March 2023

Preparing for the WCBA’s Future

?Last month, over the course of one weekend, I was privileged to participate in two special events.?Both demonstrated the WCBA’s strength and reach in the legal community.?The first event showcased the WCBA’s relevance to the next generation of attorneys. The second proved that there is no limit to what one can achieve through hard work, perseverance, and yes, active membership in bar associations.

On Saturday, February 4, I was a guest lecturer in WCBA member Jasmine Hernandez’s Law Practice Management class at Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.?My topic was the role of the WCBA in the business of being an attorney and the role of the WCBA in the marketplace for legal services.?This class was for second and third year students.?Many were in the part-time program – these students have full-time jobs while simultaneously pursuing a law degree, a most impressive feat.?Their energy and rapt attention during a three-hour Saturday morning class was equally impressive.?

First and foremost, I invited them all to join the WCBA. I told the class about the unparalleled networking opportunities that active membership in the WCBA offers.?I then took the opportunity to demonstrate to the class the many ways in which the WCBA can enhance their careers. I explained the WCBA’s responsibility for vetting and maintaining the lists of criminal and family law attorneys for the 18-b panels.?I described the Lawyer Referral Service.?I told them about Mentoring Circles, and invited them to participate.?I told them about the Community Recovery Task Force and its effort to assist local businesses and volunteer first responders during the COVID crisis.?I told them about the WCBA’s efforts to include the affinity bar associations in much of what we do.

I described the work of our newest committee:?The Committee on Attorney Well-Being and the Post-COVID Practice of Law (formerly a Task Force, I created the new committee last month in recognition of the ongoing nature of its important work).?Interestingly, when I asked how many of the students intended to work remotely as an attorney on an exclusive basis, none raised their hands.

As much as these law students may have learned from me, I learned just as much from listening to them. I learned that although WCBA membership is free for law students, membership in a section is not.?Effective immediately, section membership fees are waived for law students.

I also learned that today’s law students are very different from when I was a law student over forty years ago.?Back then, my classmates and I largely saw law school as years five through seven of college.?The early-1980s recession was over; it was the “Go-Go Eighties.” Big Law could not hire us fast enough, because so many young associates were leaving the law to become investment bankers.?September 11 was many years away. The fax machine was a newfangled device; Lexis research was brand new and required dot commands.

Today’s law students inhabit a different world.?The economy is tanking as the nation and the world try to recover from a deadly pandemic. Technology has advanced to the point where we no longer need to meet in person to conduct business. Russia, China and the NATO allies circle each other warily; terrorism is an ever-present threat.?Today’s law students take nothing for granted.?They compete hard for the highest grades, the best internships; they are far more focused than my law school classmates and I were.?They have to be: today’s reality created a shift in priorities. There is determination, even desperation, on these students’ faces: what sort of job market will they face in this new, uncertain world, and will it accommodate their new vision of legal practice??My mission with those law students was to show them the role the WCBA can play in the practice of law “2.0.” Mission accomplished.?

The second event, on Sunday, February 5, was the swearing-in of our own Assistant Secretary, Karen Beltran, as a judge of the Yonkers City Court.?The crowd in the courtroom in Yonkers City Hall was standing room only; among them were Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, County Executive George Latimer, Ninth Judicial District Administrative Judge Hon. Anne E. Minihan, and many sitting judges from various courts.?In addition to myself, the WCBA was well represented by President-Elect Andrew Schriever, Board Member Hon. Kyle McGovern, and many members.

I know Judge Beltran as a hard-working Assistant County Attorney who was named the Deputy Administrator of the Office of Assigned Counsel in November 2022, a member of NYSBA’s House of Delegates, a Chair of WCBA’s Diversity Committee, and an up-and-coming WCBA officer.?At her swearing-in, I learned, among other things, that Karen emigrated from Columbia when she was a child, and became a United States citizen at eighteen years of age. Karen has long been an advocate for education; among other things, she is a past president of the Yonkers Council of PTAs and is a member of the Board of Directors of Yonkers Partners in Education.

In her speech, Karen specifically mentioned the importance of membership in bar associations, and graciously thanked the WCBA for being instrumental in her career trajectory.?Thank you, Judge Beltran … you will be an outstanding jurist.?The WCBA is proud to have played a role in all you have accomplished, and will accomplish. New members, take note, and take advantage of the many ways that the WCBA can enhance your professional development.?Your future is waiting; take it with both hands.