Dear Members:

Welcome to July and our new bar year! Kevin is in Europe visiting family and taking a well-deserved vacation, so I’m going solo on the messages for this week and next week. It’s a perfect opportunity for me to share my plans for these messages in the coming year.

My main goal this year is to share all the many roles that the MCBA fills. The bar association plays an important role in all aspects of our profession: integrity (supporting committees on ethics, fee arbitration, grievances/professional performance, the unauthorized practice of law, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts), social (networking, celebrations, health & well-being), educational (CLE programs, substantive committees, roundtable discussions, health & well-being), support (confidential counseling through the Tree of Hope, public statements in defense of or explanation of difficult cases), and our obligations to the public (lawyer referral service, public statements, fee arbitration, grievances). 

There are so many MCBA programs and benefits that fall under these broad categories, and we will spend this next year sharing more about each of them in all our communications. Today, I’m taking the opportunity to highlight our role as a forum for timely education and DEI discussions. In the past, we have held programs on current topics in our nation,  like a woman’s right to choose in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. We are currently working on a program in the coming weeks that will bring together constitutional scholars and practicing attorneys to discuss some of the Supreme Court’s latest rulings on Students for Fair Admissions, Inc and 303 Creative LLC et al. Stay tuned for more details as we work on finalizing the program.

In addition, the Lawyers’ Coalition for Racial and Social Justice is presenting “Racial Disparities in Low Level Traffic Stops: What Law And Research Tell Us And What We Can Do,” on July 18. Featuring Katherine (Katie) Blum, Esq., Empire Justice Center, Jill Paperno, Esq., Empire Justice Center; and Dr. Rashid Muhammad, JustCause, this program will focus on the law relating to pretext stops, what the research reveals, the harms caused by such stops, and what communities and governments across the country are doing to address them. You may submit questions in advance to: rsjcoalition@gmail.com. The program will be hosted in person at JustCause but will also be streamed live. It’s open to the community at no charge. To register for the program, please click here.

I plan to attend the July 18th program in person and would love to see people there.  I hope you will join me at these programs. I look forward to learning more from our esteemed panelists on these topics.

I will be in touch again next week. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend and please renew your MCBA membership if you haven’t done so already! If there are topics you would like featured in these messages, please feel free to reach out to me.

Cassandra C. Rich
2023-24 President
crich@barclaydamon.com