Post Conference
Report Consumer Rights
Litigation Conference October 26-29, 2001, Baltimore, MD
With close to 550 consumer attorneys and advocates in attendance,
NCLC's 10th annual Consumer Rights Litigation Conference was a huge success!
In addition to the general conference, a well-attended predatory lending mini
conference provided participants with an introduction to the nature and extent
of abusive lending practices, along with legal tools available to fight some
common scams. Our first annual Class Action Litigation, immediately following
the main conference drew 120 attorneys to sessions lead by many of the country's
top experts on cutting edge issues in class action cases.
Heading the list of outstanding speakers was U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, chairman
of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the Senate's leading consumer advocates.
Martin Eakes founder of Self Help, a national model for low-income home lending,
was given a standing ovation following his talk. In addition to these well-known
experts, top consumer law experts from around the country shared their expertise
and unique insights on many consumer law issues.
During the annual awards luncheon, NCLC presented its prestigious Vern Countryman
Award to Lynn Drysdale of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for her tireless efforts
to protect consumers from predatory lenders, fraudulent trade schools, car title
loans, and other marketplace abuses. (Click here
for more on Drysdale's award.)
Participants completing conference evaluation forms overwhelmingly gave the
conference tops ratings. Below is a sampling of their comments:
"Excellent conference as always, the only problem is there are too many
great sessions, but too little time to take advantage of all of them."
"Excellent materials!"
"Very informative. Excellent mini conference on predatory lending. I also
would like to commend you on the apparent effort to make this conference welcoming
to attorneys of color by including attorneys of color to speak, and the breakfast
for attorneys of color."
"Good networking opportunity. Learned a good bit."
"Very informative conference."
"Great to share ideas with other consumer attorneys."
On a few of our speakers: "...They each have incredible ability to convey
their thoughts in a meaningful way."
"I truly enjoyed the Sunday luncheon speaker tremendously - the inspirational
Self Help lender Mr. Eakes...was excellent..."
"The general roundtable and class action roundtables were well-motivated
and hosted."
"The session were on the whole very informative and not merely repetition
of the materials in the book."
"The conference rocks!" (We include this comment because so rarely
are attorneys compelled to express themselves in this manner!)
Join us next year - October 25-28 in Atlanta - for our 11th annual Consumer
Rights Litigation Conference. Call 617 542-8010 and ask to be put on the mailing
list to receive information on the Atlanta conference in summer 2002.
and NCLC