Page 4 - AnnualReport2014

Report of the Chair of the Board and the Chair of the Executive Committee
William P. Frank Samuel W. Seymour
Changes abounded in 2014 with PLI settling into our new New York headquarters and training center, and successfully assimilating into our operations the SEC Institute, the assets of which we purchased early in the year.
In terms of PLI’s future, however, the most important change was a nationwide search for a new President to replace the retiring outgoing President resulting in the announcement late in the year that Anita Carr Shapiro, a fourteen year PLI veteran, had been unanimously selected to replace Victor J. Rubino as of the Annual Meeting in April 2015. Brief bios on both appear on the first page of this Report.
PLI also reached new highs in Patent Bar attendees, live and online, and witnessed an overall increase in registrations of close to 20% with our subscription Privileged Membership revenue increasing by 11% and the total roster of members reaching 235,000. We are particularly proud that our efforts to increase pro bono offerings that are so important to PLI resulted in awarding more than 58,000 scholarships. In addition, the Trustees approved several demonstration seed money grants to legal services groups to enable them to hire full time trainers for their staff and volunteers including law students.
At the beginning of the year, PLI also acquired the assets of The SEC Institute, a group known for Securities and Exchange Commission compliance programs, in order to deepen our already strong securities law curriculum and to broaden our audience to financial professionals as well as lawyers. We are pleased with our first year results.
Publications are an important part of our service to the profession and PLI continued to add to its content on Discover PLUS a search engine for PLI course handbooks, Treatises, Answer Books, transcripts and forms and this service has become increasingly popular with law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies.
Volunteer speakers and authors are the backbone of our content and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their continued service as staff pushes them to try new approaches to teaching and learning.
Trustees continued their service to PLI and we welcomed three new Trustees: Adrian Dollard, Troy McKenzie and Larry Thompson to replace those who left the Board (David Balabanian, Kathryn Dineen Wriston and Douglas Eakeley). On a sad note, a long time invaluable Trustee Emeritus, Kathryn Dineen Wriston, passed away in September. Also, early in 2015 we received news that Leon Silverman, a Trustee since 1973—and Trustee Emeritus since 1995—had also passed away. Both will be sorely missed.
Finally, it was a hectic year for staff who once again served PLI loyally and well.
February 11, 2015
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