ABA News

ABA leadership approves new dues ­structure, enhanced membership benefits

The American Bar Association House of Delegates on Monday approved a new, simplified dues structure (Resolution 177) that is a central feature of a new membership model that will reduce costs for most members and provide enhanced membership benefits for all ABA members. The ABA Board of Governors Friday approved the new membership model that will streamline the current 157 dues price points down to five, while offering members access to more and better content including hundreds of free CLEs and information curated and delivered according to members’ individual interests and specifications. The changes will take effect at the start of Fiscal Year 2020 (September 2019).

The five new ABA dues categories will be set at $75, $150, $250, $350 and $450, depending on years as a lawyer and type of practice area. Law students will still receive free membership.

All ABA members will receive access to added tools to make them better and more successful lawyers. All will have access to an online, on-demand library of more than 650 free CLE programs from all substantive areas of law and its practice. They will receive timely and relevant content, curated specially for them, regarding their practice area, along with news of the latest technology, practice management developments, and changes in the profession. The information will be tailored to their interests, delivered to them on the platform they prefer: including our new website, weekly email, or through social media. Members will also have more access to substantive articles from all our sections, divisions, forums and the Center for Professional Responsibility no matter what entities in the ABA they join. Members can also join GP Solo and Law Practice Divisions at no additional cost. The ABA Full Firm program also has been expanded so that firms with as few as six lawyers can take advantage of it.

“For years, baby boomers joined our Association the day they became lawyers and dutifully sent in their checks every year thereafter,” ABA President Hilarie Bass said. “Today, lawyers’ expectations about the value that bar memberships provide is very different from the previous generation. This plan addresses that. This new model will be a game changer – as it needs to be.”

The ABA began the process of evaluating these changes in October 2016 and conducted a deep analysis of its existing membership base and trends. It also conducted extensive research on lawyer preferences and perceptions regarding the ABA including focus groups, two surveys with more than 15,000 responses each, input from pricing experts and marketing consulting firms, and refinement by a 100-member working group of members and staff.

Finally, the ABA looked at research and data regarding changes in membership patterns and expectations for professional organizations in general. These changes are designed to meet member expectations and maintain the Association’s current position as the pre-eminent professional association for legal professionals. 

“Every lawyer in America will appreciate the benefits of membership in their national professional association,” said ABA Executive Director Jack Rives.

DRI offers webinar on drafting and effectively using amicus briefs

DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar is offering a new webinar entitled “Friendly Persuasion: Drafting and Using High-Impact Amicus Briefs.” The webinar is conducted by Lawrence Ebner, chair of the Amicus Committee of DRI’s Center for Law and Public Policy. DRI’s vaunted amicus program was once cited in the New York Times as the sixth largest of more than 1,600 entities submitting briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Preparation and use of amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs are an important part of appellate practice in federal and state courts.  They give individual corporations, trade associations, professional groups, and other organizations a voice?a direct line of communication to appellate courts?on the significance, practical impacts, policy implications, and merits of important legal issues.  This webinar will cover the strategic use of amicus briefs, the rules governing their preparation and submission, and amicus brief style and content.  In-house counsel and outside attorneys who manage or handle appeals and may want to solicit amicus support, as well as attorneys who are engaged to draft (or would like to be engaged to draft) amicus briefs, will benefit from the webinar.

Participants will:

• Learn about the increasingly significant role that amicus briefs play in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and state appellate courts

• Know whether, when, how, and from whom to solicit amicus support if they are representing a client in a federal or state appeal,

• Gain an understanding of amicus rules and procedures in the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts

• Benefit from practical guidance on the scope, content, and style of amicus briefs, both at the review petition and merits stages of an appeal

• Interact strategically with the office of the Solicitor General or other government lawyers when the United States or a State participates as amicus curiae (either for or against a client) in a pending appeal.

Those interested can purchase the webinar by going to https:// digitell.dri.org/dri/sessions/781/ view.