Legal Village

Letter from America

Posted 31/08/2007 by Andrew Holroyd

I am delighted to take up residence as a legalweek.com blogger. I thought I’d start by sharing with you my first 'proper' presidential duty – which was to tackle the mammoth American Bar Association Conference.

In 1878, 100 lawyers from 21 different US states met to form the American Bar Association (ABA). It is now the largest voluntary association in the world, with a staggering 500,000 members, which equates to about half of all registered US lawyers.

The ABA has a bewildering number of sections, divisions and affiliates, some of which are very active in their own right - none more so than the Section of International Law (SIL), with which the Law Society has what some might describe as a 'special relationship'. And I was delighted to address their annual dinner, under the auspices of the ABA conference programme, on the theme ‘Professionalism in the 21st Century’.

Perhaps not the most easily digestible dinner topic – but an important issue for the legal profession worldwide. My message was that modern professionalism means that despite pressures from clients for quick solutions and deals, from cutting corners to get a short-term competitive advantage, firms must maintain high ethical standards. This is message I am keen to promote during my year in office.

The ABA conference programme is vast and there is something for everyone, from esoteric sessions on subjects as varied as ‘animals in entertainment’ and ‘legal aspects of baseball’ to more mainstream subjects of the kind we might have in our jurisdiction.

We also used our visit to develop links between both our law firms and local lawyers, and between the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) and the Law Society. Our trip has forged important new links.  The Law Society is now in good shape to unlock a lot of business for firms here and we have made many new friends and built up a lot of goodwill.

In the final meeting, a group of lawyers who like riding the range gave me a gift by of a shirt and baseball cap emblazoned with the logo 'cowboy lawyers association'. Talk about two nations divided by a single language!

Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee replying to all comments but I will take on board any suggestions. And as this is my first post I’d like to also apologise in advance for any conspicuous plugs of the Law Society website!