Message from the Chair, Charles E. McCallum

A Year of Progress

In my September 2007 eSource Message, I outlined three initiatives we would pursue during my term as Section Chair:

• Committee Empowerment - empowering our Committees to take the lead in achieving the Section's mission;
  
  
• Globalization - expanding our perspective from domestic business law to global business law, and expanding Section membership targets from primarily North American business lawyers to business lawyers from all over the world; and
  
  
• Professionalism - renewing and pursuing our commitment to the ethical foundations of the business law practice.
  
  

During the year there has been significant progress on all three initiatives:

Committees

We have conducted a series of focused Committee membership recruitment campaigns. The results are dramatic. For example, our Committee on Corporate Governance is now at 1,900 members, up 62% after its recruitment campaign, while the Committee on Business and Corporate Litigation grew to over 1,800 members as a result of its campaign. And most recently, the Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions surpassed 3,000 members.

These increases in Committee membership have translated to growth in overall Section membership, both through new members and better retention. The Section has posted year-over-year increases in overall membership for the last 4 months, and is on track to hit the 60,000 member level by the end of August.

There is palpable excitement in our Committees, all of which have become more active than ever, tackling big and important projects, staging excellent programs, and producing outstanding publications, including many excellent Committee eNewsletters.

At the Annual Meeting next month we will launch new Committees on Securitization and Structured Financing, Project Finance, and Governmental Corporations, and a new Joint Task Force on Governmental Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Initiatives. We now have 74 Committees, more than 50 of them substantive Committees addressing all aspects of global business law.

Global Business Law

Virtually all of our substantive Committees have active subcommittees with a global/transnational focus. Our Committee on International Business Law, which plays a leading and coordinating role continues to grow; more than 20% of its almost 1,100 members are lawyers who live and work outside the United States.

We held our first ever Global Business Law Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, at the end of May. The well-attended Conference featured more than 20 programs on such topics as cross-border legal opinions, international standards of corporate governance, current developments in global mergers and acquisitions, and issues in global derivatives trading and regulation.

A second Global Business Law Conference is being planned for Hong Kong in June 2009, and the Section Officers are thinking about London as a possible venue for a third Conference in the Fall of 2009. These Conferences target lawyers living and working outside of North America in addition to North American-based practitioners with transnational practices. Programming at our Spring, Annual, and other meetings makes similar substantive content readily accessible to our North American membership.

As a result of our expanded focus on global business law, we are seeing significant growth in Section membership from the ranks of Associate International Members of the ABA (non-U.S. lawyers) and U.S. lawyers living and working outside the United States. These categories now account for 2,000 members of our Section.

Professionalism

The Section's Committees on Professional Responsibility, Pro Bono, and Diversity continue to play active and vital roles in the Section. Our Committees on Corporate Counsel (currently with 1,251 members) and Corporate General Counsel are both growing and expanding their reach. The Section is the administrative home for, and well-represented on, the critically important ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege.