The Center for American and International Law
Formerly known as The Southwestern Legal Foundation, The Center for American and International Law (CAIL) is a prominent international nonprofit educational institution for lawyers, judges and law enforcement professionals located in Plano, Texas.
CAIL comprises five educational institutions:
- Institute for Energy Law
- Institute for Transnational Arbitration
- Institute for Law Enforcement Administration
- Institute for Law and Technology
- Southwestern Institute for International and Comparative Law
CAIL also offers criminal justice programs and some other specialized programs that do not fit into one of the institutes described above.
Tens of thousands of officials, lawyers and law enforcement personnel from all 50 states and 128 countries have taken advantage of the programs offered by CAIL.[1]
CAIL has been led for decades by many outstanding attorneys, judges, law professors and law enforcement officials who have contributed their time and talents as members of the Center's many boards and committees. The principal policy-making body is its board of trustees, and the current board is chaired by David J. Beck, vice chair is The Hon. Lee H. Rosenthal, current chair of executive committee is Barry F. McNeil, secretary is Kenneth L. Stewart, all of whom work with a number of trustees.
CAIL has been rebranding aggressively in a bid to maintain its prestigious status as a premier continuous education institution with a reputation of having the best faculty in its ranks. The institution boasts of a professional pool of staff, most of whom are trained attorneys. The current president is General Michael J. Marchand, who is deputised by three vice presidents, namely Dr. T. Neil Moore, David Winn and Mark Smith. Other senior staff are directors Alan Dunlop, Wendy Castellana, Katy Spicer, Stacy Crowe, Monica Shome, Marissa Krammer, Dr. Daniel T. Primozic, and Gregory Smith.
In June 2013 the center's flagship program, The Academy for American and International Law, sponsored every summer by the Southwestern Institute for International and Comparative Law, celebrated its 50th Anniversary. Past alumni and 2013 participants congregated in Plano, Texas, to celebrate the auspicious occasion.
Mission
To improve the quality of justice through continuing education to lawyers and law enforcement officials in the United States and throughout the world.[2]
History
Professional education lasts a lifetime; a principle that seems self-evident today. That was not the case, however, in 1947 when Robert Storey, Dean of the Southern Methodist University School of Law, launched The Center for American and International Law, then known as The Southwestern Legal Foundation. The notion of continuing formal education beyond law school was a relatively new idea. When Dean Storey created an organization whose primary purpose was continuing legal education, it was among the first in the country.
Eleven years later, the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration (ILEA), then known as the Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute, was established. ILEA offers courses to police chiefs and to first line law enforcement managers. Perhaps its proudest moment came in 1992 with the establishment of the Center for Law Enforcement Ethics. Through the ripple effect of its Train-the-Trainer program, which advises law enforcement trainers how to incorporate ethics education in their own departments, the Ethics Center has already reached more than 10,000 sworn officers in the United States.
Today, CAIL is the only continuing education center engaged in both lawyer and law enforcement education.