Bar Crawl – 3/27/13

Bar Crawl highlights bar association news around the state. Indiana Lawyer strives to include bar association news and trends in its regular stories, and we would like to include more news from specialty and county bars. If you’d like to submit an update about your bar association or a photo from an event your bar association has hosted, or if you have questions about having your bar association news included in the newspaper, please send it to Marilyn Odendahl at [email protected], along with contact information for any follow-up questions at least two weeks prior to the issue date.

Young Lawyers service project spruces up agency’s interior

The Indiana State Bar Association Young Lawyers Section teamed up with the Indianapolis Bar Association Young Lawyers Division recently to help brighten the Easter Seals Crossroads headquarters in Indianapolis.

About 18 attorneys spent the afternoon of March 16 refreshing the common areas of the building with a new coat of paint. The volunteer project was part of the ISBA Young Lawyers Section’s yearlong focus on serving Hoosiers with disabilities.
 

Indiana State Bar Association Young Lawyers Section Chair Reynold T. Berry paints at Easter Seals Crossroads as part of a daylong service project to serve those with disabilities. (Photo submitted)

“We were thrilled to have the opportunity to get out in the community and serve an underserved population,” said Reynold Berry, chair of the ISBA Young Lawyers Section. “There’s a lot of need, and any small thing that we can do to help fill that need is very rewarding to us on a personal and professional level.”

Easter Seals Crossroads helps individuals across the state who have disabilities and special needs. The ISBA Young Lawyers Section approached the more than 75-year-old organization and asked what its attorney volunteers could do to help.

The nonprofit chose the painting project. Berry estimated the young lawyers provided a total of 70 to 80 hours of labor.

The ISBA Young Lawyers Section is planning to continue its 2013 service project by doing a similar volunteer event in Evansville on July 20. Also it will be donating all the proceeds from the ISBA’s annual golf tournament to benefit the Disability Legal Services of Indiana.

IBA now accepting nominations for paralegal of the year award

The Indianapolis Bar Association is taking nominations for the Paralegal of the Year Award. Forms are due April 1, and the 2013 award will be presented at the Paralegal Appreciation Luncheon May 16.

To be eligible, the paralegal must be a member of the IBA, must have made an exceptional contribution to the paralegal profession, be recognized as a good role model for the paralegal profession and be deserving of special recognition.

The award luncheon will be from noon to 1 p.m. at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in downtown Indianapolis. For more information visit www.indybar.org/news/indybar-news/2013/150.•