The Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools was held this past week in Washington D.C., and it was, as usual, a fun-filled event. AALS has more substance than it did 12 years ago, when I first started attending the meeting, though networking is still the star of the show. Some observations:

• I very much enjoyed the Business Organizations sessions on Disney. We had one session on "Teaching Disney" and another devoted to Disney-related scholarship. Kudos to Deborah DeMott, who organized the sessions.
• Last year I had some unkind words for the Section on Agency, Partnership, LLCs, and Unincorporated Associations. This year's program was a substantial upgrade, with our own Vic Fleischer leading off. Rob Stikoff's presentation on business trusts was excellent. I only wish Larry Ribstein had been left with more time batting cleanup.
• The Wal-Mart panel was largely devoid of fireworks. I spoke about the value of using organizations, rather than doctrine, as the unit of analysis in teaching and scholarship. Scott Moss played the heavy, arguing forcefully that Wal-Mart is good for many of the small communities in which it is located. He also described his work on an employment class action against Wal-Mart, but noted (along with Frank Munger) that Wal-Mart is not the worst employer around. Congrats to Alexi Lahov and Kaaryn Gustafson for staging a successful panel.
• Why is it that "progressives" think fiduciary duties are so great? I attended a concurrent session of the Section on Socio-Economics entitled "Corporate Governance, Fiduciary Duties & Social Responsibility" that started with the assumption that fiduciary law was broken and in need of repair. Ugh!
• Great food! Madison has some good restaurants, but I enjoyed the opportunity to sample some other places in DC: Nora, Ardeo, New Heights, and Mourayo. And, of course, Lebanese Taverna for lunch (twice).
• I started to lose my voice on Wednesday evening at the blogger reception hosted by Prawfs and Co-op, and by the time I gave my presentation at the Wal-Mart panel on Friday it was almost gone.
• The conference ended on a sour note for me, as I came down with some sort of virus on Saturday morning. At first I thought it was food poisoning, but the symptoms seem more consistent with flu. In any event, it made for an exciting plane ride to Madison. I made a point of being seated near the restroom.

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