Executive Committee: Message from the Chair

Corey R. Weber

Business Law Section (BLS) members, the new year is now underway, and the BLS has been actively engaged in fulfilling the CLA’s mission of promoting excellence, diversity, and inclusion in the legal profession and fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law. To that end, the CLA continues to publish cutting-edge eBulletins on new case law and legislative updates on an ongoing basis and will be hosting in-person MCLE events and networking events throughout the year.

Diversity and inclusion are an ongoing focus of the BLS, and it is important to create a pipeline of future leaders within our community. The BLS participates in roadshows at colleges to discuss the path to becoming a lawyer. BLS Executive Committee members Soyeun Choi and Caroline Djang and Insolvency Law Committee Co-Chair Kyra Andrassy recently participated in a BLS roadshow event at Cal State Fullerton. The Cal State Fullerton professor who hosted the event thanked the BLS in a letter, stating that "many of our students are the very first in our families to attend a university," and that "Dreams are often built by meetings like these." We will continue to meet with college and law school students to encourage the next generation of lawyers.

The BLS will also actively participate in civics outreach and education events this year, including the Ninth Circuit Civics Contest, an annual essay and video contest for high school students. This year’s contest is titled The Right to Vote: Milestone Anniversaries and explores the 15th and 19th Amendments and whether formal or informal barriers to voting remain today. More information on the Ninth Circuit Civics Contest is available at this website: https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/civicscontest/.