Happy New Year, Everyone

January 2025

Terrance J. Evans
CLA Chair

I hope that you enjoyed the holidays and took time to relax and recharge. 2025 will be a consequential year for California Lawyers Association (CLA), and the legal profession throughout the United States. Lawyers in California and around the country will be called upon to represent clients in momentous cases and uphold the Rule of Law. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all.

Notwithstanding the headwinds that we may face in 2025 and beyond, I want you to be encouraged. Our success as an organization will depend upon the collective efforts of all of our stakeholders, and I am confident that together we will accomplish great things.  

As we begin this new year, I want to highlight three things that we are doing to grow CLA, strengthen our connection to the community, and build our pipeline to the future.

Listening To You

The first thing we are doing is listening to our CLA members, volunteers, employees, executive committee leaders, standing committee leaders, and community leaders. You are the lifeblood of CLA, and your voices have been and will continue to be heard by the leadership of our organization. Your input is valuable and necessary. Please continue to share your ideas with us regarding how we can make CLA better, stronger, and more responsive.

Reaching Out To The Community

The second thing we are doing—as part of our efforts to grow CLA—is reaching out to the community. Beginning in January of 2025 and continuing through the end of March 2025, we are reaching out to every affinity bar association and regional bar association in California and inviting their members—who are not already members of CLA—to join CLA at a 25% discount.  

We are also inviting members of affinity bar associations and regional bar associations in California to apply to serve as leaders on the Executive Committees of our 18 Sections and various Standing Committees. Additionally, we are asking our 18 CLA Sections to explore opportunities to co-sponsor programs and extend invitations to speak on panels and author articles to members of affinity bar associations and regional bar associations.

We are also reaching out to private law firms, government employers, and non-profit law firms, and providing them with incentives to cover the cost for their lawyers to join CLA.

Finally, at our 2025 CLA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, which is scheduled for September 11 – 13, 2025, we will offer expanded MCLE programing designed by our Section Leaders to meet the needs of our members and provide critical business development and networking opportunities. We will also acknowledge distinguished community leaders with community service awards at our Soirée on September 13, 2025. 

Building Our Pipeline To The Future

The third thing we are doing to strengthen CLA is building our pipeline to the future. We are doing this by offering free membership to every law student in the United States who is interested in practicing law in California. We are also offering three years of free membership to every newly admitted lawyer in California.  

We are reaching out to every law school in California and making sure that they are aware of CLA and the benefits available to their students, which range from scholarship opportunities to mentorship and career opportunities. These are just some of our efforts to build CLA’s pipeline to the future.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding how we can grow CLA, strengthen our connection to the community, and build our pipeline to the future, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or any member of our board or executive leadership team.