This month the Bar Bulletin has been organized under the theme of “rights.” As a result, you’ll see articles discussing the right to counsel in juvenile hearings and civil cases, landmark civil rights cases, a discussion of the rights of students, and a review of the rights of other discrete groups.
Before that list ends, though, I wanted to be sure to add one more area of rights for your consideration: your right to expect outstanding service as a member of the King County Bar Association. When I think of member services, three specific areas come to mind.
News & Information: Members can count on KCBA to provide them with the latest updates and alerts about the practice of law in Seattle and King County. We already do much in this area, publishing the monthly Bar Bulletin you’re reading right now, as well as the well-received Washington Lawyers’ Practice Manual, which is updated annually. The e-communities area of the KCBA Web site allows attorneys to share helpful advice and insights with one another. And, of course, we have scores of sections, committees and task forces developing helpful practice resources throughout the year.
That said, I want to help KCBA expand its information delivery services for the bar in the near future. For example, late-breaking substantive news reporting on liaison meetings the bar regularly conducts with the courts could be delivered via email to members. The WLPM could move from a CD-ROM product to a Web-based publication, accessible wherever you need it (have you ever left it at the office when you needed it at home?). Our main Web site might benefit from some reorganization that, first, makes some materials available to members only and, second, has useful practice materials easily presented and logically organized for the bar. These are just a few information-related ideas for KCBA to tackle.
Continuing Legal Education: Providing our members with both high quality and affordable CLEs that they need to stay abreast of the latest changes to specific areas of the law, as well as general practice, is a service into which KCBA has put significant energy. Did you know that we offer more than 45 days of CLE programming each year?
These programs are designed by our professional legal education staff and are taught by some of the most respected attorneys and law professors in the nation. In addition, we offer many of our programs on audio CDs for review at times that are convenient to you as you juggle the many competing demands on your schedule.
I believe we have many areas in CLE where we can expand our offerings, not just in terms of topics covered, but also in terms of the formats in which we offer our programming. For example, some practitioners might need current resources and training on foreclosure law, given the mortgage-lending issues currently facing our nation. Others may need the latest analysis of new laws passed by the state Legislature in Olympia. Still other attorneys find themselves advising clients on areas of law that 20 years ago weren’t even taught in law school: the environment, immigration and a host of additional areas.
Beyond ensuring that we cover the topics you need, it’s important for KCBA to be aware of the changing dynamics of how our bar wants to receive continuing legal education. While traditional classroom-like settings with panels of “talking heads” is what many of us are most comfortable with, still others members of the bar (young and more seasoned alike) have embraced audio conferences, “webinars,” podcasting and other styles of learning that are still in their infancy. We can also offer non-classroom-based programs such as speaker series and interactive seminars.
The King County Bar Association must be sensitive to these changing preferences and ensure that our CLE offerings can adapt and remain relevant to a bar whose members are increasingly comfortable with these alternative means of education delivery.
Networking, Volunteering and Leadership Opportunities: Your bar association is the place where you can find tremendous professional satisfaction, not to mention the business and social connections that make work and life enjoyable. At section meetings members can ask questions of their colleagues, offer feedback on challenging cases facing one another and even make connections with potential future partners or allies.
More than 20 bar committees also exist where a KCBA attorney can volunteer time working on diversity initiatives, awarding law student scholarships, evaluating judges and reviewing legislative proposals, just to name a few. And even if you have just a few hours available, we can certainly put your expertise to good work through KCBA’s Community Legal Services pro bono programs (and we can train you to give you any expertise you may think you’re missing!).
Even with all these opportunities for participation in the bar, we have many attorneys who practice law in Seattle and King County who are not members of KCBA. Some are young lawyers, others are senior attorneys and more still are somewhere between. Finding out why they aren’t part of our local bar is one of the most important areas we will focus on in the months ahead.
We’ll be conducting focus groups and non-member surveys to learn more about why these practitioners haven’t joined KCBA. At the same time, we’ll be surveying our existing members to identify what motivates attorneys to join and hopefully actively participate in the local bar. I look forward to sharing the results of these surveys with you in the months ahead.
As I begin my tenure as the new KCBA executive director, I am very encouraged by the successful organization that the board and staff have built over these last many years. And I’m particularly grateful to my predecessor Alice Paine for her outstanding management of the organization.
I see many areas that I want to work with you to enhance and take to the next level. I’m looking forward to doing all I can to ensure that your right to outstanding member services from the King County Bar Association remains one of the key aspects of our bar’s mission.
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