American Association for Justice

“Aaj has an executive committee with the authority to act for the organization between board of governors meetings, except with regard to those matters specifically reserved to the board. Executive committee actions are reported to the board at the next board meeting. The executive committee consists of the officers of the association; two members appointed by the president (only one of whom may be a past-president); five members of the board of governors elected by the board of governors; the chair of the budget committee; the chair of state delegates; the immediate past president; a member of the national association of trial lawyer executives (natle) selected by natle; the chair of the president's council; a member from the women's caucus selected by the women's caucus; a member from the minority caucus selected by the minority caucus; a member of the new lawyers division selected by the new lawyers division; and the ceo of the association (without the right to vote).”

“Bridget n. Long, derrick walker, w. Coleman allen jr. - business relationship adrianne walvoord webb, sol h. Weiss - business relationship jennie anderson, lori andrus - business relationship elise sanguinetti, mike arias - business relationship vanessa cantley, william nefzger - business relationship j. Burton leblanc, russell budd - business relationship c. Gibson vance, navan ward jr. - business relationship michael t. Bigos, daniel g. Kagan - business relationship miriam r. Bourdette, philip c. Bourdette - business & family relationship david s. Casey jr., frederick schenk - business relationship mark d. Chappell, w. Hugh mcangus jr. - business relationship lewis s. Eidson, julie braman kane - business relationship gregory s. Cusimano, emily hawk mills - business relationship mark s. Davis, erin cassell davis - business & family relationship daniel h. Friedman, robert r. Moodie - business relationship brian p. Galligan, joseph m. Galligan - business & family relationship nathan r. Oviatt, terence r. Quinn - business relationship robert l. Habush, robert l. Jaskulski - business relationship russ herman, stephen herman - business & family relationship kimberly a. Dougherty, jason penn, kenneth m. Suggs - business relationship diane l. Cardoso, lawrence m. Simon - business relationship tatum lindbo, tim o'keefe - business relationship david efron, alberto j. Perez hernandez - business relationship trudy fenster, lee j. Rohn - business relationship jim leventhal, molly l. Welch - business relationship zachary mandell, mark s. Mandell - business & family relationship laura hillyer, m. Claire wilkinson - business relationship scott r. Bickford, roshawn donahue - business relationship reginald watson, les weisbrod - business relationship christian m. Morris, brian d. Nettles - business relationship barry j. Nace, christopher t. Nace - business & family relationship richard d. Hailey, mary beth ramey - business & family relationship kate e. Jaycox, kathleen flynn peterson - business relationship kristeen hand, mel c. Orchard iii, g. Bryan ulmer iii - business relationship jim vititoe, michael hugo - business relationship peter a. Kraus, gary m. Paul - business relationship wade e. Byrd, paul byrd - family relationship”

“The association has the following classes of members: regular member: licensed to practice law and for the most part, based on caseload and time, represents the plaintiff in civil litigation or represents the defendant in criminal litigation. Associate member: licensed to practice law and does not otherwise qualify for any other membership class. Government member: licensed to practice law and is in the full-time employ of any local, state, or federal government agency or public defender. Law professor member: engaged in full-time teaching of the law at any accredited law school or college and is licensed to practice law in any country, state, or jurisdiction. Military member: licensed to practice law in any country, state, or jurisdiction, and is in the full-time active service of the armed forces of the united states. Law student member: a law student engaged in a course of study at a law school. Law graduate member: has received a degree in law from an accredited law school or college but has not been licensed to practice law. Paralegal affiliate member: has membership in an affiliated unit of aaj composed of paralegals. Retired members-members who have attained the age of seventy years, who has retired from the active practice of law, and who has completed ten years as a dues-paying member of the association. In addition, any member attaining 70 years of age and 30 years of paid aaj membership, regardless of employment status, will be eligible for retired status. Emeritus members-any person who has attained the age of sixty years, who has retired from the active practice of law, and who has completed ten years as a dues-paying member of the association will be eligible for emeritus membership and shall, prior to attaining the age of seventy years, continue to be an emeritus member.”

“Members of the board of governors and state delegates are nominated and elected at aaj's annual convention by a majority of aaj members eligible as provided for in in its bylaws, and who are present and voting at a caucus meeting called for that purpose. No member shall be elected whose principal office is located within a state where an official affiliate of the association is located, if such affiliate has nominated one or more members, unless such member shall have been nominated by that official affiliate. No member of the board of governors or state delegates shall be elected unless said governor or delegate is an eligible member as provided for in the aaj bylaws. No member shall be eligible to vote on any matter or in any election at the annual convention unless such member has been a member or has applied for membership at least sixty days prior to the annual convention and is a paid registrant at such convention.”

“The establishment of new aaj sections, the abolition of sections and amalgamation of sections shall be by action of the board of governors with the approval of the membership at the annual convention.”

“The association has state affiliates but each is an independently incorporated entity, with its own bylaws and entirely separate articles of incorporation. An attorney does not need to be a member of aaj in order to be a member of a state affiliate. The board has designated affiliates pursuant to article xii of the bylaws, which provides "any state or local trial lawyers association may become an affiliate of the association upon approval by the board of governors, provided that its purposes are consistent with the purposes of the association, and provided the state or local trial lawyers association does not sponsor a federal political action committee. The board of governors shall be entitled to review the programs, activities, and policies of each affiliate and may, after appropriate notice to the affiliate, rescind the affiliate status." other than this bylaws provision, there are no other written policies and procedures governing affiliate activities.”

“The form 990 is reviewed by aaj's cfo, coo, and the audit committee. A full copy is made available to the full board prior to filing.”

“The governor or organizational manager shall reveal the potential conflict, in writing to the aaj president, unless the president is the governor in question, in which case it shall be disclosed to the aaj president elect. The written disclosure shall include, at a minimum, the following: i. The nature of the transaction. Ii. The terms and conditions of the transaction, including money or other benefits flowing to the governor, the organizational manager or the other disqualified person. Iii. To the extent that it is a disqualified person and not an organizational manager or governor, the name, address and relationship of the disqualified person to the organizational manager or governor and the extent of that person's interest in the transaction. Iv. Any other information reasonably requested by the president or president elect. In the event of any potential conflict of interest between the aaj and its governors, organizational managers, or other disqualified persons, no transaction will be consummated if: i. The transaction is not based upon fair market value, including reasonable compensation with respect to any organizational manager who is an employee; or, ii. Any transaction in which the governor, organizational manager or other disqualified person receives a percentage of the revenues of the association.”

“The ceo's compensation is reviewed and approved by a board committee on an annual basis. Compensation for other individuals is reviewed and approved by management, using comparable data from sites like guidestar.org or salaryrate.com.”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and audited financial statements are not generally made available to the general public, but if requests for copies of these documents were to be received, the organization would consider making them available to the requestor.”

“Pension benefit other than periodic -617,468.”

“The audit oversight process has not changed from the prior year.”