Two old favorites are back, together

Scott

By WINDIE SCOTT

For the first time in many years, the State Bar's Minority Attorneys' Conference and what used to be the annual Bar Leaders' Conference will be returning to our spring calendar.

As part of the bar's Midyear Meeting in Long Beach on March 21-22, these two important conferences, both of which formerly drew several hundred participants, will highlight a weekend of informative and how-to sessions. They follow on last year's overwhelmingly successful Midyear

Meeting in Sonoma, which focused primarily on diversity issues and access to the profession. Keynoted by the Hon. Herb Wesson, speaker of the Assembly, the weekend will feature most bar leader sessions on Friday and minority attorneys' sessions on Saturday.

The speakers' keynote address will be followed at the luncheon address Friday by the Hon. Ming Chin, associate justice of the California Supreme Court, and on Saturday at lunch by Mablean Ephraim from the television program, "Divorce Court."

Instructive for leaders of local bar associations, the Bar Leaders' Conference on Friday will resurrect training and network sessions invaluable for people in these positions.The format will be similar to earlier structures with the inclusion of summit meetings of statewide associations, specialty bars, metro bars and small bars with breakout and plenary sessions. Sessions will focus on several specific issues for voluntary bars, such as increasing membership, raising non-dues revenue, electronic communications and writing and issuing president’s and executive director's reports.

As so often proven, the best way for a bar officer to feel better about his or her association's problems is to network and find that many other associations are in the same boat. Interaction with leaders and executive directors in bar associations throughout the state provides a great forum for exchange of ideas, suggestions of what to do and not do, and identification of helpful resources available from the State Bar.

The second event to be held during the weekend is the California Minority Attorneys' Conference (CMAC). The CMAC, sponsored by the State Bar's Ethnic Minority Relations Committee (EMRC), will be held on Saturday. As was traditional with previously held CMAC conferences, access and fairness issues will be addressed during the course of the conference, along with a focus on career development and tips on the successful practice of law.

An added focus this year will be a joint plenary session, "Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground," which will provide an opportunity for dialogue among "traditional" bar leaders and minority attorneys on leadership, inclusion and diversity. The two conferences also will overlap regarding discussions of career development, effective practice of law, building membership and elimination of bias issues.

In addition to separate registration fees for the two events, there also will be a registration fee structured to allow participants to attend all programming for both days. The conferences will be held at the Westin Long Beach. Further information can be found on the State Bar website at www.calbar.ca.gov.

Don't miss this opportunity to make March 21-22 a weekend celebrating leadership and diversity!

Sacramento lawyer Windie Scott represents District 2 on the State Bar Board of Governors.