President’s Message from Louis Amato-Gauci, upon his elevation as ALTP’s new president.
[On January 27, 2022 at ATLP’s 93rd Annual Meeting held in Kansas City, Missouri Jameson Rice passed the ATLP’s president’s gavel to Louis Amato-Gauci. Louis delivered the following remarks to the assembled members.]]
I’m deeply honoured to serve as president of this venerable association, the oldest organization of its kind in North America. I am excited about this upcoming year, and confident that I can count on all of you to help make it a resounding success.
I joined ATLP as a relatively young lawyer, who was just beginning to explore the boundaries of transportation law. I attended the ATLP annual meeting in Memphis, met a few folks and marveled at the depth of their expertise in this niche area of practice, but really had no idea what it takes to make an organization like this run smoothly.
I quickly discovered that much of the credit for the continued success of ATLP is due to the efforts of Lauren Michalski, our Executive Director for many, many years, who has truly been the heartbeat, life and soul of the association. There is something magical about Lauren. I met her when she and I sat at the back of the bus – where all the rowdy kids sat – heading to the midnight tour of the FedEx Hub. By the time that trip ended she had me signed up as a speaker for the next event, followed in rapid succession by an invitation to: (i) publish a paper in the Journal; (ii) serve on the program committee for the next meeting; (iii) co-chair the committee with Jameson for another meeting; and the rest is history.