ABA Day is the association’s largest lobby event of the year, where ABA, state and local bar leaders, and members from across the country meet with members of Congress to advocate on access to justice and other issues of great importance to the legal profession. This annual event brings the collective voice of the legal profession to Washington D.C. to help shape legislators’ opinion on developing policy issues.
This year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of ABA Day during the week of April 4. The ongoing pandemic has restricted our ability to meet face-to-face in Washington, D.C., but we are ready to act virtually, just as we did during ABA Day 2020 and 2021 when thousands of participants contacted their Members of Congress and engaged on social media on issues like student debt relief, judicial security, and funding for legal services for low income Americans across the country.
The ABA Day 2022 Planning Committee, under the leadership of this year’s Chair Bill Bay, are working hard, along with the Governmental Affairs Office, to prepare this year’s program. Working with our state bar association colleagues, we will be urging Congress to provide more student loan debt relief, pass of the Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act, and increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation which helps fund civil legal aid offices nationwide. Stay tuned for next month’s Washington Letter for more details about the event. Information will also be posted at ambar.org/abaday once it is finalized.
In the meantime, former ABA Presidents, state bar association leaders, and ABA Day chairs are reflecting on their ABA Day experiences over the last 25 years and the impact we have had on Capitol Hill in short video clips that will also be posted online and shared on Twitter and Instagram in the weeks leading up to ABA Day 2022. Follow us @ABAGrassroots to watch these snippets of our history as they are shared.
Don’t want to wait until April to get involved? Click here to take action now on ABA priority issues.