Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024 - 6

FROM OUR PRESIDENT
What an Honor to Serve You
By Charles R. Lowery Jr.
A
s I near the end of my term
as D.C. Bar president, I have
thought about what this
past year has meant to me.
I ran for office because I wanted to
bring to the position of president a
different perspective as a non-Big
Law attorney and to demonstrate
to my fellow Bar members that
regardless of the career paths
we're on, the Bar benefits from
having diverse leaders working to
secure its future.
My legal journey has taken me from public interest
work to government service to nonprofit
advocacy, and those various work experiences
have helped shape my outlook on and approach
to leadership. As my friend Sherri Evans
Harris once said, career progression is not always
linear. Lawyers, she said, can zigzag to
success. One may need to zig to one job to pick
up a certain skill set, and then zag to a position
that may seem of less importance but provides
an opportunity to gain a unique skill set or exposure
to different environments or individuals.
I totally agree. Rather than work against me,
I believe the zigzags I've taken in my nearly five
decades of practice have only further enriched
me as a lawyer and as a leader. I hope that during
my year of service as president I have been
effective in spreading the message that you
bring value to the D.C. Bar, regardless of the
type of work that you do or the legal space
you're in, and that you, too, can leverage your
skills and experience as I did to serve the Bar.
I believe that to continue to move our growing
organization forward, we must play an active
role in shaping its programs and services.
6 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* MAY/JUNE 2024
In my first column in Washington
Lawyer, I wrote that my goal as
Bar president was to become a
successful servant leader - one
who focuses on working to benefit
others, fostering an environment
that allows people to thrive
and perform to the best of their
abilities. Being inclusive of all
members has been one of my
most important objectives, and
so throughout my time in office
I intentionally worked to reach out to as many
stakeholders as possible, both around the Bar
and beyond, and to help foster connections.
D.C. Bar leaders connecting with area law school deans.
Building on the work of my predecessor, Ellen
M. Jakovic, and the D.C. Bar Communities in
launching the Early Career Lawyers Community
(ECLC) in 2023, I am honored to have been part
of a continuing effort to expand our Communities.
As of last count, ECLC has drawn more
than 800 members, becoming a fast-growing
hub of education and networking among new
practitioners. It has also been my privilege to
sit down with voluntary bar leaders to discuss
collaborative opportunities, as well as with local
law school deans to explore ideas to better
connect the Bar to their students and help address
some of their concerns as future members
of the profession.
Service to the community is one of the most
important founding principles of the Bar, and
during my year in office I saw this commitment
in action in person, from the unmatched reach
and depth of the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center's
clinics and resource centers to our Youth Law
Fair. The annual fair at D.C. Superior Court provides
local teens a unique and positive experience
with the court system while giving them
insight into, and perhaps even inspiration for,
careers in the law. Celebrating the 25th anniversary
of the Youth Law Fair this past March,
where I talked with high school students about
the law, was a highlight of my term. I am thankful
for the pioneers of this important program
who had the foresight to create an initiative
that benefits the community by empowering
and expanding young minds.
Our partnership with the D.C. Courts remains
an exemplar of bar-bench collaboration in the
country. It has truly been a privilege to work
alongside the chief judges of the D.C. Court of
Appeals and D.C. Superior Court in efforts to
protect the integrity of the legal profession and
improve the administration of justice.
As an example of an outcome of this critical relationship,
the D.C. Court of Appeals adopted in
January comprehensive amendments to the
Rules Governing the District of Columbia Bar,
marking the first time since the Bar's founding
more than 50 years ago that the Rules have
been comprehensively reviewed and updated.
The effort reflected not only years of work by
the D.C. Bar Regulations/Rules/Board Procedures
Committee (now the D.C. Bar Governance Committee),
which also reviewed the Bar's Bylaws,
but also the dedication of the court's Rules
Committee. With these modernized organizational
documents guiding our Bar, I am optimistic
that we will continue to lead the way among
bar associations in effective, transparent, and
forward-looking governance.
The D.C. Bar also remains a leader in expanding
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the legal
profession. Growing up in a predominantly
Adriana Zick
Patrice Gilbert Photography
Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024

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