As my term comes to an end, I thought I would share in my last president’s column some thoughts and insights from the past year.
It was a little over a year ago–July 26, 1997, to be exact–that I was elected president of the State Bar. It was the culmination of what most agreed to be an extraordinarily contentious year. I vowed to put an end to the dissension and infighting, exacting promises from board members to work together toward a common goal of improving access to, and quality of, legal services for our membership and the people of the state of California.
I felt proud to have been given this opportunity. Whether you were an avid supporter of the State Bar or held it in disdain, the honor of being elected to lead the policy governing board for the largest legal regulatory agency in the world was a privilege and challenge that I would relish.
The previous three years on the board of governors had afforded me many opportunities to envision what I could offer the membership and the profession as a small firm practitioner and parent. I wondered realistically what I could do during my short one-year term to make a difference–what I could do to impart a message. One can only relate their own life experiences in developing a goal or challenges.
My wife Erin and I are the parents of 7-year-old twins. Our son Ben is afflicted with autism and has special educational needs. For the last five years, we have worked tirelessly to ensure that he gets the best educational programs possible. It has been challenging and extraordinarily time-consuming. It requires our constant attention. We wondered if parents of other special needs children who weren’t lawyers or doctors would have the time or ability to take time off from their employment and take on the system (as we had to do) to insure their special needs children could receive the education they were entitled to under the law.
This experience clarified a need in which attorneys could make a huge difference in the life of a child or a child’s family. This would be the agenda I would set forth this year. A call to action to assist children.
What could possibly be so important as to interfere with this agenda?
