Message from the Chair

• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 2
• Publication year: 2024
• Author: Kevin Hosn

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

AUTHOR^*

Kevin Hosn

Last month I attended one of the receptions of the New Employment Practitioner Conference. It was a two-day virtual conference, but after the first day, an in-person reception was held at four cities statewide: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco. I attended the reception in downtown Los Angeles, where I met a number of legal practitioners and reconnected with others in our practice area. I left the event wondering what made the experience so great. Then it occurred to me that perhaps it was the in-person interaction with similar-minded colleagues that was so refreshing. There was a sense of community.

The pandemic was so sudden—and it took away so much for so long. In the beginning, I found myself in a state of confusion, wondering what would happen to us and to our profession. Then we slowly relearned how to practice law despite the hurdles. I never thought I could take a deposition by remote means. And then during the pandemic, I attended more than 100 depositions, often with the attendees tuning in from five or six different cities. I never thought I could meet with clients or prepare witnesses for trial remotely. Then it became the norm to have meetings on Zoom and Teams.

Driving home from the reception, I reflected on why I chose law as a profession and more specifically, why I pursued employment law as a young associate practicing general civil litigation in Los Angeles. I went to law school because I enjoyed personal interactions, enjoyed helping people, enjoyed counseling clients, enjoyed the journey for justice and striving toward a fair outcome—being a social engineer of sorts through simple human...