IndyBar: Leadership Series to Launch at Bench Bar Conference: Apply Now

Are you anxious to reconnect with your community? Are you looking for opportunities to contribute to Indy’s growth? Ready to network with community leaders and your peers? The IndyBar’s reimagined Bar Leader Series could be your answer and is now accepting applications for Class XVIII.

An intensive year-long early career leadership development program designed specifically for Indianapolis-area attorneys in their 3rd to 10th year in practice, Bar Leader XVIII will be the first class to begin and end at the IndyBar’s Bench Bar Conference. Led by Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law faculty member and former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Frank Sullivan, the series will feature an impressive array of community leaders bringing their uniquely informed perspective to the class.

The new series experience will connect class members with issues, thought leaders, and organizations crucial to our city’s success. Topics on tap for Class XVIII include access to legal services, crime, early childhood education and public education, food insecurity, health care, housing and homelessness, non-profit volunteer leadership, offender re-entry, personal leadership skills, and police-community relations. Class members will also develop and execute a team service project with the support of former Bar Leader Series participants adding to their skills and network building.

For IndyBar members in their third to tenth year of practice, the series will kick off with an icebreaker reception at IndyBarHQ in late May and the class retreat will be June 16-18 at the Bench Bar Conference at the Omni Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. The series will continue with enhanced, interactive bi-monthly sessions on the first Tuesday of the month from 8:30 a.m. until noon at various locations around Indianapolis. Finally, the series will conclude with the class graduation celebration in June 2022 at the Bench Bar Conference.

The Bar Leader Series program was created in 2003 as the outgrowth of the IndyBar’s Task Force on Leadership Development with the goal to prepare talented and diverse early-career lawyers to take their places as both leaders in the legal profession and leaders in addressing needs of the community.

Many notable IndyBar leaders have graduated from the Bar Leader Series, including current IndyBar President Jimmie McMillian, senior corporate counsel for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a member of Class VII. “The Bar Leader Series 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.

“The Bar Leader Series helped me create great friendships and provided me with referral sources in areas I don’t practice,” said Rebecca Geyer, graduate of the Bar Leader Series Class IV and a past president of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation.

There is a fee for the program with some scholarships available. Application materials and details on the series can be found at indybar.org/barleaderseries. The application deadline is April 30, 2021. Class selection will be completed by May 15, 2021.•