ABA president's goals focus on young people and the future
PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
Last year, the ABA Board of Governors approved the creation of the Task Force on Building Public Trust in the American Justice System. During Bass’ tenure as president, the recommendations of that task force will begin to be implemented.
These recommendations include working on alternatives to court fees and fines for people without the economic means to pay them and developing implicit-bias training for people in all levels of the criminal justice system.
Implicit bias is an issue in which Bass has already been a leader for the ABA. As chair of the Section of Litigation, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Task Force on Implicit Bias in the Justice System.
Another element of the working group’s task is to develop public engagement programs, Bass says. “For example, going into local communities and high schools to explain what happens when there’s a police shooting: Who makes the decision about whether to bring charges, what is a grand jury, what is an indictment, how does that process play out?”
Another way Bass intends to build public trust and accomplish the ABA’s mission of educating people about the rule of law is through the creation of ABA Legal Fact Check.
Legal Fact Check will release advisories through a website and press releases whenever current events prompt questions about the law. When there is public debate about what the U.S. legal system has to say about a particular issue, Legal Fact Check will provide context and clarity.
“So, for example, if someone makes a statement such as: ‘An American citizen who burns the flag should have their citizenship revoked,’ ABA Legal Fact Check will within hours come out with a short and simple nonpartisan statement saying that in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court held that burning the flag is a First Amendment right,” Bass says. “We hope that we can become a resource for both our citizenry as well as the media. We want everyone to know that when there is a dispute about what the law is, they can look to the American Bar Association for confirmation.”
Bass will focus on her initiatives and on the association’s long-term needs. Two challenges the past several presidents have faced are increasing membership and retaining younger lawyers. In Bass’ view, once younger attorneys are shown the benefits of the ABA and the opportunities for public service it presents, they’ll become much more engaged.
“I think it’s up to the older lawyers to do a better job of explaining the value to younger lawyers of bar association participation,” she says. “Because certainly when I was a young lawyer, I didn’t see much value in the idea of leaving my office in the middle of the day and going to spend two hours at a bar lunch. But one of the lawyers in my firm came and said, ‘You’re going to go.’
“And of course once I showed up, I learned the value of it and continued to participate.”
This article appeared in the September 2017 issue of the ABA Journal with the headline “The Year Ahead: ABA president’s goals focus on young people and the future.”
