The IndyBar Pro Bono Standing Committee, along with other legal and community organizations, will co-host two pro bono program trainings in the coming weeks. These trainings, which include continuing legal education credit, can be taken at no cost with a commitment to take on pro bono cases.
October is Pro Bono Awareness Month, so it makes sense for me to focus this column on pro bono work. Before your eyes glaze over and you start looking for pictures of people you know elsewhere in this publication, stick with me for a minute. Sure, there are the obvious warm and fuzzy “volunteer to save the world” arguments for practicing pro bono publico service, and if you know my professional history, you know I believe them all. I think I am as warm and fuzzy and altruistic as I can be while still making my mortgage payments. I believe that doing pro bono work increases your engagement, satisfaction and longevity in this profession and that in turns benefits us in all ways long term.
The Hon. Tanya Walton Pratt, United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, will be recognized as the 2013 Antoinette Dakin Leach Award recipient at the Antoinette Dakin Leach Award Celebration Luncheon on October 25. The luncheon is being held in conjunction with the Women & the Law Division’s Women, Law & Leadership Symposium, which will be held Thursday, October 24 through Friday, October 25.
Read about recent happenings at the IndyBar!
Indiana Chief Justice Brent Dickson will address the importance of charitable legal work as judges and lawyers around the state plan events coinciding with October’s Pro Bono Month.
A veteran Marion Superior trial court judge and a longtime attorney whose death this year saddened the Indianapolis legal community were honored Wednesday by the Indianapolis Bar Association.
Marion County Bar Association President TaKenna Thompson guest-writes for the IndyBar.
Women & the Law Division presents 2nd Women, Law & Leadership Symposium
Support of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation not only gives members of the legal community an opportunity to give back to Foundation-funded programs and grants—it also connects donors to local community organizations that depend on the active involvement of volunteers.
If you only knew about family law from watching TV dramas, you might believe there is no such thing as civility in family law. Such shows thrive on the drama and portray attorneys who scream at each other, betray each other and do everything they can to undermine each other in front of a sitting judge as the norm.
The IndyBar hosted longtime member and freshman United States Congresswoman Susan Brooks at the August Meeting of Members, held Wednesday, August 28 at the Hyatt Regency.
At the July meeting of the IndyBar Board of Directors, the board approved both the description and the structure of the IndyBar HEAL Committee. If you don’t know it yet, the HEAL Committee stands for “Helping to Enrich Attorneys Lives” and its mission is clear: to assist Indianapolis area legal professionals in times of personal or professional crisis. Under the leadership of Rusty Denton of Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP, the HEAL Committee has defined its program and laid out its plan to offer assistance to legal professionals at their time of need.
Service on the IndyBar Board of Directors provides a valuable opportunity to play a crucial role in the success and future of your local bar association. The nomination period for the 2014 Board of Directors of the Indianapolis Bar Association has now begun with Christine Hayes Hickey of Rubin & Levin PC appointed to chair the effort.
As part of its ongoing efforts to facilitate judicial elections issues reform, the Indianapolis Bar Association Board of Directors approved at its July 2013 meeting a set of Model Rule Guidelines for the Marion County judicial selection system. The Model Rule Guidelines were drafted through the bar’s Attorneys for an Independent Bench Committee, which was also authorized at the July board meeting to seek implementation of these rules. Visit www.indybar.org to view the Model Rule Guidelines.
I went to the annual Women and the Law Division (aka WLD) summer social earlier this summer. This is one of my favorite IndyBar gatherings because women law students, lawyers and judges of all ages and from all career paths have a chance to socialize, network and just have fun. WLD Chair Nicky Mendenhall ran the show and we were all equally entertained and motivated by guest speaker Judge Robyn Moberly, the first women in the state of Indiana to be appointed a federal bankruptcy court judge.
He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Valparaiso University School of Law. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Hugh Dillin before joining his current practice in bankruptcy and creditor rights at Taft Stettinius & Hollister. He is Jeffrey J. Graham, and he has been served with interrogatories.