Q&A with new ABA President Karen J. Mathis of Colorado

Your ABA congratulates Karen Mathis on becoming president of the association.  We wanted to introduce her to ABA members now that she's taken the reins of the 413,000-member association.

Q: What made you decide to be a lawyer?

There's a joke in my family that as a kid my mother told me, "You argue so much, you ought to be a lawyer." She even called me "KJ," because she said people wouldn't know if I was a woman or man, which would make it easier to be a professional! The truth is that I've always been drawn to serving other people and first thought I'd be a school teacher or a nun. But the law was the perfect outlet for those hopes.  The legal profession is rooted in serving the common good—most of us believe that service is an essential part of our calling as lawyers. When we serve, we acknowledge that we are part of the greater whole, and we become more productive members of society.

Q: How did you happen to become involved in the work of the organized bar?

Karen J. Mathis

I learned as a kid that I could stand on the sidelines, watching others play ball, or get out on the court and join them.  So, I've always been someone who wants to get involved.  I've been an active member of the ABA for almost 30 years, and during that time I've been privileged to work in many areas – as a Young Lawyers Division officer, chair of membership, chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession, chair of the House of Delegates, member of the Board of Governors, member of the ABA Journal Board of Editors, and as the chair of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division (back when it was a Section) – with some amazing people from whom I garnered a wealth of knowledge.  Those opportunities helped me become a better lawyer, and a better person.

Only when a person rolls up her sleeves and gets involved can she change things.  So it's important that all ABA members get involved, if not at the national level, then with their local or state bar.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish during your term? How did you settle on your key initiatives?

The focus of this year is service, particularly to the youth of America – those at great risk of involvement in juvenile justice, or falling into the criminal justice system.

America's youth is our most important asset – our future is in their hands. Yet many young people face problems that are getting wider, deeper and more complex.  Helping youth is a passion for me, and that's included service on the Colorado Commission on Child Care and as a member of the Mile Hi Council of Girl Scouts, and working as a guardian ad litem many years ago. So it was a natural that youth at risk would become a Presidential initiative.

A second major initiative is called the Second Season of Service.

The legal profession in the United States is facing a massive movement of lawyers who will be leaving the full-time, active practice of law: as many as 400,000 over the next 15 years.

Like baby boomers in other fields, lawyers are reinventing retirement, and many of us are wondering what we will do with "the rest of our lives."  Our communities still need us as we leave full-time practice, and lawyers transitioning from active practice represent a potent combination of talent and available time.  If each retiring lawyer gives 50 hours of volunteer service, one work week for a typical lawyer, we will have a 2-million-hour resource for good each year!

A related initiative for retiring lawyers is DirectWomen, which the ABA Section of Business Law is developing to enable women lawyers leaving private practice to prepare for service as directors of corporate boards.

The goal of DirectWomen is to help assure the independence of American business boards by identifying, training and providing a pool of talented women lawyers who can provide the independence and diversity needed for good corporate governance. The centerpiece of this initiative is the DirectWomen Institute, an annual training program to help the best candidates for placement on the boards of publicly held companies.

Finally, the ABA is continuing its important work promoting the rule of law.  Earlier this month the ABA hosted a presidential symposium on the rule of law.  The symposium brought American bar leaders together with peers from more than 100 nations.  Working groups examined such issues as human trafficking, women's rights, economic development, corruption, independent judiciaries, corporate responsibility and the environment.

Q: What is unique about the ABA as an organization? What does it offer the profession – or the country – that other organizations do not

As lawyers, we have unique skills and vantage point – we can work with policymakers to help change the law, we can bring varying interest groups and perspectives to the table to work together.  That's one thing we're working on with the Youth at Risk initiative, for example.  The ABA can "connect the dots" by facilitating the efforts of schools, doctors, police, courts, foster care providers, youth serving organizations and government agencies to work collectively.  

The diversity and breadth of the ABA's membership creates a special richness for the association, and is one reason the ABA is seen as the voice of the American legal profession.

The ABA's goals include promoting meaningful access to legal representation; helping our profession achieve the highest standards of professionalism, competence and ethical conduct; and providing leadership in improving the law to serve the changing needs of society. 

The association seeks to meet those goals by providing law school accreditation and continuing legal education programs, and by developing initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.  On an international level, the ABA seeks to advance the rule of law by supporting legal reform around the world.  Through our policy-making body, the House of Delegates, the ABA provides open discussion and debate on critical issues of the day.

We can all be proud of the broad scope of programs and products the ABA offers its members, the legal profession, our government, the public and society.

Q: Where do you see the ABA being 10 years down the road?

That's a timely question, especially now.  At the end of August, membership in the ABA stood at a record high of 413,108, surpassing the previous record high of 410,613.

Our membership numbers speak to the work the ABA does for lawyers, the legal system, judges, and the judicial systems.  So, 10 years down the road, the ABA will continue to play a major role in public policy debate in this nation and will also be impacting the rule of law around the world.

As the ABA explores its own "Second Season of Service," new products, programs and services will be developed to assist baby boomers as they move into the next stage of their lives. This will make the ABA relevant to our current membership base, as well as to lawyers who decided sometime in their career that they didn't need the ABA.

And, also,  I invite our members to spread the word to those lawyers who may not be ABA members and invite them to join us in our work.  As I say in talking about my Second Season of Service initiative, "Ask not if you have done enough. There is too much work yet to do."  And so, too, does the work continue for the ABA. 

I would close by saying that I'm honored to be serving as president of the ABA, and I invite comments and suggestions from all of our members as to what we could be doing better.  You can reach me at abapresident@abanet.org.

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