President-elect of the American Bar Association, Attorney Stephen N. Zack, a partner in the national, Miami based firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, discusses his new role  and the ABA’s new agenda .  Zack is a founding member of  the Cuban American Bar Association and represented Vice President Al Gore in the infamous Vice President Gore vs. Bush Trial, and  the first Hispanic-American to serve as president of the ABA.  Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams  interview on the Legal Talk Network show, Lawyer to Lawyer,

Growing up, Zack witnessed his family’s  struggle with the loss of their liberties and it is their fight to keep them that inspired him to be a lawyer.  His primary goals as president will be to renew the importance of  a prominent civics education and  focus on inspiring a new generation of lawyers.

An exert from the Bill of Rights was read on the on street, and people were asked what the origins of the document was, 50% of them , actually thought it was a Communist Doctrine.

There are some disturbing gaps in the civic knowledge young people have, and Zach stresses how the ABA is going to impact the  importance of civic education currently lacking in our schools.

3-out-of- 4 high school students believe that the 3 Branches of U.S. Government govt are democratic, republican and independent.
(In case you’re not sure… they are Executive, Judicial and Legislative)

Pretty sad, but unfortunately, not surprising.

A result of No Child Left Behind, where Civics is an elective, there is an entire generation of Americans who are civicaly ignorant.

There are 400,00 members of the ABA, the largest voluntary assoc in the world...“Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor has been working closely with this issue and emphasized that civic knowledge of — not something that’s “transferred in the gene pool”,

There’s an impressive program in conceptual stages at the  ABA called the  American Bar Academy, with a faculty consisting of the organizations 400,000 bar members.  Conceptually, they’re going to go into every high school  and provide a curriculum that teaches Civics.  They’ll be working with 11th graders (50% women & minorities),  in turn they’ll be taking that knowledge back to classrooms.

The program will also request that American Bar Academy Certificate holders be allowed Certificate holder will be allowed to work for an one of the ABA member firms of their 400,000 members for a day,  allowing them to see how important the law in this country is about is to them and their families.

Listen to this invigorating interview on the  Legal Talk Network
[audio:abapres.mp3]

Other articles you may be interested in:

Obama Calls For Sweeping Change In Education Law – NY Times

While doing my morning routine using the same tools and the same activities I instruct my clients to use, I realized that one of my favorite legal bloggers, Robert Ambrogi was speaking at the Social Media Risks & Rewards Conference,  in New York on September 21, 2009.

www.corpcounsel.com/socialmedia

Bob is a lawyer and media professional who has been writing and speaking about attorneys and the internet for more than 15 years. He is the author of two books, The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web now in its second edition, and The Internet Guide for Massachusetts Lawyers.

Robert Ambrogi

Bob’s syndicated column about the Internet has appeared in legal periodicals throughout the U.S. since 1993, and Law Technology News has published his award-winning Web Watch column since 1999. He founded the first Internet newsletter for lawyers, legal.online in 1994.

Social Media Risks & Rewards Conference attendees are going to receive invaluable tips for developing their social media corporate policies, from an incredibly impressive group of speakers. So naturally, I wanted to go meet Bob and to learn as much as I could.   I’m also in the midst of re-writing my business plan, cultivating clients and developing financing for growth.  Needless to say, conference attendance fees aren’t in my budget right now.

See the Conference Agenda

Additionally, with a speaker line-up that includes Kevin Flynn of Pres. Obama’s Blogging Team, Andy Mitchell of CNN Worldwide, and Monica Bay, Editor-In-Chief, Law Technology News;  my true desire was to attend as a professional within the industry and someone whose expertise would be viewed as beneficial to those coordinating it.

I’ve been following Bob for more than a year via Linked-In, Facebook, and his blogs.  We have also commented on some of the same posts of other Bloggers within the industry, so while I’d never spoken with him or by telephone, or met him in person, he was familiar with me via this blog.

I sent him an Bob and e-mail and requested to attend the conference as his guest.  He recognized me right away and forwarded my request to Judy Kelly, the conference originator, who was almost as thrilled as I was, “I have to say that I think it’s really cool that you guys know each other by social media and that you are going to meet live at a social media event”, she replied.   I then  requested to make regular updates about the conference on Twitter and write blog article post-event!

Many thanks to Judy Kelly of Incisive Media and Bob Ambrogi and for giving me the opportunity me to participate in this important day.  You’re exemplifying exactly the kind of result I talk to my clients, colleagues and potential clients about every day and affirming that social media and blogging works for legal marketers.

Follow my conference coverage via Tweets during the course of the day at  #LSMC

Stay Tuned!