Presidents' Messages

Fittingly as we head into summer, a time of year for us to be active and energetic, two initiatives are well under way aiming to promote and maintain the vibrancy of the HSBA as an organization and the vitality of our individual members.

Earlier this year, I reported on the 2019 National Conference of Bar Presidents Midyear Meeting, which was held in conjunction with the 2019 ABA Midyear Conference. A key takeaway from the conference was that bar associations, particularly the unified bar associations like our HSBA, are evaluating and assessing their proper work and the value they provide to their membership. I also mentioned the 2019 Western States Bar Conference and the inspirational insights of attendees in a provocative session, "Integrated Bars: Is the Well-Being of the Current Structure at Risk?"

Thus, for our HSBA, the Board of Directors approved the formation of a Working Group tasked with evaluating the core value of the HSBA and developing a framework for an organizational plan to ensure that attorneys find their HSBA membership to be meaningful and vital. Towards this goal, the Working Group recently developed and will soon distribute a membership survey designed to gather frank input and duly inform the group of our members’ assessment of the benefits, services and activities provided by the HSBA; evaluation of the priorities of the HSBA; and comments and suggestions for improvements to be made by the HSBA, among other information. Please consider these matters in preparation for your response. Member response to the survey is essential to the efforts of the Working Group and we thank you in advance for your reply and participation in this endeavor.

As important, an undertaking now underway is to support and promote the vitality of each of our members. The theme of the 2019 WSBC was attorney well-being, and I also previously mentioned the Judiciary’s formation of the Hawaiʻi Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being co chaired by Justice Sabrina McKenna and Louise Ing. The Task Force has also recently convened and is well on its way towards meeting its purpose of reviewing the recommendations of the National Task Force’s August 2017 report, “The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change;” assessing which recommendations in the report can be implemented to address our Hawaiʻi legal community; and coming up with proposals for implementation of these recommendations. Likewise, please be on the lookout for information about the Task Force and its work, as attorney well-being is essential to the healthy delivery of competent legal services by our members and to ensure that our members thrive in their daily practice of law.