Director’s note: Details about upcoming changes—and what will stay the same

Jennifer Lewin is director of the ABA Division for Bar Services. She can be reached at [email protected] or (312) 988-5361.

We hope you’re enjoying this fall issue of Bar Leader and our new Strategy Series, a feature that will help you continue to build the expertise of your governing boards. As always, we invite your feedback and topic suggestions for future issues, which you can email to Marilyn Cavicchia, editor.

Moving forward, you’ll see a different publishing schedule for Bar Leader: We plan to post single articles as they’re ready and collect them into a full issue on a quarterly basis. This new schedule will allow us to provide you with more frequent original content and to be more responsive to the way we all consume news these days.

We’ve received a considerable number of questions about the NABE Board of Directors’ decision to transition to an association management company on July 1. We thought we would take the opportunity to share more about what this means for your day-to-day interaction with our staff at the ABA. 

Our historical partnership with NABE has enabled you to have a single point of contact for all NABE, National Conference of Bar Presidents (NCBP), and Bar Services offerings. From now until next summer, that will continue to be the case. Starting in July 2023, all NABE activities will be managed by Jaffe Management. Jaffe staff will be the primary contact for NABE members regarding all NABE business, resources, and meetings. The ABA Division for Bar Services will continue to provide governance and administrative support to NCBP, so please continue to contact us with any questions you have regarding NCBP programs and resources. 

We thought it might be helpful to provide you with a snapshot of each organization’s audience and core services and initiatives, so you can more effectively differentiate who does what: 

NABE – The Association for Bar Professionals

Audience: NABE members who are staff professionals from national, state, local, affinity and specialty bars, as well as bar-like organizations

Core services and initiatives:

• NABE Annual Meeting (held in conjunction with the ABA meeting)
• Specialized group workshops and events – Chief Executives Retreat, Communications Section Workshop, Administration & Finance Section Workshop and Governmental Relations Section Workshop
• Higher Logic communities and other peer-to-peer activities
• Monthly topical roundtables and special webinars
• White papers and templates on bar management and administration
• NABE News and NABE Bulletin
• NABE Compensation & Benefits Survey

ABA Division for Bar Services

Audience: Elected officers, executive staff, boards and new lawyer entity leaders of all national, state, local, affinity and specialty bars

Core services and initiatives:

• ABA Bar Leadership Institute
• Leadership development and support, including New Bar President, New Bar Board Member and Board Catalyst Videos 
• Information Clearinghouse and web-based resource pages – expertise about bar structure, policy and practices
• The State and Local Bar Benchmarks Survey
• News, trends and analysis shared through publications such as Bar Leader and Bar Leader Weekly
• Job Announcement Service for bars and law-related organizations
• Strategic planning and board development services
• Market and membership research services and other profession-related research
• Support for the National State Bar Caucus and Metro Bar Caucus of the ABA House of Delegates

National Conference of Bar Presidents

Audience: NCBP members who are elected officers and executive staff of national, state, local, affinity and specialty bars

Core services and initiatives: 

• NCBP Midyear and Annual Meetings (held in conjunction with the ABA meeting)
• 21st Century Lawyer online programming
• Bar President newsletter
• Bar leader networking and peer-to-peer activities
• Diversity Scholarships
• Recognition of outstanding leadership through the Fellows Award and Presidents Pages Award 

We recognize this will be a transition for all of us, but here’s one thing that will never change: Whatever your role at your bar, the ABA Division for Bar Services has your back. We look forward to enriching our support of you and your bar organization. Please feel free to reach out to me or any of the Bar Services team with your questions.