Mission of the American Inns of Court
The mission of the American Inns of Court is to foster
excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility and legal
skills.
Goals of the American Inns of Court
Foundation
1. To promote, establish and charter American Inns of Court
throughout the United States.
2. To help ensure the vitality and continuity of local Inns.
3. To facilitate the exchange of ideas, experiences and ongoing
education among members of the American Inns of Court, thereby
maintaining an institutional forum where judges, lawyers,
academicians and students of law, working together, pursue the
highest goals of the legal profession.
4. To shape a culture of excellence in American jurisprudence by
promoting a commitment to professionalism, ethics, civility and
legal skills in the practice of law, and transmitting these values
from one generation of lawyers to the next.
5. To ensure the viability and long-term stability of the American
Inns of Court Foundation.
The American Inns of Court: A Brief History
The American Inns of Court are patterned after the English
Inns of Court that began in 1292 when King Edward I directed his
Chief Justice to satisfy a growing need for skilled advocates at
the Royal court at Westminster. The English Inns of Court grew in
number and importance during the Middle Ages. They emphasized the
value of learning the craft and culture of lawyering from those
already established in the profession. Their collegial environment
fostered common goals and nurtured professional ideals and
ethics.
In 1977, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and other American
lawyers and judges spent two weeks in England as part of the
Anglo-American Exchange. They were particularly impressed with the
collegial approach of the English Inns of Court and with the way in
which the Inns passed on to new lawyers the decorum, civility and
professional standards necessary for a properly functioning bar.
Following his return, Chief Justice Burger authorized a pilot
program that could be adapted to the realities of law practice in
the United States.
Chief Justice Burger, former Solicitor General Rex Lee and Senior
United States District Judge A. Sherman Christensen founded the
first American Inn of Court in 1980. The Inn was affiliated with
the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University in
Provo, Utah. The number of Inns increased slowly at first, but grew
rapidly with the creation of the American Inns of Court Foundation
in 1985. Today there are over 350-chartered American Inns of Court
in forty-eight states and the District of Columbia. The American
Inns of Court movement actively involves more than 25,000 state,
federal, and administrative law judges, attorneys, legal scholars
and students.
As Justice O'Connor observed in her most recent book, The
Majesty of the Law, the American Inns of Court are "the product of
[late Chief Justice Warren Burger's] idea for improving the skills
of the working bar." As Justice O'Connor recounts in her forward to
The American Inns of Court: Reclaiming a Noble Profession, the
American Inns of Court movement, born nearly a quarter century ago,
has been a resounding success story:
"In the 1960s, well before his appointment to the Supreme Court,
Chief Justice Burger envisioned an organization that would help
lawyers improve their Advocacy skills, with an emphasis on the
importance of professional integrity and ethics. He visited England
in 1977 in connection with the Anglo-American Legal Exchange
program, returning with the idea of creating in the United States
an organization patterned after the English Inns of Court, which
have for hundreds of years provided mentoring to young lawyers. A
number of prominent members of the legal community…joined the Chief
Justice to hone his ideas into a workable concept. Forty-four
members participated in the first American Inn of Court in Utah in
1980. Today, there are more than [350] active American Inns, with a
collective membership of [more than 25,000]. The Judicial
Conference of the United States, the Conference of Chief Justices,
the ABA Commission on Professionalism, and the ABA Judicial
Administration Division have strongly endorsed the American Inn
program."
The American Inns of Court Foundation
The American Inns of Court Foundation is a non-profit,
tax-exempt organization. It was created in May 1985 by and for the
individual American Inns of Court. By becoming an active member of
a local American Inn of Court, individuals automatically become
members of the American Inns of Court Foundation. The objectives of
the Foundation include: to charter Inns nationwide; to serve and
foster communication among Inns; and to encourage membership in
American Inns of Court. OurInn pays annual dues to the
Foundation.
The Foundation carries a national general liability policy and
umbrella policy for bodily injury and property damage that covers
all chartered Inns throughout the country. In addition, each Inn
may be blanketed under the Foundation's IRS 501 (c) (3) tax exempt
status, thereby eliminating the need to file an annual tax return
as long as its average gross receipts do not exceed $25,000.
The Foundation also provides benefits to individual Inn members.
These include a subscription to The Bencher, a bimonthly newsletter
providing information on American Inns of Court events at a
regional and national level, as well as local events involving
other Inns, and columns and articles dealing with timely issues of
legal ethics. The Foundation has a reciprocal visitation agreement
with the four English Inns of Court, which enables individual Inn
members to visit and dine in the English Inns. American Inns of
Court members are required to obtain a letter of introduction from
the Foundation before visiting one of the English Inns.
The Foundation hosts a national leadership conference that is
traditionally held in May and is rotated among cities throughout
the country. In October of each year, the Foundation hosts an
annual leadership dinner at the United States Supreme Court for the
purpose of honoring local, regional, and national leaders and to
present the A. Sherman Christensen Award for Dedicated Service to
the American Inns movement, the Lewis F. Powell Award for
Professionalism and Ethics, the Warren E. Burger Prize for Legal
Writing and the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional
Service.