Yes, Join Your Local Bar Association

As we’ve previously mentioned, our editor Jim Dedman is now contributing one post a month to the North Carolina Law Blog.  Last week, his most recent submission was published at that site.  The topic: “Yes, Join Your Local Bar Association,” a response to a recent Lawyerist post by writer Sam Glover. Here’s how Jim’s post begins:

Not too long ago, Sam Glover at Lawyerist asked, “Why should I renew my bar association membership?”  In the post, Glover relates that his dues statement for his state and local bar membership totaled $528, and the cost prompted some thought on his part as to whether he should continue his association with those entities. An interesting question: In this day and age, is the cost of dues worth the benefits of membership in a voluntary bar association?

The short answer: Sure.

A relatively straightforward beginning, that. But get this: the post also references the long ago days of yore when lawyers actually congregated together at roster meetings, docket calls, and, dare we say, trials. We often hear the older lawyers recall those times fondly, and when they tell the tales of those days, it seems that there was something kinder and gentler about the practice back then. Perhaps when lawyers were brought together in such circumstances and came to know each other in person and as individuals, it was at least somewhat more difficult to adopt inflexible and intractable positions in petty discovery disputes. The article goes on to say that perhaps participation in one’s voluntary bar association might foster a similar sense of camaraderie, at least in the sense that members meet other practitioners from other sides of the bar outside the confrontational litigation setting.

Perhaps that’s just a bunch of nostalgia, but maybe that’s worth some annual dues, too. Click here to read the full piece.