Young Lawyers Section Update

January, February, and March were busy months for the Young Lawyers Section with the Pennsylvania Bar Association Annual High School Mock Trial Competition. This year Montgomery County (Region 9) had 22 teams competing from an assortment of local high schools. Congratulations to all the schools that competed this year. The winner of the Competition will be announced at Law Day on April 28, 2023.

I owe a huge thank you to John McCaul of Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin for chairing the YLS Mock Trial Committee this year and assisting me throughout this whole process.

I also owe a huge thank you to all of the volunteer jurors and judges who took time out of their evenings to score the students, preside over the mock trials, and provide invaluable feedback. It truly takes a village to make this mock trial competition run smoothly.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Shannon Santos of Court Administration for her tireless efforts to obtain courtrooms for these mock trials to take place and judges to preside over them. There were a lot of changes throughout this competition with the schedule for a host of reasons and at every turn, Shannon was there to assist. This competition would not be able to go forward without her help every year.

YLS also had its first meeting of 2023 on January 18th. This meeting was well attended and included MBA President Justin Bayer, who graciously provided opening remarks for the 2023 year of the MBA YLS. He emphasized his and the MBA’s support of YLS and the good work they do each and every year.

At the beginning of each year, the YLS Executive Committee is announced at the first meeting. This year’s Executive Committee includes: Jason J. Edwards as Chair; Robert Sebia as Vice-Chair; Chelsey Christiansen as Secretary; and Franqui-Ann Raffaele as Treasurer.

Also announced at this meeting was the appointment of new leadership and liaison positions for 2023. Those leadership and liaison positions are: Chelsea Dearden, Chair of the Social Committee; John McCaul, Chair of the Mock Trial Committee; Gabriella Lacitignola, Chair of the Liaison/Law School Committee; Patrick McGinnis and Stefanie Sherr, Co-Chairs of the Community Service/Outreach Committee; and Kailie Melchior and Ashley Garland, Co-Chairs of the CLE/101 Series Committee. Please feel free to contact the aforementioned individuals to coordinate any joint events with YLS.

The YLS also introduced their new initiative, the YLS Development Program run by Nancy Walsh. The Program meets the hour before the YLS lunch meetings each month and is focused mainly on the individuals who have practiced law or been a part of the MBA for less than three years. The first meeting of this Program occurred on February 15th, and was well attended.

There are big things in store for the YLS this year and I am looking forward to the rest of this year with this YLS team. We have a packed schedule of events in 2023, so pay attention to the weekly Bar News newsletter.