ABA president's goals focus on young people and the future
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
In some ways, Bass’ career path has been straightforward. She graduated magna cum laude from George Washington University after majoring in political science. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law and has been with Greenberg Traurig since she was a summer associate there as a 2L, over 30 years ago.
She did take a detour in between college and law school. “I had done a lot of acting throughout my youth in South Florida,” Bass says. “I graduated college in three years, so I was only 20, and concluded that I would give my acting career one last shot because I was not ready to go to law school. Instead, I moved to New York and studied acting with Lee Strasberg for three years.”
Though she didn’t make acting her permanent career, it was not wasted time. “I think as a litigator, anything that makes you more comfortable talking in front of people is a positive,” Bass says. “So certainly my acting experience was helpful.”
Bass, who as an alum donated $1 million to the University of Miami School of Law, is concerned with making sure today’s law schools are properly preparing students for their own futures. “One of my major initiatives is the creation of a commission on the future of legal education, which the ABA Board has already authorized, and we have lined up some of the top experts in the field.”
The commission will be looking into the decline in bar passage rates.
“Whether there are changes in the test that have caused the decline in bar passage rates, whether there could be enhanced transparency to help law school deans better prepare their students—there are a lot of unanswered questions,” Bass says. “But we know that many of the states across the country are individually looking into questions about the bar exam. Instead of addressing this issue state by state, it makes sense for the ABA to get involved because one of the things we do best is bringing the relevant players under the tent.”
Technology training will be another focus of the commission. The skills required of future lawyers may be significantly different than what law schools are currently teaching. Bass hopes that through the embrace of technology, lawyers will be able to shrink the access-to-justice gap.
Another of Bass’ major initiatives for her year as bar president will be conducting the first longitudinal study on why a significant number of women have left the practice of law. For Bass, who established the Greenberg Traurig Women’s Initiative to help female lawyers advance in their careers, this is a huge concern.
After law school, the number of male and female law graduates is “about 50-50, and they enter the profession in relatively equal numbers,” Bass says. “But by the age of 50, less than 25 percent of the attorneys who remain in the profession are women.
“Most of us assume that women left the practice of law in their mid-20s or 30s as a result of having children or balance issues. But what the recent studies have shown us is that most of the women are actually leaving in their 40s and 50s. That happens to be the time at which one would expect women to be reaching the highest levels of their career, due to their experience and expertise,” she says. “And these women are not altering their practice setting by opening their own firm or going in-house. But instead, they are simply saying: ‘I’ve had enough. I no longer want to be a practicing lawyer.’ ”
“Given the important resource that the profession and the industry is losing, we think it’s critically important to figure this out,” Bass says. “And I’m happy to report that we’ve gotten tremendous support from law firms and in-house counsel throughout the country; we’ve already raised more than $350,000 for this effort.”
The project will kick off in November with a conference at Harvard Law School, and the intention is to have the study results available before Bass leaves office. “The plan is to conclude our research and come back to the House of Delegates with some proposed policy changes by next August,” she says.
