UABA members and their enthused speakers and guests proved more resilient than Hurricane Jeanne at our Annual Fall Convention at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in South Beach, Florida during the extended weekend of September 22 – 26, 2004. The storm kept lurking off the coast, insidiously threatening to disrupt our interesting and well planned event, but the UABA show went on.

Held concurrently with an ad hoc mini-conference specially planned by the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA) to enjoy South Beach with us, and featuring additional joint sessions of mutual interest, the Convention officially kicked off on Thursday, September 23rd with a hospitality suite reception hosted atop the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. The sunset views of the surrounding resort community and its world famous beach were spectacular, and the mingling and networking was intense with local lawyers and community leaders, Canadian lawyers, and a large delegation of prominent jurists from Ukraine. No surprise that many conventioneers strolled off in the night to sample the variety of culinary delights for which South Beach is renowned.

The Conference Program commenced promptly early the next morning, with opening welcoming remarks by UABA President Andrew E. Steckiw, followed by officer reports of UABA Treasurer George Pazuniak and UABA Secretary Roman Badiak, who spoke also as UABA Scholarship Committee Chairman in updating the group on the recently established Ivan Shandor Scholarship Fund at Georgetown University, funded by the UABA and the Shandor Family.

Meeting separately from UMANA that Friday morning, the UABA next presented a series of CLE accredited lectures and seminars on a variety of relevant topics of contemporary interest. Speaking again, Roman Badiak, concisely reviewed current comprehensive general liability policies. Danylo Kurdelchuk, President of Ukriniurkoleguia, Kyiv, Ukraine, and his partner, attorney Mykola Pavlov, discussed the current issues and problems facing attorneys protecting the rights and interests of Ukrainian citizens, both in Ukraine and abroad, particularly in the context of Ukraine’s new tax laws effective January 1, 2005 applying to foreign estate distributions. The panel explored the constitutionality and viability of these measures as well as their ramifications concerning the ordinary Ukrainian citizen. Mykola Pavlov further addressed the specifics and complexities involved in protecting Ukrainian migrant laborers abroad.

After a short lunch recess, the afternoon program consisted of joint UABA/UMANA seminars commencing with a presentation on international adoptions by Halyna Kovalyova-Aginsky, former Consul of Ukraine to Canada and currently with the Law Offices of Peter Piddoubny in New York, and Maria Hrycelak, M.D., F.A.A.P. President of Park Ridge Pediatrics. The panel discussed both the legal/administrative and medical aspects/requirements of the adoptions process, clarified recent changes and developments, and provided insight on expediting the process. Immediately following the adoptions seminar, longtime UABA member Andrew J. Haliw, III, and his partner Raymond L. Feul, of Detroit’s Haliw, Siciliano & Mychalowych, PLC, gave a seminar on succession planning and the sale of small business practices, which proved to be equally well tailored to both the lawyer and physician conference participants. Finally, with the information packed sessions running into overtime, the Friday program was succinctly concluded by Taras Kochno, M.D. Medical Director, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation of Bradenton, Florida, speaking on medical, legal & ethical issues in injuries, with particular relevance to practitioners in personal injury and workmen’s compensation law. Both UABA and UMANA members then wasted no time in retiring to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday evening the two groups reconvened at an Art Gallery in quaint Coral Gables. Longtime UABA member Bohdan J. Zelechiwsky, a criminal defense lawyer from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, lectured on the new tougher DUI laws. With due warnings on imbibing sensibly, in healthy moderation, he then introduced and called upon Peter Taborr, of Wine Classics, to demystify the world of wine. Peter led the course participants through the culinary joys of wine appreciation and the basics of entertaining clients and colleagues without the intimidation of a wine list. This delightful evening culminated in a relaxed setting of wine tasting, fine art viewing, and the irresistible lure of nearby trendy restaurants where most conference participants dined. Upon returning to our hotel, we were informed of the evacuation mandated for South Beach by its mayor on Saturday morning in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne.

Being lawyers, characteristically suspicious and prone to challenging others to their proofs, most UABA members on South Beach failed to grasp the wisdom of evacuation and instead courageously elected to remain in the area and continue the Conference. Consequently, at dawn on Saturday, our Convention relocated to the nearby luxurious Doral Hotel, a golfer’s paradise, but with no beach. As everyone had smugly anticipated, the much-ballyhooed “hurricane” turned out to be no more than a drizzle in the South Beach area. Predictably, the Jeanne menace veered away and meandered northward, leaving the UABA to complete its entire conference program as planned. After evacuation from the Loews Hotel to the Doral, the Saturday morning program was shifted to the afternoon. Acting swiftly, with decisive foresight, UABA Chairman Andrew Pidgirsky and UABA Governor and former President Peter Piddoubny seized the moment by teaming up in timely securing the rental of the Doral Hotel’s splendid Rotunda Room, where the UABA went on to hold its Saturday session from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with hardly any recess.

Speaking right after lunch, longtime UABA member, Ihor Kotlarchuk, former Senior Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, lectured on the Patriot Act, providing our members not only with substantive detail as to its main provisions and primary purposes but also with his considerable personal insight and shared experiences in the practical aspects of its application. Bohdan Zelechiwsky, fully recovered from his participation in the wine tasting seminar of the previous night, next gave a lecture on medical/psychiatric evidence in criminal proceedings and their ethical dilemmas. And Orest Deychakiwsky, Senior Staff Advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) (The Helsinki Commission) and former President of The Washington Group (TWG) reformatted his originally scheduled banquet key note address on Ukraine’s “then upcoming” elections into a more elaborate and detailed informative seminar.

Last but not least, Eugene Korniychuk, Founding Partner of Magister & Partners, Kyiv, Ukraine, presented a workshop on organizing and managing law firms in Ukraine amidst its current regulatory environment, while Armen Khachaturyan, of Kyiv’s Shevchenko, Didkovsky & Partners, spoke on contemporary legal/entrepreneurial opportunities for lawyers in Ukraine and abroad to collaborate in the domain of business partnerships and joint ventures. The academic part of the Conference program was concluded by closing remarks given by UABA President Andrew E. Steckiw, immediately followed by a meeting of the UABA Board of Governors. That evening, the UABA conventioneers gathered for their dinner banquet at Havana Dreams, a nearby Cuban restaurant featuring entertainment, a live band and dancing. Oblivious to the drizzle remnants left behind outside by stormy Jeanne, UABA members and their guests wined and dined, toasted one another, and danced the night away, vowing to make next year’s UABA Convention an even better attended event, only this time without the hurricane.

What an adventure our Conference turned out to be. The exotic lure of the South Beach venue combined with our varied and interesting program and joint session features in making this unique UABA Convention a highly successful and well attended one. Many made almost a week of it, choosing to extend their stay by flying down several days sooner and remaining beyond the Conference dates. To their credit, almost none of our members departed in the wake of the Hurricane Jeanne mandatory evacuation. In fact, many even returned to the Loews, our original host hotel, as soon as the evacuation order was lifted on Sunday morning.

With over thirty UABA members attending the meetings, our Convention numbers swelled with the influx of their many spouses, friends and guests. These attendance numbers practically doubled with the participation of UMANA, resulting in over eighty registrations for the banquet originally scheduled at the Loews Hotel. This led many to conclude that increasingly frequent joint and multi conferences among Ukrainian organizations may be the wave of our diaspora’s future. Be that as it may, however, the next UABA Annual Convention is a special single conference, scheduled to take place at the Loews New Orleans Hotel during the weekend of September 15 – 18, 2005. Reservations are already pouring in.

We hope this time all our members and many new ones will attend.

ANDREW E. STECKIW, UABA PRESIDENT