Monday, October 7, 2024
By Micah Gilmer – School of Law Public Affairs Graduate Assistant
This summer, two Liberty University School of Law students attended the American Bar Association (ABA) Annual Meeting held in Chicago. According to the ABA’s website, this annual meeting is “where legal professionals from around the country gather to connect, learn and elevate their legal careers.”
Third-year students Jessica Tucker and Charles Wilkie represented Liberty Law at the annual meeting, which allowed them to network and get involved with the broader legal community. Both students are also active members of the Student Bar Association (SBA), which represents each law school class at Liberty Law.
Tucker, Liberty Law’s ABA representative for the SBA, relayed her experiences with the fellow law students who attended. “This trip was a huge success,” she said. “Charlie and I got to meet and collaborate with hundreds of other SBA leaders from other law schools.”
Wilkie, Liberty Law’s SBA attorney general, shared about the individual moments throughout the event: “The experiences and people we got to meet were incredible.”
The event featured several prominent figures in law; Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco was the keynote speaker, and Wilkie and Tucker met Mary Smith, the immediate past president of the American Bar Association, and Peter Dunning, the president of the Australian Bar Association.
Being representatives for Liberty Law’s SBA, Tucker and Wilkie participated in the meeting’s Law Student Division Assembly, where law students vote to adopt resolutions for the ABA to enact. This year’s resolutions included attempting to improve certain issues on flexible work arrangements, monetary compensation and course credits for student jobs such as internships, and recognizing May 20 as National First Lawyers Day.
“Last year’s SBA President and ABA Representative went to the mid-year meeting and highly encouraged us to attend this year,” Tucker noted. “After researching, I realized what a great opportunity this would be for Liberty Law to get involved in the policy-making process of the ABA.”
Tucker also emphasized the importance of getting to vote for these resolutions as law students: “Hopefully, Liberty Law students will continue to lay the groundwork for future students to attend and get involved in drafting resolutions that can impact every law student in the United States.”
The Young Lawyers Division, which sponsored several of the events within the meeting, also provided Tucker and Wilkie with networking engagements and opportunities.
“The Young Lawyers Division held a welcome reception for the law students and practicing attorneys who are members of the Division. The lawyers that attended were eager to meet law students and provide opportunities for future jobs as well as practical advice about entering the legal career,” Tucker said. “I was overwhelmed by the hospitality and initiative taken by the lawyers (who) attended.”
The meeting provided extensive networking opportunities for the students. “Every day, the ABA would have open networking events where the patrons would be free to talk to so many attorneys and create amazing connections with them,” Wilkie said. “There were countless times where the law student division members would all grab breakfast or lunch and discuss schools, aspirations and connect everyone depending on the jurisdiction they wished to practice.”
Tucker and Wilkie expressed their gratitude for Liberty Law sending them to this annual meeting. “In the last year, I have seen firsthand how these opportunities are transforming my own and my classmates’ law school experience as well as shaping us to be better prepared for life after law school,” Tucker said.
Attending this event was one of the many ways Liberty Law has been able to reach out into the national network of the legal community, and the students who attended this year’s meeting emphasized how important it is that Liberty Law students get to participate in these events.
“Overall, this was such a great experience,” Tucker said, “and I hope that future SBA members prioritize attending this event.”