CBA Record September-October 2024

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

Get in Motion with the Young Lawyers Section By Jake Berger T he 2024-2025 YLS bar year is shap ing up to be fantastic! The YLS Executive Council, under the lead

drinks, light bites, and a silent auction, which helped raise a significant amount of money for Lawyers in the Classroom. The 2025 annual fundraiser will expand on the success of the 2024 fundraiser and help provide critical support for another important community partner. Look for more details about the 2025 annual fund raiser and how you can get involved. Finally, as the incoming YLS Philan thropy Chair, I’m excited to announce that

ership of YLS Chair Kenny Matuszewski and YLS Director Emily Anderson, has planned many exciting social, service, and learning events for YLS members. I hope the preview below gets you hyped up to attend these events. We look forward to seeing you and catching up with you! Social Events . As in previous years, the

YLS has planned many social events for members to meet, expand their networks, and decompress from the stress of daily legal prac tice. On August 27, the YLS co-hosted the annual All Bar Social at the Hubbard Inn, along with other state and local bar associa tions. The section will host the Back to School Bash at Pancho’s on September 18, an event for YLS law student members to interact with other law students. December will be dazzling when the YLS hosts its annual Holiday Party, which also provides an opportunity to make some donations to under-resourced communities. Look for details to follow soon. These are only some of the social events the YLS will host during the 2024-2025 bar year. As always, more information about YLS social events is available on the CBA’s web site and in future editions of the YLS Journal. Come hang out, have a drink, grab a bite to eat with us, and mingle with your fellow YLS members! Philanthropic and Volunteer Events . Service to the com munity is an important aspect of being a lawyer. Excellent philanthropic opportunities and chances to get involved in the community abound. Throughout 2024 and 2025, the CBA will host its robust Wills for Heroes events at the Chicago Police Department Headquarters in Bronzeville. At these events, CBA and YLS members help veterans, first responders, and their spouses draft estate planning documents at no charge. Throughout the year, the YLS will also host many Serving Our Seniors programs. At these events, YLS members, in conjunction with the Center for Disability and Elder Law, help seniors draft advance directives, medical powers of attorney, and living wills. The Wills for Heroes and Serving Our Seniors programs are two of the most important pro bono programs that the CBA, and indeed any bar association in the Chicagoland area, offers generally. The YLS also hosts an annual fundraiser in the spring to help benefit one of YLS’s key civic or community service partners. Last year’s fundraising gala at AceBounce, called Forty Years of Love: Benefitting Lawyers in the Classroom (a CBA in-school program designed to provide students with opportunities to develop critical thinking, collaboration, and civil discourse skills), was a massive success. YLS members enjoyed a fun night of music, ping pong,

we will be planning several community service and project events this year to benefit nonlegal organizations. Many of these events will focus on under-resourced communities in the Chicagoland area, including areas where the CBA has not previously established community partnerships. We hope that these service projects will allow us to establish new relationships with new community part ners. Projects will include neighborhood cleanup events, drives to donate food and other resources, organized volunteer opportuni ties at food and donation banks (especially around the holidays), efforts to assist people who qualify to obtain public assistance, and efforts to connect with and help provide resources to other Chica goans. If you have any ideas for these service projects, if you want to get involved in any of them, or if you have any contacts at com munity partners with whom the YLS has not interacted previously, please reach out to me. Committee-Focused Events . The YLS has numerous subject matter and practice-focused committees that meet regularly. On September 12 at 5:30 p.m., at the CBA Building, the YLS will host a Meet the Committees night. This is an opportunity to learn more about each of the YLS committees, when and how they meet, how to get involved, and how to contribute to them. Addition ally, during the year, look for columns or articles featured in the YLS Journal highlighting various committees, what they do, and when they meet. As always, more information about each com mittee, its membership, its focus, and when it meets is available at www.chicagobar.org. Getting involved in YLS committees is one of the best ways to meet fellow YLS members, take on a leadership role, advance your involvement in the CBA and the YLS, and learn about substantive legal issues while obtaining CLE credit. If you would like more information on anything mentioned above, please email YLS Director Emily Anderson at eanderson@ chicagobar.org .

Jake Berger is the YLS Philanthropy Chair and a partner at Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC, primarily practicing complex commercial litigation; he previously served as co-Editor-in-Chief of the YLS Journal (2022-2024).

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