ABA President: Membership Growing in Key Areas
Lamm addresses ABA House.
Video from ABANow.org.
Looking back on her year in office, ABA President Carolyn Lamm told the ABA’s House of Delegates on Monday that the ABA is neither ahead nor behind the curve, but is “setting the curve” with its members.
A key effort of her term has been to expand ABA membership. The ABA reduced dues by as much as 50 percent for solo practitioners and select other categories of members in February.
Since then, it has seen dramatic increases in membership in a variety of segments, with the number of solo members up 120 percent compared to this time last year, Lamm said. The number of judges is up 80 percent, and the number of government lawyers up 46 percent, she said.
The increasing globalization of the practice of law has been another focus of her work as ABA president. She appointed the ABA’s Ethics 20/20 Commission, which over the next two years will recommend changes to ethics rules meant to ensure American lawyers are treated abroad as foreign lawyers are treated in the United States.
During her term, Lamm also addressed judicial vacancies and increasing judicial pay. There are currently 100 vacant federal judicial positions and 43 nominees not yet voted on, Lamm said. The House of Delegates interrupted with applause when she said the vacancies are “beginning to impair how our country does business” and need to be filled immediately.
