Letter from the Chair

• Publication year: 2023

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Written by Mary K. deLeo, Esq.^*

As I write this, I find it difficult to believe that it is already February of 2023 (and later still by the time you read this). Ever since the 2020 pandemic, time seems to ebb and flow at an unnatural pace. Has it really been three years since the world changed overnight? It seems impossible, yet here we are.

While, for many, life has gotten somewhat back to "normal" (or evolved into a New Normal), the changes brought by the Pandemic remain. The way we work, play, and communicate are radically different from three years ago. Be honest, how many of us ever heard of Zoom before March of 2020? Or attended a deposition or court hearing from the comfort of home using video technology? I thought so. If anything, pandemic tech slashed the tethers that bound us physically to our offices, for both good and bad.

Other work changes have made headlines. We had the "Great Resignation" and then "quiet quitting." Other workers didn't quit because they never returned to the office to begin with. Labor shortages have become a thing, including in our practice area. A significant number of trust and estate attorneys retired over the last few years (or cut back their practices), reducing the pool of qualified legal providers at the very same time that the demand for our services is increasing substantially due to the aging of our population. Did you know that all baby boomers will be over 65 by 2030? And many, many of them will need our services. More demand, yet fewer attorneys to meet that demand—a perfect storm, one that affects us all, both as providers and as consumers.

Many practitioners are already feeling the effects of this dynamic. Colleagues all over the state tell me they cannot find qualified associate attorneys. Employment ads that would have generated 30+ responses pre-pandemic now generate a small fraction of that number or sometimes, none at all. This is a pipeline issue that cannot be ignored.

A key element to reversing this trend is to ensure that law school graduates consider a trusts and estates practice as a viable career path. We need a significant influx of new attorneys to keep our practice area thriving. To that end, TEXCOM is instituting a new outreach program to law schools and specialty bars throughout the state to educate law students and other lawyers on the benefits of a trusts and estates practice. Each year, TEXCOM members and other volunteers will hold in-person panel discussions with law...