Law Student Division - Student Lawyer September 1999

The ABA’s Law Student Division (LSD) Board of Governors serves as the voice and represents the interests of law students on a variety of issues, from tax relief for student loans, to diversity in judicial clerkships, and everything in between.

If the Board of Governors is the voice, then the four national officers on the LSD’s executive committee give faces to that voice. With 15 circuit governors spread across the country, the executive committee leads the board and provides a vital day-to-day contact point for the larger ABA and students. Those offices–chair, vice chair, secretary-treasurer, and vice chair for student bar associations–changed hands last month during the annual meeting in Atlanta.

The chair oversees the Division’s daily operations and represents law student interests to the larger ABA. Kyle Mitchell, a law and graduate student in his final year at Florida State University, comes to the position with experience and enthusiasm.

"I am looking forward to this coming year," Mitchell says. "I am looking forward to a year of not only increased LSD membership, but involvement with the other sections, divisions, and forums of the ABA."

Mitchell says he is also looking forward to the LSD becoming more of a resource to SBA presidents and other student leaders, as well as continued improvements to the Division’s web site.

Mitchell has a long record of service, both in the LSD and his local community. Prior to assuming his position as chair, he served in several other positions within the Division, including Fifth Circuit governor. He has also been instrumental in improving the LSD’s web site. As an undergraduate at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., Mitchell also volunteered with the school’s search and rescue team.

The vice chair is second in command, and his primary mission is to maintain and promote membership. This year’s vice chair, R. Matthew Graham from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, got his first taste of leadership in the LSD when he voted by proxy for his SBA president after only two months at law school.

"The vice chair acts as a point person for the maintenance and expansion of the benefits and services members enjoy," Graham says. "I would like to preside over the largest expansion of member services the LSD has ever seen."

Graham also looks forward to expanding the Division’s Chapter Charter program. Less than half of the ABA-accredited law schools in the United States currently have a local ABA chapter, but Graham hopes to change that.

"I want a chapter charter of the ABA/LSD at every law school in America," he says. "This will provide our member schools with the sort of regular contact and institutional memory that marks a successful organization."

Third-year University of Oklahoma law student David Jordan, vice chair for SBAs, serves as a vital link between the Division’s national leadership and the student leadership at the more than 150 ABA-accredited schools across the country.

Though not always called an SBA, every ABA-accredited law school has some form of student government. Jordan, who has served as an officer in his own law school’s SBA for the past two years and continues to serve this year, represents the diverse needs and issues of these various student governments. "I want to reinforce the voice of student bar associations across the country through the Law Student Division," he says.

Heather Dawson, a third-year student at South Texas College of Law, takes the reigns as the Division’s new secretary-treasurer. In addition to overseeing the Division’s budget and 15 circuit governors eager to spend it, Dawson ensures that all law students are kept informed about the activities and opportunities available through the LSD. "I want to make the Division more accessible to all of our members," she says.

During her last two years as an undergraduate at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Dawson worked full time and held several internships at institutions such as the the Fairfax County Jail and the Georgetown University Law Center Criminal Defense Clinic.

The chair, vice chair, and secretary-treasurer are elected each November by the Division’s Board of Governors. After serving nine months as the "officer-elects," they take their seats the following August at the ABA’s annual meeting. Meanwhile, the vice chair for SBAs, who is elected at the annual meeting, spends 12 months as an apprentice to ensure that he or she is as prepared as possible to fill their role.

Anyone attending an ABA-accredited school is eligible for national office in the Law Student Division. Nominations are now being accepted for the position of chair, vice chair, and secretary-treasurer for a term beginning in August 2000. (See page 50 for election guidelines.) Those officers will be elected at the Division’s November meeting. •