Welcome to the fourth installment of Leadership Chat, in which we spend a few minutes with leaders at a particular state, local, or special-focus bar. For this issue, Eric T. Cooperstein spoke with Billie L.M. Addleman, Sharon Wilkinson, and Emily S. Madden from the Wyoming State Bar.
Cooperstein is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services, a past president of the Hennepin County (Minn.) Bar Association, a frequent faculty member at the ABA Bar Leadership Institute, and a small-firm lawyer whose practice is focused on legal ethics. Addleman is president of the Wyoming State Bar, where Wilkinson is executive director and Madden is chair-elect of the bar’s Young Lawyers Section.
Addleman is a partner at Hirst Applegate in Cheyenne, where he focuses primarily in the area of civil litigation, including professional liability, medical malpractice, premises liability, commercial litigation, real estate litigation, and professional licensing. Wilkinson became executive director of the bar in 2013, having previously served as its deputy executive director. Madden is an associate at The Spence Law Firm in Jackson, where she focuses on personal injury, wrongful death, civil rights, and medical malpractice.
At the time of this Leadership Chat, these three Wyoming State Bar leaders were fresh from the bar’s most recent strategic planning retreat and were eagerly anticipating its 2021 Annual Meeting & Judicial Conference, to be held in September at a hotel and resort in Cheyenne, with programs also available virtually. Addleman, Wilkinson, and Madden filled Cooperstein in on what it’s like to lead a state bar that’s both mandatory and small, why Wyoming lawyers are willing to drive seven hours to meet in person, what new steps they’re taking to make lawyer wellness a top priority—and why that’s important to young lawyers especially.
Listen in—and get ready for another Leadership Chat, featuring a different bar leadership team, in a future issue of Bar Leader.