Making the Transition from Law Student to Young Lawyer
So you graduate from law school soon. Now what? (I mean, besides the bar exam, and, hopefully, a job soon thereafter.) What's next for you with regard to the American Bar Association? How about the Young Lawyers Division (YLD), which, you will be pleased to learn, is free for the first year.
Lawyers under 36 years of age or who have been practicing law for fewer than five years are eligible for YLD memberships. Once you pass the bar exam and are admitted to practice, your Law Student Division membership automatically transfers to membership in the YLD for your first year of practice. That way, the professional liaison and networking opportunities that Association membership facilitates continue; member benefits you've become accustomed to receiving during your LSD membership continue; legal education continues (you didn't really think it was over just because you finished law school, did you? Several state bars mandate continuing legal education); and your subscriptions to relevant ABA publications, like the ABA Journal, continue. Instead of Student Lawyer you will receive the YLD's monthly newsletter, The Young Lawyer. You can, additionally, join other ABA divisions, sections or forums at any time. Many of them also offer special options for new lawyers.
(Please remember, however, that membership benefits can be made available to you only if we can locate you! Since most students do relocate either after finishing law school or taking the bar exam, a simple phone call can ensure that your ABA membership accompanies you throughout your transitions. Just call 800/285-2221 or 312/988-5522 to update your information.)
Similar in structure to the ABA, which is governed by its House of Delegates and Board of Governors, the YLD is governed by its Assembly and officers. The current Chair of the YLD is La Ronda D. Barnes of Atlanta; in early August, she will pass the gavel to Rachelle L. Des Vaux-Bedke of Tampa. Brian Melendez of Minneapolis, a former Chair of the Law Student Division, will assume the Chair next century, for the 2000-01 term.
The YLD has a tradition of serious commitment to public service. YLD Staff Director Bo Landrum explains that the division coordinates a network of about 300 affiliated state and local bar associations' young lawyers groups. Through this network, the YLD promotes its public service projects and helps the local affiliates to carry them out.
Twice a year the YLD hosts a national conference for affiliates. Landrum says representatives attend both to teach and to learn. So, for example, representatives of the Chicago Bar Association's young lawyers group might present the results of a recent canned-food drive. At that presentation might be a member from Tampa who coordinated a legal clinic for lower income residents; a Maryland young lawyer who started a project with Baltimore's Red Cross chapter, to provide legal services to disaster victims; and a Seattle lawyer working on an immigration law project. The lawyers exchange ideas with their presentations; each returns home with new public service insights and, more importantly, specific details needed to adapt the projects to their individual locales.
Landrum points out that the YLD also maintains an affiliate assistance team, which provides technical support to affiliates around the country who want to implement projects, and administrates a competitive grant program that can provide seed money for implementing new projects.
Interested in getting involved? For more information visit the YLD home page (http://www.abanet.org/yld); call ABA headquarters in Chicago at 312/988-5671, or send e-mail (younglawyers@abanet.org). But first, do whatever it takes to pass that bar exam!
Lee Farbman
Lee Farbman, a third-year student at Northwestern University School of Law, is Student Lawyer's student editor.
