“Is this a standard room?,” I asked. My room key unlocked a split level room (what most hotels call a mini-suite) with a living room area, bedroom area, huge bathroom, and a balcony overlooking a golf course. It is, I learned, the standard room that your ACFLS discount will get you for less than the price you would ordinarily pay for the kind of mid-level business hotel typically used for family law CLE programs. The base room rate here is $169 a night for our Spring Seminar. ($169 rooms sold out, $199 rooms available as of 2/13/10.)
I’m liveblogging from the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort, Spa and Villas in Indian Wells — site of this year’s ACFLS Spring Seminar. I joined Spring Seminar Co-Chairs Karen Freitas and Patricia Rigdon, and Tech Coordinator Barbara Hammers here yesterday to work out the AV and staging for this year’s Spring Seminar.
Years ago I lectured at a State Bar Section Institute here in the desert, and I came home from the Cabazon discount mall with a t-shirt depicting adult students. One was raising his hand and asking, “May I be excused? My brain is full.” I wore it to CLE programs for years, and it probably lurks somewhere in my bedroom to this day.
ACFLS has long recognized that our brains fill up after half a day of lectures on the complexity of family law practice. So we combine three half days of CLE with free afternoons and evenings of play and relaxation. Whether you want to bring the entire family (kids can enjoy Camp Hyatt ‘s day camp activities while you attend class), read your e-book alone by one of the seven pools, golf, ride bikes or horses, hike, play tennis, wine and dine with colleagues, or enjoy a massage at the spa — this resort offers antidotes for “full brain syndrome” that will leave you refreshed and ready for the next day’s program.
When Monday comes, you’ll be ready to go back to work — calm, recharged, and confident that you have the expertise to provide the best possible advice and representation to your clients. You’ll also have new sources of referrals — because your colleagues in other parts of the state who you meet at Spring Seminar want to make referrals to the best-trained attorneys in your community. You say a lot about your commitment to excellence when you attend ACFLS’s in-depth, single subject CLE programs.
Yes, you can buy it on DVD — but your brain will be full, and you won’t have enjoyed the resort or the networking. So sign up now on the ACFLS web page — and don’t forget to book the hote
l (rooms are selling faster than expected.)
This year’s Spring Seminar will fill up your brain with the most sophisticated understanding of our two topics — “Advanced Attorneys Fees” and “Titles, Transfers and Transmutations: When Spouses Change the Character of Assets and Obligations.”
This resort takes the ACFLS Spring Seminar up several layers of luxury — and we’ve stayed in some very nice places over the years. You’ll notice the step up at every moment — from the time you enter the lobby, to the very generous-sized luxury products stocking your bathroom (stone tiles, granite counters, with a glass shower, and a tub). My room also came equipped with a refrigerator — as well as the usual self-serve fridge with snacks and drinks.