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32 Affiliate 1 (2006-2007)

handle is hein.journals/aff32 and id is 1 raw text is: American Bar Association
Young Lawyers Division
321 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60610-4714
ISSN: 0360-5485

The newsletter and resource guide for bar leaders nationwidue
A Publication of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Dinislon * http://www.abayld.org

An Untapped Resource:
Make the Connection to the Affiliate Assistance Team
By Rachel E. Kopp

yan Reed, the director of this years ABA/YLD
Affiliate Assistance Team (AAT), is on a mission-
he wants to find affiliates. According to Reed of
Bowling Green, Kentucky, the best way for the ABA/iYLD
and the AAT to equip state and local bar associations to
deliver the most valuable information to their members is
to be proactive in finding good work, projects, and pr-
grams that the affiliates are doing, so the tearn can
acknowledge good leaders and reward their work.
The AAT is the Division's pritary tool for providing
direct assistance to affiliates of the YLD. Although a large
percentage of young lawyers look to state and local bars
for programming idens, it is the AAI's mission to supply
these local affiliates with the tools they need to become
thriving executive leaders. The Team offers affiliates
everything from broad appeal
avice to one-on-one assac
that is specifically tailored to indi-
vidual affiliates and their particu-
lar needs Affiliates can receive
advice through e-mail, written
materials, or phone consultations
with Team members who will
provide the affiliate with training
It-   0 ,d I  matenials, program information,
H.and other assistance about the
ABA, the ABA!YID, and all
aspects of running a successful
P--            yt   young lawyer organization.

According to AMT member Mindi D. Line of
Parkersburg, West Virginia, one of the most important
services the ABA/YLD provides is assistance to local afiliates
with a quick reaction time when help is requested. he
Team offers such assistance in a number of ways, including
through site visits and on-site consultations. At these ses-
sions, affiliates caii obtain advice on a variety of topics,
including membership recmitmaent and retention, fundrais-
Ing and budgeting, project evaluation, implementat on and
planning, and long-range and strategic planning.
Site Visits
If your affiliate schedules a site visit, a member of the
AAT will travel to your local area and visit with your affil-
iate, at vry little or no cost to you. The Team member
can attend your local bar association meetings to facilitate
in-person training workshops or help conduct orientation

meetings, planning sessions, and training workshops for
board members and committee chairs. Affiliates can
request site visits or other assistance by completing and
submitting an Assistance Request Form, available at
wuircabanet.org/yldlffiliateleaders/visitprogram.html.
On-Site Consultations
On-site consultations are the most intimate way to
receive advice front the AAT on specific issues affecting
yotr local affiliate, Affiliate leaders can schedule these fif-
teen to forty-five minute sessions with Team members
during particular blocks of time set aside at YLD confer-
ences throughout the bar year. They can use this quality,
one-on-one Lime with AAT members to brainstorm about
successful events, to discuss concerns they have for their
local affiliate, or to brag about events that their local affili-
ate has organized
Other Assistance
With the availability of the AAT and the ovenvhelning
amount of resources it has to offer, there is no need for
any [affiliate] to be isolated, says Reed. He emphasizes
that the team' webpage is also an extremely helpful gate-
way resource for affiliates to see what kind of help is
available to them. through the website, affiliates can
apply for funding, so their leaders can attend ABA/YLD
national conferences and other events. The YLD offers
funding of up to $100 per day for two days fbr three
continued on page 8

Judicial Division Chair Judge Leslie Miller
Credits Leadership Skills to YLD Training
By Melissa Dewey Brumback

G      rowing up in Syracuse, New York, and
Dallas, Texas, judge Leslie B. Miller, the
current chair of the ABA judicial Division,
never dreamed of becoming a lawyer, let alone a
judge. Instead, she considered careers in social
work or politics It wasn't until her senior year
at Goucher College that she even considered go-
ing to law school. Once she took the plunge,
graduating from St Louis University Law
School in 1976, Judge Miller never looked back.
She moved to Tucson, Arizona, and found a job
practicing criminal defense as an assistant pub-
lic defender.
Thereafter, Judge Miller began
to look beyond the bar to the
bench. After first serving as a mag-
istrate in the Tucson City Court for
three years, she was appointed at
the age of thirty-three to the bench
in Pima County, Arizona, Superior
Court, where she sits today. A for-
mer ABA Young Lawyer' Division
leader, Judge Leslie Miller has tak-
en the heln of the.Judicial Division
of the American Bar Associatioon for
.. .i   the 2006-07 bar year.

Before her rise within the big bar, however,
Judge Miller was a rising star in the Arizona
State Bar Judge Miller served on the Board of
Governors of the Arizona State Bar, as president
of the State Bar Young Lawyers, and as president
of the Pima County Bar Association.
JUDICIfL
DIVISION
Sitting on the bench in [ima County, Ar-
zona, Judge Miller also initiated a novel adult
Drug Court in Pima County in 1997. The pro-
gram involved efforts to change the behavior of
the drug user rather than just removing the in-
dividual from the street for a short period of
time. Judge Miller developed the court using a
team approach in which the prosecutor, defense
attorney, court, probation officers and treatment
providers worked together for a beneficial out-
come for the participants. The project was so
successful that it was featured on Nightfine in

1999 for its success in preventing recidivism.
It was a wonderfully gratifying experience
to watch as the participants changed their aRi-
tudes and their lives, Miller stated. 'ile not
everyone was successful, the success rate was
high and those who successfilly completed the
program had a dramatically lower re-arrest rate
than those who completed traditional proba-
ion. Even after all this time, I occasionally run
into someone who thanks me for the impact the
program had on their life.
Experience Through the Young Lawyer Divi-
sion Programs
Judge Miller first became involved with the
ABA/YLD through the Arizona YLD, attending
numerous Midyear, Annual, and Affiliate Out
reach Project meetings, During that time, she
was a district representative to the Executive
Council, chair of National Community Law
Week, liaison to the National Conference of Fed-
eral Trial judges, and chair of the YLD Jticial
Administration Committee, As a YLD district
representative, Judge Miller initiated the forma-
tion of the Pima County Bar Association YI.D.
continued on page 8

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