Young Lawyers Division, 0419 UTBJ, Vol. 32, No. 2. 68
| Author | Bebe Vanek, J. |
| Position | Vol. 32 2 Pg. 68 |
March,
2019
Young
Lawyers Division President’s Message – Midyear
Report
Bebe
Vanek, J.
Dear
Young Lawyer:
“We
are YLD.
Serve,
Connect with Each Other.
Advocate
for Those in Need.”
I love
a haiku – ask any current board member and you will
hear about my over-haiku-use throughout the year. This haiku
above really represents what this year has been about to me.
YLD has been busy this quarter and has made significant
progress towards increasing member participation and
member-driven events. A goal of mine has been to focus on
servant-driven leadership and work to inspire creativity in
service.
To this
end, we created a high school debate scholarship aimed to
promote diversity in the legal profession and reinvigorated
the YLD Volunteer and Outreach committee to require that the
YLD provide at least four community-driven service events
during this term. We saw an increase in the participation of
public service and government attorneys in the YLD leadership
and focused efforts to engage members statewide and reach law
students and recent graduates to commit to participate in the
YLD.
As the
first government attorney to be YLD president in almost a
decade, my goal has been to encourage attorneys in
nontraditional practice areas into the leadership pipeline. I
appointed ten non-private attorneys to the YLD board and have
encouraged others in public service to consider service in
the coming years. We created the “It’s No Debate!
EMBRACING Diversity in Law” high school debate
scholarship inspired by the ABA’s commitment to
diversity in the profession. We effected a change in the YLD
by reinvigorating our commitment to public service through
events such as a coat drive, career fair, and food bank
event, as well as committing to YLD-anchored pro bono
clinics.
I began
my service to the profession as a law student, and upon
graduation, I became involved with the YLD and was elected
president for the 2018–2019 term. Before my term
started, I reflected on my eight years of service and
identified a few areas for growth in the organization,
including a dearth of engaged members, too few events aimed
to encourage law students to become active members, and a
lack of community service events.
In
response, I am promoting creativity to make our events more
accessible to members, including location and relevance, and
have increased value to YLD’s over 2000 members...
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