OCBA UPDATE: La Vida LOCA - OCBA style

By Judith K. Cunningham Lawyers of a certain age (LOCAs) - and you know who you are - listen up! This is for you, the more than 27 percent of our OCBA members age 60 and older. And there are many more of you in your mid-to-late 50s who will soon join our ranks as LOCAs, so you listen up too; our numbers are definitely growing. When my term as OCBA president began last summer, I appointed a study group to review this demographic of our membership - to consider their wants, needs, likes, dislikes and the unique ways they can serve and continue to find purpose, meaning and value in our bar. Judge Edward Sosnick has been my co-chair in this effort. Earlier this year Judge Sosnick and I invited about 40 LOCAs to a strategy session to explore the possible roles our seasoned attorneys can play in our bar, to consider the practice issues of careers in transition, and to identify the social issues that might impact their relationships. Almost everyone invited to our half-day program either attended or, if they couldn't make the event, asked to be involved and play a part in whatever developed as a result of our meeting. Anne Vrooman, director of Research and Development for the State Bar of Michigan, served as our facilitator and did an amazing job to help us develop and crystalize the agenda, lead the discussion, frame the issues, and keep us on track and on time. Earlier last fall, Anne provided Judge Sosnick and me with the results of a State Bar of Michigan survey of its Senior Lawyers Section Planning Group, which also helped us focus on the programs, services and opportunities senior lawyers are most interested in or concerned about. After analyzing the State Bar of Michigan survey and meeting with the study group Judge Sosnick and I had convened, we ultimately created an agenda around three major "buckets": (1) The social bucket - support/sponsor a variety of social events that allow interaction with the larger bar association and also some targeted peer opportunities that address challenges such as isolation, family concerns and declining health. (2) The transitions-in-practice bucket - develop and find partnerships for programs that support lawyers as they prepare for or respond to transitions in their practice, whether reducing their practice (full time to part time), going from a large firm to solo, closing a practice or planning for retirement - or unexpected practice transitions such as diminished capacity or sudden unexpected incapacity. (3) Capturing the special skills of LOCA bucket - create opportunities/partnerships for lawyers of a certain age to contribute their talents as seasoned experienced lawyers through integration with OCBA programs and activities and also to serve the Oakland County community at large. As noted above, we invited about 40 attorneys, most of whom are LOCAs but a few (notably the chair and vice-chair of our New Lawyers Committee) younger members too. The RSVPs to our invitation were replete with comments about "the old people's meeting," references to Geritol, dentures, being too old to be fully awake for a morning gathering, early bird specials and the like. But by the time we got into the substance of the session, we had shared some thoughtful, provocative and heartfelt conversations about what it means to be a lawyer of a certain age and to experience transition in one's practice and one's life. Here are some of the comments, questions and concerns I heard as we introduced ourselves and provided feedback to Anne on our "buckets" agenda; these are the voices of our LOCAs: * "I need to revisit a bar review course; I've become rusty in many substantive areas of law. I need a refresher course." * "On the personal side, you're not as important as you used to be." * "How do you feel when the phone stops ringing?" * "I'm concerned about the economic marginalization of this age group and the subtle age issues in some law firms." * "How do LOCAs stay active in their firms?" * "I think this group needs to think about political action, that is, many of us would still be in our firms but for imposed age requirements." * "We should use our talents for mentorships; we know a lot about specialized areas of the law." * "There's a lot of talent in this room and there is a desire to use and share that talent. There needs to be a clearinghouse to match the talent with the needs for it." * "For about the past five years we see new lawyers coming to practice law as a second or third career, so they're not always necessarily young in chronological age. They may appreciate the LOCA contacts and social events for very different reasons." * "Getting older lawyers to volunteer is hard. I'm more concerned about what we (the OCBA) can do for them." * "I've been mentoring for 40 years and now I'm interested in two-way mentoring, like how can young lawyers help us? What about the technology piece? We can learn from them." * "LOCAs need estate planning help, and the Bar Foundation's legacy program may come into play in this context." * "I'm concerned about the impact of having to let my secretary, who has been with me for 17 years, and other support staff go because my practice is winding down." * "We have a lot of common experiences that we don't have an opportunity to share." * "I'm concerned about being irrelevant." * "The talent base of our senior lawyers is incredible and we need a clearinghouse to connect that talent base to member and community needs. Maybe programs already exist in other clearinghouse efforts; we don't need to reinvent the wheel and we have limited resources within our bar." * "As for the clearinghouse idea, perhaps we could model this like the ICLE Partner Open Forum, an online community where members can connect and share." * "Maybe LOCAs need to get out of lawyering as they transition and think outside the box, like volunteering on a literacy council or helping children learn to read." * "We need to bring some enjoyment back to our professional life. We need to expand and rekindle the passion and make sure that we fill the time." * "How do we approach the time to retire - when one has perhaps reached one's dotage - but who can tell him or her that its time to go, particularly if he or she is a sole practitioner?" The session broke out into our three bucket groupings to drill down and consider strategies the OCBA might engage in - both the short-term, more immediate steps as well as long-term projects and programs. Our social bucket group discussed surveying our LOCAs to determine what activities, hobbies, volunteer opportunities, etc. they are interested in with the goal of creating a LOCA directory to connect people and events. We discussed how the OCBA's website (currently under review and modernization) might accommodate a place or forum for this purpose. We had fun naming LOCA social activities, like: LOCA lunch, LOCA golf, LOCA charity match, LOCA libations, LOCA team sports, LOCA reach-out (for volunteers), LOCA book club, LOCA seminars, LOCA match (to connect activities with interested members) and LOCA matinees (focusing on early bird specials, of course). The second group discussed transitions in practice and sorted the topic in three ways: (1) Issues for LOCAs who retire voluntarily, (2) Concerns about involuntary retirement, and (3) The social and emotional aspects of items (1) and (2), above. This group noted that planning for retirement or semi-retirement needs to start earlier than it often does. And they acknowledged that these passages include both the happy, positive aspects of transition as well as unhappy and sometimes unpleasant ones. Our special skills group discussed LOCAs who are not practicing full time but nevertheless seek to stay connected in the OCBA to offer their services where needed, possibly in exchange for a revised or reconsidered OCBA membership classification. This group also discussed conducting a survey of LOCAs to ask such questions as, what can the OCBA do for you? And what can you do for the OCBA? They also considered the clearinghouse concept to match LOCAs with charities and others in need of legal services. In sum, our half-day strategy conference was what Executive Director Lisa Stadig Elliot calls a "robust session," brimming with creative ideas, much laughter, and a sense of shared purpose, community and camaraderie. I reported on our planning session to the OCBA board at its February meeting and asked the board to create a LOCA Committee. My motion was unanimously approved, and this spring we'll begin the task of setting the agenda - which we'll call LOCA Motion, for our new committee. As for the closing of our half-day program, well, of course we adjourned in time to make it to the early bird specials! ---------------- Oakland County Corporation Counsel Judith K. Cunningham is the 80th president of the Oakland County Bar Association. Published: Tue, Mar 26, 2013