Forward march.

The American Association for Justice is a different organization than it was two years ago. While retaining the features that have made it great, the association has undergone important changes to better serve members and to more effectively protect the civil justice system from relentless attacks by powerful special interests.

For decades, the drug and oil industries, big insurance companies, and corporate CEOs had waged a well-funded public relations effort of lies and half-truths designed to destroy the civil justice system. In early 2006, we decided it was time to hit back--hard--and launched the Fight for Justice Communications Campaign to tell the true story of civil justice and the part that trial attorneys play in holding wrongdoers accountable. To implement the campaign, we

* built a war room equipped with rapid-response capabilities and cutting-edge technology.

* hired top-notch staff, doubling the size of the communications team.

* created an opposition research shop to monitor, track, and attack our opponents' lies and distortions.

* created "press desks" to assist state trial lawyer associations in implementing aggressive and winning communications campaigns.

It is clear that in taking this new direction, AAJ has changed the debate about civil justice in a positive way.

Over the past year, we have achieved many important successes.

We chose a new name. To better reflect our mission, the membership voted last July to change our name to the American Association for Justice. As I write this, trial lawyer associations in 10 states have followed our lead, and many others are considering doing the same, choosing names to reflect what they do--fight for justice--and not who they are.

We helped change the Congress. Through innovative use of the Internet and online communications tools like Justice Insider 2006, accessible to AAJ members only, we generated a tremendous number of voluntary contributions to pro-civil-justice candidates around the country. Last November, 14 of the 18 trial lawyers who ran for the House won, despite vicious negative advertising. Among the victors was Bruce Braley, former president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association and a brilliant defender of the civil justice system. We also helped generate support from our members for successful pro-civil-justice candidates who have changed the face of the Senate.

We helped stop an anticonsumer nominee. In March, President Bush nominated Michael Baroody, a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, to serve as chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We moved fast, warning the public of the dangers Baroody presented--likening him to a fox guarding the henhouse--and stirring up grassroots opposition. Under intense pressure from us and others, Bush withdrew Baroody's nomination.

We exposed the Chamber's lies. For years, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has published an annual survey--nothing more than the musings of Fortune 500 lawyers--ranking state civil justice systems. While this dubious survey drew extensive press coverage in the past, it was largely ignored this year due to our rapid-response efforts to show that the report was a baseless attack on the civil justice system. Our assertions were later confirmed when the independent nonpartisan watchdog group Annenberg Political Fact Check called the Chamber's TV ads decrying "lawsuit abuse" false and misleading.

We told the truth about med-mal insurance. We took a giant step toward changing public opinion on medical malpractice insurance "reform." We worked with former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff to issue a report firmly establishing that high med-mal premiums are the result of insurance industry price-gouging, not lawsuits against doctors.

These are just a few examples of the amazing work that our dedicated staff is producing every day.

We recently decided to move forward--literally--by relocating AAJ headquarters to a new building closer to Capitol Hill. After a careful vetting, the Board of Governors voted in May to sell our current building and buy a new one. The new building will give us room to grow so that we can meet our members' changing needs and strengthen our efforts to protect civil justice.

From a fiscal point of view, this move makes a lot of sense. We sold our current building for six times what we paid for it 30 years ago. We will occupy a third of the lower floors in our new 11-story building and rent the rest as office and retail space.

There is a new feeling about the American Association for Justice. It is a sense of empowerment and success. I have been privileged to serve as AAJ president during this exciting year of change and growth, and I know we will continue our march forward, confidently taking the offensive in the fight for justice and building on the firm foundations we have laid.