The Rewards of Volunteerism

• Date: 01 September 2022
• Author: Thad Chaloemtiarana

Published in Landslide, Volume 15, Number 1, 2022. © 2022 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.

1

PERSPECTIVE

provide extraordinary opportunities to

network with friends, potential employers

or employees, counsel, and clients. Watch

for notices of one or more of the following

events during this Association Year:

We make a living by what we get. We

make a life by what we give.

—Winston Churchill

As an associate in my law rm in the

1990s, I rst heard about the ABA

Section of Intellectual Property Law

(ABA-IPL) from one of my senior partners.

He was an active Section leader and thought

I should become an ABA-IPL member. I

didn’t know much about the Section, but I

remember asking myself, “What am I going

to get by paying for membership?”

I soon saw that there were several imme-

diate benets that I was receiving just by

paying my membership dues: high-qual-

ity CLE programs, webinars, publications,

and excellent content—to name a few. It

took me a while longer to discover that

there were many more benets. And what

really helped me tap into all that the Section

had to offer was when I started volunteer-

ing some of my time and got involved in

Section activities.

Here are three ways in which you too

can enrich your membership and reap more

benets for yourself and your career.

Join a Substantive Committee or

Anity Action Group

Just by joining a committee and volunteer-

ing to work on a few projects, I learned

more about intellectual property (IP) topics

of interest to me, was able to demonstrate

my subject matter expertise to a wide

audience, networked with other IP profes-

sionals outside of my rm, and became a

speaker on several CLE programs. I also

saw rsthand how the Section develops

policy and works with the greater ABA to

have a powerful voice in advocating for

our profession.

The choices for participation are numer-

ous—and all available according to your

interests. Our six substantive Divisions,

comprised of over 40 committees, cover all

aspects of IP law. You can attend Section

meetings right away to get involved and

then decide on a project that appeals to

you, such as: organizing or speaking at

CLE presentations, writing articles or white

papers, planning informal social events,

or developing reports and resolutions on

policy issues to present to Council. To learn

more about participation on a commit-

tee, attend one of the Section’s quarterly

Committee Orientation meetings.

The Section’s Action Groups (Women in

IP Law, Young Lawyer, Law Student, Inter-

national, and Diversity) allow members to

meet with their peers and collaborate. You

are free to join these groups and any commit-

tees that are of interest and value to you.

Attend Section Programs and

Events

Throughout the year, Section members

from all over the world come together for

in-person and virtual programs. These are

great opportunities to get to know our

Section and its leaders, as well as the leaders

in Congress, the judiciary, the U.S. Patent

and Trademark Office, the U.S. Copy-

right Ofce, and others who inuence IP

policy in the United States and beyond.

Our Section meetings are gatherings that

By Thad Chaloemtiarana

The Rewards of Volunteerism

Thad Chaloemtiarana is chair of the ABA

Section of Intellectual Property Law. He

is a partner at Pattishall, McAuliffe,

Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP,

where he focuses on trademark, unfair

competition, copyright, and information

technology matters. He can be reached

at tc@pattishall.com.

(Continued on page 54)

Find opportunities to maximize your ABA-IPL membership at https://

www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/membership.

• Register to attend a Committee Orientation meeting

• Access your Member Resource Kit

• Join a committee or Action Group

• And more!

• ABA USPTO Day, September 15–16,

2022, Virtual

• IP Fall Institute, October 12–14, 2022,

Virtual

• ABA Midyear Meeting, February 1–6,

2023, New Orleans, LA

• ABA-IPL Section Annual Meeting/

IPLSPRING, April 12–14, 2023,

Washington, DC

• Copyright Oce Day, 2023

Consider Becoming a Section

Leader Yourself

The Section brings together the larg-

est community of the most inuential IP

lawyers in the world. If you have a bit more

time to give, volunteering to serve in a lead-

ership position in the ABA-IPL Section offers

great personal and professional rewards.

This fall, as is customary every year, we

are soliciting nominations for an array of

leadership roles that permit our members

to become actively involved in the Section’s

practice-focused activities. Leadership in

publications, policy-making, and other

professional educational and enrichment

activities includes chair and vice-chair posi-

tions for committees and boards, as well as

liaison positions with other professional

entities within and outside of the ABA.