It’s all about teamwork!

On June 6, I opened a new law office. Great location. Great space. With me in my new venture are Matt Sheehan, a 2011 admittee to the bar in Indiana; Charlynn Turner, a seasoned-for-her-years paralegal and office manager; Andrea Vinzant, a detailconscious legal secretary; and my daughter, Nicole, who will be our receptionist this summer.

Matt has already assisted another attorney in town in a jury trial. I was out and about on State Bar business, but I’ve been told by several lawyers in town that he did quite well.

Charlynn has quietly assumed an appropriate amount of control, and our new office is starting to run smoothly.

Andrea produces our work product at least as fast as we give it to her and offers suggestions to improve the office.

Though Nicole is only here for the summer, she has assumed the seat up front and should be kept busy for a while, cleaning up some data conversion issues with our new software.

In short, we have a great team.

This experience has highlighted for me just how smoothly our ISBA staff members operate. They literally have as their bosses the nearly 12,000 members of the Association, serving us day in and day out, year after year. This is true with the House of Delegates, the Board of Governors, the officers, our sections and committees. We have great members. Many of our members have great ideas, and those ideas become reality through the hard work of our volunteer members and the ISBA’s tremendous staff.

When was the last time you tried to get five or more lawyers in the same room to tackle a topic? As we all know, herding lawyers can be a challenge, given our hectic practices. Yet each member of the State Bar staff handles his or her role, works with our volunteers, gets things done and then takes two steps back when it comes time for the accolades for a job well done. In short, the ISBA has a great team.

This year our local & specialty bar liaison, Catheryne Pully, and I are crisscrossing the state with one simple message to all local bars and inns of court – we consider you a part of our team. If we can help you in your provision of services to your members, or if we can assist you in sustaining or improving the strength of your organization, please call or email Catheryne at 800-266-2581 or cpully@inbar.org.

We are not competitors in the provision of bar services. We all have similar or overlapping goals. By virtue of the ISBA’s long history, dedicated staff and contacts throughout the state and country, we may be able to assist or provide direction on an issue your bar is facing for the first time.

I have enjoyed greatly the opportunity to meet lawyers and judges from all over the state. I have met leaders from many of our local and specialty bars and discovered that great services are being provided by many of your organizations. Your bar may never need our assistance, but we want to know you nonetheless. The day may come when we need to pick your brain because something you do is of interest to a bar association in another part of the state.

I am now within sight of the end of my year as president of the Indiana State Bar Association. As I head out, I’ll rest easier having seen great things being accomplished all over the state. I have seen you accomplishing these things.

See you in French Lick in October!