Aba Report
| Publication year | 2014 |
| Pages | 14 |
Darin B. Scheer Wyoming State Bar Delegate American Bar Association
Why the ABA Matters to Me
Ok, I admit it—in years past, I didn't pay much attention to the American Bar Association. I paid my ABA dues and occasionally browsed the ABA Journal but, as a young lawyer, I generally spent my time trying to keep my head above water. Besides, how could the goings-on at the ABA possibly be relevant to me and my practice in Wyoming?
Now in my second decade of practice, I find myself pondering larger issues. Is being a lawyer more than just a job? Are we successfully meeting the demand for legal services in our communities? Is law still an attractive career choice for new lawyers, given the rising costs of legal education?
With these questions in mind, I attended my first meeting of the ABA House of Delegates as the Wyoming State Bar Delegate. It proved to be a real eye-opener for me, learning about the important work the ABA is doing and realizing, perhaps for the first time, how relevant those efforts truly are to my practice and the future of our profession.
I always assumed the ABA focused only on big-city big-firm, big-law issues. The mid-year meeting proved me wrong. The House of Delegates is a diverse body of lawyers from all different backgrounds, firm sizes, and areas of practice. With 66% of lawyers in the United States currently in small firms or solo practice, I was pleased to discover the small-firm dynamic we enjoy in Wyoming is amply represented within the membership of the House of Delegates.
During several days of meetings I encountered dedicated professionals spending their volunteered time to identify, discuss, and develop solutions to issues of serious concern to our profession. For instance, I learned that lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer depression than non-lawyers. Worse yet, lawyers have the fourth highest suicide rate compared to suicides in other occupations.[1] The ABA is working with numerous state bar associations on lawyer assistance programs aimed at identifying and assisting members of our profession who are in distress.
Much discussion was had on issues facing an aging population of lawyers, including the important, and very difficult, challenge of cognitive decline. Across the country, well-respected attorneys have become the subject of disciplinary proceedings where friends and colleagues failed to supportively intervene when...
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