Officially Speaking

Your SBA President Works for You

Do you know who your law school's student bar association (SBA) president is? What that person's role in your legal education is? He or she is your classmate. Your leader. Your voice within the law school. Your voice nationally.

In April 1999, you and the students at law schools around the country will vote for new SBA presidents. As you prepare to check off a name on the ballot next year, you probably will look for someone who will best serve as leader of your law school's student government. Someone who will represent your interests. Someone who will work hard at advocating for your unique concerns as a law student.

What law students often don't look for in an SBA president is someone who will bring the school's issues to a national level. Someone who will take student concerns beyond the school's walls and into a forum where they will reach other SBA presidents and others working to promote law student issues.

On the law school level, an SBA president wears many hats. When you begin law school, you look to your SBA president for answers to your questions about the school. He or she will offer, or give an indication of where to look for, solutions.

Your SBA president should be:

• Setting up programs and activities that benefit the entire student body, while at the same time involving the local community and advancing the legal profession;

• Fighting for student issues-whether it be questioning your school's grading policy, advocating for smaller classes or requesting greater funding for student programs; and

• Representing you nationally.

On the national level, SBA presidents take the concerns of their constituents to where they can create national change: the American Bar Association's Law Student Division. One of the division's goals is to advance the interests of law students. But it can do this only by knowing what actually goes on at law schools across the nation. That is why an SBA president's national duty is important: It is the best way to find out what law students experience on a daily basis.

As your national advocates, SBA presidents ensure that your concerns are heard and addressed. They make certain that the legal profession is aware of the problems facing law students. They also help formulate policy that will bring change. This is accomplished through their seat on the Law Student Division's policy-making Assembly each summer, and by meeting and speaking with other SBA presidents around the country. As the Law Student Division's Vice-Chair/SBA, I have been able to communicate with many SBA presidents. I have learned that they come in different packages with different ideologies. Some get paid; some don't. But although each is different, SBA presidents share one great similarity: the desire and will to advocate for students.

The importance of SBA presidents is evident. Recognizing this importance, I have strived to provide them with national recognition. I feel so strongly about this that I submitted a resolution to the Law Student Division's Board of Governors creating a new award: SBA President of the Year. The division passed the resolution. If the resolution is passed by the ABA's Board of Governors, the award will enable the division-and law students-to show their appreciation for the great commitment SBA presidents make.

I have been involved in the SBA at Villanova University School of Law in Pennsylvania since my first day of law school. I was class representative my first year, vice president my second year, and am now university senator. I believe student bar associations are the Law Student Division's strongest link to law students and law students' greatest asset. Support your law school's SBA. Be a part of it. And ensure it works for you.

Jose A. Contreras
Vice-Chair/SBA, Law Student Division
jcontrer@law.vill.edu