Young Lawyers section jump-starts members on path to success, service

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by Cynthia Price
Legal News

One of the truly great bargains offered to attorneys in Kent County is the free membership in the Grand Rapids Bar Association Young Lawyers Section for those in their first year of practice after Bar admission.

Another is the price for continuing with the section: just $15 per year.

In return, eligible attorneys — who must be either under 36 years of age or have practiced for less than five years — have the opportunity to meet and socialize with people who are likely be their lifelong colleagues, to learn leadership skills, situate themselves in the Grand Rapids legal community, and embark on a lifetime of benefiting the broader community.

According to current Chair James R. Oppenhuizen of Keller and Almassian, PLC, “Our goals are to foster connections among new attorneys and between new attorneys and the Grand Rapids Bar Association as a whole, to continue the historic civility among attorneys in Grand Rapids through building relationships and connections, to serve our community through charitable work and donations, and to introduce new attorneys and attorneys new to Grand Rapids into the legal culture and norms of Grand Rapids through providing informative educational opportunities, networking events, and opportunities to give back to the community through charitable work.”

The Horn of Plenty is one way the Young Lawyers Section (YLS) accomplishes that last goal. The charitable donation drive has recently ended, and Ross Plont of Gruel, Mills, Nims and Pylman, YLS Community Outreach Chair, says the group is very happy with the results.

Plont says the way the drive works is by asking people who are in the YLS and those who have done it in the past to volunteer as the point person for the firms they work for, setting up collection sites and broadcasting requests for colleagues to donate. Each volunteer puts the donations at a central location, and helps the community outreach committee to pick them up just before Thanksgiving.

Items sought are food, clothing, and cash. This year, there were approximately 18 drop-off locations.

In 2011 as in 2010, all of the donations went to Baxter Community Center, a social service organization in the low-income Baxter Neighborhood. Plont says that he worked closely last year with the Community Outreach Chair, Stephanie Newton of Newton Law Offices, and she thought it would be a good idea to narrow down the recipient pool to maximize the benefits and minimize the inconvenience.

The drive resulted in two vans full of clothing and food, and about $700 in monetary contributions. Last year was a banner year for Horn of Plenty, and this year, though the physical donations were down somewhat, they were able to equal the cash funds.

“It’s become a pretty good legacy in Grand Rapids,” Plont comments.

Further YLS charitable plans include continuing work with Kids’ Food Basket, which provides healthy and substantial sack suppers for children who might not otherwise eat outside of school. Plont says now that Horn of Plenty is over, he hopes to get enough interest to have a once-monthly volunteer day at Kids’ Food Basket, where young lawyers would help pack the bags.

The more than 140 members of the section also have the opportunity to attend monthly luncheon meetings where prominent members of the legal community talk about topics relevant to attorneys just starting on their careers.

There are also a number of networking opportunities, where officers and others who are a bit more experienced help grease the social wheels by reaching out to those just getting started. These include monthly Happy Hour events on the first Wednesday of each month, a progressive dinner in February, and the holiday party held this week (Nov. 30).

It falls to the Social Chair to plan such parties, and Megan Smith, an attorney at Smith, Haughey, Rice and Roegge, arranged for a wonderful time at San Chez Tapas Bistro, which was decorated for the season and offered several delicious appetizers in the tapas style.

Chair Oppenhuizen says the section also works with the Grand Rapids Bar “to increase participation in mentoring programs which match new attorneys with more seasoned attorneys, providing the new attorneys with guidance as they begin their legal careers in Grand Rapids, and an opportunity to meet members of the Grand Rapids Bar association beyond the Young Lawyers Section.”

Other current-year officers are the previously-mentioned Vice-Chair Stephanie Newton, who will succeed to the chairmanship next year; Brad Fowler, who is the Law Clerk for the Honorable James R. Redford, Kent County Circuit Court, Treasurer; and Kara Rozin (Kluczynski, Girtz & Vogelzang), Secretary.

To find out more, email joppenhuizen@kalawgr.com.

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