Executive Committee: Message From the Chair

Corey R. Weber

This is my last message in the Business Law News as Business Law Section (BLS) Chair. The BLS has had a long line of BLS Chairs going back to 1977, both as part of the State Bar of California and now as part of the California Lawyers Association (CLA), that have been committed to the ideals in the CLA’s mission statement of promoting excellence, diversity, and inclusion in the legal profession and fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law. The list of past BLS chairs is available here: https://calawyers.org/section/business-law/executive-committee/past-chairs-of-the-business-law-section/. I was fortunate to follow Monique Jewett-Brewster as BLS Chair, and to get to work with her and learn from her enthusiastic and great leadership of the BLS. The Section’s incoming Chair, Soyeun Choi, will be a great leader for the BLS, and I look forward to her tenure as Chair following the CLA Annual Meeting. It has been an honor to serve as Chair during this challenging year, with COVID-19 changing the way we live, work, and meet, and with other challenges to ensuring that our country lives up to its ideals.

The day before this article was submitted, civil rights hero Representative John Lewis passed away after a life and career dedicated to equality, making the United States a better place, and ensuring that the country lives up to its ideals. The nationwide protests following George Floyd’s death have pushed the conversation forward on the serious issues of ensuring that equal protection under the law and the rule of law truly exist for all Americans. The recent events show the critical importance of diversity, inclusion, and fairness, and of 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.

The BLS is committed to fulfilling the CLA’s mission statement and working toward a better future, including by recognizing that diversity makes us stronger. We have worked to create a BLS that represents the diversity of California lawyers. By taking part in the Ninth Circuit Civics Contest presentations at high schools and participating in BLS roadshows at colleges, we engage in outreach to high schools and colleges to encourage a diverse next generation of lawyers and judges. By partnering with the California Minority Counsel Program and other diverse organizations, we establish relationships that make the BLS better and stronger. And by making diversity a key issue throughout the year that is addressed at each BLS Executive Committee meeting, the BLS commits itself to pushing change forward.