The Sedona Conference® Moves to Collaborative Management Structure Designed for Dialogue and Consensus Decision Making

The Sedona Conference®, the non-profit, non-partisan law and policy think tank, announces that its Board of Directors has adopted a new collaborative management structure designed to align the organization's administration with its historical mission of dialogue and consensus building. The four Director-Level positions (Business Operations, Conferences and Content, Judicial Outreach, and Judicial Education) will now manage the affairs of The Sedona Conference® in a collaborative, consensus based manner, reporting to an Executive Committee of the corporate Board of Directors.

"The Sedona Conference's success, right from the very start, has been based on creating intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking dialogue and content through collaboration by judges, lawyers, experts and academics," said Craig Weinlein, a member of The Sedona Conference® Board of Directors and a partner at Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal in Dallas. "Because of our growth in staff, activities, and influence, now are the right time to bring that dialogue-based, consensus building process to our business operations, in order to best maintain the quality of The Sedona Conference's unique and highly successful efforts."

The change in management structure is the result of the success and growth of The Sedona Conference® since its founding in 1997 by attorney Richard G. Braman. The Sedona Conference® offered its first series of dialogue-based conferences in 1999 and, in 2002, formed the first Working Group in its Working Group Series to focus on an unsettled but key area of complex litigation - electronic document retention and production (WG1). The conferences and working groups have been so well-received by judges and lawyers that The Sedona Conference® now has nine working groups and presents ten to twelve conferences and working group meetings each year. They focus on "tipping point" issues in the areas of complex litigation, antitrust and intellectual property rights, where balanced, nonpartisan principles, guidelines and best practices will be of immediate benefit to the Bench and Bar.

"When we started out, we wanted to bring together lawyers and judges for honest and mind opening dialogue," said Braman, Board Chairman and Co-Chair of the Executive Committee. "That led to incredible intellectual creativity and collective wisdom. The Board is confident that this new management structure will bring the same benefits to The Sedona Conference as it continues to move the law forward in a reasoned and just way."

The Sedona Conference® has offices in Phoenix and Sedona, Arizona. The Sedona Conference® is holding a "Celebration of its Impact" on September 24, 2011 in Washington, DC, to introduce the new management team and celebrate the organization's impact over the last 13 years. Additional information can be found at The Sedona Conference® website at www.thesedonaconference.org, or questions can be sent by email to rgb@sedonaconference.org.