For The Defense, December 2012 - DRI Today

2012 AnnuAl Meeting the 21st Century lawyer
indicated that they believed that relative
U.S. performance was “falling behind” in
key areas such as efficiency of legal framework,
regulation, the K–12 education system,
tax code complexity, and political
system effectiveness.
Finally, although in the United States
people are still more likely to belong to
A special feature during the Thursday Awards Luncheon was a presentation
by Southern humorist Roy Blount, Jr.
10 ■ For The Defense ■ December 2012
religious organizations than in Western
Europe, participating in other voluntary
associations—an American characteristic
historically highly admired elsewhere—
has declined substantially. To conclude,
he reiterated this theme: while the United
States suffers institutional degeneration,
institutions improve in the Eastern world.
Alluding to something that we often forget,
which is that Imperial China was a strong
power in its own right 500 years ago, most
certainly overshadowing North America,
he reminded us that “the big story of our
time is the great reconvergence,” meaning
the East’s reemergence after 500 years to
overtake the West.
Malcolm Kushner highlighted the Thursday SLDO Leadership Breakfast with
his talk on humor in the presidency.
Leveraging Differences in an
Increasingly Borderless World.
Diversity Committee CLE and
Business Meeting. Mark E. (Rick)
Richardson III, Vice President and
Associate General Counsel, Glaxo-
SmithKline PLC; Fred J. Keeton,
Vice President of Finance, External
Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer,
Caesars Entertainment; Dominique
Bright-Wheeler, Director/Vice President,
Capital One Financial Corporation;
and moderator Pamela W.
Carter, Carter Law Group LLC. Not
pictured: Jacqueline Vines, Senior
Vice President and General Manager,
Cox Communications.