|
|
|
 |  |
 |
 |
WSBA Info | |
|
For Lawyers | |
|
For the Public |  |
 |
For the Media |  |
|
CLE |  |
| | Bench Bar Guidelines | News Releases | Publications | |
|
|
March 2008Fulfilling the Dream: Individually We Could, Together We CanA Perspective from Loren Miller Bar Association President Craig Sims Greetings from the Loren Miller Bar Association (LMBA) of Seattle. My name is Craig Sims and I have the absolute honor and privilege of serving as the 28th president of the Loren Miller Bar Association for the 2007–2008 year. I am also humbled and inspired to be able to work with LMBA’s enthusiastic Executive Board, a dedicated group of team-minded people motivated to work together to fulfill our goals for this year. Our theme for the year 2007–2008 is “Fulfilling the Dream: Individually We Could, Together We Can.” This theme reminds us that as African-American attorneys, we have a responsibility to look back at the unfulfilled dreams of our ancestors and to work collectively to serve our community and bring those dreams to reality. Thurgood Marshall changed the world with Brown v. Board of Education, but he could not have prevailed without the wisdom and guidance of mentor Charles Hamilton Houston and a cadre of social engineers who labored along with him. One of our goals this year is to provide that kind of legacy, that kind of mentorship back to the community here. We do that by extending our reach into the African-American legal community in Seattle and surrounding areas and encouraging attorneys who have been away from LMBA, or who have not been involved, to re-commit to LMBA’s goals and to re-commit to work together to have a greater impact in our community. We have had a full agenda this year, replete with programs and activities aligned with our mission. We began this year with a Summer Associates Networking Dinner that brought together LMBA members and current law students and summer associates. The purpose was to provide an opportunity for students to collaborate with experienced attorneys and learn from their collective wisdom. A few days later, we celebrated LMBA’s founders at our annual LMBA Founders’ Day Picnic. This was a wonderful day of fellowship for LMBA founders, members, family, and friends, as well as law students and future law students. LMBA is active and committed to developing law students and young lawyers. The LMBA Young Lawyers Committee (YLC) has sponsored two programs this year. One program was entitled “How to Navigate Your Way through Law School.” The other program was a writing workshop entitled “How to Write a Résumé/Cover Letter,” which gave students and young lawyers the opportunity to have LMBA attorneys review résumés, cover letters, and recent writing samples. LMBA will continue to have a voice in the Washington judicial selection process again this year through LMBA’s Judicial Evaluation Committee. In light of recent openings in our judiciary, our Judicial Evaluation Committee has reviewed numerous recommendations for those candidates seeking Governor Gregoire’s appointment to the bench. Because young people need to make informed choices, we also plan to continue our Fresh Start Program, which each year educates high-school students about the impact of being involved in the criminal justice system and the long-term effect of having a criminal record. We will hold sessions at a local alternative high school where LMBA members will share personal testimonies regarding their journeys to their law careers, and provide students with basic information regarding the criminal justice system and vacating juvenile criminal records. We will provide resources and assistance to students who have past juvenile criminal records and who seek to protect or vacate their record so they can move past a juvenile record. Our goal is to inspire young people to make insightful and good choices to help them move forward into a rewarding and productive adulthood. We also plan to continue to provide continuing legal education programs that address topics relevant to our community, and to continue to collaborate with other minority bar associations to address global issues that impact lawyers of color and the communities that we serve. This is just a sampling of the LMBA programs for 2007–2008. The Executive Board and I look forward to continuing our service to the community, to the LMBA membership, and to the members of the Washington State Bar Association. We look forward working with you all in the pursuit of “fulfilling the dream.” When we in LMBA speak of fulfilling the dream, we speak not only of the legacy of “The Dream” of such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also of our own individual dreams. History has shown us that individually, we could achieve our dreams, but together, we most definitely can.
Upcoming Events Asian Bar Association of Washington — www.abaw.org The Cardozo Society — www.jewishinseattle.org/jf/about/attorneys/attorneys.asp GLBT Bar Association of Washington — www.q-law.org King County Washington Women Lawyers — kcwwl. org Korean American Bar Association — www.kaba-washington.org Latina/o Bar Association of Washington — www.lbaw.org Loren Miller Bar Association — www.lmba.net Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association of Seattle (MAMAS) — www.mamaseattle.org Northwest Indian Bar Association — www.nwiba.org Pierce County Minority Bar Association — www.orgsites.com/wa/pcmba South Asian Bar Association — www.sabaw.org Vietnamese American Bar Association — www.vabaw.com Washington Attorneys with Disabilities Association — http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wash-adg Washington Women Lawyers — www.wwl.org
|
