Young Lawyers Section

Young Lawyers Section: May Month of Service

By The Officers of the Young Lawyers Section

Each spring, as we eagerly await the perennial blossoms long overdue from the dreary winter and the temptress that is the fourth calendar month, assuredly recant the modern incarnation of Tusser’s poem, and frantically restock allergy medicine en masse, the MBA Young Lawyers Section directs its focus to the time-honored “May Month of Service.”

Though the Section engages in community outreach throughout the year, this long-standing tradition is a staple of our commitment to service to the community beyond what is achievable through practice alone.

After MBA Sponsor JS Held helped the Section kick off their month of service during the May 5 Friends and Family Day at the Elmwood Park Zoo, the Section held a variety of in-person volunteer events and fundraising initiatives to support the community.

We continue to support the Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County (SAAC) by sponsoring a Meals on Wheels route each month. Our route this year remains the same (the last Monday of each month), and even though you may have missed May, anyone interested in participating should contact YLS Treasurer/Community Outreach Director Chelsey A. Christensen, Esq., for more information. SAAC coordinates deliveries throughout the month and is always looking for volunteers, so if you are unable to participate on a Monday, Chelsey is happy to connect you with the program director to arrange a different date. On May 7th, the Section teamed up with the Probate and Tax Section and participated in the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Walk at the Temple Ambler Campus. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many facets of society, but none more than people’s mental health. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. Along with 59 other teams, the MBA team helped raise over $100,000.00 for NAMI. Thank you to those who joined the MBA team on May 7th and braved the pouring rain. On May 20th, members of the Section volunteered at the Upper Schuylkill Valley Park where we cleaned up part of the park and restored an animal enclosure.

Finally, throughout its month of service, the Section also coordinated fundraising initiatives for the Montgomery Bar Foundation and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.

In addition to service, the Section focuses on providing substantive programing and networking opportunities to its membership, including our FREE Summer Happy Hour Series. The first happy hour was held on June 16th at the Great American Pub following the bootcamp hosted by the DEI Committee, Solo/Small Firm Committee, and Criminal Defense Committee. The second happy hour will be a joint event with the Trial Lawyers Section held on July 28th at Well Crafted

Brewery in Ambler. The third and fourth happy hours will be held in August and September, so pay attention to the listservs and MBA newsletters for more information. These FREE happy hours are open to all MBA members.

The Section held it first in-person meeting on May 18th and the turnout was fantastic. In addition to planning our Summer Happy Hour Series, the Section is in the planning stages of a “Back to Basics” CLE series and is looking to team up with other sections and committees to provide 1-hour primers on various topics, for example: estate planning basics (Looking at you Probate and Tax Section). While still in the planning stages, if there are topics of interest or a Section/ Committee that would like to team up with the Young Lawyers Section, please contact a Young Lawyers Section Officer.

The Section is also planning a joint fall CLE with the Membership Committee on the business aspect of the legal field. As young or new lawyers we are taught how to file a motion or present arguments in court, but many times, we are not taught about client engagement/retention, marketing (within and outside the firm), and so many other aspects of the legal field that have nothing to do with lawyering. At the end of the day, this is a business. Stay tuned for more information on what is expected to be an informative CLE.

While the staple of this Section is service and networking, it is also the foundation for the future leadership of the MBA. Unsurprisingly, many MBA Officers were active in the Young Lawyers Section and held leadership positions during their early days in practice. While COVID-19 greatly impacted the Section’s membership engagement, it is our hope that, with the return of in-person meetings and events, the Section’s membership will become more engaged. That said, the Section’s leadership has an open-door policy. Want to host a joint event with the Young Lawyers Section? We are an automatic, YES. Want to host a joint CLE with the Young Lawyers Section? Again, we are an automatic, YES. The leadership of the Young Lawyers Section wants this Section to be vibrant and thrive and are asking for input from the Section’s members regarding what – as young or new lawyers – you want out of this Section. Please send any and all ideas our way.

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