9 minute read
Incoming Bar President Outlines Goals for 2023
Gabriela G. Raful will be the 90th President of the Berks County Bar Association in 2023. She formally accepted the presidential gavel during the Annual Meeting on October 26. Raful is the first Latina – indeed first minority – to lead the Berks Bar. In her address to members at the Berkshire Country Club, she outlined an ambitious outreach agenda for the upcoming year and shared the incredible story of her journey from her native Dominican Republic to the bar association presidency. The following is a copy of Raful’s remarks:
“Good evening bar association members and special guests.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in this capacity.
I feel deeply humbled by your vote of confidence and by the challenge it represents to advance the agenda of our bar association, especially as I consider the caliber of the distinguished individuals who have occupied this position before me.
I also feel deeply grateful to my partners at Galfand Berger, LLP and my family for encouraging me and giving me the bandwidth to take on this exciting responsibility.
In this upcoming year, our executive team, board, committees, sections, Executive Director, and staff will endeavor to serve the unique needs of our almost 600 members and the communities that we serve.
We envision a dynamic bar association that responds to the needs of our members and offers engaging events that bring us together to learn and collaborate. A bar association that celebrates and highlights the success of its members and carefully weighs opportunities to increase membership. In addition, a bar association that diversifies its non-membership and non-law journal sources of revenue. And a bar association that expands meaningful educational outreach programs for the public as well as assuring access to justice. I call upon you to guide our trajectory, to participate often, to help us build a stronger bar association by inspiring in our members the values and principles that make you successful. I’m convinced that we will have a great year. I stand here today mostly because of the challenges and opportunities I have been provided by this association and its members. You have opened several doors, given me valuable lessons, and provided a wonderful network of support, all so I can pursue my own version of the American dream.
However, I must confess that for me, it all started at the age of 18, while in pursuit of a man named Lenin Agudo. He has since been my best friend and husband. I packed my bags in the Dominican Republic in 2005 and migrated to Reading barely knowing any English. It took me nine months and a miracle to meet English proficiency levels, pass admissions exams, and get accepted to college. The truth is that during my freshman year, I understood roughly 50% of what was said in the classroom. I was learning a new language, new cultural norms, the academic world, and local traditions, while having a household and trying to make ends meet. Despite my language barrier, I graduated Magna Cum Laude in a little over three years. While my English improved, as you can hear now, my accent forever remains.
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Through college and then law school, I worked as a paralegal for Norman Weinstein, my then-boss and forever mentor. That’s when I first met members of this bar association. I recall having lunch with Herb Karasin and telling him I wanted to go to law school. I still recall his motivational words and his encouragement. I never imagined that in a few years we would be referring cases to each other.
Upon graduating from Widener University in 2012, I met Berks County’s biggest bar aficionados: Don Smith and Jill Scheidt.
At the bar’s admission ceremony, Don was very proud to share that our association had 26 committees and 12 sections, and therefore, there was something for everyone to do, including me, he said.
What could a recently naturalized, freshly minted Latinx with a thick accent possibly have to contribute to this bar association? I was concerned that I may be considered a foreigner or an outsider to some in the legal community.
I was wrong, and that is the point of this story.
Don Smith encouraged me to be involved, to contribute in meaningful ways to our association and showed me the value of bar membership. Thanks to that involvement, I met many of you as we volunteered planning CLE programs, community outreach activities, and as we provided the most meaningful work of all: pro-bono.
Then I met the super contagious Jill Scheidt. She too motivated me to be involved. Whether it's salsa dancing, her passion for the law, or for strengthening our bar, Jill often leads you to action.
I recall calling Jill when I was overwhelmed with having to juggle an active and growing practice with motherhood and still wanting to find time to be involved in our bar. Her vision of what the bar association can do for you and what the bar can do at the state level with PBA was eye opening; it encouraged me to join PBA’s Bar Leadership Institute and learn about best practices in bar operations and governance.
This bar association provides the opportunities to meet great people who will be mentors and then become friends. Don and Jill have been exactly that. They have become the greatest treasure this association has provided me with. Thank you both for your support and guidance.
I know that you too have met great people, made good friends, and enhanced your practice and referrals as a result of your bar membership. If you are still looking for more, help us create more meaningful engagements this upcoming year.
For the younger lawyers, know that whether it is at a Legal Spirits Happy Hour or a naturalization ceremony, your meaningful engagement will lead you to meet other colleagues before you become temporary opponents in court.
Talking of opponents in court, do you remember your very first deposition? Mine was in 2012. Dan Bausher was on the other side. Don had already introduced me to him. I was nervous and he sensed that. While being an excellent advocate for his client, he guided me and helped in that case in ways he may not even remember. He won the case, but I won by learning from him. That story is an example of the collegiality and civility that this bar fosters. That is one of the many benefits this association has to offer to its members.
The pandemic was a challenge, to say the least. I admire our Executive Director Kori Walter and past presidents, Eden Bucher, Justin Bodor, and Jim Smith, as they successfully navigated transforming our programs and providing virtual options.
It is time that we take lessons from the pandemic and hit the restart button for 2023.
In looking forward to the future, I am even more excited as the Judges of Berks County made history by electing its first female President Judge, Theresa Johnson. Please join me in congratulating her.
In preparation for serving you as president, in the past 3 months, I have met and spoke with many of you, I have reviewed our strategic plan, dug through past membership surveys, and have gotten inspiration from prior presidents and executive committee members. Everyone I spoke with is optimistic about the future and believes that much could be achieved, primarily because of the energy and synergy of the members of this organization. You are ready for more in-person activities, and you want more family events and perhaps a bar retreat. Let’s make that happen!
Together we can reenergize as members to share, collaborate, provide mentorship, stewardship, and guidance to other members of the bar and to the communities that we serve. To achieve this goal, however, it is imperative that we re-engage. Participate, take charge of a committee, a section, or a project that you care about. Help us amplify our programming for our members and our outreach efforts for the communities we serve.
Post-pandemic, we know that most membership organizations are undergoing economic and membership challenges. As our treasurer reported, we are doing well. However, we want to strengthen our financial position in order to meet the challenges of the future. One of the goals for this year is to work with the Lawyer Referral Committee in considering the expansion of its program and making it profitable for the association as a significant source of nonmembership and non-law-journal revenue.
Our Bylaws committee is also working hard as we carefully weigh the opportunity to increase membership by reviewing and adding membership categories to our bylaws. We plan on finalizing a review of the bylaws as we consider expanding membership categories to honor and welcome retired members and law students, among others.
One of our main goals when it comes to community outreach in 2023 is to implement a jury duty awareness program for our minority communities. The right to be judged by a jury of one’s peers should be more than words. Jury diversity is essential in the fair and impartial administration of justice. While minority communities face process-related barriers to engage in jury duty, there are also juror-centric barriers. Those juror barriers not only include the economic hardship that jury duty may cause but also individual attitudes towards jury duty. As Chief Justice Sanchez in the Eastern District concluded in a Law Review article concerning jury diversity: “Courts cannot be left alone to ensure that juries be truly reflective of their communities because the strength of our jury system depends on people’s engagement with the system. Therefore, fostering community engagement that encourages active participation in the legal system is crucial. We will work with partner organizations, both in the nonprofit and private sector, in educating and promoting active participation of minorities in jury duty.”
I know I have spoken for a long time, but it's only because I want to encourage you to re-engage and because the agenda is full, and the goals are high! Let’s make 2023 a great year for this Association!
I am honored to be here, I thank you for this privilege, and I vow to work hard to make sure we have the programming that you want, and that we engage further with the communities that we serve. Thank you.”
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