For the position of Division Secretary, the Committee nominates David H. Lefton, Barron Peck Bennie & Schlemmer, Co. LPA. Lefton is an equity partner in a small firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. He practices primarily in the area of estate planning, probate, and trust administration. Lefton has faithfully attended almost every Division meetings in the past eight years. He has illustrated his commitment to the Division by serving in numerous capacities, including but not limited to, a member of Council for four years, Division Director, Programs Board Chair, Publications Board Chair, Solo Day Chair, Nominating Committee Member, and Long Range Planning Committee Member. Lefton has been honored with the Division Chair’s Award, Service to Others Award, as well as numerous Star of the Quarter Awards.

For the position of Council Member-at-Large, the Committee nominates Richard DeMichele Jr., DeMichele & DeMichele, P.C. DeMichele is a shareholder in a small firm in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. He is admitted to practice in five courts and administrative bodies. He practices primarily in the areas of family law, criminal law, and personal injury. DeMichele attended his first Division meeting in 2002 and has been actively involved in the Division in various capacities including the Membership Committee, Young Lawyer Committee, and Family Coordinator, and he was a prior Council Member for five years. Additionally, he has been extremely active in the ABA House of Delegates as well as other entities in the ABA.

For the position of Council Member-at-Large, the Committee nominates Alan Fowler, Alan Fowler Law, PLLC. Fowler is a solo practitioner in Key West, Florida. He primarily practices in the area of restaurant and hospitality law. He has enthusiastically served this Division in numerous capacities including, but not limited to, Division Director and Council Member. Additionally, he has received numerous awards and honors for his dedicated services.

For the position of Council Member-at-Large, the Committee nominates Scott C. LaBarre, LaBarre Law Offices P.C. LaBarre is a sole practitioner in Denver, Colorado, with an emphasis on employment law and disability rights. He is admitted to practice law in many jurisdictions throughout the United States. LaBarre has been a member of the Division since 1998. He previously served as a Council Member for four years ending in 2009. He has also served as a Practice Group Coordinator and a member of numerous committees. Throughout his career, he has received many scholarships and honors.

For the position of Council Member-at-Large, the Committee nominates Sonali Oberg, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Oberg serves as a Product Manager for her firm in Riverwoods, Illinois, primarily in the area of litigation and law practice management. She specializes in creating products for the general and small firm practitioner market segment. She currently serves on the Diversity Committee and on the Editorial Board of GPSolo magazine. She has published several legal articles and essays. She has also received recognition for her scholarly writing and other honors.

For the position of Council Member-at-Large, the Committee nominates Alan O. Olson, Olson Law Office, P.C. Olson is a sole practitioner in Des Moines, Iowa. He practices primarily in the areas of personal injury and wrongful death litigation. He has been extremely active in the ABA generally but has also dedicated a tremendous amount of time to the Division. Amongst other leadership roles, he has served the Division consistently in numerous capacities including Revenue Development Director and Committee Director. Olson has been honored by the American Board of Trial Advocates, Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, and the American Trial Lawyers association Top 100, to name only a few.

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Meet Your Division Officers

Step right up! Step right up! Think you can name all your new Division Officers before they go spinning past you at the next meeting? Well, before you place your bets, study this guide that we have thoughtfully prepared for you. And, while you’re testing your skill, remember to check out the profile of our current Chair, Benes Z. Aldana, in the March 2010 issue of GPSolo magazine (tinyurl. com/cqwdceg). Now don’t let this golden opportunity go to waste! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

Who Is Hon. Jennifer A. Rymell?

Chair-Elect

• Civil County Court at Law Judge since 2003.
• Received her BS with honors in criminal justice from Texas State University in 1988 and her JD from St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio in 1991.
• Served as an Assistant County Attorney, an Assistant Disciplinary Counsel for the State Bar of Texas, and a Municipal Court Judge.
• Was the first woman to be elected to a civil county at law bench in Fort Worth.
• Is the proud mother of Dylan, age seven, who is in first grade and attended first ABA meeting in Chicago when he was three months old!
• Received the 2004 Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas Award.
• Helped create and presided over the first Truancy Court in Fort Worth.
• Loves travel, playing with her son, biking, yoga, and scuba diving.
• Learned to adapt to being the “new kid” by attending ten different schools by the time she was in seventh grade.
• Served as the Assembly Speaker for the ABA Young Lawyers Division and Chair of the Texas Young Lawyers Association.
• Decided to become a lawyer when she was 16 years old and attended the American School of The Hague in the Netherlands. She wanted to be an international lawyer but decided she loved litigation instead.
• Represents the State Bar of Texas in the ABA House of Delegates and has served as a Trustee for the Texas Bar Foundation.
• Enjoyed her adventure of scuba diving with sharks on the Great Barrier Reef.
• Takes over as Division Chair in August 2013.

Who Is Amy Lin Meyerson?

