Greetings from Andrew Emery and Susan Prosnitz, co-chairs of the ABA’s 2016 Fall Administrative Law Conference to be held on December 8-9, 2016, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

As is the customary practice of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, we would like you to propose topics for the Fall Conference. To inspire you, we offer the following list of ideas as a starting point. We invite you to improve or reject these suggested topics, many of which come from you, or to submit additional ideas. Note that the deadline for submission of Requests for Proposals is May 16, 2015.

Topic Ideas

1. “Midnight regulations” from the Obama Administration
2. How to avoid implicit bias in administrative adjudication
3. How to build an Administrative Record to successfully defend agency decisions
4. Ethics in the White House – (would qualify for 2 hours of Ethics credit)
5. Grass roots advocacy in rulemaking
6. 2015 Supreme Court Cases (King v. Burwell, Michigan v. EPA, Perez v. MBA) addressed major topics in agency rulemaking – how have these decisions are already impacted Judicial Review in 2016
7. Reflections from a Supreme Court Justice on Justice Scalia’s impact on administrative law
8. Negotiated Rulemaking
9. Fiduciary obligations of brokers
10. The use of Administrative Law Judges at the SEC
11.  Energy related administrative law topics
12.  What to do with all those comments – lessons learned by agencies who receive a large volume (i.e. CFPB, Transportation, EPA)
13.  How to get diverse input into rulemaking comments
14. Working effectively with OMB/OIRA
15.  FOIA and APA including litigating at administrative and federal levels
16. How the FDA is dealing with synthetic drugs labeled as “potpourri” or “not for human consumption” even if manufacturers design/intend them for human consumption
17. A panel that compares regulatory practices/procedures, etc. across different agencies
18. A panel that provides more information on the IRFA, FRFA, and certification aspects of RFA as not all agencies use SBREFA proceedings 19. International Law and National Security Law topics
19. 2016 update regarding Supreme Court decisions
20. How to manage the fundamental disconnect between agency interests vs. OIRA interests vs. small business interests and advice on managing these relationships
21.  Administrative Law in the Presidential Transition

We anticipate offering up to eighteen panels. The panels will include Developments in Administrative Law and Ethics for Government Attorneys and will likely include topics presented by Richard Pierce, Richard Murphy, Linda Jellum, Jeff Lubbers, and Chris Walker, all regularly featured speakers. The remaining sixteen panels or so will be selected from your proposals. Among other things, we will be looking to ensure that speakers and topics are diverse. We would like to include panelists from a healthy cross section of agencies and the private sector. Also, please consider submitting a proposal featuring more of a TED talk format or a case study, both of which were specific suggestions following last year’s Conference. Finally, note that we always end up receiving many more proposals than we can accommodate, so please submit your topic suggestions on time (no later than Monday, May 16).

Here is the panel nominations template. Please contact us if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your interest and assistance.