The International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the interests and education of local government lawyers, hosted its 2026 annual national conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. IMLA is comprised of a vast network of local government expert legal professionals who offer key insight into the current uncertainties and ever-fluctuating environment of issues that counties encounter daily. In attendance were a record number of over 800 attendees, not including our Canadian counterparts who attended virtually.
In addition to benefiting from current, up-to-date, timely, and real-world stories from the presenters, attendees were able to engage and network with other attendees to build relationships for future contacts to address matters and further enhance and develop the framework for proposing or defending legal issues faced by local governments.
Wednesday, September 23 – This date kicked off the start of the conference and concurrent sessions. After my arrival in Salt Lake City, Utah, I attended a Parliamentary Procedure session and then a session entitled “Establishing Good Relationships as a Young Professional.” It emphasized that municipal/county government is unique in that each unit of government is a diverse organization that largely functions on the ability to forge effective, professional relationships with elected and administrative officials and staff. An important tip stated by the presenter’s material was “Always disclose all pertinent facts and objectives.” The more information that is provided, the more timely, accurate, and complete response can be given to the requestor. And, another tip provided was, “Disliking the [] Attorney’s advice doesn’t make it bad advice.” This session presented a framework to analyze and improve one's professional relationships and suggest techniques to repair relationships that are less than effective. The final session of the day was the State League Meeting roundtable intended for attendees to talk about topics that keep our phones ringing. Topics that were discussed included public records statutes, First Amendment auditors and data centers, as well as other miscellaneous topics. This session was intended to be geared towards state league counsel. It was an interactive roundtable that provided the opportunity to discuss emerging issues, and strategies for addressing those issues.
Thursday, September 24– To start this day, the State/Provincial Breakfast was held for the purpose of providing attendees an opportunity to eat with their peers from their geographical area to discuss their work. Attendees who sat at the Nebraska table included attorneys from Minnesota. On the way to looking for my table, I also talked with individuals from Missouri and Colorado, among others. The first presentation of the day related to homeless solutions, including the topic of homeless individuals with serious mental illness and substance use disorder who cycle for years through emergency departments, jails, and crisis stabilization units without sustained treatment. This session looked at two different state approaches to this problem. California's SB 43 (2023) expanded eligibility for involuntary treatment for the first time in over fifty years, and the session examined why admission rates have not measurably changed since. The next locality, Bozeman, Montana, took a very different approach, pairing a 2025 urban camping ordinance with outreach connecting people to housing and services, reporting a 25% drop in homelessness, from 523 to 394 people, in 2025. This session drew lessons from both systems for participants working in any jurisdiction. The next session was “Technology Governance for Local Governments: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, and Managing Risk.” Improvements in AI and technological innovation are evolving at a rapidly increasing speed. Sadly, so too are the litany of troubles resulting from weaknesses in the implementation and monitoring of these tools. Like the private sector, local governments across the country are confronting the same legal and operational risks. This session examined how local governments can work to address emerging technology challenges. Key takeaways from this session were that AI may inform, but it may not decide. Further, AI may not become the hidden decision-maker on a consequential government action. Then, presenters spoke about the “Best Practices for Validating and Verifying Citations with AI Tools” by answering what are best practices government attorneys can leverage to ensure they are using AI ethically. During this CLE session, presenters discussed how local government attorneys can reduce manual processes with AI while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy. A component of this discussion was the best practices for: preventing hallucinations, validating and verifying citations, checking answers from any AI solution, and getting the best answers from AI tools.
Friday, September 25 – The beginning session on this day fit into an ethical hour, and it was titled, “Resilient Lawyering in Local Government: Surviving (and Thriving) as Local Government Counsel.” A theme of this session was that local government attorneys operate in uniquely challenging conditions: intense public scrutiny, high‑conflict environments, demanding clients who are often elected officials, and decisions that unfold in real time before constituents and the press. Such pressures can create isolation, compassion fatigue, and chronic stress, especially in offices where workloads are heavy and resources limited. This session focused on real experiences and offered practical, evidence‑informed strategies that truly fit the day‑to‑day realities of municipal practice. Next up was a session on public comments during government body meetings – “Emerging Threats and Advanced Scenarios”. During this session, several real life scenarios were presented in videos, and advice was provided on how to prevent some of those situations from occurring without infringing upon First Amendment challenges. Then, I returned to a session related to AI – “Setting the Rules for AI: An Attorney’s Guide to Drafting GenAI Policies for Local Governments.” As generative AI tools become increasingly entrenched in government operations, local government attorneys play a critical role in helping their jurisdictions establish responsible, risk-conscious AI use policies. This presentation scrutinized the developing landscape of state and local government GenAI policies — drawing on frameworks adopted by Oregon, New York, Maine, Washington, Georgia, Kansas, and cities including New York City, San Jose, Seattle, and Boston — to identify common principles and best practices that attorneys can adapt for their own communities. Attendees were able to gain practical guidance on drafting policies that define clear boundaries for acceptable and prohibited AI uses, mandate human oversight and accountability for AI-generated content, and protect sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information from unauthorized exposure through AI systems.
To end the day of sessions, I attended another continuing education session geared towards ethics – “Passing the Torch: Preserving Institutional Legal Knowledge Across Generations in Municipal Law Departments”. Local government law departments are confronting a pivotal moment: four generations working side‑by‑side with differing work styles while satisfying American Bar Association (ABA) Rules through competent, diligent, and well‑communicated transitions. An increasing retirement wave with a loss of undocumented knowledge provides a direct threat to consistent, competent legal representation for local government bodies. This presentation provided information on how local government attorneys can maintain ethical competence and continuity under the ABA Model Rules while preparing for inevitable turnover through structured succession planning and modern knowledge‑preservation tools. Structured knowledge‑transfer systems and cross‑training are essential to uphold supervision duties under the rules during staff changes.
Saturday, September 26 – This day’s sessions started with “Rock and Roll Employment Law Update”. The first session was accompanied by a presenter who played his guitar to song lyrics he had written based on familiar tunes and employment settings. Mixed with the entertainment was substantial information related to current-day trends at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Several of the songs were geared to "adverse employment action." The last presentation of the morning was dedicated to data centers in Virginia and San Jose, California. A portion of this session discussed how to value data centers. There were pros and cons of the data centers included within the discussion, as well as land use and zoning considerations.
The 2026 IMLA Conference offered a number of concurrent competing sessions. Many of the sessions included issues that have evolving implications for counties due to the changes in Presidential Executive Orders, Federal rules and regulations, and judicial decisions. Issues discussed by legal practitioners and the lessons offered by IMLA at its 2026 Conference will be able to be brought forward by me for additional engagement to share professional offerings with county officials and colleagues moving into the future. Additional issues addressed included zoning, immigration, clean water and clean air suits, design-bid-build, broadband deployment and wireless siting, pet and stray animal policies, state preemption, FEMA funding, negotiations, federal grant conditions, working with elected officials, and ethics.
NACO joined IMLA for the initial purpose of further assisting Nebraska counties with resources in 2017 when a county was searching for support to write an amicus brief in a court case. We have maintained our membership to enhance our resources available to counties, including listservs, conferences, webinars, information on court cases and amicus briefs, etc. Individual counties are also able to become individual members, as some have done in the past.
Elaine Menzel currently serves as one of NACO’s Legal Counsel and IMLA’s NE State Chair, who can weigh in on how helpful IMLA can be to your county. We hope to be able to further provide up-to-date information from national experts for your county to implement sound decisions.
