As someone who is all about structure, attending my first American Bar Association (ABA) Conference in New Orleans earlier this month was an eye opening experience. Not only was the conference outside of Michigan, but of the thousands of attorneys in attendance only a few dozen were present from our Mitten state.  Having attended many conferences put on by the State Bar of Michigan and ICLE – Institute of Continuing Legal Education, I couldn’t see how sessions would be valuable to lawyers.  And more importantly, how would any meeting of representatives from around the United States be able to make any changes to the legal profession as a whole.

First, the ABA’s Governmental Affairs Office (GAO) serves as the “eyes, ears and voice” of the organized bar in the nation’s capital. Thinking of the GAO as the lobbying arm of the ABA and of lawyers throughout the US, the ability to make real changes in our legal system is important in our changing landscape.  Whether the worries over ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence to promote equal justice for all, our courtrooms and profession is an ever changing field.  Issues that affect all lawyers regardless of whether they practice in big New York City or in rural Montana must be reviewed and articulated on a regular basis.  This is where the GAO comes in by conveying the views of the ABA on a broad range of issues each year to numerous governmental entities.

Second, the ABA handles the accreditation process for law schools throughout the United States. ABA accreditation is a rigorous process that lasts a minimum of three years. The process is meant to insure a level of national uniformity in legal education and practice. If you attend a school approved by the ABA, you are eligible to sit for the bar exam in any state. If you attend a school not approved by the ABA, most states will not let you sit for the bar. While this was something most people review when making decisions on where to attend law school, I know that I had put this concept out of my mind.  With this in mind, one of the hot topics of the conference was removing the requirement of taking a standardized test (LSAT or GRE) for admission. Why not successful at [passing approval by the ABA legislative branch (ABA House of Delegates), this does open up important questions regarding the entrance into the law school process.

In closing, while the ABA may seem like a large far off concept, the work that goes on behind the scenes and at ABA conferences is shaping the future of law in America.  Not only does the ABA have ties to current lawyers, it is trying to make the process for future lawyers equitable in the meantime as well.

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Jacob Eccleston, Miller Johnson