Home Renovations: ABA President Bill Bay promises changes for members
ABA President Bill Bay. (Photo by Mitch Higgins)
In August, as Bill Bay stepped into his role as president of the ABA, he encouraged the association’s members to embrace change.
During his speech to the House of Delegates at the annual meeting, Bay emphasized that the ABA faces a new set of challenges requiring a different approach. He called on members to work together and to prepare for new structures, processes and leaders.
“That is what the future requires of us,” said Bay, a partner at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis. Bay previously chaired both the House of Delegates and the Section of Litigation. He also co-chaired the Coordinating Group on Practice Forward amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bay recently spoke with the ABA Journal about the new direction of the association. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
It’s been a little over a month since you became president. What are some of the first things you’ve done?
I’ve met with staff several times to discuss where we are, where we need to be and how we’re going to get there. How can we enhance the member experience so our existing members and potential members see the value and find connection? I went over my role with them. What can I do to help our association and our mission this year? Where do I need to be? What do I need to address?
It isn’t about trying to be the best president in the history of the ABA. It’s about how to be the president we need right now, and how to be part of a team of staff and volunteers.
I can’t do everything I’d like to do and everything that needs to be done. Part of leadership, I think, is recognizing it’s a team sport.
I’ve had lots of calls with section, division and forum leaders and other leaders, which has really been helpful. I have discovered new things they are doing. I get a firsthand account of their challenges, and we talk about what we in this association could do to better enable them to lead.
I also spend a great deal of time on communication. It’s important what we do, but also how we communicate. My LinkedIn account features a black box that is focused on the ABA, [titled] “What’s in it for me?” It focuses on what different parts of the ABA are doing. The Monday afternoon communications to members will include some words from the president. Not every week, so they get tired of me, but regularly. I like to write, and I’ve done quite a few articles that are telling the story of an experience I’ve had and relating to something important for our profession and association. You’ll see more of those.
When you spoke to the House, you called for changes in the member experience. You just touched on that again. What else do you have in mind?
We talk about leading and being the voice of the profession. But to do those things, we also have to be the home for the profession. So our goal, as I said, is to provide multiple opportunities for everyone to experience the value and opportunity we offer and to forge connections that will last a lifetime.
We want to simplify the process by which members can be engaged. You find that people say, “I’m a consumer finance lawyer. I’m a mass tort, pharmaceutical lawyer. I’m a First Amendment lawyer. I’m doing M&A in the education world.” We have content and networks in all those areas. We want to make it easier for them to connect to people that practice like they do or that face similar challenges as they do, or who are passionate about the same things. We’re experimenting with hub pages, like we did with Practice Forward, where we gather the best of the ABA in one place.
The dues structure—we’re going to look at that being simplified. Somebody said it took 14 steps to join. We can do better. We also want to look very hard at new members particularly, and how can we give them access to everything we have to offer? They’ve decided to join, but they can be overwhelmed with all the choices. How can we make it easier for them to get what they want? How can we allow them to dabble and see where they fit best? And I think a real focus will be on young lawyers. Young lawyers aren’t our future. They are our now. We want to provide leadership but also develop leaders.
You have said member engagement is key to the ABA’s success. Are there other ways you hope to attract new members or retain folks who are already in the association?
I believe when people see what we do and hear our story, they will come. I mean, I sound like Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” We have built it. Sure, we need some renovations. Sure, we need some updates. But it is about telling our story and making the experience memorable when you get here. That’s what attracts and retains people.
Among your first public statements as president was a warning about attacks on judicial independence. What should the ABA and legal community be doing to defend judicial independence?
It’s fine to be unhappy about decisions. It’s fine to be critical of decisions. But we have these ad hominem attacks on the courts. I have had many cases, and I have won some and lost some. I wasn’t always happy with the judge. I wasn’t always happy with what the jury did. But I never dropped back into saying, “The courts are all terrible.”
I think it’s important how we disagree. We have to continue to remind people words, in fact, matter. And from a lawyer perspective, we have to be very careful as we talk about the courts. It’s fine to disagree with 50 decisions in the Supreme Court or any other court. But demonizing them—that is something we have to be cautious about.
Last time we talked, we went through your history with the ABA (See “‘A Relationship Business,’” June-July 2023, page 60). Which of your past experiences will be most helpful to you in this role?
Just three I’ll mention. The Young Lawyers Division was so important for me because I was reluctant to even come to the meeting. I was tied up doing stuff with the local bar and family and in church. But I came and found out all this public service was being done around the country. It was eye-opening in terms of observing what others were doing.
The Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services I was on for three years when [ABA President-elect] Michelle Behnke was chair, and then I became chair for three years. That’s where I really learned the value of partnership. We had such a talented staff, and I found out I didn’t have to have all the answers. We could do so much more together.
And then the Section of Litigation was more about the importance of change. We made lots of changes to leadership and how we approach value, and we made meetings must-attend events. The key was that change brought excitement, and then renewed enthusiasm.
You said in your speech to the House of Delegates that the ABA is “more than the sum of our parts.” What did you mean by that, and what effect do you hope it had on the association’s leaders?
Sometimes we get so focused on our own part of the world that we forget how important it is to be part of the association. We’re all related because we made a choice to go to law school, to be part of this profession. I have talked about another movie, The Boys in the Boat. It’s about a 1936 University of Washington rowing team with eight guys who are working class. Spoiler alert: They win the gold medal [in the Summer Olympics in Berlin]. They’re unlikely choices, and yet they learned that to be really good, they had to work together. At the end of the movie, one of the members, who is now a grandfather, is with his grandson. His grandson says, “You think I can ever be one of the guys, one of the crew of eight?” And he says, “We were never eight, we were one.” I think that’s so powerful.
Our power isn’t just in our sections, in our centers and everything else. Our power is in the effect the association has as a whole to make lawyers better, to make our communities better.
It hasn’t been that long, but what has been the most fun part of being president?
Talking to people. I know it sounds corny, but I love meeting people, listening to them, addressing their concerns, thanking them for what they’re doing. It’s a sacrifice to do work. I never want a day to go by where I don’t thank people for what they’re doing. And it’s about learning. You’d figure I’d know everything about the ABA by the time I got to be president-elect. Wrong. I didn’t. So that’s been fun.
My last question: What is something most people don’t know about you?
I’m going to say two things. First, I love to whistle. I find myself whistling the song I just heard or one that’s stuck in my head. It brightens my day and demeanor. And then, secondly, during college, of all things, I was part of a singing group in France. I was one of two Americans that were part of a small mission group that traveled around France and helped churches there. My strength was language, but I could also sing, and I enjoyed it immensely.
This story was originally published in the December 2024-January 2025 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: “Home Renovations: ABA President Bill Bay promises changes for members.”
