CBA Record July-August 2022

YOUNG L AWYERS S EC T I ON : BU I LD I NG BR I DGE S

Building Bridges: It Takes All of Us to Ensure the Continued Value of Membership By Daniel Berkowitz

CBA YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION Chair Daniel Berkowitz Office of the Illinois Attorney General

First Vice-Chair Martin Gould Romanucci & Blandin, LLC Second Vice-Chair Kenneth Matuszewski Goldberg Segalla LLP Member Service Manager Gavin Phelps Phelps LLC Public Service Manager Margaret Mendenhall Casey City of Chicago

bar association are very much the same as they have always been. Professional education, public service, and social interaction and networking have been at the center of CBA membership since its inception, and they continue to be our bar association’s core competencies. Over the past year, we continued to evaluate how remote work and virtual meetings have permanently changed the way our organization and our committees do business. This year will likely reflect what the new normal looks like. We hope to continue balancing the convenience of electronic meetings with the impor tance and irreplaceability of in-person interaction. As always, the effectiveness of bar membership depends on its ability to facilitate connections among people. In person events create a level of dynamic interaction that virtual engagement cannot replicate. With that in mind, we will be assessing each of our events to determine whether they are best suited to in-person attendance, virtual attendance, or hybrid accommodations. Throughout this bar year, we will emphasize the theme of Building Bridges, which focuses on the most important aspect of YLS membership: connection. First and foremost, the YLS will focus on building bridges to – and among – our members. And we will focus on building bridges to the larger Chicago community through our service projects and lawyer referral service. Furthermore, we must also build bridges to those attorneys who have not yet joined the YLS or who have let their membership lapse. The YLS is strong when its membership is strong. That strength comes not only from the number of members we have but from ensuring that our membership and our

I am honored and humbled to serve as the 52nd Chair of the Young Lawyers Section of The Chicago Bar Associa tion. I owe a tremendous debt to the YLS attorneys who came before me and who encouraged me not only to join the CBA, but also to get actively involved in YLS leadership. My time in the YLS has been rewarding both personally and profession ally. My experience has been that those who choose to serve the YLS get at least as much out of their involvement as they put in, if not more. The past two-and-a-half years have been difficult, as this organization has navigated the changes brought about by the pandemic and as our communities have experienced racial and social reck onings. In my estimation, the YLS can be proud of the speed with which it has responded and adapted to these chal lenges while continuing to serve its mem bers throughout. Our committees have continued to present new and interesting CLEs. We have also continued to provide opportunities for networking and social connection. And the work of our Racial Justice Coalition persists. In some ways, bar membership looks different in 2022 than it did in 2002, or even in 2019. At the same time, the fun damental benefits of membership in a

Project Officer Brittany Kaplan K&L Gates

Project Officer Aleksandra Petrovic Damisch & Damisch, Ltd. Secretary/Treasurer Kernisha Padilla Latham & Watkins

Co-Editors in Chief YLS Journal Theodore Kontopoulos FORVIS Jacob B. Berger Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC

YLS Journal Vice Chair Nikki Marcotte Tabet DiVito Rothstein LLC

Co-Editors in Chief @theBar Blog Alexandra Morelli Barker, Castro, Kuban & Steinback, LLC Brian Bentrup Pluymert, MacDonald, Hargrove & Lee, Ltd. YLS Administrative Director Lindsay Wunrow

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