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ABA YLD Update

Benefits and Opportunities
By: Anita Barksdale
 
Do you want to rub elbows with young lawyers from across the country and around the world? Do you just need any legitimate excuse available to take your family on a fabulous trip? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, then you should attend the next meeting of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (“ABA YLD”), which will be held from October 13th through the 15th at the ABA’s 2011 Fall Conference in Seattle, Washington.

Workshops for the Fall Conference include legal updates and practical tips from expert faculty covering client service, trial skills, e-discovery, social media use, ethics, and more. Between Thursday and Saturday, ABA YLD will offer more than 20 educational sessions to increase your development as a lawyer.

Our Time to Shine: Opportunities For Young Lawyers

The ABA YLD also invites you to apply for the Young Lawyers Division Fellowship Program of the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law. The application deadline is August 31, 2011 and the program is designed to give young lawyers who are Section members the opportunity to become familiar with and actively involved in the Section. See the ABA website for more details.
 
Developing a Practice: ABA’s Annual Meeting

Next month, we will provide you with an overview of the ABA’s Annual Meeting which took place in Toronto, Canada. If you weren’t able to make it this year, please consider planning ahead for next year’s Annual Meeting. During the ABA’s Annual Meeting, the ABA’s sections, divisions, and other entities develop more than 150 CLE programs that will help you improve your professional skills and expertise. There are great opportunities to learn from and network with lawyers and judges from around the world. The meetings also feature the world’s largest legal EXPO, providing an array of goods and services pertaining to the practice of law.

What Should I Do: Get Involved

If you have never considered getting involved, consider it now. The ABA YLD is the home for young lawyers. With over 150,000 members and 300 affiliated groups, the ABA YLD is the largest young lawyer organization in the world. The Division is committed to assuring it is best able to represent the newest members of the profession, ensuring that it reflects the society it serves, and providing young lawyers with the tools and opportunities for professional and personal success. Individual membership is open to American Bar Association members under 36 years old or admitted to practice for five years or less. Affiliate membership is open to young lawyer organizations and special interest bars. This past July, the ABA YLD offered several membership benefits—a free teleconference on the most troublesome and common Family Medical Leave Issues, a new guide that provides legal writing and style preference tips from Supreme Court justices, and articles about important topics to our practices, including “5 Ways to Protect Your Online Reputation” and “Skills You Need to Survive in the New Economy.”

To see what ABA YLD can do for you, visit our website and try our ABA YLD Bootcamp. Via six free downloads from the ABA YLD, lawyers and judges will share their thoughts, ideas and tactics, on choosing a career path, getting the most out of your first position, networking, being a superstar associate, trial skills, and starting your own practice.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about ABA YLD, you should express your interest to your local ABA YLD District Representatives, Anita Barksdale or Jobe Rodgers.