CBA Record January 2017

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PRESIDENT’S PAGE
BY DANIEL M. KOTIN
CBA Leadership Institute: One Year
Later, One Year Better
The Chicago
Bar Association
OFFICERS
President
Daniel M. Kotin
Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC
First Vice President
Judge Thomas R. Mulroy
Circuit Court of Cook County
Second Vice President
Steven M. Elrod
Holland & Knight LLP
Secretary
Jesse H. Ruiz
Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Treasurer
Maurice Grant
Grant Law LLC
Executive Director
Terrence M. Murphy
Assistant Executive Director
Elizabeth A. McMeen
BOARD OF
MANAGERS
Ashly I. Boesche
Alan R. Borlack
Judge Maureen E. Connors
Mary K. Curry
Judge Thomas M. Durkin
Judge Timothy C. Evans
Judge Shelvin Louise Marie Hall
Robert F. Harris
Patricia Brown Holmes
Matthew T. Jenkins
Michele M. Jochner
Kathryn Carso Liss
Pamela S. Menaker
Paul J. Ochmanek Jr.
Eileen M. O’Connor
Nigel F. Telman
Frank G. Tuzzolino
Andrew W. Vail
Allison L. Wood
8 JANUARY 2017
Ihave spoken about this many times:The
paradigm of American law is changing.
For example, technology has eliminated
the need for centrally located Loop law
offices with libraries. Younger lawyers have
a fresh (and perhaps healthier) perspective
on the importance of a work/life balance.
In light of these and many other changes,
bar associations must likewise change or
risk becoming antiquated and irrelevant
organizations.
With that concern in mind, The Chi-
cago Bar Association is always analyzing
and adapting our formats and program-
ming to provide useful and important
services for what our members need today.
On that note, we set out a few years ago
to find out what services we could provide
to remain relevant and useful to young
lawyers at large and mid-size law firms. We
had meetings with several senior partners at
Chicago’s top firms and asked them what
skills their young associates need most. The
answer, almost universally, was that young
associates need to learn leadership and busi-
ness development skills more than anything
else. Apparently, these young lawyers are
working so hard on existing client matters
that they have little opportunity to learn the
skills necessary to become the firm leaders
and business generators of the future.
And so, The Chicago Bar Association
Leadership Institute was born. The goal
was to enroll a small class of emerging and
ambitious young associates in a year-long
program and help them to develop the
personal qualities and professional skills
necessary to become future leaders in the
legal profession and in our community. A
special leadership planning committee was
created, chaired by Clark Hill managing
partner Ray Koenig, III, and the Institute’s
curriculum was developed based upon
information gleaned from focus groups as
well as extensive research into leadership
and business development programs in
other fields around the country.
The Institute’s 2016 Inaugural Class
included 20 young lawyers from Chicago’s
top law firms. The class met monthly
throughout the year, and I am happy to
report that every student felt the program
exceeded their expectations.
The program’s graduation ceremony
was held on November 30th, at which time
I had the opportunity to congratulate the
students and present them with graduation
certificates demonstrating their successful
completion of the CBA Leadership Insti-
tute. What was most remarkable to me was
the fact that at this time in our society when
we are learning of the ever decreasing atten-
tion span of the “millennial” generation,
and when young lawyers’ involvement in
bar associations generally is waning, almost
every member of the Class of ’16 offered
the same evaluation of the Institute–they
wanted more! They wanted more substan-
tive instruction; more opportunity to prac-
tice the skills they were learning; and more