The Atlanta Lawyer August/September 2014 | Page 40

section update Atlanta Council of Younger Lawyers Section ACYL: A New Year By Jonathan E. Smith Miller & Martin PLLC [email protected] T his summer the ACYL Board has been busy planning for another event-packed year. We were excited to get the year started with a Happy Hour at TAP in midtown on August 21, 2014, followed by our Associates Campaign Kick Off Happy Hour at Ri Ra, which will be held on September 23, 2014. Matt Simmons and Nora Budman will be co-chairing the Associates Campaign this year and working with Atlanta area associate attorneys to raise donations for Atlanta area legal non-profits. Like every year, we are asking for a volunteer coordinator from each area law firm to serve as a liaison to help us raise donations from associates within each coordinator’s law firm. Please contact Matt at [email protected] or Nora at [email protected] if you wish to volunteer to serve as your firm’s coordinator. Matt and Nora will be circulating more information about the Associates Campaign to our members at the Associates Campaign Kick Off Happy Hour and by email to each law firm. look forward to continuing our support of the volunteer work of other Sections of the Atlanta Bar, including, in particular, the Law School Outreach C ommittee and the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. We are planning several community service events this year, including a Habitat for Humanity day, so stay tuned! For those who would like to find out more information about the ACYL schedule of events, our Facebook page provides event updates and also serves as a forum for questions, suggestions and networking. We can also be contacted through the Atlanta Bar Association website, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have by email at jsmith@ millermartin.com. If you would like our group to get involved in any particular program or event, we welcome and encourage opportunities to team up with other Sections/groups and we appreciate any suggestions regarding events and event content! We are continuing our very successful “Life of a Trial” Beer and CLE Series this fall at Manuel’s Tavern and are planning to offer a new “Life of a Deal” seminar in the spring that will focus on certain legal responsibilities in a business transaction. ACYL is supporting the “Specialize to Succeed” CLE being offered by the Atlanta Bar Association on September 10, 2014, at the State Bar of Georgia, which will focus on various practice specialties, including personal injury law, tax law, family law and criminal defense. We are also continuing our Mentoring Breakfasts this year. The goal of the Mentoring Breakfasts is to deliver to new lawyers valuable, “real world” information that is not typically covered in law school curriculum. Elizabeth Whipple and Cole Thaler led our first Mentoring Breakfast on August 13th, speaking about the benefits of pro bono work for associates. Please join us for the upcoming Mentoring Breakfasts this fall. ACYL members enjoyed a night of great music performed by many talented young Atlanta attorneys in June in support of the Atlanta Bar’s LawJam Battle of the Lawyer Bands fundraiser. In addition to leading our own volunteer efforts, we 40 THE ATLANTA LAWYER August/September 2014 The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association