Here for Our Members

• Author: Michael A. Mosberg
• Pages: 3-3

FALL 2020 3

from the chair

By

Michael A. Mosberg

will be launching our pod cast initiative with topics that will

assist prac titioners both new to the area of family law as well

as our more experie nced members.

The Section’s contr ibutions towards the intellectual

discourse in family law co ntinues through our two agship

publications, th e Family Advocate and the Family Law

Quarterly, as well as through the boo ks shepherded from

inception to printed pro duct by our Publications Board. U nder

the extraordinar y leadership of Kathleen Hogan , the Advo-

cate, issue af ter issue, year after year explore s current family

law topics and provide s management advice, hot tips, a nd,

every summer, a manual for clie nts. This issue, dedicate d to

the intersec tion of family law and international law, is no

different. A s Professor Lisa Grumet of New York Law Sch ool

takes the helm as Editor in Chief, a new, div erse board of

student editor s together with our Board of Editors, a re hard at

work on the upcoming is sues of the Family Law Quarterly as

well as planning for our r st-ever symposium, which will

buttress our S ection meetings. Meanwhil e, Joe Booth, Lynne

Ustach, and the re st of the Publications Board remain har d at

work overseeing th e production of authoritative, cu tting-edge

books in the area of family l aw, which remain in high demand

nationally and internatio nally.

Of course, thes e initiatives and offerings stan d on the

shoulders of our Se ction bulwarks, you, the memb ers. I ask

that each and every p erson reading this article consid er our

Section’s offe rings not only as content to help you in your

practice but as a me ans to engage and increase your parti ci-

pation within the Sec tion. Whether your interest is wri ting,

speaking, planning, promoting initiative s involving diversity,

access to justice , and education in the family law professio n, or

just meeting and co nnecting with other family law attor neys

nationally and internatio nally, become involved. The depth,

breadth and divers ity of your ideas only serves to s trengthen

our Section and it s membership. Please do not he sitate to

reach out to me pers onally at mosberg@amsllp.com, and I will

help get you involved at wha tever level you are comfortable

and in whatever area(s) you have inte rest.

These are turbulen t times, and we are all struggling in

different ways. B e kind to each other, support one another,

stay well, and stay s afe. fa

Here for Our Members

MICHAEL A. MOSBERG (mosberg@amsllp.com) is

Chair of the ABA Family Law Se ction and a partner with

Aronson Mayefsk y & Sloan, LLP in New York City.

I

am humbled and honor ed to become the Chair of the

Family Law Section for t he upcoming ABA year. On

behalf of myself and the S ection, I want to express

the deepest gra titude and appreciation to our

outgoing Chair Jonatha n W. Wolfe, for both his

leadership and the s ignicant contributions he has

made to our Sectio n, the practice of family law, and the

larger ABA. He ha s ably steered us through unprece dented

times and was the drivin g force behind establishing our

Section’s charita ble arm, the Family Law Section Program

Support Fund. I t was Jon who convinced me to attend my

rst Family Law Sec tion meeting. The combination of

learning, networking, and general camaraderie that I

experienced so ld me on the Section, as I expec t it did for

many of you. Nowhere was tha t more evident than in the

tributes for Past Cha irs Michael J. Albano (FLS Chair 1984 –

1985), Michael E. Barber (FL S Chair 1989–1990), and Hon.

Howard I. Lipsey (FLS C hair 2005–2006) at ou r virtual Annual

Meeting in August . All three were lions of the Bar and

champions of the Sec tion who mentored countless young

lawyers and mea ningfully gave back to their communities.

They each were, in the tru est sense of the word, leader s.

As I write this column, w ith COVID-19 continuing to wreak

havoc across many par ts of our country, and indeed the worl d,

uncertaint y looms—both in our prac tices and in our personal

lives. The cancela tions of our in-person Sprin g Conference and

the Annual Meeting wa s tremendously disappointing . And

while our Fall Meeting will be vir tual this year, you have my

promise that we are workin g as hard as we can to provide you

with that same positi ve, welcoming experience that I had not

only at my rst mee ting but at every Family Law Section

meeting I have atten ded to this day.

In that vein, a primar y focus for the upcoming year is on

outreach and engag ement. I encourage you to visit our

COVID-19 & Family Law Resources web page, https://w ww.

americanbar.org/groups/family_law, for a collection of article s,

videos, and webi nars running the gamut from issue s involving

parenting, valuation, a ssisted reproductive te chnology, best

practices, law r m practice management, and mo re. The

webpage is regularl y updated, and from there you can see th e

depth and breadth of all t he other information we make

available and regularly up date for our members. Our e- news-

letter, together with o ur topic-specic Brown Bag Zoom series ,

continues to provide de tails on current events in family law.

And as we look for new an d innovative ways to not only

provide value, but eng age with you, in the coming months, we

Published in Family Advocate, Volume 43, Number 2, Fall 2020. © 2020 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.