PRESIDENT'S PAGE

KAREN DENNEY

2022–2023 TCBA President

My year of having the honor to serve as your Tarrant County Bar Association President ends on June 30th. Some of you have heard me say that I never intended to be President of the Tarrant County Bar Association. Rather, my friend and former TCBA President Lance Evans asked me to serve a one-year Director term in 2018, and, since it was Lance asking, I did not say “no” to the opportunity. I intended to serve as a Director for one year during Lance’s presidency to support whatever the TCBA and Lance needed that year. One year later then-TCBA Executive Director Megan Cooley asked if I would be willing to run for the TCBA Secretary-Treasurer position because the TCBA, apparently, was having issues finding two people to run for this position, which the TCBA Bylaws require. I again did not say “no” to the opportunity. After being elected to the Secretary-Treasurer position in 2019, I continued to track up through the Vice President and President-Elect positions to this 2022-2023 bar year.

It has been a long five years on the TCBA Board. During the past five years, under the guidance of then-TCBA Presidents John H. Cayce Jr. and Gary Medlin, we worked through how to continue to serve the TCBA’s members and run the TCBA during and coming out of a pandemic. TCBA President Kimberly Naylor then guided us through finding and hiring a new Executive Director, Kayla Dailey, after Megan resigned to become General Counsel of Texas Wesleyan University. The past five years have required a lot of thoughtful work for the entire TCBA Board, and we hope that our actions and decisions over this time period have strengthened and improved the TCBA and its services to its members.

As I said I would do at the beginning of this bar year, Kayla and I have been meeting with various groups of TCBA members throughout the past year to poll those members about how the TCBA has been serving its members and how it can improve. Those discussions will continue under Lu Pham’s TCBA presidency over the coming year, as the TCBA exists to, among other things, serve its members and wants to ensure that it is doing so at the highest level.

There have been some take-aways from the meetings that have been held and from reviewing our potential membership with our actual membership. Prior to the pandemic we had more TCBA luncheons than we are currently hosting, and some members have indicated that they are more likely to attend luncheons than after-work events. In the fall, we will be adding an additional TCBA member luncheon back into the rotation and plan to have a judicial panel speak at that luncheon to give our members an opportunity to hear from our local judiciary, along with another chance to see, and catch up with, other TCBA members.

We also have substantial room to grow in our TCBA membership numbers with in-house and government attorneys. State Bar records show that there are more than 900 attorneys that comprise this portion of our legal community. However, many of these attorneys are not TCBA members. We need to determine and add TCBA membership benefits to serve these attorneys in our Tarrant County legal community. This year our TCBA Bylaws Committee, led by Andrew Rosell, has drafted general updates to the TCBA Bylaws, last amended in 2011. In addition to the general updates, the proposed amendments to the TCBA Bylaws include a new provision that would allow the TCBA Board to appoint an additional TCBA Director each year to serve a one-year term, which Director would be an in-house attorney or a non-elected government attorney. These attorneys, who do not need referrals from other attorneys, have no incentive to run to be a TCBA Director. However, we need direction from these attorneys to determine how the TCBA can best serve these attorneys. Giving the TCBA Board the ability to appoint an in-house or government attorney to the TCBA Board each year should give the TCBA this needed direction. I am hopeful that the TCBA membership will pass these TCBA Bylaws amendments at the July meeting.

I am thankful for my TCBA Board and the hours they have put in over the past year. I also am grateful for Kayla and the other TCBA staff members for their diligent work to ensure that the TCBA is serving its members and otherwise supporting the TCBA’s mission. I immensely enjoyed getting to meet some of you I had not met prior to this year and serving as your TCBA President. I encourage you to accept opportunities presented to you to serve in roles (with the TCBA or otherwise) that you never intended to perform. Like I have this last year, you will likely get more out of the service than you put into it. g www.tarrantbar.org email: tcba@tarrantbar.org

2022–2023

President..........................................Karen Denney

President-Elect.........................................Lu Pham

Vice President...................................Scott Lindsey

Secretary-Treasurer.................Marvina Robinson

Director.........................................John Brookman

Director..................................................Cheryl Leb

Director.......................................Michael McBride

Director..............................................Bryan Bruner Director..........................................Lyndsay Newell Director...........................................Angel Williams

Appointed Director............................Christy Jack

Appointed Director...........................Aleed Rivera

Fall 2022 President.....................Aulstin Gardiner

Fall 2023 President....................Elizabeth Haslam

Immediate Past President..........Kimberly Naylor

Executive Director.............................Kayla Dailey

Director..................................................Jeff Cochran

Graphics/Production...................Elizabeth Banda photos, suggestions or comments should be directed to: elizabeth@tarrantbar.org

Tarrant County Bar Bulletin is a bi-monthly publication of the Tarrant County Bar Association.

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