chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.
October 01, 2024 Lawyers Conference

LC Chair's Column

Ms. Randi Starrett

The theme for the Judicial Division’s Lawyers Conference for the ABA bar year 2024-2025 is “Collaboration and Celebration”.  First, the Lawyers Conference is excited to focus on outreach to lawyers while collaborating with the other Judicial Division conferences, beginning with the National Conference of Specialized Court Judges.  An ABA Webinar titled “Pathways to the Bench” is planned for January 2025 featuring three judges who reached the bench in different ways - through a governor appointment, through a contested election and through the federal appointment process.  This program is important as knowing how to get a judicial appointment or how to run a judicial election is not common knowledge and is often not talked about.  The program will aim to take away the mystery while providing tips on creating an application, getting endorsements and how to run a judicial election.

The Lawyers Conference will also be working with each of the different JD Conferences through its new program “Bench Bound”.  This program will provide informal conversations with judges for new and young lawyers.  Whether a lawyer appears before the bench or wants to be on the bench, information will be offered in a virtual setting about the different types of judicial positions and both what these judges expect from those who appear in front of them and how to become a judge of that type.  Eventually, the plan is for a publication that will incorporate this information in written form.

Second, the Lawyers Conference was created in 1975 by the Lawyers Committee of the ABA Judicial Administration Division.  The Judicial Administration Division recognized the need for a new conference because they felt that they could not effectively perform the role for which they were established without the participation of lawyers.  Additionally, they opined that there was the need for lawyers and the judges to have more opportunity for contact and communication including stimulating lawyers to be active in judicial reform.   At the ABA Annual meeting in 1975, the ABA House of Delegates approved the recommendation, and the Lawyers Conference was officially created. 

The Lawyers Conference is planning a 50th anniversary celebration to be held during the ABA Annual meeting in August, 2025.  The Lawyers Conference plans to reach out to past members for their comments and recollections about the importance of the participation of the conference within the Judicial Division.  During this bar year, through both collaboration and celebration, the Lawyers Conference plans to include more new and young lawyers in its conference, while working together with each of the other specialized conferences and celebrating our combined successes.

Ms. Randi Starrett

2024-2025 Chair, Lawyers Conference

Entity:
Topic:
The material in all ABA publications is copyrighted and may be reprinted by permission only. Request reprint permission here.