impacts the quality of decisions handed down in commercial cases and the the cost of litigation.

The foundation plans to discuss judicial compensation issues with government representatives and business leaders. In a 2005 report on the structure and organization of state courts, the foundation concluded that the complex structure of the state court system negatively affected the state's economy.

The Atlantic Legal Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest law firm.

- Compiled by Jodi Sokolowski