PRESIDENT’S COLUMN D. TODD SMITH, SMITH LAW GROUP
A Different Kind of Bar Year With any luck, by the time the next Austin Lawyer is published, we will officially call Hilgers House home.
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ustin Bar Association presidents often use their last column of the bar year to recap their presidency and all the great things the Austin Bar has accomplished since they took office. I could follow that formula, but that wouldn’t leave space for the list of things I really want to highlight, all of which involve a view to the future. HILGERS HOUSE The year began with a sense of excitement about our new home, Hilgers House. We celebrated a successful capital campaign, which positioned us to complete some necessary improvements to the property in a financially responsible way. Although we were able to use the house for events, we looked forward to completing our transition into using the space full time. Obtaining the necessary permits and approvals after rezoning proved more challenging than we could have imagined. Every time we thought we were getting close, the goal line would move. On March 16, we checked off the last requirement when the City of Austin issued our certificate of occupancy. By then, however, the COVID-19 pandemic had taken hold, and moving became impossible. It was clear we’d have to wait a while longer. As I write this column, some COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, and the move is now scheduled for the first week of June. 6
AUSTINLAWYER | JUNE 2020
LAWYER WELL-BEING COMMITTEE This new committee hit the ground running by co-sponsoring a Sober Tailgate with the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program and has offered regular programming throughout the year. Committee events featured presentations from Erica Grigg, Amber Anderson Mostyn, Nik Sallie, and Sanieh Morgan. The committee also sponsored a Veloway bike ride, after which Claude Ducloux gave one of his famous ethics CLE talks. The committee’s work also included a regular “Be Well” column in Austin Lawyer, kicked off by co-chair Danielle Ahlrich. Topics included compassion fatigue, self-care as an ethical responsibility, dealing with depression, judicial mental health, and practices for increasing the quality of one’s professional life. Eileen Lawrence wrote an especially powerful piece about depression and suicide. Openness and support for lawyer well-being has taken root in our association’s culture. With the uncertainty we all face going forward, well-being in our profession is more important than ever. COVID-19 RESPONSE We made sure our staff was set up to work remotely before remote work became mandatory. Our business has carried on successfully as a result. We created a COVID-19 updates page on our website shortly after news about the pandemic broke. New information—including links to the latest emergency court orders—is added to the page regularly. The page also
May we all make the most of the opportunities we’ve been given to better ourselves, enhance our profession, and fulfill our role of assisting those in need. connects lawyers with pro bono 2011 Bastrop fires. Among other opportunities, contains links things, we quickly mobilized a helpful to law practices, provides response team and regularly sent well-being resources, and lists volunteer attorneys to meet with COVID-19-related CLE programs local residents in a clinic-like and webinars. CLICK HERE to setting. The biggest difference view the page. between the two crises is that the We have successfully adopted pandemic has no ground zero. Zoom videoconferencing as a We can’t meet people where they way to stay connected and bring are and offer pro bono services programming to our members. right then and there. But we A great team effort has resulted can prepare ourselves for the in expanded CLE offerings being opportunities and challenges that made available for free to memlie ahead. bers and nonmembers alike. This has been a different kind We can expect an increased of bar year. It started like many need for pro bono services relatbefore it, but it’s ending like ing to domestic violence, foreno other. May we all make the closure, landlord-tenant issues, most of the opportunities we’ve estate planning, and bankruptcy, been given to better ourselves, among other areas. Special CLE enhance our profession, and programs are focusing on these fulfill our role of assisting those issues so lawyers are better prein need. And may we rise to pared to address them when the AUSTIN meet the challenges the future LAWYER AL AL world starts to open and the need brings. becomes more pronounced. I’m reminded of how the Austin Bar responded to the
