IndyBar: Realize Your Potential — Apply for the Bar Leader Series by July 1

The application period for the 2018-2019 Bar Leader Series is now open! The Bar Leader Series is the IndyBar’s leadership development program for young attorneys. This fast-track series empowers participants to make the most of their innate talents, while emphasizing the importance of service to the community.

Community service projects spearheaded by this year’s class tackled issues like driving privileges, women’s rights, mental health of inmates and at-risk youth.

Many notable IndyBar volunteers have graduated from the Bar Leader Series, including current IndyBar President James Bell. “When you’re a young attorney, your professional world sometimes feels like it only extends to the doors of your office,” says Bell.

“The Bar Leader Series allows you to get beyond those doors and feel connected to not only the rest of the legal community, but to the Indianapolis business community and our local, state and federal governments. The Bar Leader Series opened many doors for me and I made lasting friendships.”

The most recent class of the Bar Leader Series celebrated graduation from the program on May 15 at Frost Brown Todd LLC.

Committed to cultivating the next generation of leaders, the program was created in 2003 as the outgrowth of the IndyBar’s Task Force on Leadership Development and provides IndyBar member attorneys in their third to tenth year of practice with an opportunity to meet other attorneys in an environment where they can grow both professionally and personally. This program and these students are key to keeping the bar’s leadership strong and maintaining the bar’s value to the legal community into the future.

“The Bar Leader Series helped me create great friendships and provided me with referral sources in areas in which I do not practice,” said Rebecca Geyer, graduate of the Bar Leader Series Class IV and current president of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation.

This year’s class will begin with an ice breaker reception in August and a retreat at Waycross Camp and Conference Center in Southern Indiana Sept. 27-28, 2018. The series continues with monthly presentations for an entire afternoon for a nine-month period on a broad range of topics presented by local legal, political and business leaders. Class members will receive approximately 10 CLE credit hours during the nine-month series.

The class had support from previous graduates, notable members of the legal community as well as friends and colleagues.

When asked what’s new and exciting for the upcoming class, incoming Bar Leader Series Steering Committee chair and Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Senior Corporate Counsel Jimmie McMillian had much to say, but said this year’s focus is quite simple: listening.

“In the past, we’ve talked and mentored a lot but this year, we want bar leaders to talk to each other. We want them to hear the lessons taught by the dynamic folks that we’re bringing in. They’ll have the chance to work with one another and provide feedback to us as well as ideas and suggestions they have on the topics that are presented,” McMillian said.

McMillian claims the Bar Leader Series is a huge reason he’s had much success in his career. He graduated from the Bar Leader Series in 2007.

“The Bar Leader Series has really accelerated and propelled my career to help me get to where I am today. It’s an exciting thing to know that we’re about to provide that to another group of exceptional attorneys in this community,” McMillian said.

Do you think you’re the next bar leader? Apply now! The deadline is July 1, 2018.

Application materials and additional information on the series can be found at indybar.org/barleaderseries.•