Executive Committee: Message from the Chair

Monique D. Jewett-Brewster

Freed from the "open meeting" constraints of being part of the regulatory agency, and now a part of the California Lawyers Association (CLA), the members of the Business Law Section’s (BLS) fifteen different Standing Committees, including the Business Law News Editorial Board, can focus once again on the BLS’s core goals and mission: to provide high quality content to BLS members, improve the quality and practice of business law in California, and to serve the public good of improving California business law.

As a reminder, the CLA is the bar association comprised of all sixteen Sections and the California Young Lawyers Association (CYLA), all of which were statutorily separated from the State Bar of California effective January 1, 2018. Approximately 100,000 lawyers strong, the CLA is the new largest statewide voluntary bar association in the country, and is working to become THE premier bar association for all California attorneys.

The BLS is one of the largest, most active Sections of the CLA; and under the CLA, the BLS is exploring fresh ideas for accomplishing its goals. For example, the BLS is working to partner with more law school professors and students, and affinity, local, and national bar associations, to broaden its membership base and attract more diverse attorneys and newer and younger lawyers. In addition, the BLS is also working more actively with lawmakers and regulators in areas of BLS members’ expertise, including by providing analysis and comments on current legislation, proposing new laws, and serving as thought leaders to California and federal legislatures and rule makers through the participation of its Standing Committees.