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News From the President Bucks County Bar Association President's Message, June, 2010 Timothy J. Duffy   Every year at the Annual Meeting it seems that the out-going president makes a comment about how amazed he or she was over the course of his or her year as president with the level of involvement and hard work exhibited by so many of our members for the betterment of our Association and the practice of law here in Bucks County. And every year (being the cynic that I am) I wondered to myself how much of that praise and claimed amazement was simply polite tradition. As I approach the half-way mark of my tenure as president, I can honestly tell you that I am amazed with the level of involvement and hard work exhibited by so many of our members for the betterment of our Association and the practice of law here in Bucks County. There is no way to fit into this article an explanation of every project that every committee, section and division is working on, or to mention every volunteer member who deserves mention. But I want to give you just a sampling of some of the good things that some of your fellow attorneys are working hard at this year for your benefit. Kim Litzke and the rest of the Bench Bar Conference Committee have been working very hard planning this year’s Conference; in fact, Kim got a jump start last fall and has been hard at work creating a fantastic lineup of the CLE Programs and social events. We have made a concerted effort to develop programs that will be attractive to the full range of practitioners in our Association, from civil and criminal trial attorneys, to land use attorneys, to tax and business law attorneys. The Conference is going to be held at the Grand Cascade Lodge at the Crystal Springs Resort in Vernon, NJ from Thursday, September 23 through Saturday, September 25. The resort is about an hour and a half drive from Doylestown. In order to remove what has often times been cited as a reason for not attending the conference, the registration fee has been reduced significantly over the fees charged in prior years. The registration fee (which includes all group meals and drinks, and costs for CLE credits and seminar facilities) has been reduced to $395 for young lawyers, and to $495 for all other members. To take a look at the brand new Grand Cascade Lodge, go to the Crystal Springs website at www.crystalgolfresort.com. The Member Services Committee, under the leadership of Maureen Burke Carlton, has been developing and carrying out on-line member surveys. If you have not completed one of these surveys, I strongly encourage you to do so. Invitations have been sent out to members by e-mail and contain a link to the survey. Each survey is no more than 5 questions or so, and it will take you less than 5 minutes to complete. The Member Services Committee has been analyzing the results of these surveys and is in the process of sharing those results with the appropriate committees, sections and divisions, so they can all endeavor to be more responsive to the needs of our membership. In response to concerns raised by some of the judges who preside over protection from abuse (PFA) proceedings, Lisa Woodward and the Pro Bono Committee have been looking at ways in which the members of our Association who represent PFA litigants can help make those proceedings run more efficiently and effectively. The Pro Bono Committee is also working with member Elissa Heinrichs to plan the Fox Rothschild Race Judicata, which will be held this year on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 for the benefit of Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Please visit their website at www.bucksracejudicata.com. Michele Frisbie and the MCLE Committee are (in addition to reviewing proposed courses to decide whether to approve them for CLE credit) working to develop the Boot Camp Back to Basics series. This series of CLE courses will pair more experienced members of the bar with more junior members, as well as members of the bench, to present updated CLE courses on the fundamentals of a wide spectrum of practice areas. In late March the leadership of the Young Lawyers Division met with the current Officers of the Association and several Committee Chairs. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a plan to make the Association more responsive to the needs of our young lawyers and, thereby, to get them more active in our Association. YLD’s new Chair, Dan Keane, and Vice-Chair, Elle Gerhards, have great energy and commitment and have been working very hard to help develop programs to engage our young lawyers. We expect the YLD webpage will be up and running soon as well. Speaking of the website, if you haven’t checked it out lately, you need to do so. Executive Director, Deanna Mindler’s hard work with our web-designer at Lawyerwebmarketing.Net certainly paid off. The website features easily accessible pages for various resources you can use, an interactive calendar that keeps track of all upcoming events, and short videos featuring different members of the Association that provide the public and the Bar with information about various practice areas and other matters of interest. Finally, you have probably noticed that the Women’s Lawyer’s Division chaired by Joanne Murray, and the Business Law Section chaired by Jeff DiAmico and Frank Sullivan, have been offering quality CLE and networking events at the Bar Association. The Civil Litigation and Criminal Law Sections, chaired by Linda Shick and Sara Webster, respectively, continue their Sections’ excellent line-ups of member presentations, CLE courses and opportunities for members to bounce ideas off each other and brainstorm solutions to common problems. The hard work and dedication of these and other members of our Association is in keeping with one of the most important traditions of our profession: to share our professional experiences and wisdom with our fellow lawyers in order to improve the quality of the practice of law and to provide guidance to the next generations of lawyers. Passing on and adhering to this tradition (and others) is especially important because the Bar is more than just the individuals who happen to stand at it any particular point in time. It is a continuum and there is no one but us to maintain the integrity of this institution while it is in our care. One of the best ways to do that is to be actively involved in the various programs the Bar Association has to offer by not only sharing in the benefits of active membership, but in giving back to the profession to ensure the tradition of excellence in the practice of law here in Bucks County continues. Back to Top