PBCBA BAR BULLETINS pbcba_bulletin_May 2019 | Page 5

ABA DELEGATE R e p o r t
2019 Mid-year Meeting
DAVID MILLER
Dear Readers:
I hope this bulletin finds each and every
one of you well. For those of you who do
not know me, my name is David Miller, I
am a civil litigator at Mathison Whittles,
LLP and I was recently appointed to
serve as the Palm Beach County Bar
Association’s delegate to the American Bar
Association. Let me start off by saying that
it is a privilege and honor to serve as your
delegate, and that I promise to perform my
duties and services to the absolute best of
my abilities. If any of you ever feel there is
something I, as the delegate, can do for you,
please know and trust that you can contact
me any time.
To give you a little bit of background, the
American Bar Association (“ABA”) is a
141-year-old and counting voluntary bar
association comprised of over 400,000
lawyers and law students across the
United States. As some of you may know,
two of the arguably biggest roles of the
ABA are (1) to set academic standards and
accreditation of law schools throughout the
country, and (2) to formulate model ethical
codes for the legal profession. The ABA’s
self-described mission is “to serve equally
our members, our profession and the public
by defending liberty and delivering justice
as the national representative of the legal
profession.” As part of its mission, the ABA
steadfastly advocates for our profession,
promotes the elimination of biases and
the enhancement of diversity, and seeks to
increase the public’s understanding of and
respect for law.
Control and administration of the ABA is
vested in the association’s policy-making
body called the House of Delegates. I am a
delegate to that body. The 2018-2019 House
is comprised mostly of males, but not by
much (59% male and 41% female). 61% of
the House members identify as white/
Caucasian, 10% identify as black/African
American, 4% identify as Hispanic, 3%
identify as Asian, 21% identify as unknown
(wouldn’t they want to take a DNA test?) and
less than 3% identify as Native American,
Pacific Islander or other. A vast majority of
the House members are in private practice
(69%), while the government/judiciary
comes in at 13%, followed by 6% or less for
those practicing in areas involving the
military, corporate/in-house law, academic
settings, public service and not-for-
profit entities. Roughly 36% of the House
is between the ages of 61 and 70, while
approximately 23% of the House is between
the ages of 51-60, 12% of the House is 41-50,
11% of the House is 31-40, 3% of the House
is 30 and under, and 14% of the House is 71
or older. Most of the House members have
practiced for 30 to 39 years (31%), followed
by those practicing for 40 or more years
(30%), those practicing for 20 to 29 years
(17%), those practicing for 10-19 years (10%),
rounded out by those practicing less than
10 years (12%). Nearly half of the House
membership (48%) has been involved for
25 or more years.
The House meets two times each year –
once at the annual meeting and once at the
midyear meeting. The first ABA meeting
that I had the opportunity to attend as your
delegate was the 2019 midyear meeting
that took place over the last week of
January in Las Vegas. At that meeting, the
House considered and voted upon thirty-
two (32) proposed resolutions. Generally
speaking, a resolution is an idea for a new
piece of legislation, or an idea to improve
the justice system or another aspect of law.
Any ABA member can propose a resolution
for the House’s consideration. Resolutions
are typically backed or supported by state/
local bar associations, divisions, sections
and/or committees.
To give you an example, at the 2019 midyear
meeting, the Young Lawyers Division of
the ABA proposed resolution 101A, which
encourages federal, state, local, territorial
and tribal legislatures and court systems,
in conjunction with state and local bar
associations, to support and assist with
the establishment and maintenance of
lactation areas in courthouses for members
of the public, including lawyers, jurors,
litigants, witnesses and observers.
For another example, the Young Lawyers
Division of the ABA also proposed resolution
101B at the 2019 midyear meeting, which
resolution urges the enactment of a rule
by the highest courts or legislative bodies
of all states, territories and tribes charged
with the regulation of the legal profession,
as well as by all federal courts, providing
that a motion for continuance based on
parental leave of either the lead attorney
or another integrally involved attorney in
the matter shall be granted under certain
conditions.
As some of you may know, proposed
resolutions 101A and 101B were put
together by, among others, a few of our own
local Palm Beach County young lawyers.
Although I cannot take credit for helping
put together these proposed resolutions,
as a father of two young boys (ages 3 and
1), both of these proposed resolutions
really hit home for me. So much so, in
fact, that I requested and was provided the
opportunity to speak before the House in
support of proposed resolution 101B while
it was on the House floor for consideration
and voting.
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