Vice Chair

• She goes by Amy, not Amy Lin. Lin was her maiden name and is now her middle name.
• Sole practitioner in the Law Office of Amy Lin Meyerson in Weston, Connecticut, practicing business and general corporate transactional law.
• Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in North Carolina.
• Graduated from Duke University and currently serves on Duke’s Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee; graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she served as the Distinguished Alumni Speaker at its 2010 Orientation.
• Amy Lin Meyerson Day, as proclaimed by Governor Jodi M. Rell of Connecticut, was celebrated in the state on April 26, 2006.
• President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, 2005–2006.
• Founded the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2000 and its charitable affiliate, the CAPABA Educational Foundation, in 2006.
• Joined the Division as a Diversity Fellow along with Laura V. Farber and George Johnson in 2002 and is a past Division Council Member and Division Director.
• Serves on the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline.
• Is a bar junkie thanks to Immediate Past Chair of the ABA House of Delegates Linda A. Klein, who appointed Amy to her first bar association committee position in 1997 when Linda was President of the State Bar of Georgia.
• Was an appointed Commissioner of the Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission of Connecticut, 2010–2012.
• Named a Top Lawyer in Fairfield County, Connecticut, by Moffly Publications in the November issue of its Stamford, Greenwich, New Canaan-Darien, Westport and Fairfield Living magazines, 2010 and 2011.
• Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
• Enjoys spending time with her family, exercising, gardening, DIY projects, crafts, and volunteering in her community, where she serves on the Council Advisory Board to the Kappa Delta Sorority Chapter at Sacred Heart University, as a Girl Scout Daisy Troop leader, an officer in the elementary school’s Parent Teachers Organization, and a room parent for her daughter’s class.
• Married to Brandon Meyerson, whom she met her junior year in college while studying abroad in Nanjing, China; has two amazing and entertaining children: a son in the sixth grade and a daughter in kindergarten.
• Takes over as Division Chair in August 2014.

Who Is Stephen B. Rosales?

Secretary

• Managing member of Rosales & Rosales LLC, a small firm he founded with his late father Benjamin in 1980.
• After 20-plus years of practicing law in downtown Boston, relocated his office to his hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts, where he continues to run a general practice concentrating in estate planning, elder law, real estate, probate administration, and litigation.
• Earned his bachelor’s degree in 1977 from Boston College and his JD from Suffolk University Law School in 1980.
• Has been active for more than 25 years in the American Bar Association.
• Achieved the prestigious AV rating from Martindale Hubbell and has been named a Massachusetts SuperLawyer by Thomson Reuters.
• Resides in Belmont, Massachusetts (recently made famous as the hometown of Mitt Romney) with his wife of 32 years, Debi, and despite some grey hairs along the way, survived raising his three beautiful daughters, twins Danielle and Elizabeth, and Caren.
• In what’s left of his spare time, is active in Belmont town politics and affairs, enjoys golf (occasionally sinking a putt or two!), plays a reasonable guitar, roots for his beloved Boston College Eagles, and is a passionate member of Red Sox Nation and New England Patriot Nation.
• His philosophy of life is pretty simple: Work hard, do good, and have fun.
• Takes over as Division Chair in August 2015.

Who is Kathleen J. Hopkins?

Budget Officer

• Is fortunate enough to practice law with four good friends at the five-lawyer, no-staff Seattle firm of Real Property Law Group, PLLC.
• Concentrates her practice in the areas of real property transactions, real property and personal property finance, workouts, and commercial leasing.
• Co-edited The Real Estate Closing Deskbook (3d ed.) in 2012 for the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division.
• Former member of the ABA Board of Governors, where she chaired the Investments Subcommittee, and is currently one of three non-governors appointed to continue on that Subcommittee.
• Has been a member of the executive councils for the ABA Business Law Section and the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division.
• Is on the ABA Journal Board of Editors and the Editorial Board of GPSolo magazine and is past Editor-in-Chief of the ABA’s Business Law Today magazine.
• Chairs the ABA Standing Committee on Publication Oversight.
• Is on the Board of Regents of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.
• Is a new member of the American Law Institute.
• Is a Sustaining Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and in 2011 received the ABF’s Outstanding State Co-Chair Award.
• Serves as an ABA advisor to a Uniform Laws Commission drafting committee on Asset Freezing Orders and on a ULC study committee on Wage Garnishments.
• Served as President of Washington Young Lawyers and received the Outstanding Young Lawyer Awards from both the King County Bar and the ABA Business Law Non-Profits Committee.
• Is also quite active in pro bono and public service projects, co-chairing the GPSolo Division’s Pro Bono and Public Service Committee.
• Is Past Chair of the ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference and Past Chair of the ABA Business Law Pro Bono Committee.
• In 2011 the ABA recognized her work with the Presidential Pro Bono Publico Special Service Award.
• Most important, has been married for 31 years to her best friend, David Hopkins, and they are the proud parents of two sons: Neil and Ian.