President’s Page, 1118 ALBJ, 79 The Alabama Lawyer 388 (2018)
| Position | Vol. 79 6 Pg. 388 |
Sam Irby samirby@irbyandheard.com (251) 929-2225
The Future of our state bar is Young
Young lawyers make up only about 17 percent of the alabama state bar, but they are vitally important to the future of this organization and to the legal profession as a whole. New bar members are often intimidated by the state bar. Their first interaction with the bar is applying to take the bar exam. They are soon thereafter made aware of its disciplinary might. however, the ASB is much more than a regulatory body.
While the ASB’s regulatory role is important, during my presidency i want to also focus on its equally-important service role. The ASB is a membership organization which should provide the member services that are needed and wanted by its members. This can be difficult because the needs and wants of our members not only tend to vary by age, but also do not remain static.
The challenge for the ASB is to adapt as the needs and wants of our members evolve and change over time. The resources and programs we provide should continually change as different generations move in and out of the legal profession. We are now experiencing a shift away from the large baby boomer group and smaller gen-X group to the new millennials made up of lawyers who were born between 1981 and 1996. This younger group will soon dominate the workforce. The career landscape they face will inevitably differ from that faced by their predecessors since the world around us is constantly changing.
i want to see the ASB do more to engage these younger members of our organization. i believe that it is important to get them involved and keep them involved as they move through their careers and eventually become leaders in the legal profession. We can help them in that journey, and we can learn from them. These newer members of the bar bring a wealth of talent, energy and new ideas.
To the young lawyers out there, my advice is to take advantage of what the ASB has to offer now, and, if there is more you need or a better way of doing things, then take an active role in bringing about the necessary changes. Through your involvement, you can help steer the ASB in the direction that it needs to go and play a part in setting the standards of our bar. The more you put into your professional organization, the more you will get out of it.
The ASB can...
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