Learn from nationally recognized experts and your peers from across the
U.S. about timely issues unique to your practice.
Sections range in size from about 3,600 members to more than 60,000. The sections draw their membership from lawyers or judges with common professional interests, and operate much like independent bar associations with their own officers, dues and committees. They address professional development, improvement of laws, and continuing education through the work of more than 3,700 committees, and publications of outstanding quality, including 14 magazines, 40 newsletters, four annuals and 12 professional journals. Sections also contribute to policy-making, both in their subject areas and association-wide. Sections originate many of the recommendations that become the ABA's policy positions, and act as checks and balances on recommendations of other entities. On matters within their fields on which no association policy has been developed, sections can speak directly on their own behalf through "blanket authority" procedures.
Divisions differ from sections in internal structure. The Law Student Division is governed by a Board of Governors and has an Assembly consisting of law school representatives and student bar association representatives, which meets only at the Annual Meeting. The Judicial Division consists of judicial conferences, several with their own delegates to the ABA House of Delegates, and a committee structure. The Young Lawyers Division has a 40-member council representing 30 geographic districts and an assembly consisting of representatives of bar associations from each state. Every ABA member younger than 36 years of age or who has been admitted to the bar less than three years is automatically a member of this division. The Senior Lawyers Division has a 20-member council composed of its officers and representatives of the Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly. Membership in the division is open to all ABA members 55 years of age and older. The Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division's mission is to provide services and products geared to the specific needs of public lawyers and to serve as their national advocate.
Forums explore and monitor new areas of the law as they develop. Forums are specifically created to further your expertise in exciting new legal areas that are tied to certain industries such as telecommunications, E-commerce, and entertainment. It's easy to become a member of a Forum.
