Family Law Section

Final thoughts on my year as ABA Family Law Chair

I recently “passed the gavel” to the new Family Law Section Chair, Maryann Foley of Alaska.  It was a heartwarming ceremony and many of the leaders in family law were there.  But perhaps more important than that ceremony, was our final Council meeting the day before.  While it was the last one I will preside over, it was a meaningful one.  We surveyed the status of our section’s efforts, including our great publications, CLE programs and other endeavors, but what was also nice, was that we reviewed and revised our Family Law Section’s Mission Statement.  While the changes were not extreme, they did force us to again review our Mission Statement and to think about what we do and what we want to do and be, as a section.  So with that, I say farewell as Chair, and leave you with this, the newly revised Mission Statement of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association:

Mission/Goals of American Bar Association’s Family Law Section.

The mission statement of the Family Law Section follows:

The mission of the American Bar Association Family Law Section is to serve as the national leader in the field of Family Law.  To accomplish its mission, the Council has adopted the following seven goals for the Section:

I.          To improve the family law system.

II.         To be the pre-eminent voice on family issues.

III.       To serve our members.

IV.       To improve public and professional understanding of family law issues.

V.        To increase the diversity and participation of our membership.

VI.       To educate the public about family law and the professionals involved in family law.

VII       To improve professionalism of all participants in the administration of family law.


ABA Family Law Section meeting starts in Amelia Island

It is always exciting to get together with fellow practitioners and judges from across the country to learn the latest trends, practices and innovative ideas of our profession. This year, our Spring seminar will focus on “Families Matter”. The seminar is from April 6, 2011 to April 9, 2011 and will devote much time to helping alleviate much of the pain, cost and discomfort of family law matters.

There are many cutting edge topics, such as “Oh, the Tangled Web We Weave: irs rules and regulations Effect on payments and Expenses in Third party reproduction” and “The alphabet soup of Military pay and Family support”. If you are a family law practitioner, I strongly urge you to consider joining us. And if you can’t make this one, join us in late October in Las Vegas at the Wynne-Encore and then next April at the Eden Roc in South Beach (Miami Beach), Florida. I look forward to learning and blogging what I learn.