LIAISON NOTES
Become a Vital Law Student Link to the ABA
In biology, "symbiosis" describes a relationship between two species in the larger ecosystem in which each benefits from the relationship with the other. Lawyers might call it a win/win relationship. That's the position Law Student Division liaisons are in.
Sixty-five law students serve as liaisons from the Law Student Division to the other sections, divisions and forum committees that make up the American Bar Association. These liaisons attend section and committee meetings and prepare an annual report for the ABA/LSD.
Liaisons are the direct connection from the Law Student Division to-and from-the other ABA entities, and this is very much a two-way street. There are things we law students can offer practicing lawyers, and there are things lawyers can offer law students. It is symbiosis in action.
Salvador Cicero, the division's immediate past liaison coordinator and a recent graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, offers two examples of law students helping lawyers. Law students have tutored lawyers on how to use the Internet. And when the Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession was concerned about recruiting at law schools, it came to law students. Who better to know about what type of programs appeal to law students? Who better to recruit other law students?
More than 350 law students applied for the 65 Law Student Division liaison positions last winter; some positions had as many as 40 applicants. Cicero says that this year the selection committee looked for diversity in every sense of the word: ethnicity, gender, educational background, geographical background, personal interests. "We wanted the best cross section that we could find from students across the United States," he says.
In some cases, the liaisons are funded-that is, the section or division pays the student's travel expenses. Not a bad way to see the country, learn more about your future profession, and network with and learn from the national leaders of the legal profession.
The various ABA sections use their law student liaisons in different ways. Some liaisons take the minutes at board meetings, some run section Web pages, some sit on committees or subcommittees. In all cases the liaison is the ambassador from the Law Student Division to the particular ABA entity. Cicero suggests that liaisons make themselves relevant to the section. "That will create opportunities for you; that will create opportunities for the division," he says. The primary attribute of a good liaison is a commitment to represent the Law Student Division.
Law students who are interested in becoming a liaison must apply by Feb. 1, 1999. Appointments begin June 1, 1999, and last one year. There's an application on page 40 that you can fill out and send to the division at 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611; 312/988-5624. You can reach the division's liaison coordinator, Virginia Trost, a student at Regent University College of Law in Virginia, at virgtro@regent.edu or 757/579-4565.
Lee Farbman
