This is a report to our Board and our membership on our progress in advancing the mission of the Northern District of Ohio Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and on addressing the challenges I discussed last fall.
I frequently remind myself of our mission. It is: “to advance the science of jurisprudence and to promote the welfare, interest, education, and professional growth and development of the members of the federal legal profession.” I also have revisited over the year the three concerns I expressed when I was sworn in as Chapter President last October. Those were: (1) the possibility that our attorneys were getting too little experience in matters before the courts; (2) the sense that a strain on our practices due to increased competition for business has hindered civility among our practitioners; and 3) the need to do even more to strengthen the relationship between the judiciary and practicing attorneys in our district. I promised last fall that we would take some initiatives and sponsor some activities to help us deal with these concerns.
I like to think that we have taken steps to fulfill our mission and to address challenges I identified. Credit goes to our capable officers and talented Board members, especially those who chaired Chapter committees or handled special projects. I want to describe a few of our Chapter activities to date.
We sought to advance the mission of our association. To help us do so we established two new Board committees. The first is the Board Development Committee, which is charged with formulating and implementing ideas for the enhancement of the experience of our Board and Chapter members. We hope that we will facilitate a greater understanding of the functions and responsibilities of our Board members to enhance their skills in rendering services to our Chapter and to our community. The second is our National Relations Committee. This committee is charged with the functions of serving as the principle bridge between our Chapter and our national organization and of exploring opportunities for utilizing the resources of the national organization for the benefit of our members. I think both of these committees should serve our organization well in the years to come.
We have put in place or continued with activities to impart knowledge to our members on how to be better practitioners. Specifically, we have held or will hold several seminars on numerous areas of substantive federal law, including bankruptcy litigation, labor and employment, intellectual property, and advanced federal practice. In August we will hold a seminar showcasing real hands-on courtroom practice and featuring some of our area’s “Iron Lawyers.” A new program for our Chapter, held this June, introduced new practitioners to our federal judges, law clerks and the clerk’s office, as well as our new courthouse. Moreover, our fine newsletter has illuminated our readers with extremely high quality (law review caliber) articles and other informative pieces.
We have reached out to members of the bar in Northern Ohio in an effort to improve the quality of relations among our practitioners. In particular, we have sought and achieved more active involvement in our organization from lawyers in smaller firms and from members of the criminal defense bar, segments of our practicing bar that may have previously been underrepresented. We have instituted breakfast networking sessions designed to allow local practitioners to exchange information about their practices and eventually to refer business to each other. By these undertakings and activities we have sought to promote both enjoyable and productive relationships among practitioners.
Finally, we have sought to continue to enhance the relationship between the federal bench and bar. We have hosted brown bag lunches with numerous federal judicial officers and have scheduled several more brown bag lunches in the months to follow, including a luncheon with Judge Kathleen O’Malley scheduled for July 2, 2008. We will again hold our extremely successful summer associate reception at the Rock Bottom Brewery on July 9, 2008. This is an excellent opportunity to socialize with our federal judiciary. Finally, planning for our third annual State of the Court Luncheon is under way, and the event will be held on September 22, 2008. Get your seats early as we expect another capacity crowd gathered to hear about developments in our district over the past year.
While I am pleased that we have made progress in advancing our mission and in making the Northern District of Ohio an even more fulfilling place to practice law, opportunities abound to do even more. Our goals as an organization are to continue the great events and practices that we have implemented in the past and to create new and different events and practices to be held in the years ahead, all to fulfill both the needs and wants of the federal practitioners in our district. We continue to strive to be the organization for the lawyer who practices in federal court. The more help we receive from practitioners in our district the more I am sure we can accomplish our goals.
To learn more about what we have done this year and have planned for the months ahead, see our excellent and up-to-date website, please click on the links on the left, then let me know how you would like to get involved.
Anthony J. LaCerva
McDonald Hopkins LLC
Northern District of Ohio Chapter President