On the eve of becoming president-elect of the American Bar Association, White & Case D.C. partner Carolyn Lamm says she has already started tackling the goals she has set for her tenure, which begins in August 2009.
First and foremost, said Lamm in an interview, is working to boost ABA membership. The current 413,000-member level is about the same it has been for years, she says, but it represents a smaller percentage of the 1.2 million-member universe of American lawyers than in years past. "We used to have more than half of all lawyers," she says. "We should be there again. Numbers matter." She's establishing task forces to study the needs of 12 different categories of lawyers, from global firm partners to solo practitioners and law students. "One size fits all doesn't work anymore." Creating communities through web sites and blogs, and offering downloadable CLE courses, are among the ways she envisions to attract and retain new members. She'll also look at membership dues with an eye towards an income-based fee structure.
What about the annual meeting, which usually attracts 10,000 or fewer members? "Many of our own members don't travel to our own meetings," she acknowledges, and she is looking at co-sponsoring meetings with local bars that will be more accessible and affordable.
Lamm is also working to increase diversity in the profession, and she is helping new president H. Thomas Wells Jr. plan for a national summit to find new ways to attract minorities into the profession and to make law firms work harder to achieve diversity.
As the first ABA president from D.C. in 50 years (Charles Rhyne was the last one, in 1958) Lamm also aims to increase the ABA's clout and visibility on Capitol Hill. Just as policymakers check in with the Chamber of Commerce before enacting new proposals affecting business, Lamm wants members of Congress and the executive branch to call the ABA while shaping policies affecting the profession and access to justice issues. "We ought to be in on every discussion," she says. The ABA has hired Thomas Susman, formerly with Ropes & Gray, as its new lobbyist. "He knows his way around the Hill," says Lamm, adding that she herself is "not unknown in D.C." Lamm is an international trade and arbitration specialist.
Even though her year as president of the ABA is a year off, travel, speeches and committee work are already demanding more of her time. At White & Case, Lamm says she has hired Andrea Menaker, formerly a State Department lawyer, to handle some of her work as second chair, though Lamm will still stay heavilty involved with her clients. Soon Lamm will be off to Japan on business, but she'll also meet with a group of expat American lawyers living there. "They should be members of the ABA!" says Lamm. "I want to bring the ABA to every lawyer I can find."
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