For Practitioners Specializing in Intellectual Property
Law 
The Judge Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property American Inn of
Court (formerly Los Angeles Intellectual Property American Inn of
Court) promotes skill improvement, professionalism and
legal ethics. It does so primarily through collegial discourse
and mentoring during monthly meetings at which "Teams" are central.
The Teams employ skits intended to provoke thought and discussion
on topics of interest to the profession.
Team members assume roles to simulate situations and issues for
identified topics. In this manner, teams convey valuable
information and provoke participation of leading Attorneys and
Judges in the audience
Unique because it is one of only a handful of Inns to specialize
in the field of intellectual property law, the Judge Paul R. Michel
Intellectual Property Inn was chartered in January 2008. A core
group has grown thisInnto a strong organization of leaders
participating in a major regular exchange of intellectual property
knowledge.
The Judge Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property American Inn of
Court holds monthly program meetings in the City of Los Angelesat
the Kyoto Hotel and Gardens. In keeping with the collegial practice
of the British Inns, a "host" organization provides food (dinner)
and drink (wine, beer, and soft drinks) to foster social exchange
following the formal presentation portion of the meeting.
History of the American Inns
The American Inns of Court concept was the product of a
discussion in the late 1970's among the United States' members of
the Anglo-American exchange of lawyers and judges, including Chief
Justice Warren E. Burger and Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit J.
Clifford Wallace. Chief Justice Burger recognized the benefits of
training received in the English Inns and subsequently invited Rex
E. Lee (then Dean of the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham
Young University and later United States Solicitor General) and
Dallin Oaks (then president of Brigham Young University and later
Justice of the Utah Supreme Court) to test the idea.
At the suggestion of Rex Lee, a pilot program was entrusted to
Senior United States District Court Judge A. Sherman Christensen,
who honed the idea into a feasible concept. The first American Inn
of Court was founded in 1980 in the Provo/Salt Lake City area of
Utah, and included law students from Brigham Young University.
Within the next three years, additional American Inns formed in
Utah, Mississippi, Hawaii, New York, and Washington, D.C.
In 1983, Chief Justice Burger created a committee of the
Judicial Conference of the United States to explore whether the
American Inn concept was of value to the administration of justice
and, if so, whether there should be a national organization to
promote, establish and assist American Inns, and promote the goals
of legal excellence, civility, professionalism and ethics on a
national level. The committee reported to the Judicial Conference
affirmatively on the two questions and proposed the creation of the
American Inns of Court Foundation. The Judicial Conference approved
the reports and, thus, endorsed the American Inn concept and the
formation of a national structure. In 1985, the American Inns of
Court Foundation was formally organized.
At the inaugural meeting of our Inn held on March 18, 2008,
Chief Judge Paul Michel and Associate Justice Linn, Court of Appeal
for the Federal Circuit, as well as U.S. Central District Court
Judges Alice Marie Stotler and Andrew Guilford were led in a panel
by our founding member Robert Krupka to discuss Trial and Appeal
Strategies to Win Intellectual Property Cases.
The Judge Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property Inn as a part of
the American Inns of Court movement continues to link law students,
law professors, practicing lawyers and judges as part of a lifelong
web for the maintenance of high ethical standards of behavior in
maintaining the rule of law in Los Angeles and wherever we preside
or practice.